Hi all,

just wondering what other peoples' highway cruising speeds are in 1300 beetle engines. Our engine's been rebuilt fairly recently to original 1300 specs, but it has been converted to 12V so is not entirely original.

It seems happy anywhere from 50 - 62 mph, depending on conditions. Anyone else do the same or faster in theirs?

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Tom,
VW always advertised that the top speed was cruising speed ... that was back in the early 60s...
the single port design stops over revving the engine...
due to restricted breathing....
Back in the old days [lol] I used to always drive flat out & My fathers beetles were always driven at 60-70 mph...
[on the open road]....
I'm only a slow driver these days...
80-90 kmh does Me....
Drives My Wife & kids crazy.... lol

Lee

Ive had my F 1300 upto 130kph before, was fun but didn't do that for too long, i found 110kph ideal.

lol thay are sort of governed by design. A stocky is designed to go flat out all day. Loves it. When you start tweaking it all bets are off. Make it stop and corner then just drive it as hard as it will go without flogging it. There is a difference between encouraging it to give its all and floggin the guts outa it. Talk to it if you want, doof doof is for boys who drife fast carsmaate! (oooh I can feel the flames)

Some of my best drives and rides have been in low powered and fickle quirks. I own an old motorcycle as I get the same buzz as the big sports bikes however at sub licence evicting limits. It is fun to punt along having ensure brakes etc are up to the task.

The biggest thing I find is make sure its fresh oiled, tuned and running sweet and drive on!

kkk

when I say flat oot I mean up to the speed limit.

When wearing the appropriate safety accessories.

While giving appropriate traverlator signals

sheesh!

my 1300 likes to putt along at 50mph to 60mph anything above seems to be reving the tits of it,maybe has something to do with the gear ratios

cool - nice to know that others do the same. When we first got it (before it was rebuilt) we were encouraged by our mechanics to sit on 50 - 55mph, which might be ok in something as big as a kombi but plain boring in the little bug. On our recent trip i sat on anything up to 65mph and it seemed fine.

Nice to know that others are similarly inclined.

Cheers,
T

change the height of your rear tyres and you can do "90mph" in a 1300 easy hehehe

nick

ps. the above is not recommended

100- 110 on the freeways is fine - if it's standard, it will be happy there

yup ... it's all stock, and in good nick.

... does anyone know how it'd go (at the next rebuild) with a 1600 twin port engine in it? Obviously it'd need a matching gearbox. Are they as reliable and are they quicker than a stock 1300?

T

yes and a little bit quicker