A cold blooded, old hot-rod VW comes in handy sometimes.

[Jim Ratto]

Again today the old cranky '67 saves my ass. Funny how it's always kind of there waiting to lend a helping hand.
Over the years, my normal "driver" has been unavailable to commute in, for various reasons. One time my wife's friend needed to borrow our Subaru for a few days. A few years later our Accord developed an electrical gremlin in the relay/fuse box. Then I had to do the Honda V6 timing belt over the weekend (ever try to get a Honda crank pulley bolt loose? A bus rear axle nut is nothing). Each and every time I've had to rely on the Bug, it's been there waiting. Kind of smirking.
This morning, after a late start getting Lucas ready for school, we walk out to our Sonata only to find the battery is wiped out dead. Crap the battery booster needs a charge. No options. We strap Lucas' car seat into the front seat of the '67 and fire it up. We bundle up (it's 38F out) and strap in and let the car warm up for a few minutes and we're off. It was actually pretty rewarding to have my son next to me as we prowl across town, Webers growling and spitting behind us.
A normally boring commute spiced up a bit by a 47 yr old car with a bad attitude and a 5 year old grinning from ear to ear. As I walk Lucas to his class, he smiles and says enthusiastically to me "I'm gonna tell my teacher we took the Bug to school today!" 

[Peter]

Haha,
super story, yet again!

[H67bug]

Fab' tale

Favourite people and cars making memories

[vwcab]

Cool story Jim.  

[brian e]

Awesome story!

My boys, 4 and 7 prefer to take a VW every time.  I have a quite low '72 baywidow we take to school frequently.  The drop off spot is wide open to the playground, and in the morning its funny to see the other kids get each others attention and point to the bus.  Old VW's are a rather odd sight up here in South Dakota. 

About a week ago, just as Jack, my 7 year old, got out of the front of the bus, a couple of obviously older boys were walking by and said to Jack, "hey cool van".  He said "thanks, but its not a van, it's a bus". 

If you want to be the coolest dad on the block, take your son, and his best buddy out for corn dogs or ice cream in your bug.  Remember how cool it was the first time you were in a quick car and it chirped 2nd gear?  Nothing like changing and molding young minds for the better! 

Brian

[Jim Ratto]

Awesome story!

My boys, 4 and 7 prefer to take a VW every time.  I have a quite low '72 baywidow we take to school frequently.  The drop off spot is wide open to the playground, and in the morning its funny to see the other kids get each others attention and point to the bus.  Old VW's are a rather odd sight up here in South Dakota. 

About a week ago, just as Jack, my 7 year old, got out of the front of the bus, a couple of obviously older boys were walking by and said to Jack, "hey cool van".  He said "thanks, but its not a van, it's a bus". 

If you want to be the coolest dad on the block, take your son, and his best buddy out for corn dogs or ice cream in your bug.  Remember how cool it was the first time you were in a quick car and it chirped 2nd gear?  Nothing like changing and molding young minds for the better! 

Brian

Very Cool. maybe now that my wife see the Vw isn't the root of all evil, we can take it to school more often. his best buddy (also 5 yr old) comes over pretty often and wants to go out to the garage and see "that loud car"

[brian e]

After a lot of searching, we found a pair of car seats that aren't super huge in the back seat of the bug.  They are pretty narrow, and not too thick, so they don't smash the boys feet into the back of my seat.  They are really light, (very uncommon in new car seats) and I think they were less than $30 each.  It makes it much easier to just jump in the bug and go with all 4 of us. 

Now I just need to find a solution in the back of the bug for the third little one on the way.  I might just have to build a really big type 4 w/IDA's for the bus!!!

Brian

[modnrod]

Awesome story!


  Remember how cool it was the first time you were in a quick car and it chirped 2nd gear?  Nothing like changing and molding young minds for the better! 

Brian

hahaha! That reminded me of dropping my daughter to school in her mid-teens, with another friend beside her in the back.
The friend giggled when my daughter said the Beetle was quick.
One launch and a "2nd gear chirp", as you said, and jelly-legs 5mins later at the school!  
My daughter was suddenly cool.

Good story Jim.  

[javabug]

t was actually pretty rewarding to have my son next to me as we prowl across town, Webers growling and spitting behind us.

I told you our kids are going to grow up with a skewed view of the world. They won't know VWs are supposed to be slow, novel transportation.

[Martin S.]

I had a chuckle the other day driving the new to me 68 low miler I found this year. It came with fresh metallic dark green paint and looks great with the Porsche 2.0L rims, so far so good, and everything else still original. I took my two girls, 11 and 6 to school with it. We stopped at a nearby corner to turn right at a red and a boy in the 11 yo's class was on a bicycle on the sidewalk and yelled out 'Hi' to my kid, sitting in the front seat. His big smile was priceless! 

[Jeff68]

Yes, it's awesome bringing kids to school in an old Vw.  When I drop my kids off I have to get in the car line and drive up under a covered area where the kids get out of the car and walk in to school. One morning same as Jim, To#¤ta Camry Battery died. Load up the 68 Bug, bring the kids to school. Pull in to the school parking lot, straight cut gears whining, 2 liter burbling. Now I'm in the car line....All the kids in the parking lot pointing at the car, my kids are smiling, other Parents smiling, thumbs up from the some of the Dads. I finally get to drop off point under the covered area, now you can really hear the car. Two of the teachers that help at the drop off run over and one of them says "Now THIS is Cool, I LOVE this car!" My Daughter and Son are smiling ear to ear...Priceless!

