Own a Piece of Mulholland Drive History: Paul Newman's Insane 300+ hp VW Bug

Reaganite Republican ^ | May 6, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[mamelukesabre]

I wouldn’t give 1K for a bug with a water cooled V8 motor.

You can get 300hp out of a air cooled porsche 911 motor and it will fit in a bug way better than that ridiculous monstrosity in the article.

[EricT.]

What is this “smog check station” you speak of?

Is that something that is found outside of the Free United States?

[Erasmus]

What vintage Datsuns? Z-cars? I had one (HLS30, 2.4L, American version) from, IIRC, May 1970.

[af_vet_rr]

There were many classes and Paul Newman showed up and entered a porche. Goodyear showed up with a truck load of new stickum tires by far the best made to that point. Newman bought the entire truck to not allow anyone but him to use them insuring him a win.

That's about what you'd expect out of a NASCAR team owner, which he was at one point ;-)

[from occupied ga]

All who met him came away feeling dirty..

Don't liberals always leave you wanting to wash your hands after shaking eith them?

[Reaganite Republican]

3 gallons per mile lol

[Haiku Guy]

Check this out. 1300 Horsepower rocket powered transaxle mounted to a Volkswagen Bug. Posted a quarter-mile in 9.36 seconds at 168 mph. And that was with the Thermonique Turbo Axle dialed back to only 500 hp!

Iowahawk: The Real Acme

[Reaganite Republican]

Big deal, I saw a 7 billion HP plutonium-powered bug once

See I can do oneupmanship lolol

[katana]

It's difficult to be born and raised in Cleveland, OH and turn out pretentious (even if you are a Liberal and a genuine movie star).

But somehow and except for the genuine part, George Clooney manages it where Paul (who bragged about graduating "summa cum lager") Newman failed. According to everybody and in spite of his politics Paul was a good dude.

[Joe Boucher]

A very poor 510 team out of Schmidt Datsun out of Chicago

[ArtDodger]

I bet you it sounds like a muffler-less dump truck when running....

[Ronald_Magnus]

Great story. He's the only lib I've ever had respect for. He was every man's man in "Cool Hand Luke".

[Erasmus]

Was that in the SCCA Showroom Stock series? The 510’s were pretty competitive in that class, IIRC.

[Neidermeyer]

I wouldn’t give 1K for a bug with a water cooled V8 motor.

You can get 300hp out of a air cooled porsche 911 motor and it will fit in a bug way better than that ridiculous monstrosity in the article.
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AGREED ! , A 351W is too heavy ,,, I used to race with someone that had a Porsche 356C converted to wankel 13B power and just the added weight of the cooling system ruined it ... it was pretty close to 250hp and would have weighed less than Newmanns bug... A V8 bug would have been a novelty ,, but it really wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination,, he just copied what people were doing with the 65+ Chevy Corvairs , converting them to V8 power with a SBC in the back seat area.. Give me a modern Porsche anyday...

[Patriot Babe]

Nope Paul Newman hands down. Paul may have acted cool but my main dude who exude real coolness regarding cars and racing was STEVE MCQUEEN -)

[Reaganite Republican]

Agreed, I just like the car

[Joe Boucher]

510 was a great car for two reasons,
It was cheap, so lots of folks could afford them.
They were a basic simple vehicle easy to set up.
And yes.

[Bitsy]

I have no idea. My bet is that it is not all that good :)

Hollywood kills me. They can all talk the talk but walking the walk is another thing. In general,they are all egotistical, self indulgent, pampered, delusional, pompus @sses who believe in the world according to them. IMHO, or course:)