I am looking at getting an early 60's beetle and putting a large but streetable engine in it. Can I make an early pan handle well enough for street use or do I have to do the whole 68 irs pan thing?

yes-ish

IRS is better than swing axle

An early pan will come drum brakes.

As a minimum you will want to upgrade the fronts to disc and dual circuit

It is a LOT easier (and cheaper) to do the conversion
The down side is you loose wide 5 bolt pattern

hmmmmm..................looks V safety

There are ways to retain the wide 5 though

It's even easier (and cheaper) still to stick with the drums & swing axle set-up. There are a few inexpensive mods that you can do to improve handling, and the drums are quite adequate. My swing axle, drum brake, link pin, 15x4.5F, 15x5.5R '59 Beetle handles 100+ HP nicely thank you.

Cheers, Greg

Greg, were you running in the matte black bug at the supersprint? because you looked quick and it really seemed like good fun... what sought of set-up are you running?

Yes that was me in the black-ish '59. It sure is good fun! I assume you mean suspension set-up. Basically it's This:-

FRONT......Stock beam with tosion bar adjusters, stock trailing arms,link pins,king pins etc.,15x4.5 rims,19mm tubular A/R bar, and another secret mod to limit lower trailing arm flex. Koni adj. shocks.

REAR......Stock swing-axles and torsion bars,15x5.5 rims with heavy (about 10mm) compensating spring. Koni adj. shocks.

Stock drum brakes all round, with finned aluminium rings shrunk onto drums - helps to keep them round.

Oh, there's one more thing that helps..............50 years of driving Beetles!

Cheers, Greg

Thanks alot for the advice, I would really like to keep the wide 5 pattern, so I guess I'll have to rack up 50 years of beetle experience lol.