Aircooled VW South Africa

Guys ,
Sorry for being slow and taking long to understandbut this fascinates me now.
Ive seen a 1308/pregnant beetle floor pan now for the first time and are a bit shocked about the lack of strength in it.
The shock towers for the mc Pherson struts are the inner fenders ( not very thick ) which seems to bolt on the pan only with one bolt on each side.
So you have two strength boxes –one in front of the fire wall/dash and one behind it ----- hold together by the thin neck of the pan.

And the rest of the wheel /brake assembly are attached to the car with a flimsey rod ---not even triangulated properly.
This floor pan would surely not have lasted on our SA dirt roads for long and would never have ended up in beach buggies

No wonder Ralph Nader had sleepless nights about the rear engine cars.




Cheers baron

That's why they kept the old torsion bar design until the end of SA production.

By the 1970s, Beetles were getting very expensive to build, as well as not being able to keep up with safety and emissions regulations. The McPherson strut font suspension was introduced, not because it is in any way superior to torsion bars, but because it was CHEAP. The softer ride and larger luggage space were by-products. IMO a torsion bar Beetle will always outhandle a McPherson strut Beetle, even if the ride is a bit harsher.

Cheaper assembly and production is also the main reason why so many modern cars have front-wheel drive. It has nothing to do with handling, despite what they say in the Audi ads.

Oh yes, and that would be a 1303, not a 1308.