motor size

There should be lots of shops in your area for performance engine builds, that stock engine in your bug with the right parts and a good engine builder can make it crank out 200HP and more depending on how much you want to spend.

this is a loaded question!!! where are you located? how big of a budget do you have? how is the car going to be driven (daily, weekends,) these are big questions, and really need to be answered before you can get any real advise on engines. also remember, your stock engine was (at best) 60hp, when you bump up the power to say 100hp it makes a world of difference. you are going to have to look into brake upgrades and especially transaxle upgrades

just an example. 175hp in my old 63 bug put it into the high 12 second quarter mile times. was a street car mostly. as fast or faster than a new mustang gt for compairison. now i had a little over $6500 in the motor, around $1500 in the transaxle,$ 600 in brakes. so we are at 8600, then you count the rebuilding of the front end $200 (so it would handle the speed) rebuilding of the rear suspension $400 so it would actually put the power to the ground without shredding the transaxle. then lets talk about the gauges needed to monitor the hi po engine, the upgrade seats, harnesses, roll bar..... if your looking for real performance, get ready to open the wallet! now if you just want a little more performance than stock, be able to keep up pace with the newer car 4 cylinders, then just go with something like a nice 1915cc dual carbed motor. these can be bought turn key (complete) in the 4 grand neighborhood. remember the heads are very important in these motors!!!!! the stock transaxle will hold up pretty well as long as you don't do burnouts or pop the clutch!

what was the first year that the 1300cc motor came out in the VW Beetle?