dune buggies and hotVWs January 2022

By the time you get your hand on this issue of Dune Buggies and hotVWs Magazine, we will likely be around Thanksgiving or early December. We hope you will enjoy a wonderful holiday season, and find time to drive or wrench on your Volkswagen. As I mentioned last month, this issue marks Dune Buggies and hotVWs Magazine’s 55th Anniversary, after publishing 623 magazines in 54 years. Again, thank you for all your strong support and encouragement. We are truly blessed by our loyal subscribers, readers, and our fantastic advertisers. We would not be able to produce Dune Buggies and hotVWs magazine for over five decades without your support. We are proud to be part of the beautiful Volkswagen community, and one of the few magazines to be published for over…

As I write this month’s column I am looking outside at grey sky and the warm sweater that wraps my ever expanding middle-aged mid-section is keeping the shivers at bay. Now granted, this is Southern California and tomorrow it will probably be in the ’80s again and I can put my shorts back on, but we are indeed in the season where things wind down for the year. Those in colder climates huddle in tight, and the joys of settling into your “winter projects” are ahead. The dreams of spring and summer of 2022 are already forming in my own mind and I’m looking forward to some great events next year. While the weather outside may be getting colder, the vintage VW market sure seems to be hotter than ever.…

While my first car was a Beetle, it was not my introduction to drag racing. That happened with the ownership of a number of V8 “gringo” rides. Needless to say, I was hooked on straight-line racing. As I came back to my first car love, VWs, I was bound and determined to make mine go fast! Now a number of things happened to create the path I would follow. The first was to gain employment as a VW mechanic. So, I let the local Volkswagen dealer send me to the VW school in Culver City, CA, where I learned a lot including engine and transmission repair. I then found employment at an independent Volkswagen repair shop, Westphalia Motors, where I learned even more, working for (and with) some very skilled…

Lowered Spindles Hello Jon, I look forward to reading your Tech Talk column every month. If I install CB Performance lowered spindles with disc brakes, plus use stock-size wheels and tires on my ’67 Beetle, will I have to install a narrowed beam to prevent the tires from rubbing? If so, how narrow? Thanks, Paul Stephan Brook Park, MN Paul, I checked the CB Performance website, and they say that their kit widens the track by a modest 3/8” per side. This being the case, if you were sticking with stock rims, I would say just go to a 145/80-15 tire and things should clear OK. If you are running something wider like a 5.5” width, then go with a narrowed beam. A 2-inch narrowed beam should do the trick.…

We have previously covered the various Bus models, but now it is time to get a little more in depth. Let’s start with the panel, because it was the first of the three models that Volkswagen introduced in 1950. It was also known as a panel van, a delivery, and generally as a transporter and even a truck – although those last two have been used to refer to more models than just the panel. The panel started out as model 21a, in the early Barndoor years, then became model 211 when the standard 3-digit model numbers were introduced. You might notice that most Bus part numbers start with 211. Part numbers start with the first model that the part was used on at the factory. With panels being the…

We had to wait a long time, just over a year and a half. And no one could have guessed how it would feel. First show after the pandemic: Waiting in line at the entrance in the morning, air-cooled engine sounds from every corner, seeing old friends again, looking at new cars… I can tell you now: It was great! At first, I was rather skeptical when my DFL club brothers decided to go to the AirMighty Show in Enschede (Netherlands) near the German border in October. We wanted to display our Cal Look cars with a nice club booth at the new event. Olaf Albers with his Oval even had a spot in the exhibition hall, a discarded aircraft hangar used for General Dynamics F-16s back in the day.…