DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

I know this is the classic conversation with people in the pub 'oh you know you can fit a Porsche engine in the back of that, dead easy!' but has anyone on here actually been involved in actually doing it?

Pros and cons, the engine/gearbox to use etc. Any thoughts?

I think the guy who did it owns it or certainly had alot to do with it is on this forum. They went to do the Gumball Rally in it.. I am sure he will pop by soon.. gone is 60 seconds..

the guy that bought my Golf is building one (BusDriver51) and the guy that's rebuilding my engine fitted a 3.0 sc engine in his Bay.

I would imagine it is reasonably straight forward once you've got the gearbox/engine/flywheel combo sorted. There certainly is space.

But that's just my extention of the 'pub' conversation, I've never done and probably don't have the skill to do it.

saw about three splitties down at the summer breeze cruise to brighton last year and they all had 6 cylinder porsche lumps in and what looked like 911 brakes all round. The conversions looked pretty professional, Cant remember the name but i think someone is doing a kit or offering the conversion.

There was a really clean 23 or 21 window that had a constant crowd around the engine bay - the motor only just squeezes in missing the rear bolt in panel by about 2 cm.

I would love to build a flat-six bus. Jez Parsons at GCS in Horsham did a stunning job on his Samba, last time I was down there he was building another one. From what I saw it's definitely not the easiest swap in the world (slight understatement), especially if you want to do it properly, uprate the chassis etc.

Top VW bloke Wayne Allman at the Intergalactic Custom Shop near Stratford (upon Avon) is currently building a couple of nutcase splitties (2500bhp in a crewcab) and is a very enlightening guy to talk to about stuff like this. Last time I was there, this one was on the ramps (sorry quality not great as phone pics). He had remade the entire lower frame to take the extra power that was going in and added IFS too, really nice work. Think he was talking about Scooby running gear but that might have changed since...

all sounds/looks interesting, any contact details for any of the above appreciated!

Is it an expensive thing to keep the Porsche power unit serviced and maintained, as a VW T1 is comparatively 'cheap' to keep going!

Do you think there are particular Porsche engines that would be 'better' for such a transplant? Anticipated costs etc. would also be good!

Saw a 1972 2.4T Porsche 911 engine, with zenith carbs (newly rebuilt), Kennedy flywheel, clutch & plate, oil tank & support bar for sale recently…

Contact Jez at Carrera Performance. He almost certainly built all the buses you have seen at the summer breeze