Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i dune buggies and hotVWs

Dear Readers, Advertisers, and Fans of hotVWs Magazine from all over the world, Here is the July 2020 issue – we truly hope the Coronavirus situation will be better by the time you receive this copy of hotVWs Magazine. We also hope you and your family stay safe and healthy. Thankfully, we are OK! HotVWs Magazine is still operating during regular business hours and keeps shipping your online orders on a daily basis from our headquarters in Santa Ana, CA. Our printing and subscription fulfillment facilities are also operating without interruption or delay. However, some subscribers have reported that they experienced mailing/ delivery delays in several areas (mostly Southern California). We apologize for the inconvenience, but we really appreciate your patience. If you missed an issue, do not hesitate; just…

As many of you know, I own a Herbie the Love Bug, a tribute to the famous Disney star. We first spotted him for sale on Craigslist back in 2011. It seems the owner restored him for his wife, she hated him (huh!?), so he sat, forlorn and unloved, in a barn for over five years! We found him out in the middle of nowhere at the end of a dirt road. The owner opened the huge barn door and turned on the lights. There sat a beautifully restored 1965 Herbie replica, complete with the famous 53 gumball and stripe, covered in dust and cat paw prints. It was love at first sight! Unfortunately, time had taken its toll. His bumpers and wheels were rusty from sitting, one of his…

One of the things I enjoy most about running the Oldbug.com website is playing matchmaker for so many amazing VWs. I’ve been running the site now for over 20 years and, during that period, there have been many memorable cars and transactions. Cars have gone off to new owners and have returned to the website for another pass to find yet another owner years later. There are a handful of VWs that have been on the website more than twice, and one rare right-hand drive Aussie spec Oval that has passed through at least four, if not five times over the past 20 years. Recently a “repeat customer” car popped up on Facebook for sale and in an instant, I recognized it. It’s a car that 18 years ago I…

It was two decades ago we watched the first flat-four (VW) engine-powered dragster into the magic 6-second bracket. Last month, we just witnessed the first door-slammer to do the same. The event took place at Orlando Speed World this past February 28, 2020, with Pety Fuser behind the wheel of his 2019 Volkswagen Arteon bodied Pro Mod racer. His performance this night was an outstanding 6.77/201mph in the 1/4-mile. Power for this radical 106-inch tube chassis car comes from a billet Fuser 3240cc flat-four engine, fitted with twin turbos. Pety builds these engine in Brazil, and has Titan Motorsports in Orlando, Florida to maintain his racecar. The engine is located in front, and is backed up with an EZ Motorsports clutch, Liberty 5-speed clutchless transmission and a 9-inch rear end.…

This section allows Volkswagen enthusiasts to make special VW tools. Volkswagen used to publish this fascinating information using blueprints, in case you couldn’t source a VW special tool locally – you could therefore make your own. With the aid of this device, the exact coincidence of the mark on the crankshaft pulley with the crankcase jointing face can be checked. The device is set in the crankshaft pulley and pushed from the right as far as the stop of the crankcase jointing face. Care must be taken when further turning the crankshaft pulley to see that the device remains against the stop of the crankcase jointing face. By correct adjustment the mark on the crankshaft pulley is covered by the point of the indicator. Construction Detail for VW 680 1.…

We are finally in Mexico City. It was a long strange trip to borrow a famous song line! But we are here and hooked up with our competition, Poncho and his Pink Panther VW. Soon we are checked into the hotel and are meeting everyone involved. Let the bench racing begin! Poncho is a great host and gives us the shop tour and a trip to the racetrack, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The track is very impressive and was the site of the Mexican Grand Prix for many years. So, it seems there were other drag racers invited: A couple of Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds and a jet dragster! Most of these were from the southern USA and AHRA cars, so they were relatively unknown to us. The jet dragster…

Have you ever thought about the origin of your VW knowledge, and whether you might have a lot of it? I still remember my early days of air-cooled Volkswagen ownership. I had helped my schoolmate Christoph make the decision against buying a Fiat Spyder, choosing a Ghia instead, so I was also “invited” to participate when his transmission gave up. We didn't know anyone who had ever changed a gearbox and followed the old saying “learning by doing”. We decided to fill the replacement gearbox with oil after the installation, which saved weight while mounting it. Mistake. After filling it up with fluid, it immediately started dripping. So, we took the gearbox out again, sealed it and installed it again. Lesson learned. Next: the overhaul of my first 1776cc engine.…

Well, I'm sure you're at home reading this because most of you are housebound during this pandemic. But in this article, I want to talk about another pandemic. It's called COVW-16. That's right, Classic Old Volkswagen 1600. If you're reading this, there is a 90% chance you already have it. Welcome to the rest of us. Very few people can shake this virus, and it is global. So, how long have you had this virus? How did you get infected? For most of us it started at a young age. Maybe our parents had the virus and we watched or helped work on it. Maybe it was a friend? Fact is, once you touch one there is a good chance you have caught the bug. Now I will say, the…