[Lee.C]

Cool story dude 

[Speed-Randy]

Wait till they drive their own VW to school!!! Every kid there wants a ride , every dad used to have one just like it , and every mom will tell them how unsafe they are! WHATEVER!!

[Doktor]

What a cool story, specially with the description of Weber carbs sounds on running engine.
Last summer, a friend gave me his 1303 Karmann Cabrio to drive thru Zagreb (capital city in Croatia), with fresh built 1915cc, W120 and 2x40IDF Webers, CSP exhaust, and it received a lot of attention just for it's tuned engine sounds, and I was driving slowly because it wasn't my car...

 

[axam48ida]

Cool stories.....brings back some good memories.....when my daughter was young I would pick her up or drop her in my oval (daily driver).
We leave the house and stop for a juice and donut sometimes and all the regulars sitting at the coffee shop counter would always comment on the car. Then the drive was several miles from Santa Cruz to her school in Scott's valley we either be passing cars on 17 or having fun on the back roads. When I would be at the school like we all still here today there be someone wanting to tell you about their life growing up with a vw. My daughter is in college now and the coaches, teammates and other parents always say to her "your dad, the one who drives the old bugs" she's playing ball in SoCal and I drive down there in the morning often in the 63 to watch them play and drive back to northern ca that night. When we get together there's always a good laugh and simile thinking those days past.
Thanks Jim for keeping it alive!
Merry Christmas!

[wolfswest]

Two days ago I promised the little man to take the beetle out for a winter spin.  Pulled the old gal out of the garage, installed the maxi cosi, switched on the battery and NOTHING!  Damn it, battery died because I left my lights on the last time, idiot!    You can image he was heart broken, now he had to take a drive in the volvo to his grand parents...    I installed another battery yesterday and when I woke him from his afternoon nap I told him we could give it another shot.  In no time he was dressed and ready to go, car fired up right away, he was screaming of joy.  We took off and our first stop was the gas station, I took a picture.  I guess his face says enough altough it's freezing and the heating system isn't working.
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Happiness is sharing a hot VW!

Dem

[Wunder Wim]

Two days ago I promised the little man to take the beetle out for a winter spin.  Pulled the old gal out of the garage, installed the maxi cosi, switched on the battery and NOTHING!  Damn it, battery died because I left my lights on the last time, idiot!    You can image he was heart broken, now he had to take a drive in the volvo to his grand parents...    I installed another battery yesterday and when I woke him from his afternoon nap I told him we could give it another shot.  In no time he was dressed and ready to go, car fired up right away, he was screaming of joy.  We took off and our first stop was the gas station, I took a picture.  I guess his face says enough altough it's freezing and the heating system isn't working.
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Happiness is sharing a hot VW!

Dem

Nice picture Dem.
We should get together more often. My small wonders also love to ride around in the bug.

[Wunder Wim]

Nice picture Dem.
We should get together more often. My small wonders also love to ride around in the bug.

[old dub lover]

I take my son to school everyday in my modified vw, the other day he announced to me that the others kids dads cars where boring lol

[Jim Ratto]

awesome picture and good job keeping your word!

[Martin S.]

Working days last summer was so enjoyable for driving my 68 turbo. The two girls jumped in the car, each day swapping seats from passenger to rear seat as I fired up the big turbo in my rear laneway. Leaving for school, which is walking distance, at 8am means some of the neighbours were still asleep. Haha, 'were' because my engine is LOUD since it only has the turbo to deaden the sound of the high cr turbo, and NO muffler. One guy asked my wife if I was going to get it 'fixed', uhh, NO! People look around like, 'where's the Ferrari?' when they hear the car. I pull up to the drop off, double park sometimes, and love firing it up as the other parents with kids are walking by a couple feet away. Then I got to drive 30 km to work on a roller coaster of an expressway along the lakeshore, and even got to open it up sometimes too.

[Jim Ratto]

We have one last RH corner before we get to our parking area, coming off a main drag in the city we live in. We'll come down from third, matching revs of course, into second as we approach the corner, with a fierce yelp from the 48's. Some of the parents sort of jump, like an F16 was making a pass over the school. Lucas likes the disruptive qualities of the Bug. "he wakes everybody up in the morning, and doesn't care if they don't like it"

Damn right.

[Catbox]

Good stories.
Now I hafta fix my car and get it out on the road with my kids in tow again.
2 months of no VW is too long!
Thanks for sharing.
 

[Cornpanzer]

Terrific thread! 

[Jim Ratto]

Ready to roll 

[Tim Walton]

Hi Jim
Tthat is very cool pic of Lucas (dig the shades too) as he prepares for take off. Before you know it he will be sitting in the seat on the left side.

Tim 

[JezWest]

Great thread.

My Bug (my kids call it the noisy car) looks so small in the school parking lot, sandwiched between the Range Rovers, Land Cruisers and so on. I get some blank looks from my kid's mates when I tell them to put their bags in the front.

I've noticed that some of these vehicles don't like me driving past them - like their alarms go off. My kids find this 'quite' funny 

[modnrod]

some of these vehicles don't like me driving past them - like their alarms go off.

Hehehehe.......underground carparks and a hot VW..........hehehehehe!

[Jim Ratto]

some of these vehicles don't like me driving past them - like their alarms go off.

Hehehehe.......underground carparks and a hot VW..........hehehehehe!

everybody here at the office glares and sneers at me when I fire my VW car to go home. Let 'em.

[Lee.C]

some of these vehicles don't like me driving past them - like their alarms go off.

Hehehehe.......underground carparks and a hot VW..........hehehehehe!

everybody here at the office glares and sneers at me when I fire my VW car to go home. Let 'em.