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- The Durachrome Bug...  |    2- The ChevWagen... (Soon)   |    3- Others crazy machines... (Soon)  |    Warren GUNTER Durachrome Bug... The Durachrome Bug will stay in collective memory as the greatest and most successful funny V8 powered bug ever built... Before going any further, let me note that this monster was sponsored by the famous DON BURNS dealership and by the Just for the Bug DURACHROME, a company which manufactured some aftermarket goodies and accessories for the little bug. Picture below if for reference and shows two greats adverts starring the Durachrome companyt... Also pictured is the packaging cool design of Durachrome products... Enjoy! I have to confess I don't have many details regarding that car... But I'm sure you will agree that pictures speak from themselves... What is very interesting with the Durachrome bug is the fact that quite all of them are colored ones... I guess this is due to the large coverage it received back in the days... After all, Bug that made it on Popular Hot Rodding magazine covers are few and far between... Above picture is one of my favourite. Another night racing action... Note the hard launch... Crazy! And what about this awesome one showing the Durachrome Crew wrenching at Lions. Picture provided by Mike. With such power, heating the rear tires was not a problem... Track looks like Lions dragstrip but I'm not sure... Maybe Irwindale... Impressive or what? I love that picture by Ed RADLAUER! You'll be very lucky if you notice some genuine VW parts remaining on this monster... LOL! Above and below pictures by John EWALD show the Funny VW racing at night! Note the lack of sponsorship signwritings on the first one... Those were the early days... Car is said to be capable of under 8 second 1/4 miles at speed around 180-200 mph and ran a 427 Chevy powerplant using a BMG blower. Chassis and front axle was built by Mike KASE from Torrance, California. Glass body was built by Bill TEMPLE. These are the only tech spec. I found right now... A very cool rear photography... Note the rear tire shape... What happened to the Durachrome bug? Well, I'm a bit confused regarding his destiny, because the car is supposed to be still in existence somewhere in USA under a yellow paintjob, from the guy who originally bought it from Warren... What confuse me is the fact I've seen one picture showing the candy red glass body in very very bad shape (understand totally destroyed...) Whatever happened, the Durachrome Just a littel bug will stay as one of the most outrageous bug ever built and campained... To be continued soon with the ChevWagen... Copyright © 2004 El Dub - All rights reserved. E-mail : eldub@cal-look.com