On April 11, 1945, US troops liberated the Volkswagen plant and the city then known as “Stadt des KdF-Wagens” which was later named Wolfsburg to the south of Mittellandkanal. At the Volkswagen plant, about 7,700 forced laborers were freed. Over the eight weeks that followed, the Americans made groundbreaking decisions for the future of the people, the city and the plant. The brief but marked intermezzo of US military rule laid the foundations for democracy, freedom and reconstruction in the region. In May, the plant was already producing vehicles – Kübelwagen for the U.S. Army, which were then called “Volkswagen Jeeps”. The American occupation ended at the end of June 1945 when the region became part of the British occupation zone. On April 10, the last 50 Kübelwagen (Type 82)…

HAVE YOU EVER DREAMED OF driving your vintage Volkswagens in the Fatherland, visiting all kinds of VW-related landmarks and museums? A few months ago, we took you to Germany, covering one of two premier vintage Volkswagen meetings, the Bad Camberg VW-Veteranen-Treffen (Check out the April 2020 issue). However, we didn't have enough space to talk about the unbelievable pre-event, another lifetime VW experience. Germany, aka Volkswagen’s fatherland: The place where your beloved air-cooled VW was born… If you are a Volkswagen enthusiast, traveling to Germany should be a top priority on your bucket list. We seriously recommend you do it at least once in your life. But being part of a local VW event is a real dream… In Germany, there are two premier Vintage Volkswagen events: The Bad Camberg…

My wife and I had relocated to Ottawa, Canada for a work opportunity, arriving with only the basics of household goods and one vehicle. Sadly, I had to leave the Bus back in Idaho. I was starting to miss it when my wife suggested possibly bringing it to Ottawa. I looked at various options such as having it delivered, but it was rather expensive; plus shipping internationally was another problem. That’s how driving it here became the plan. I had intended to make the trip this fall because air-cooled VWs like cool air and so do the vintage VW pilots! As with most plans, things changed when a window of opportunity presented itself to make the trip over the 4th of July. I would fly back to Idaho and my…

Since there are no shows happening currently, I have not been taking road trips. I did saunter into my office and look through some old boxes of photos for a trip down memory lane. I found a bunch of photos from a trip across the country back in 2005 with a ’57 Standard Microbus. Please join me for an epic American road trip. I had bought the Bus a few years earlier from the estate of the original owner. It had around 70,000 miles on it, had always been garaged and was in phenomenal condition. I did some mechanical service to it, and it ran well with the original 36hp engine. My time with the Bus was almost done, as I had sold it to my friend Gibbs Connors, in…

Weddle Sportsman Ring & Pinions Perfect for the budget-minded enthusiast who needs more than a stock R&P set can handle. Weddle Sportsman R&P sets are made from aircraft quality AISI 9310 gear steel. This high-end material, combined with a special heat-treating process, offers a big improvement in strength over the less expensive 8620 steel commonly used for 'econo' ring & pinion sets. Dollar for dollar, Weddle Sportsman Ring & Pinion sets offer a superior value over 'econo' R&P sets. For more information, please go visit weddleindustries.com Front Fender for 11/52-07/59 Beetle BBT front fenders are made for Beetles up to 1959 with all the correct features/details: metal thickness, pressed in radius, “hump” next to the headlight bowl, "bump” near the running board returning edge. Fenders come with pre-installed headlight bowls…

SLOTTED PORSCHE WHEELS WERE FITTED WITH SLIGHTLY WIDER 165-15 GOODYEAR TIRES Back during its air-cooled days, Volkswagen typically frowned upon any private effort to promote the Beetle as a performance-oriented vehicle. The German manufacturer argued these endeavors would tarnish the image of the Bug, which in their mind was meant to be a simple, reliable and non-ostentatious family automobile. Yet, it appears that companies such as Empi in the USA missed the memo, as demonstrated by their GTV sedans, built to go faster and to handle like a Porsche. VW quickly put pressure on Empi and its dealer network and the GTV would thereby remain a short-lived venture. But the Riverside, California-based empire wasn’t the only one to go against the grain at the time. Over 5,000-miles away, D’Ieteren –…

The year was 2017, and Rustology Garage was going to bring out one of the early conversions available, and make this into a 21-window model. But the work didn’t stop at the roof line. “I worked in a bodyshop when I was 14 and learned to be a body man. I was a body repairman for six years, until I became a Firefighter. Forty years later, I started the total nut and bolt, ground-up restoration with a rotisserie on this ’66 Bus.” A retired Firefighter of 37 years, Joe McRae bought his ’66 after surviving a “widow maker” heart attack. “I decided to not wait any longer. I’ve always loved Volkswagens and have wanted a Bus for a long time.” “I purchased the vehicle from a guy in Park City,…