Empi's Okrasa Karmann Ghia early 1957

Looking at the April 1957 issue of Hot Rod Magazine we find yet another Okrasa installation in a Ghia. This is the Empi demo car and the installation was probably made already in 1956. It is similar to the earliest German installations shown earlier, but this time it is based on a post-Aug 1955 engine.

Even more Okrasa installations in Ghias (pt. 3)

Above you can see another Okrasa installation in a Karmann Ghia. This one did appear in the 1958 Empi catalogue. A qualified guess is that the installation was done at Empi in the US.

It has two unique features: The placement of the oil filter (the best looking one. if you ask me) and the use of a 25 hp 383 all centrifugal distributor (remember: the BR25/010 wasn't introduced until one year later). This sets it apart from Okrasa's own installations that always did use the original centrifugal/vacuum distributor on the 30/63 hp engines.

Other than that it looks like an early German installation with Knecht air filters, no support for the ignition cables and the equalizer tube in front of the fan shroud.

More Ghia Okrasa installations

As mentioned earlier the Okrasa installations for Karmann Ghias did evolve during the years. In the 1957 Carl Theodor Kleine VW accessories catalogue an installation is shown that is in-between the 1956 and the 1958 versions showed in the earlier blog-post.

My guess is that the catalogue was made late 1956 or early 1957), before the introduction of the TSV1300. As can be seen the installation has the "newer" style routing of the ignition cables and the rear mounted balance tube. However, the installation show no oil filter and the air filters are of the older Knecht type.

Also note the position of the coil that differ from all three previously shown. Looks neater according to me.

Okrasa and the Karmann Ghia

1956 installation of the Okrasa kit in a Karmann Ghia

Already in the 1950's it was obvious that there was a gap between appearance and performance in the Karman Ghia coupé. One of the ways to close this gap was to add an Okrasa performance kit to the flat four in the back. In this blog post we will look closer to the installation of such kits in the Ghia.

The picture above, from the 1956 test in Auto Motor und Sport, shows what is probably a very early installation. The engine seems to be a pre-August-1955 unit so if it's the original engine of the car, this is a very very early Ghia. But, the engine could of course have been swapped.

A couple of things differ from later installations:

- The equalizer tube between the intakes runs in front of the fan shroud.

- The air filters are of the Knecht brand, just as for the "original" Okrasa kit.

- The oil filter is placed in a tilted position in front of the fan shroud.
- The ignition cables seems to have no support

1958 installation

If we move to 1958 and a test of the TSV 1300 kit in the same magazine the equalizer tube have now moved to the back of the fan shroud. Also, the original cable conduits are being used. The air filters are now of the brand Mann, probably because Okrasa wanted as light weight air filters as possible to avoid problems running on bumpy roads with the swan neck air filter fittings.

Fitting instructions from the early 60's

The last picture comes from a fitting instructions from the early 60's. It looks similar to the 1958 installation, but now the oil filter is on its own stands to the left of the engine. A much better solution for cooling and serviceability,

In all three installations the stock distributor with combined mechanical and centrifugal advance is used.  It was only with the introduction of the Okrasa kit for the 34/40 hp engines that all centrifugal distributors were used.

EDIT Aug 2015: I have collected all Okrasa/Ghia installations under one label, see: http://lowlightkaizen.blogspot.se/search/label/Okrasa_in_Ghia