Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i dune buggies and hotVWs

As some of you may already know, Volkswagen AG (Group) is the biggest automaker in the world, with over 10.8 million vehicles sold globally in 2018. Hard to believe, especially if you live in the USA, isn’t it? In the United States, Volkswagen Group delivered 638,184 units (Volkswagen: 354,064, Audi: 223,323, Porsche: 57,202, Lamborghini: 1,595, Bentley: 2,000, Bugatti: N/A) in 2018, which represent only 6% of VW’s global sales. The Volkswagen Group was founded on May 28th, 1937, being headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany, to manufacture the “People’s Car”, which would become known as the Beetle. Today, the group owns eight passenger car brands (Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen), one motorcycle brand (Ducati), and three commercial vehicle/truck/ bus brands (MAN, Scania, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles). This global…

Ah, spring! Things are starting to come back to life around here! Time to start thinking about summer and putting together a soundtrack of cruising music! Yes, you could listen to a streaming service, but why not add some VW flavor to your playlist, with songs you’ll NEVER hear on Spotify or SiriusXM! One of the melodies on our playlist is “Hot Rod Volkswagen” by Bill Parsons, released in 1960 on the Starday label. It has a great rockabilly beat, and is all about a “Hot Rod Daddy” getting around town in his “Hot Rod Volks”. It’s not the same tune as “Hot Rod Lincoln”, which first hit the country charts around the same time, but maybe he derived his inspiration from that popular song. Another one is called simply…

In this article, I’m going to explain how to get your motor out. If you’re reading this magazine, you probably already know how. You might go ahead and read it anyway and maybe there is a trick you didn’t know. If you’ve never pulled your motor then, hey, this is for you. OK I’m going to cover Bugs, Ghia, Things, and Buses up to 1971. Buses 1972 to 1979 are a different animal and take different steps. Type 3s are different animals as well. Let’s get started. First thing is to disconnect the battery. Why? Because if you short something out, getting the smoke back in the wire is really hard to do. On a Bug and Type 3, it’s under the rear seat. On a Ghia and Bus, it’s…

Showcasing the possibilities of the e-Golf powertrain to motivate classic VW models, Volkswagen of America recently commissioned west coast electric vehicle conversion specialist EV West to construct an electrified Volkswagen Type 2 Bus. “Their passion for classic-car culture and commitment to renewable energy made EV West the ideal choice for this project”, said Mathew Renna, VP G4, Volkswagen North American Region. “We thought, who better to see if the e-Golf powertrain would be the perfect fit for our older vehicles? It’s great to see that the spirit of hot rodding is going to live on into the electric age.” The professionally harvested stock powertrain and 35.8 kWh battery system from the donor 2017 e-Golf gives the e-Bus an approximate range of 125 miles. The powertrain will reside in the rear…

THE BUG-IN PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN CALI- fornia’s VW culture. The event demonstrates that our German-born people’s cars still have a strong influence on California’s automobile lifestyle, fueled in part by the locally born California Look. Many VW enthusiasts agree that Southern California is the “second Fatherland” of the air-cooled culture. RESURRECTED! Bug-In used to be held twice a year (April and October) at OCIR until 1983. When the promoters lost the venue due to OCIR’s closure, the affair simply turned into good memories of California’s VW scene. But back in 2005, Rich Kimball of Periscope Enterprises decided to bring the legendary show back to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Time flies; in fact, 2020 will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Bug-Ins return to Southern California. The 44th edition…

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAS HAD A LONG tradition of shows catering to Split Window Bus owners, with large events going as far back as the 1980s. Nobody cared much for Bay Windows back then, considered “too new” by some and “ugly” by others. How times have changed! Today’s definition of a vintage VW Transporter has certainly evolved and several happenings welcome a much broader range of models, from Split and Bays, to Vanagons and even newer versions. Arizona’s Buses by the Bridge (see Sept. 2019 hotVWs) is a great example of the genre. Europe has its share of identical shows, such as Busfest in the UK, which gathers thousands of vehicles. On the Split front, longtime hotVWs readers might remember the SOTO Meets back in the 1980s and most of the…

VW PRODUCED ONLY 42,505 T34 IN SEVEN YEARS Halfway to Beautiful Back to the beautiful subject of our article, a 1962 Type 34 Karmann Ghia Coupe… Every VW enthusiast has a vision of what they’d like to accomplish during a restoration process. When an owner sells a car halfway through the work, it falls to the new owner to come up with a new vision. This was the case with Pedro Sainz from San Diego, California, after he purchased his rare coupe. According to Pedro, this is the 106th oldest Type 34 known in the world, and one of only 1,641 examples believed to exist today. It rolled out from the Karmann factory on May 18th, 1962, before being delivered to a German Volkswagen dealership. The vehicle spent most of…

While sitting at my computer in the early evening of Friday, November 22, 2019, doing nothing but surfing Facebook, it suddenly hit me hard. My buddy Steve Walker posted on his page that “Kinky” Mick Tattersall had passed away. It took me a few minutes to understand the words I had just read. I had known Mick for almost 20 years. We met at the VolksWorld Show (UK), back when his friend Steve Gilbert presented his legendary Fridolin. Mick was a real gentleman, even if his very British humor sometimes made you doubt it. But he just made everybody laugh, often with words, sometimes with deeds. And he always had that mischievous grin on his face. We mostly met two, three, maybe four times a year at the big events…

