Vacuum advance or not

[BOINK]

I have a 74 beetle 1600 dual port motor which was switched to a standard dist .009 with bosch coil, I think kind of new to this.I was wondering would a good move in perfomance to move to a flamethrower vacuum advance dist and flamethrower coil for 200 dollars on sale.

                                                 Thax
                                                         Lance

[BUSDADDY]

What carb/carbs do you have on it?

[BOINK]

It has asolex 34  carb

                                  THANX
                                               LANCE

[BUSDADDY]

Personally I haven't seen a huge improvement with the flamethrower coil, you may be better off putting the extra bucks towards a real Mexican 205S in place of the Chinese ones most of those "kits" include. Even better if you get John at Aircooled.net to tweak it specifically for your engine, carb and car first.
No doubt others will have different opinions but that's been my experience.
An 009 can work fairly well if everything else is 100% but you will notice the improvement with the SVDA.

[Bruce]

.. would a good move in perfomance to move to a flamethrower vacuum advance dist and flamethrower coil ...

You aren't going to make any more hp with that distributor.  However, the addition of the vacuum advance will give you much better mileage on the highway.
IMO you are better off getting the stock original VW single vacuum advance distributor.

[BOINK]

Will I get what I pay for if I get a genuine vw made in Mexico or is a cheap one just as good.The main thing I am looking to get rid of is that flat spot .I am not really looking for more power.

[pittwagen]

I have a 73 standard beetle with approximately 61,000 miles on it.  When I got the car in 1994 the original distributor was toast.  I already had a brand new 009 (better quality than what is available today) and a Bosch blue coil so I installed that and ran it for a few years with the typical flat spot. 

When CIP1 came out with the Mexican 043-905-205-ZB, I bought one.  Gone was the flat spot and average mileage went up about 4-5 mpg.  Driveability improved as well.  I didn't seem to have to rev the engine as high through the gears to get up to speed.  It just seemed to pull better. 

I have had no problems with the distributor. The only cost has been for the typical tune up parts.  You get what you pay for.  Spend a few extra bucks now and you won't have to worry about how long the cheaper one might last.

My experience.