re. VW fox

[Swann, Benjamin R. (BSWANN)]

I had many Dashers.  They were pretty much identical to the Audi Fox.

It was around 1987, when I pulled into a VW dealer for some parts.  I parked
right next to a new '87? Fox Wagon with my '79? Dasher Wagon - both red.
The salesman commented that it was hard to tell the difference.  I think the
new Fox was a little shorter.

BTW,  I hadn't been following the thread too closely, but I thought I saw
mention of wanting to do a auto to manual swap.  At least in the Dashers,
you could retrofit a manual into an auto, as I did that in a back yard.  The
tunnel in the auto was larger, and you had to make some custom bracket to
mount it, but there was certainly no clearance problem.  Mostly I just
bolted the Clutch and PP up  to the engine, bolted the tranny on, and
fabricated the proper size gizmo to replace what was used for mounting the
auto to the chassis.  Also you needed to hotwire the auto lockout relay -
ref. Bently.

It turned out to be a very nice ride, thought I had some vibration at
certain engine RPMs, probably because of improper damping in the custom
mount, which I overcame by installing a shock absorber - I forget exactly
where.

Oh, also, ther was some post about updating a four speed to a five.  At
least in the Rabits and Scirocco's, this was a "no brainer", and there was
no clearance problem.

[Having been in the biz when the Audi Fox came out (took the first new
product class for them in early 1973), and seeing the VW foxes on a weekly
basis here at the shop, I find the similarities quite strong.  The layout is
very similar, the general feel of the early versions of both, the physical
similarities of the trannys, the location and size of the radiator, the
layout of the dash, and many other similarities make a strong case for the
VW branded car to be a sort of reintroduction of the product.  John]