Hi Jlc,
I've owned them. They are a real quick car on the corners. The Mk III has
independent suspension with a trans. mounted rear spring. The flex joints wear
a little. Tranny's are very weak. I never had rear end problems and I drove
mine pretty hard. Because of the rear suspension it has a tendency to hop on
the corners when pushed. Spring wind up. It's a real experience when it does
it, okay it scared the bejesus out of me. Mine would keep up with a Porsche on
the corners, with the overdrive they real fly on the long open road. It's
basically a spitfire with a 2 liter engine and electric overdrive. Wow what
fun. It is almost as much fun as my bug-I. But the women like the bug-I
better and it is more fun to drive. People always thought it was a unique type
of Porsche.
Problems were they are very warm inside while driving. It feels like my foot
is on fire. After I insulated the heck out of it the temp went down but was
still warm. The other thing I noted was if you are taller then 5'8" your leg
will be bent when driving and with the large steering wheel I had to pull my
knee to the side every time I pushed on the clutch.
Good points, they are real easy to do maintenance on the engine and trans. The
hood opens up and I used to sit down on the exposed tire to work on the engine.
The tranny comes out on the passenger seat side. The tunnel comes out and sit
down on the seat to work in comfort, You can get to every little part of the
tranny. I ended up putting in TR7 gears, at least that's what the box said on
it. they fit just fine.
Wheels had tiny little lug bolts that aren't available any more, 1/4" studs.
Don't let the tire shop use the gun they snap them every time. I told my local
shop to do my lugs by hand with a cross bar and before I could stop the guy,
notice I didn't say mechanic, he snapped four off. Then denied using the gun
even though I was across the room watching him do it. Needless to say I don't
use this shop even for my normal cars/trucks after that. They were the ones
that forgot to tighten the lugs on a customer's car and when he came around the
corner by my house two blocks away his wheel came off crashed into one of my
cars. They tried to get out of fixing that too.
Good luck
WW ricky
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