Thursday, July 08, 2010

Vanaru? Subagon?

I had an experience last night that very few people have ever had.

Going uphill...at 70 MPH...passing people.....in a Volkswagon Vanagon Westfalia.

Of course I had just gotten it out of the shop where I had them remove the piece of c%@# 80 horsepower engine and replace it with a Subaru 2.5 litre fuel injected counterballenced four cylinder 175 hp engine from a 2004 Subaru Forrester with 40,000 miles on it.

The Westfalia has always been praised as a versitile, fun vevhicle with one glaring problem. The Engine. It was severely underpowered even in it's plain jane Vanagon version. When you add all the camping gear and pop-top it is not just anemic, it is embarrassing. The Subaru engine is the perfect answer to all of the problems. No more cringing as people flash you their "approval" while you return them the peace sign minus one.

The modern engine comes complete with a computer engine monitoring system, and utilizes the stock guages. However I did have them install a digital display that feeds you all of the information from the computer.

So what do you call such a creation? I like Vanaru since it looks a lot like a stock Vanagon, with a little bit of Subaru on the end, since it is rear engined.

2 comments:

rennratt said...

"Vanaru" sounds a lot like a hippie music festival.

I vote a loud YEA! to that one!

Al said...

I was leaning that way anyway, soo Vanaru it is.