by K.D. Saffron

Created on: August 22, 2008

For all of those who lived and drove during the sixties and seventies, know that the air-cooled VW Beetle was a top performer. The VW Beetle was produced all around the world with varying mirror styles and such, but one aspect of the car remained the same, that being the engine cooling method. Yes, air-cooled engine designs were made popular by Volkswagen and Porsche, as these vehicles were originally designed for use in Europe at high speeds where the auto ban had no speed limit. Consequently, when driven there, they were always moving and the engines remained cooled. Later in the air-cooled Volkswagen history and their arrival to the American scene, the speeds slowed to meet the requirements of our highways. As such, up went the numbers of vehicles stalling because of engines overheating. When the air-cooled engines were not maintained and close attention not paid to the proper "mixtures", the problems began to rise. Sadly today, these are the bad stories that often we hear about the air-cooled engines. This reputation assisted the decline in use of the air-cooled engine as a form of major transportation.

Another very obvious reason for the declined use of the engine is that the world has become keenly aware of the environmental impact that vehicular exhaust has on the environment. That said, the more recent vehicle engine designs, do not include the air-cooled, but include water-cooled methods. The engines are primarily used in our cars and trucks, but in other vehicles too. Additionally, all recently produced vehicles since the early eighties must meet state regulated emissions requirements in order to be licensed and registered for operation. Today, the previously designed air-cooled engine would not meet those stringent requirements. As well, any emissions work on a car is very expensive and the air-cooled was no exception. Therefore, the air-cooled engines gradually disappeared from the roads.

As an owner of a 1976 VW Beetle with a 1969 air-cooled engine, I couldn't be happier given the high gasoline prices. The VW Beetle still gets great gas milage that is only rivaled by some of the newer hybrid cars and it has great speed on the highways. Remember, these were designed for European autobahn use where high speeds were frequently encountered.

An air-cooled engine did not mean necessarily that the car would be low on power, as it really was determined by what horsepower engine was installed. A classic example of this would be the Kombie, the VW Bus and then

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