Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i dune buggies and hotVWs

I Want Drums! Hi Jon, Could you tell me the advantages and disadvantages of converting from disc brakes to drum brakes… (Yes, from discs to drums!) I own a 1967 Beetle with disc brakes. I believe the previous owner converted from drums to discs. I want to bring my ’67 back to stock, but some friends told me I shouldn’t do it. Steve Johnson Downey, CA Steve, I’m sure that you’re not the only one who wants to bring his car back to “original” specifications. Most folks that do this are going to let their car sit in a museum, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re going to lose quite a bit in braking performance by getting rid of the disc brakes. Subjectively, maybe 20% or so. You’ll also…

Chasing Zorba: A Journey of Self-Discovery in a VW Bus In 1972, after graduating from college, Jerry Steimel set out on a cross-country road trip in a 1966 VW Beetle he called Zorba – named after the literary figure, Zorba the Greek. So, 45 years later, Steimel took his dream off the shelf, and in a 1973 VW Bus began a new journey of self-discovery across America. For more information about this book, visit peaceoutroadtrip.wordpress.com Vintage Series Bus Fuel Gauge ‘55-’67 New Bus fuel gauge fitting Type 2 Bus models from 1955 to 1967. 12V gauge features curved chrome bezel and includes bulb holder. Beige and green colors are available. For more information, visit www.vwispwest.com. Billet Swing Axle Side Cover Designed by the in-house team, it started with a 13lbs.…

EXTERIOR COLOR/ L90 Sand CHASSIS SUSPENSION WORK BY/ Russ Rodriguez, Fiber-steel, Azusa, CA FRONT SUSPENSION/ Adjustable beam narrowed 4” REAR SUSPENSION/ Adjustable spring plates SPINDLES/ EMPI, 2” drop SHOCKS/ Cofap oil filled shocks STEERING/ Stock WHEELS & TIRES/ Porsche 356 Pre-A custom 16x4.25; Avon Turbo Steel 165HR16 BRAKES/ Porsche 356B drums, front & rear by Russ Rodriguez, Fibersteel OTHER MODIFICATIONS/ Racing long studs and rear Carrera spacers ENGINE CASE/ 1960 Porsche 356B Super 90 DISPLACEMENT/ 1720cc BUILDER/ Larry Markham CRANK/ Porsche 74mm RODS/ Porsche stock CYLINDERS & PISTONS/ AA Performance 86 mm CAM/ Porsche 356 Super 90 stock OIL PUMP/ Porsche HEADS/ Porsche Super 90 VALVE SIZES/ 40x40mm COMPRESSION RATIO/ 9.0:1 ROCKER ARMS/ Porsche 356 Super 90 PUSHRODS/ Stock IGNITION/ Bosch VJR 4 BR18 CARBURATION/ Dual Solex PII-4 EXHAUST SYSTEM/…

Created by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, the Volkswagen Beetle has arguably been the greatest people’s car ever built. The VW air-cooled horizontally opposed four-cylinder motor is a masterpiece of “combustion chamber power”, which later became the basis for the Porsche 356 engine. Until 1954, both the VW and Porsche 356 used the same engine case, making them interchangeable. Some VW owners even swapped Porsche engines into their cars, making their performance on par with the 356 sports cars. Then third parties started offering various engine tuning options for the VW engine. The most famous vintage VW high-performance engine tuning option was the Okrasa kit with dual-port heads and twin carburetors. We should also mention the supercharger kit from American company Judson Research and MFG. Co. If you browse through old automobile…

DARRELL VITTONE NOT ONLY ASSEMBLED HIS OWN ENGINES, BUT HE ALSO BUILT VOLKSWAGEN & PORSCHE TRANSMISSIONS Upon locating Darrell Vittone’s long-lost 1967 A/MC Bug, the biggest mysteries that haunted us were: What was its overall condition, and what parts were still there? We knew the 2090cc race engine had been reused for the Fiat and was lost in time, but we later found out that the original gearbox had been removed and reused elsewhere decades ago. The crusty transaxle now found in the ’67 was just an early ’60s stocker and not worth rebuilding. With that, we had to start from scratch on building both the engine and the transaxle. During the 1974 racing season, Darrell Vittone built his own transaxle for the 1967 VW Bug, which was setup to…

