Twice as fast?

I think that was marginally faster than the first VWs that came to North America. One of my neighbours has a Morris Minor 1000. He gets a lot of attention but I think the car is even slower today.

Posted by: @david-green

I think that was marginally faster than the first VWs that came to North America. One of my neighbours has a Morris Minor 1000. He gets a lot of attention but I think the car is even slower today.

The Morris 1000 is a rather slow car but they are sure cute little buggers....especially the traveler....I love it.

To check the acclerarion of a Morris Minor one only needs a calendar.

@bob-jackman I seem to recall that back in the day they measured its quarter mile time with a sun dial.

@david-green  David;  I'm not sure but I seem to recall that the first Beetle imported into North America offered around 28 h.p. but it was quickly jumped up to an astounding 32 h.p.  Do I have this correct?  Years ago I owned a shagged out '58 Beetle which I thought actually went fairly well....for what it was.  Like the Morris Minor, I also loved the 50 and 60s Beetles; especially up to 1967.

@jack-dodds 

Hi Jack,

I think the first VWs to the USA were in 1949 but I first saw them in Canada in 1952. (I came from England to Canada in Feb.1952.) That Canadian import was 1131 cc and had only 25HP but that went up to 30HP by years end. It had a single Solex carburetor and only came with manual. Top speed was 65 mph but it took about 40+ seconds to reach 60 on the flat. It had the semaphore signals for making turns. Was your 1958 a 1200 cc model? They were quite a bit faster with 36HP and better gearing.

I never owned one but several friends did. I had a 1600cc Karmann Ghia engine in a 1927 Bugatti Replica but it was upgraded to 68HP.

@david-green I really don't know what h.p. it had; I just knew it was no bomb....but it would go anywhere and use almost no fuel.