EARLIEST MEMORIES OF A VOLKSWAGEN

[volksnut]

My earliest memory was when my brother and his friend took me for a ride in his hopped up 40hp with wide tires out back, took this corner at 60 mph and made it.....so the story goes my brother took my moms 65 around the same corner at 60mph.....well he didn't make it,  he did end up right side up but after a few 360's came to rest in a ditch....his friend hauled ass leaving my brother to clean up the oil in the engine compartment and repairing a flattened tire, complete with grass in the bead.  Well my parents never found out, but my brother did find out later my dad skimped out and had recap tires on mom's car....

[TexasTom]

My first memory would go back to '71. I was 6 and my brother had bought his first car at the age of 16; a dark blue '69 sunroof beetle with white interior ... 100% bone stock, whitewalls and all!
I remember him tinkering with it time and time again, multiple extractor exhausts, chrome intake with a Holley bugspray, white fiberglass scoops over the front and rear air intakes (remember those?!), a Hurst Indy shifter, TigerPaw oversize radials ... just a few items I remember.
Fast forward about 3 or 4 years later he had graduated high school and over the summer was moving into his first stroker motor! We drove my mom's car down to meet a guy to purchase the crank, a 78mm! The guy brought it to the meeting place wrapped in towels, strapped to the back of a Honda Minitrail ... LOL! The engine was spread out all over the floor of the garage ... my dad peeked out one evening at the display only to turn back while muttering, "It will never run again." He got it all put together with some ported 40X35 non-welded heads done by a local machinist named Bridges, carburation was 40DCNFs via Claudes Buggies, pistons & cylinders were 90.5s, I think the can was a Norris.
I was probably 9 or 10 at the time, and though I did very little other that hand tools and watch, I did have the most glamourous job of cleaning all his tools!
So he gets it fired up and we're ready to go for a ride! This is about midnight. He romps it down the highway towards the end of the neighborhood and all the sudden THUMP and it looses all oil pressure! We pull into the last street to see that the oil hose has come loose from the external cooler; I think it was behind the fan shroud (?).
We run back to the house, about 3 miles, load up all needed tools and supplies into my mom's Skylark ... everyone else is long since asleep ... drive back to the scene of the spindletop to fill and button all back together, and we're ready to go.
Problem was, how to get both cars back to the house with out involving those less concerned? Long story a little shorter, I drove the Skylark back by myself, following my brother all through the neighborhood ... like I said, I was MAYBE 10!

Well, I've got many more and sorry for the long rant.
Suffice it to say that it's easy for these stories to come back to my mind. All I have to do is walk out into my garage today, sit in the car, and relive the old memories.

[roland]

i know my earliest memory of a vw is not that old but about 10 year ago (I was 16) I took a ride in alain's 70's orange beetle. It was the first time I got in a bug as a passenger and he was one of the first guy around to have a "big" engine... I was blow away by the feel of the speed in the small car even if maybe we were not that fast but back then it was a revelation to me, I was just a kid....

Since then, Alain passed away but it well always be a memory I will always remember. Miss you buddy, thanks for letting me know about fast VW's...

[deanosvws]

my earliest memory of a vw was in 1986 when i was on holiday in california. from what i can remember it would have been a mid 60's squareback dechromed i think, pillerless rear side windows with centerlines in java ish green. i was only 9. it would have been near the galaxy motel which is no longer there. (anaheim somewhere). cheers dean

[Jim Ratto]

Oooh, a ‘73-only low-profile dog-house Thing fanshroud...

You sure about that mate? Isn't that flathead from a Puma?

That's what I thought... Things were the same as a Beelte shroud, minus the heater ducts.

You're right about the Puma bit (not familiar with the details of them over here)... but that shroud was indeed used on Things, too, presumably using up left-over parts!

that shroud was from CB Performance circa 1992 or so.... it was on Sheep's 1915. Was a bitchin looking motor....all red tin, 48IDAs on talls, Berg linkage, 010, Santana pulley. We mounted the Holley "fuel tee" right on top of shroud with 3/8 lines push-lok lines going directly to Webers.

My earliest memories of a VW is probably getting a ride in first grade to school. My friend Jeff...his mom had an orange fuelie Super Bug.
My earliest memories of a "cool" VW has to be from about 12 year old, my neighbor around corner was builing a custom Cal Bug, 1968 or 69 I think, almost dead on same color as my 67 but fully shaved, cal look rubber,one piece windows, baby turbo Vitalonis and 4 lug 5.5" chromies. Think the motor was stock or 1641 but had S & S headers on it. Very cool car.
My earliest memory of a fast VW was that of a kid in my drafting class when I was 14 or 15...he was a few years older and had a yellow late model with mathc painted 8 spokes, Fulda radials and a screaming 1776 with VZ25 and Dells.... he pulled into a grocery store parking lot, saw me sitting on my BMX bike...flipping him the bird and he in turn lit the tires up like a top fuel car.

[jhicken]

In the mid sixties a friend of my mothers had either a 62-63 Beetle. Her and my mom would pile us kids in the back, three boys and one girl, and head down to "Mothers Beach" in Newport Beach [for you so-cal locals]. I can remember fighting each other to see who could sit behind the rear seat! That is probably my earliest memory. Fast forward another 11 years [1976] and another neighbor had a mint '66 Ruby Red sunroof Beetle that they decided to sell. I was the first one to knock on the door with $600 and that began it all for me.



After about six months it looked like this



I put a set of chromies and nipple caps, painted it a '77 Z28 Camero Firethorn burgandy and pulled all the little torsions out. Although it had the original fire breathing 1300 in it, I spiced it up a bit with a set of single port Kadrons, an 009, and a Berg Extractor and single QP. I was styling! I wish I took more/better pictures of that cart.

-jeffrey