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Hello- > > At the Ypsilanti, MI, show, I met a gentleman with a 2-door 411 > > Fastback. > > was that tom siligato by any chance? I dunno. Sorry... > the 2-doors have been the worst sellers of all three body styles, that > is correct. The least practical, but most attractive of them all. Ah, well. > > It was the best-looking of all the T4's, and was intended to recieve a > > 901 > > 5-speed transmission and 6-cylinder engine as an option (a la 914-6, > > only a > > 411-6). Porsche and VW decided to eliminate that option from the > > drawingboard at the last minute. > > do you have any proof of that? i had not heard of the planned > 6-cylinder models before. One of the prototypes was a bigger > 6-cylinder station wagon (bigger than the 411 models) with slightly > different lines, but that was dropped pretty quickly. I've spoken with a couple people that worked for VWAG in the mid-60's, and they are the ones that told me. Really, if you look at the setup, there's a lot of "vestigal" evidence that it was the plan. First, look at the tranny nosecone. Unlike all other VW's, it is on the bottom. You could then argue that this was simply because there was no tunnel in the car. But, why is it exceedingly long? Line it up with a larger 5-speed 901 and it makes sense... And, look at the engine bay. It is exceedingly long (even has room for that plastic cooling airbox thing), and has much, much more vertical height than a pancake T4 actually needs. And, if you think about the marketing, it is perfectly inline with the 914 project. They're a beautiful symmetry... where the 914 was a replacement for the Type 3 Ghia and 912, the 411 was VW's new luxury car and Porsche's 4-seater 911 (there were 4-seater 911 prototypes... have several pics... but they are really ugly, and so never made it :-). They both went forward in 1968, then 1970 in the US. > this is incorrect, the 2-door sedans were part of the standard lineup > and came here through the normal sales channel. it is true that 411 > 2-doors (as opposed to 412 2-doors) were very rare because they were > only sent to the US in a single model year (1972). Why'd they sell them in 1972, but not 70, 71, 73, or 74? Odd... > > He had it restored pretty danged well. He even had an original Type 4 > > 4-speed manual transmission that still functioned as new. > > all 411/412 2-door models for the US market had manual transmissions. Yes, I know. But still, finding a T4 manual that still works isn't all that common. > i > suppose they tried to position the 2-door as the more "sporty" model. Yes. This is most evident in 1974, when it received a higher-tuned 1.7 than the other T4's, which got a lower-tuned 1.8. It had more power. Take care, Shad Laws LN Engineering - Aircooled Precision Performance http://www.lnengineering.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org