I graduated high school in 1984. It has never “felt” like a long time ago, but as the years pass and I do the math, I am constantly shocked about how much has happened since then and that glaring fact that it is now 2020… 36 years ago. It’s just crazy. If you had told me then, that decades later I would still be playing with Volkswagens and writing for hotVWs Magazine, I would have laughed in your face. I can clearly remember so many of the cars from the pages of the magazine from back in those days and have the most amazing memories of the big So-Cal events of the era. I will never forget opening up the first issue that I spotted one of my cars in.…

I was in Indonesia halfway around the world when I heard the news. Vic Penrod has passed! It was as if someone had just punched me and knocked all the air out of me. I couldn’t breathe, nor could I believe what I just heard. I’m not sure when I first met Vic. It seems he was always around at all the events. I would see him at VW shows everywhere, always with a big smile and happily greeting. And always with his camera. He’d say: “Hey, let me take a picture”, whether it was just you or a few he would group you together and shoot a great picture! And then he would say: “Hey I’ve got some photos for you”. I wasn’t the only one; he was that…

Volkswagen will return to the prestigious off-road race next year, entering an Atlas Cross Sport R race truck in Class 7 Open Production Unlimited. Unveiled today at the LA Auto Show, the prototype race truck is the first look at the vehicle that will compete in the SCORE Baja 1000 next November. “Racing as a sport has historically been limited to a very privileged group,” said Saad Chehab, Senior Vice President, VW Brand Marketing. “However, Volkswagens competed at the very beginning of Baja racing, and we’re excited to help keep the fun, youthful spirit of the competition alive by way of our Atlas Cross Sport R.” Developed in conjunction with VW driver Tanner Foust and Baja race veteran Rhys Millen, the Atlas Cross Sport R will be the first four-wheel-drive…

AS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY, THE SO CAL VW Week consisted of 10 consecutive days of fun, exciting VW activities held in Southern California between the first and second weekends of June. During the first Friday of June, Der Kleiner Panzers (DKP) organized an amazing VW-only cruise night on Garden Grove’s Historic Main Street. Saturday, Rare Vintage Air (RVA) VW club hosted the Rare Vintage Air Volkswagen d’Elegance at Old World in Huntington Beach. That same morning, the OCTO Meet gathered pre-1967 Buses as well. Saturday afternoon, ISP West welcomed Type 3s and other air-cooled models during their open house. The Bug-In was held at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana on Sunday, while the Pomona Swap Meet was going full swing a few dozen miles away. These large separate events took place…

THE YEAR 2019 MARKED THE 50TH ANNIVER- sary of the Type 181, as production of the model began in 1969 for military purposes. Naturally, the VW Thing Registry tied the golden anniversary into the theme of the event, with the 1969 blueprint image gracing the event shirts and other show paraphernalia. Thing owners who wanted to camp throughout the weekend arrived early to Prado Regional Park for VTO’s Black-star Campout. Wednesday through Friday saw the park become full of all types of VWs, and intermixed were a great number of Things. The Registry again had a central focal point for last minute event sign-ups, raffle donations, and general meet and greets. Saturday morning the campers gathered up for a cruise to hotVWs Magazine for Cars & Coffee, where they met…

PRADO’S VENUE BECAME A VW THEME PARK…

THE 2ND ANNUAL HOTVWS CARS & COFFEE held in our office’s parking lot took place on Saturday morning, June 8th and saw a large turnout. Thanks to Der Kleiner Panzers and Rare Vintage Air clubs for helping us make this Cars & Coffee happen. We welcomed over 200 cars and served 20 dozen donuts and over 300 cups of coffee. Thanks to all the VW clubs and friends who came to our office.…

IN September 1961, Volkswagen introduced brand-new models during Germany’s Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA), also known as the Frankfurt Auto Show: the VW 1500 series. These bigger and somewhat more luxurious cars were commonly called “Type 3s”. Offered with a new 1500cc engine, they came in various four-seater versions: Notchback (Type 31), Cabriolet (Type 35), Squareback (Type 36), plus the focus of our feature, the VW 1500 Karmann Ghia coupe and convertible known as “Type 34”. However, as the VW 1500 series was ready to hit the market, Volkswagen decided not to release both the Type 34 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet and Type 35 Cabriolet. Engineers found structural issues that could affect production costs drastically, if VW decided to modify these cars. The Type 34 was designed by Italian automotive designer and engineer…

THEY GOT TO DO JUST THAT AT MEDFORD DRAGSTRIP, host of their Summer Slam 1/8th-mile drag racing event. Medford Dragstrip proved to be a great escape from the California summer-time heat and a particularly hospitable venue. Due to its geographical location (2.5 hours North of their home track in Redding), there was the obvious concern over low participation. But worries were eased as the pits filled with the buzzing of air-cooled motors coming to life and the quick snaps of throttles being tested by hand. All the while accompanied by laughter, handshakes, and lighthearted banter as drivers, family, and friends reunited. Another kicker to the event was the presence of Doug and Dolores Berg, of the Gene Berg family. They traveled from Orange County, CA to share with us gifts,…

Determining the mechanical condition of an engine can be a tricky proposition. With the right diagnostic tools, you can zero in on problem areas that are the most important. Let’s say that you have a trusty engine that has been in operation for a few years. All of a sudden the running becomes rough and unpredictable. You’ve done all the routine service items like tune up, valve adjustment, and even cleaning up the carbs, but it’s still running rough. What’s next? The most traditional engine test would be a compression test. This test is a dynamic test that involves turning the motor over with the starter motor. With the spark plugs removed, a hollow spark plug replacement with a hose attached is connected to a gauge. These gauges are usually…