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Has anyone heard of or have experience with this period correct VW supercharger?
http://vwjudsonregister.tripod.com/index.htm
PMOSSBERG 40710.8126157407 Heard of it. They made ’em for the MG too; they’re rare and expensive now.
I suspect there is a reason you don’t see a lot of blowers on these cars today, and I suspect the reason has to do with heat and parts failures. But this is only a suspicion, and not based on any VW knowledge.
I would love to see one of our members set one up and run it. I’d also love to have one of those Judson badges, though I don’t think I’d have the stones to display it on the car without also spending the $$ and sweat to really have one.
edsnova40710.8053819444
Ed is right…these are ancient technology blowers. They didn’t make a lot of boost and were made for the very early 1100 and 1200 cc VW’s to get a little more yank. It was just that too…a LITTLE more, only 4 or 5 HP. I had one on a 36 HP 1200 cc motor in my ’61 Beetle. It just burned more fuel and was not a lot faster.
Today’s air cooled, big horsepower tycoons use intercooled turbo chargers or NOS or both.
Keep in mind that your air cooled VW will require major and very costly modifications to make the horsepower you seem to be wanting in your car. These engines were made to live reliably with 48-50 bhp.
With a few of the right “minor” changes, you can make 65-70 BHP and your motor will live reliably for years.
It’s all power to weight ratio for a car’s straight line acceleration and top speed performance. These VW based kits are basically 4 wheeled motorcylces that don’t need a ton of BHP to make them scoot.
If you want to go fast, you’ve got to stop too…so more expensive brake system modifications are required. It goes on and on.
If you want bigger HP with reliability, start with a Type IV VW, not a puney Type I that becomes more unreliable as you add mods.
Thanks for the input and advise. I will admit that I dream a lot, and may not actually end up doing these modifications. I’m learning day by day to appreciate the little engine and it is just fine for running around town. On the highway, I can make 55-60 or even 65 without seeming to strain her. I really don’t need a lot more power, but I’m playing around with it in my head. You guys offer great wisdom. If adding the modifications increases unreliability, then I’m all for keeping her just the way she is. MAYBE I’ll look at a bigger engine, like the 1835. That would be more than enough for a light-weight fiberglass bodied car.
I do have my Honda S2000 for modern speed. She’s plenty fast enough and I love being able to rev to 9000 RPM after the Vtech has kicked in. The two rides are both a lot of fun.
I am curious though, how our modern VW engines, say in the 1600 cc range, compare power-wise to the original MG. I can corner pretty well with the London Roadster at lower speeds, but I ponder what the real MG would be like in the corners. I know they weren’t speed demons on the straight away, but where always good in the turns. I’m sure the engine placement in the original affected its handling such that our rear engine machines are very different handling.
A stock 1952 MG TD had a 1250cc engine putting out all of 58 horsepower and 64 foot-pounds of torque.
It varies by year. But generally, a late 1960s early 1970s Type 1 1600cc dual port VW engine made 57 horsepower at about 4,000 rpm and about 80 foot-pounds of torque at 3,000 rpm.
A TD and a Beetle each weigh about 1900 pounds.
PMOSSBERG40711.6490625
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
The MG did pretty well for it’s size then. Thanks, Paul. I hadn’t realized the 1952 MG TD had that small of an engine.
Paul overstates it a bit. 58 hp was rating for the Mark II, special speed edition (fewer than 2,000 were made, as against nearly 30,000 total TD production). The stock, standard XPAG engine was rated (rather ambitiously, I hear) at 54 horsepower. Top speed tested around 78 mph, and that’s with a bit of tuning. Gross weight was given as “a hamburger over 2000 pounds.”
XPAGs were tuneable, with room to bore and, with a mere 7-to-1 compression ration, supercharger-ready. Though they did break a few cranks now and then, probably owing to casting flaws, they were little rev-monsters, willing to pin the 6000-rpm tach straight off the showroom floor. Bored out, decked to bring up the compression ratio, with the bigger carbs, velocity stacks, headers and the all-important performance cam, 100 hp was not out of reach. And they made a neat little buzz that way too. This is why you still see them at vintage races, even though their competitive heyday ended in 1952 as the Porsche 356 began to dominate Europe. In most racing societies, the small engine limits were raised that year to 1500cc, and Porsche’s “1500 Super” made 70 hp out of the box. (The 356 came to the USA in ’53, sealing the MG’s fate from Bridgehampton to Pebble Beach).
As for our VWs: I apparently have rather less than a 1600 dp under my spare tire. My case is from 1966 (1300cc), and its a single port with one solex and a point ignition. No extractors, cams, shiny tins, “power pulley,” nothing. I’m guessing it was embiggened to 1500 or 1600, but don’t know. The Dynolicious app for my iphone rated it 46hp at the rear wheels in May, which would translate roughly into a rating of 54 at the crank, using the ’50s and ’60s way of calculating horses.
Last week on a wide and straight highway I had the car up to 80 mph. I backed off before she topped out.
Judson made a supercharger for VW’s in the 70’s. I put one on a Super V engine in a Berry Mini-t. The car weighed about 900 pounds and was put on a dyno and tested out at 400hp. I used it on a 1/8 mile drag strip in Muncie Indiana. We ran 15″ wide M&H drag slicks, and had serious weelie bars. It was street legal and fast.
I don’t think they are good for much other than drag racing, it will way shorten the life of the engine.
It was a lot of fun, the V 8’s could not even come close to my VW on the 1/8 mile. It had an aluminum Flywheel and dual headers. The super charger causes the engine to heat up quickly, not good for more than 30 minutes of run time. Not good for street use. Takes a very high vilume oil pump and a large dry sump system and add on coolers and electic fans. after 30 minute run if you shut it off the starter could not turn it over till it cooled down. Very fast, and a lot of fun. would be cool in one of the porsh boxter replicars. It would be ok if you add an air conditinor type clutch to disengage the super charger, and use it when you want to impress somebody, “BECAUSE IT WILL”.I put one on a 1960 VW convertible way back in ’62. It did run a little better, but it was mostly for bragging rights. It probably increased the horsepower from 36 to 40+.
Jack
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