This Oval Window Volkswagen toy has been sold under various names over the years. The VW metal diecast toy was originally designed and manufactured by the Morris & Stone Limited Toy Company. Morris & Stone was located in north London, England. During the mid-1950s, they sold under the trade name of “Morestone”. The Morestone series consisted of 20 different diecast miniature toy vehicles, including a VW Sedan (No.8) and VW Microbus (No.12). The Morestone series was to compete with the very popular Matchbox Toy series during the mid-1950s and the Morestone VWs are often mistaken and called a “Matchbox” toy. The diecast body with cutout windows representing the 1953 to 1957 era of the Oval Window was painted a metallic silver blue color. The casting is very good and is…

When I first got interested in Buses in the early ‘90s, there was no internet to find VW information. We only had books and magazines. There have been dozens of English language books written about Volkswagens, but they were mainly about the company itself, or Bugs with only brief mentions of Type 2s. A couple of those books do have good chapters about Transporters. The all-time best book about vintage VWs is Volkswagen Nine Lives Later (Post 1965). Its chapter about Type 2s is great. Then, finally, in the ‘80s there were books written solely on the topic of Buses. There were a few German language texts that have never been translated to English, but one slipped through and was translated in 1989, Volkswagen Transporter/Bus 1949-67 (Zeichner 1986). Although it…

Grant Reiling’s admiration and love for Volkswagens began in Minnesota, aka Snow Country and The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, where he grew up. His mom drove an L87 Pearl White 1964 Beetle at the time. Young Grant’s job was to sit in the luggage compartment behind the rear seat, with a scraper in hand, and keep the back window clear of frost for visibility. In that tiny space, he enjoyed the warm engine and its comforting humming melody. He now owns the stunning L36 Azur Blau ’52 Type 12G Bug featured here, which he nicknamed Minuscolo – it means tiny in Italian. Incidentally, the 12G model number remains a mystery, as nobody seems to know the difference between 11G and 12G, both sunroof models. You might say that Grant…

The United States has had a long tradition of Volkswagen-themed magazines, many of them – now gone – filling the shelves of 7-Elevens and other outlets during the ’70s and ’80s. Who remembers Volkswagen Greats? How about VW Trends? Printed intermittently between 1976 and 2005, it competed heavily against hotVWs, although the latter has always remained Number One in the U.S. market, since 1967. Not to brag, but that’s quite an accomplishment. And so is the fact that few car periodicals can claim having been published nonstop for over half a century. To be clear, other magazines had taken interest in the Volkswagen scene prior to hotVWs, most notably Foreign Car Guide, first released in… 1956. It wasn’t solely devoted to VW models, but they were the publisher’s primary focus,…

“MR. OKRASA” BUILT THE STROKED 36HP LONG BLOCK, NOW 1397CC As some of you may know, when tracing back the history of Volkswagen and Porsche, you will find the same one person: Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. That’s right, the Volkswagen Beetle’s father is Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. He developed the most iconic VW model as a “People’s Car” national project. After WWII, his son Ferry designed their own sports car, the Porsche 356, borrowing various Beetle mechanical components. Porsche used VW’s dealership network to sell and serve their vehicles as well. If you know VW’s relationship with Porsche, using interchangeable Porsche parts for your Beetle to get better performance makes sense. This 1958 sedan is a perfect example of “Souping the Volkswagen,” i.e., blending Porsche ingredients, while keeping period-correct appearances and feel.…

However, much like everything else in 2020, Circle Yer Wagens was a little different last fall. The show was only one day, a Saturday. In a year of show cancellation after show cancellation, when the announcement was made that the event was on, I jumped at the chance to finally attend. It’s often said: “The journey is just as important as the destination”. And let me tell you, getting there was one heck of a journey. I loaded up my Bug into the trailer on Friday morning and set off to the show. Along the way, I picked up fellow VW enthusiast and friend, Brian Caron (promoter of the Simple Transport VW Show in Hagerstown, MD. Another show you all should attend). Five hours from home, and still four more…

