Broke the VW out of cold storage today

adorshki · May 9, 2019

Guildedagain said:
Stunning car. When I get inside one of those, the smell takes me back to childhood...

Back in the day, lotta people used this for that:

gjmalcyon said:
Alright! What's your best "I can't believe I just got smoked by a VW!" story?

Don't have on of my own but some folks still don't realize those cars had fantastic power-to-weight potential from that little flat 4 especially in the large displacements.
Heck just an exhaust extractor and dual carbs were good for like another 15 horses; and no less a personage than Dan Gurney won a race in the Bug that might have started it all, "Inch Pincher":

"Herbie" (always wondered if that name was a sly nod to the hippies' favorite smoking material) quite likely was inspired by some notorious VW dragsters which were popular out here in sunny CA at least (and Dread, the little yellow "beach buggy' is actually one of 'em):

And 10 California Brownie points to the first person who ID's the car in the foreground of this shot.

gjmalcyon · May 9, 2019

The Guilds of Grot said:
Well since you brought it up... Locally it was also famous for "The Circuit"!

That's a great story - wonder if the Camaro driver ever admitted to getting beat light-to-light by a veedub.

The Circuit appears in a couple of Bruce songs: 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) and Night.

Mark WW · May 9, 2019

Here is a pic of my 64. I painted it Orange. My old girl Misty the Weimaraner. Best Dog EVER!

richardp69 · May 9, 2019

adorshki said:
Back in the day, lotta people used this for that:

Don't have on of my own but some folks still don't realize those cars had fantastic power-to-weight potential from that little flat 4 especially in the large displacements.
Heck just an exhaust extractor and dual carbs were good for like another 15 horses; and no less a personage than Dan Gurney won a race in the Bug that might have started it all, "Inch Pincher":

"Herbie" (always wondered if that name was a sly nod to the hippies' favorite smoking material) quite likely was inspired by some notorious VW dragsters which were popular out here in sunny CA at least (and Dread, the little yellow "beach buggy' is actually one of 'em):

And 10 California Brownie points to the first person who ID's the car in the foreground of this shot.

I still use the Ozium to attack nasty guitar case odors. Works over time.

bobouz · May 9, 2019

Westerly Wood said:
perfect shape looks like. my Dad had one when he was young. he also had a 57 chevy when he was 18.

Okay, you're makin' me feel old. First car I ever bought was a '57 Chevy Bel Air - purchased in 1967 for $300 (at the age of 16). In the early '70s, owned a '65 bug convertible (first year of the 12 volt system, thank god), but also owned a '66 bus that was still a 6 volt (changed to 12v in '67 on the buses). Both actually ended up being stone-cold reliable (with a lot of TLC), but added an external oil filter to the bus.

As for Al's drag racer in the foreground - maybe a Sunbeam or Opel?

Rich Cohen · May 9, 2019

Is it a Simca, or perhaps a later model VW, modified?

adorshki · May 9, 2019

bobouz said:
As for Al's drag racer in the foreground - maybe a Sunbeam or Opel?

Not bad, as from some angles it did have a distinctly "English" look.
'66 Hillman Minx:

But nope, it's a "Type 3 Notchback".

With the Type 3 you got 1500 cc's out of the box:

OK, to be fair, anybody could be forgiven for not recognizing their next-to-rarest (in the US) model, I myself didn't realize they weren't exported to the US when introduced until I started looking for good images to post here.
We saw many more of the "squarebacks" and fastbacks out here.

3398357cab43182ce04ea91f2f3d0e12--palm-desert-volkswagen-type-.jpg

One of my high-school buddies even had one of these in that same color:

gallery-1445546505-volkswagen-thing-happy-owner-10355917866.jpg

But the uber-rare Vee-dub?
Type 34 Karman Ghia:

DThomasC · May 9, 2019

I've forgotten how many beatles I owned. (Three or four.) I vividly remember the bus that I had. It was the kind of thing that made cops pull me over just to do a drug search.

I also had a fairly crappy 914. The Bosch electronic fuel injection (very advanced at the time) would refuse to work when it rained. So, when it rained I had to ride my motorcycle.

Speaking of 914 conversions, I remember when Emerson Fittipaldi put a Porsche 550 Spyder transaxle in a VW bug and added TWO flat four VW engines. One was bolted to the transaxle, the other was coupled to the first through a rubber donut.

There's quite a few articles about it on the web. Example: https://jalopnik.com/emerson-fittipaldis-double-engined-volkswagen-beetle-5799726

adorshki · May 9, 2019

DThomasC said:
I've forgotten how many beatles I owned. (Three or four.) I vividly remember the bus that I had. It was the kind of thing that made cops pull me over just to do a drug search.

Which was why the smart hippies always kept a bottle of Ozium within easy reach.
:glee:

adorshki · May 9, 2019

PS new contest for whoever can tell us what American car that '61 type 34 Karmann Ghia is suspiciously similar to.
In more ways than one.
One more time:

why-the-karmann-ghia-type-34-is-collectable-1476933881414-1000x628.jpg

Cougar · May 9, 2019

I had a green 1600 back in the early 70s when I lived in Kenya for a couple years. It worked really well on the mud roads.

Stuball48 · May 9, 2019

adorshki said:
PS new contest for whoever can tell us what American car that '61 type 34 Karmann Ghia is suspiciously similar to.
In more ways than one.
One more time:

Corvair

walrus · May 9, 2019

DThomasC said:
I've forgotten how many beatles I owned.

This is a great typo!

walrus

adorshki · May 9, 2019

walrus said:
This is a great typo!

walrus

I wonder if that was actually an auto correct?
Seriously.

dreadnut · May 9, 2019

Gee Stu, looks like the little Corvair Monza I learned to drive in!

adorshki · May 9, 2019

dreadnut said:
Gee Stu, looks like the little Corvair Monza I learned to drive in!

Yep Corvair Super Spyder concept, '62:

1962_Chevrolet_Corvair_Super_Spyder_(XP-785)_05.jpg

Interestingly the rear end on the production Monza had been tried out in clay as early as '58:

sailingshoes72 · May 9, 2019

dreadnut said:
Gee Stu, looks like the little Corvair Monza I learned to drive in!

Yeah! My first car at age 18 was a 60's Corvair Monza convertible with a standard transmission. It was a "hand me down" from my Dad. I enjoyed driving that car to the beach on the weekends during the early 1970's. (I grew up in South Florida). A lot of good memories in that car.

With the rear engine placement, it did have some tricky "handling" issues when going around sharp curves at a high rate of speed. I had the rear end get loose on several occasions, but I never had an accident. Note: this was a long time before " The Fast and The Furious" and "drifting" became popular! :biggrin-new:

I was always grateful to have learned to drive with a clutch and a standard transmission. It has served me well over the years.

dreadnut · May 10, 2019

Our '62 Monza could get rubber in 3 gears, LOL. It was also great in the snow. Ended up burning oil so bad my Dad parked it in the barn where it remained.

The Guilds of Grot · May 10, 2019

dreadnut said:
Ended up burning oil so bad my Dad parked it in the barn where it remained.

Is it still there?

dreadnut · May 10, 2019

No, unfortunately. We sold it after my Dad passed away. It wasn't in very good shape, we had also hit a deer with it at 65 mph so the front was crumpled. And of course, being a Michigan car there was plenty of rust.

Broke the VW out of cold storage today

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