Rick Becker

Stukkas? Very interesting. I had heard that Datsun had licensed from Mercedes. The Soob is such a natural extension of the VW/Porche design, it only makes sense. I just did a quick web search on the Stukka engine and came up empty, but apparently it's not at all uncommon to get 800-1000 HP out of a 1500 CC 4 cyl. Formula 1 engine. With the over-square bore and stroke of at least the earlier engines, (don't know about the newer ones), that would be some sort of a pocket rocket at half the performance. Someday, I'll find that airplane conversion web page. I think the folks were in Arizona. b.

My ' 72 had the 1287 cc EA 62 engine w/ a single 2 bbl carb. and was said to produce about 80 HP. I fiddled my air cleaner around so that it was sucking in higher pressure air from the vent at the base of the windshield, and had noticeably better performance at speed. The 96 HP Japanese version you mentioned was a dual carb setup, with one carb directly over each paired intake. I have since found that there are lots of other tricks that can be done to take the HP up into decent triple digits, since it is apparently a classic small airplane engine. I believe I read somewhere, that the motor was actually adapted to automotive use from aeronautical application. Anybody have a ' 72 VIN tag? b.

Hi, I'm new to the group, and glad to find some other crazies out there. I had a couple of '71s and a tricked out '72 coupe, which I have mourned for almost 25 years. Still have the engine and tranny. I'm up North of Boston, and had to use the car all year 'round. Road salt killed it, however, I got another year out of it by silver soldering a couple of shelf brackets between the floor and rocker panel. I haven't seen another one in 20 years. I'm hearing rumors that that there are still some around, so I thought I'd just say hi. Rick