Logo muffler

The muffler question did bother me somewhat. Should I go for the nicely made Abarth replicas in stainless steel, or for a stock one?

In the end i did follow the S-Ghia doctrine and went for a NOS stock system. I like the original VW system as it utilizes equal length primary pipes, as opposed to the Abarth system. Dick Morgan, the author of the 1959 book "Souping the Volkswagen engine", claims that the original system is pretty free flowing in itself and that the back pressure, and the sound dampening, lies mainly in the end pipes. I will be solving this problem by using better flowing Theo Decker end pipes.

After some searching I did find a NOS 111 251 151 G muffler. This was a "universal" muffler Volkswagen introduced in the 60's to cover all export beetles from August 1955 to July 1960.

Earlier in the 60's there were two type of muffler as spare parts: one "C" for 1956 – 1959 model years and one "D" for 1960. The difference being the angle of the end pipes as the power train is tilted 2 degrees on the1960 model year.

If I had wanted a 100% period correct muffler for a November 1957 Ghia I should have been looking for a black one with the earlier clamp style connections (the new clamps was introduced on the "C"-model in May 1959 and grey zinc paint replaced black in March the same year).

However, I am happy to have found this "G"-muffler to grace the engine of my Ghia!