Idon’t know about the US, but since Playmobil was invented in 1974, over here in Germany no child’s room can be imagined without these little toy people and their horses, buildings and vehicles. As I was Born in 1971, Playmobil was my favorite toy until the age of 9 or 10, and I really loved to play with the various themes, like cowboys and Native Americans, knights or city life. The only thing bothering me were the conventionalized cars and trucks. Yes, I know, most kids don’t care, but I was a gearhead already at the age of… well… ever. My first word was “Auto” – that’s “car” in English. I would have cared. Anyways, Playmobil never made miniatures of existing cars as long as I was a kid. And…

JOEY BAUTISTA, a vintage Porsche 356 and 911 collector and enthusiast, is a successful businessman who resides in San Francisco, California. He has always admired and liked vintage Volkswagens. Who knows, this could be a rare case: A person coming into the VW scene after owning Porsches. Since Joey got his first Volkswagen, he’s been hooked as he discovered many similarities and interchangeable parts between these two iconic German brands. As a result, he wanted to build something unique, mixing vintage Porsche 356 and Volkswagen Beetle components… Let’s take a look at the outcome. Joey’s first VW was a 1957 Oval ragtop, which he purchased eight years ago. He really loved the fact that it puts a smile on people’s faces; he often saw thumbs up when he was driving.…

GET YOUR MAGNIFYING GLASSES OUT… What’s a Standard Beetle? Well, it can be confusing, depending on your country of residence. In the U.S., it often describes ’70s Beetles, which were not Super Beetles. The rest of the world – and the vintage community in particular – has a very different definition. You see, as far back as the 1950s, Volkswagen offered a basic version of the Beetle, a vehicle never officially imported in the United States… That Standard Beetle thereby remains somewhat of a unicorn within the U.S. Volkswagen scene. In fact, many of you might not have ever seen one, or even be aware of its existence! Their rarity is compounded by other facts: Sales numbers stayed low, as the unadorned car was mostly destined for the German market…

EXTERIOR COLOR/ L41 Black CHASSIS SUSPENSION WORK BY/ Monkey Nut VW FRONT SUSPENSION/ Stock VW 2” narrowed, adjustable beam, CB torsion adjusters, stiffer front torsion spring leaves REAR SUSPENSION/ Sway-a-Way 24mm torsion bars, adjustable spring plates SPINDLES/ Stock SHOCKS/ Koni Classic Red (356-spec in front, VW speck in rear) STEERING/ New steering box & tie-rods WHEELS & TIRES/ Porsche 356 Lemmerz, 15x4.5; Pirelli Cinturato CN36 185/70VR15 BRAKES/ Porsche 356B front & rear, rebuilt by Martin Willis, Colorado Springs OTHER MODIFICATIONS/ CSP front beam braces, new German link & kingpins, larger front sway bar ENGINE CASE/ 36hp VW magnesium DISPLACEMENT/ 1397cc BUILDER/ Joe “Mr. Okrasa” Ruiz (long block), Monkey Nut VW final assembly CRANK/ 8-dowelled 69.5mm Okrasa stroker RODS/ Stock CYLINDERS & PISTONS/ AA Performance 80mm CAM/ Joe “Mr. Okrasa” Ruiz…

SOMETIMES IT’S MORE THAN JUST CHOOSING A COLOR Certainly no stranger to the scene, Rene has owned VWs going back into the 1970s. “Back in school in the early ’70s it was our passion. It was affordable to have a Bug, or even two. I started with a friend of mine, Kirk Hadley, in Las Vegas. There was a club we had called Sin City VW.” His first was a ’72 Super Beetle, and then came a ’68 Bay Window. “In 1980 we dropped the Bay and put in a little power, and that was the family wagon. My daughter Nicole loved to ride in the Bus. We kept it around a while and it helped me deliver ice carvings in southern California.” Fast forward to today, when Rene’s love…

This information is accurate as of May 3rd, 2021. Please check the event organizers’ websites for the latest updates. May 29-30, 2021: Bugorama 85 Location: Sacramento, CA Description: Car Show, Drag Races, Vendor Alley, Swap Meet. We open the gates on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. to allow for the overnight camping, swap meet and test & tune for the drag racers. Sunday is the main day for the Bugorama. This is when we have the car show, finals in drag racing, vendors and all of the swap meet will be set up. The Bugorama offers race classes for all types of cars and drivers from the novice to the pro. All cars must pass a NHRA safety inspection and or a BRS tech inspection at the scales to qualify to…