What is going on in somebody’s head when they take a look at a perfectly good Baja Bug and they suddenly remember that they have a good Continental R-670 engine just sitting out in the shed with nothing to do? How does someone come to the decision to mate a radial engine from the 1930s with a Volkswagen? I’m not sure I’ll ever know the answer, but Mike Neimens has gone the full distance with such a collaboration and it runs. The 668ci Continental engine, sourced from a tank, is prop driven (he has added a four-foot reverse pitch prop to the Volkswagen since the video was shot) and it runs on propane. Ballast for the nose involves bags of cement. Considering that the 7-cylinder Conti is only good for about 220hp, there’s no worries that the engine will overpower the car. And it’s drivable with just the prop…there is no hydraulic drive for the transmission or anything like that. This is the deep end of engineering, and yes, it’s as amazing, terrifying and wonderful as this video shows.
Click play below and ask yourself: how long this would last rolling down a street in California?
Isn’t this the infamous Propster/Franklin that has been chased off of our forum (amongst other places as well) a few times?
The same thing was said on Facebook, lol
kind of looks like a minor pedestrian hazard to me, does it move or is it just an engine stand?
There’s an MR2 that competed in 24 Hours Of Lemons with a 5-cylinder radial. Not particularly competitive or cheap, but still interesting.
With all the smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, wouldn’t this kill some gay baby whales in California?
Gay baby whales indeed – its nice to know there’s somebody else out there in BS land who’s as twisted as me!
For real prop-driven insanity check out the Leyat a cute French concoction that had a front-mounted genormous prop, 2 wheel brakes and rear wheel steering.
A mobile blender if there ever was one!
This is from California by the way. I pass it about once a week parked in that exact spot.