El Dub's Nostalgia corner. Meetings, cars... Treasures from the past. Memories, people, meets. H/Gas, I/Gas... EMPI, Auto-Haus, R/S...

Back to menu...      1- Super Bug'2...  |    2- The Chuck Wagon... (Soon)   |    Dave CONNER Super Bug'2... Wheelstanders... Before goin' any further, let me introduce you to wheelstanders cars... and what the word exactly means. In fact, wheelstanders, the word says it all... Cars were built with only purpose : running on the two back wheels... The higher the better... Of course, in this sport, american muscle cars and trucks were favourites but in the seventies, the mighty VW were everywhere and some wheelstanders VW were built : bugs, but mainly bus, yes pick-up bus... Wheelstanders are part of the nostalgia scene, and it was time to devote a full section on that little corner. I fell in love with that Super Bug'Z wheestander because it is very very unusual to see such cars powered by an aircooled engine... Right, it's not VW powered, but the Corvair engine is aircooled and that's really cool! I love the way the car looked, very seventies... You will read below an article written in Popular Hot Rodding magazine way back in 1969... This is the exact content, so enjoy your reading... Some people go buggy in weird ways - and here's one of the wildre bugs that's been making the spectators buggy! Unusual in many ways is the wheelstanding Super Bug VW of Dave CONNERS. It has a basic '68 VW wheelbase and utilizes an air cooled engine for power. Furthermore, the car sports safety construction which is especially required of a wheelstander. Owner and driver, Dave "Crash" CONNERS, who earned his nickname by wiping out the first Super bug, scheduled better things for the construction of the new second Super bug. This included fiberglass fenders, doors and hood which were manufactured by Contemparary fiberglass. Above picture show the Super Bug on his trailer at an early Bug-in meeting! Photo by Bob HOFFELD is awesome & never seen before as usual... Note the "For sale" sign on the rear quarter panel... Were that car ended? I have no idea... but I wish it sit in my garage... The chassis is a 4130 chrome-moly tubular construction sporting a 94-inch wheelbase. A tubular front axle beefs suspension for those hard launching after giving the spectators a thrilling bumper dragging pass through the quarter. Under the hood (or trunk) is the mighty aircooled '64 Corvair engine. modifications to the powerplant give it the capabilities of producing 350 hp with a 25 per cent nitroblend. Above picture by Mike DITTY is out of this world... It perfectly captures the spirit behind that car... You have to love those shiny Cragar wheels... When was the last time you saw such a quality old picture? Thanks Mike! Internal changes in the Corvair engine are somewhat minor. Stock pistons and rods are used along with stock valves. This is the picture that appeared on cover on that Popular Hot Rodding special issue! Is it a wheelstanding or what? Picture by Don GREEN. The legend quoted : "The wheelstanding Corvair-powered VW built by Dave Crash CONNERS was caught in action on a 12 second blast down the quarter". The compression is 11 to 1 through head work by Precision Dyno company or Arcadia, California. A Moon cam operates the valve train with stock pushrods and rockers completing the valve system. Pearlescent yellow paint job by Contemporary Fiberglass looks the part on this Mike DITTY picture! Injectors are used as the induction system which again is the work of Precision Dyno. A stock clutch and flywheel are combined with a '64 Corvair transaxle setup and 3.70 ratio gears. Henry's made the axles to withstand the loads which are imposed on the drive train to lift the front end. Cragar wheels are used to mount the slicks and Pirelli fronts. To be continued soon with the Don BURNS Chuck Wagon... Copyright © 2003 El Dub - All Rights reserved. E-mail : eldub@cal-look.com

A FRENCH TRIBUTE TO THE PIONNEERS OF VW DRAG RACING --- I thought that I never would find additional material regarding the SuperBug'2 wheelstander, but it seems I was wrong as my german friend Georg OTTO sent me a very very cool color engine picture coming from his own collection. Georg is lucky enough to have a friend that attended the Bug-in events back in the days, and he has some awesome pictures... More on that later...Thanks for sharing with us all Georg! Image is a thumbnail...