I used to know a woman who really liked riding her flat-four BMW. At one point she rode it from Melbourne to north Queensland. I pointed out to her that if she ever put it down, she couldn't possibly pick it up, but she just said she'd been riding for years and it had never happened, why worry?
So far as the beetle is concerned I seem to have heard of people who turned the back axle around and put a V8 where the back seat had been. That can work fairly well, with enough engineering work. Putting an engine in the front, though, is just dumb. The front suspension doesn't amount to much to start with, and the understeer would be terminal with all that weight on it. The wheelspin would be extensive, but the acceleration wouldn't amount to much due to lack of weight on the back wheels. On top of that you've put the engine where the fuel tank used to be, so the tank would end up in the back seat. It would be a chore to make a good enough firewall and externally-vented compartment to make that safe, and since you are losing the back seat anyway, why not just put the engine there?
Having said all that, we are subverting the Scott Bonnar forum and I think I'd better drop out of this.
