Joe worries about image, but mostly the one he has in the buyer's eyes. Economotors is a lavish VW spa, yet it is also a marketing experiment for something that has never been tried before with the beetle -making it a personal car in the same way the GTO or Olds 4-4-2 is. The plan is simple: take all the stuff EMPI manufactures and offer it as a pre-installed package to the new-car customer. Call it the GTV (Grand Touring Volkswagen) Mark I, II, III or IV, and you're in business. Mag wheels, wood dash, pin-striping, stereo tape deck, hopped up engine -they're there.

Very very nice and not common picture of that GTV in all its glory... I especially like the unusual angle of the picture. And btw, before ou ask, this is actually the very same car that was used by ROAD TEST magazine of previous page...

To see one is to love one. We spied a new Mark IV at Irwindale Raceway one weekend and just had to get programmed for a driving impression. Once in the car, it takes about 30 seconds to know that you're behind the wheel of the best VW ever built. Our bright red test car had the camber compensator in back and an anti-sway bar in front. This, coupled with '67 beetle suspension change, provide Porsche-like handling. This year Volkswagen has installed an anti-sway bar on their own which also doubles as an overload spring. In application, this means that the suspension stiffens under hard cornering, virtually eliminating the oversteer problem. When the EMPI goodies are added, then, the character of the car becomes neutral in all but forced situations, and you can stay with all the rest of the front engine jobs in the esses.

On the straightaway, the GTV will more than hold its own with about 90 percent of the normal green-light, grand-prix artists around. ''Now wait just a minute,'' you say. ''How can this be in an era of the 14-second stocker?'' Well, it isn't easy, but a combination of factors make it possible. To begin with, the 1500 engine alone is pretty peppy and the car is fairly light -1772 pounds to be exact. Then EMPI yanks off the strangler, single-barrel manifold and carb and replaces it with a Zenith 32NDIX dual-throat setup. Further down, the heads are cleaned up, a racier cam (.350-inch, net lift 270-degree duration) is installed and an extractor exhaust fitted that yowls like a deranged Bengal tiger. Well, a small Bengal tiger.

The 1700cc EMPI engine in all its glory... Note the Valvoline sticker on the fan shroud...

Now you've got a beetle with hair. Low to mid-range acceleration is downright amazing, a fact that makes impromptu, but short, contests heavily weighted in your favor. Good traction surfaces, bad traction surfaces, it's all the same. That old element of surprise gets 'em every time, and when the awakening comes, it's too late. In regular class runs at the drags, the story is another instant replay. Most strips have some nature of bug classes and this is like shooting fish in a barrel for the IV. Handicapped bracket run-offs are better yet, because the car is as consistent as a data processing machine. The time slip comes out win every time. We made several dozen runs with the spirited jewel producing consistent 17.60 to 17.70 et's at 74 mph. Complete removal of the power-draining fan belt sliced this to the 17.20 category, but note carefully that the little aluminium motor heats up instantly when deprived of its air conditioner.

While no end of joy can be derived from ''bugging out'' on unsuspecting foes, true happiness is driving the GTV at eyeball velocity -curb cruising or drive-in check out. The brilliant red paint catches the eye anyway, but with white panel pinstripes -your optic nerve tingles. And the pulses are coming faster and faster -BRM mag wheels, big Goodyear Grand Prix tires, wood dash, wood wheel, rear windows that open for ventilation, exhaust extractor, stereo-radio-tape deck. All those long, plank-haired blonds really dig Volkswagens and this is the VW to end all VW's. Their freak-out leads to an automatic sit-in -and who knows where this will lead. It is one car of a select few that gets almost universal attention.

Still the very same dashboard that appeared on the previous page... Hey, it's the same car ;-)... Note the striping on the left of the dash...

Of course, you have to pay the piper. Selecting a pinstriped job with wood trim raises the base price a mark or two, and giving it all the conveniences of home can up the tag to just over three grand. This is still cheap, considering that a comparably loaded GTO would be two thousand more. Then too, when you sign on the dotted line, you don't automatically lose seven or eight hundred bucks as you do with an American car. A year later the bug is worth only fractionally less than new. In L.A. right now, the demand is so great that used '67s are worth more than new ones because the buyer doesn't have to wait for his order.

You know about gas mileage, except deduct 3-4 mpg from the 28-29 stocker for the mod treatment. Tires last twice as long as U.S. tanks and are one-third less to begin with. For openers, just cut every bill on your big car in half and know the engine won't come unsoldered after 60,000 miles. Right, we know the interior dimensions are smaller than a Cadillac Fleetwood yet not much more than Mustang, Camaro, Firebird or Cougar. After the first couple of days, being able to get four in the front seat doesn't matter anymore. What really counts is the morning you realize it's getting harder to remember the faces of the guys at the local gas station or when you filled it up. The time you had to think about such things while hunting for parking spaces is gone anyway.