Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i dune buggies and hotVWs

Two Thousand Twenty Three marks Dune Buggies and hotVWs' 56th year of print publication. As a reminder, hotVWs Magazine has never stopped being printed and delivering magazines to our subscribers and newsstands periodically since 1967. The first edition was published in February 1967 as a Cycle World Magazine's special edition by Parkhurst Publishing Company. The name of the magazine was “Dune Buggies and hot VWs”. This early publication had a significant impact on the market. Back then, you could purchase a brand-new 1967 Beetle, Ghia, Bus, and Type 3 via any Volkswagen dealership. Bruce Meyers had also developed the Manx buggy a few years before, which had a massive impact on the off-road scene. EMPI was offering a variety of accessories/performance parts to dress up or soup up your Volkswagen.…

In June of 2017, my friend Otto Richelmann and I decided to take part in the infamous Petermax Müller Gedächtnis Rennen, which translates into “Petermax Müller Memorial Race”. It is a Cannonball-style race, organized by a team of Englishmen and Norwegians, open to Beetles, Buses and Ghias with early Type-1 engine cases, aka 25/36 hp motors. It takes place every other year, starting at different locations in Germany, ending always at the vintage VW show in Bad Camberg or Hessisch Oldendorf, depending on which one takes place. Yes, I know, “Cannonball race” sounds highly illegal, but as the “race cars” are all based on early cars with tiny 25/36 hp engines, you barely reach the official speed limit on German surface streets, which is 100 km/h (62 mph). Well, most…

Anthony Bell's 1958 Ragtop Bug Anthony Bell from Oklahoma City, OK is a successful business owner, husband, and father of five children. And he still finds time to love, drive and play with VWs. Since he got hooked on the Volkswagen scene about 40 years ago, he has never looked back. He just enjoys driving one of his VWs every week, sometimes making long trips and attending countless events. Anthony now belongs to one of the most active VW clubs in Texas and the surrounding States, Der Luftkiihlers (DLK). Today, we highlight one of his beloved Volkswagens, a highly detailed 1958 Ragtop Bug. We thought it was an involved multiple-year project; however, we couldn't believe when he told us it was completed in just 90 days. NEW PROJECTS Besides the…

A MASSIVE, LEGENDARY CALIFORNIAN EVENT The original HotVWs Drag Days, held at Orange County International Raceway, was launched in the 1980s. The same track additionally welcomed the legendary Bug-In since its debut in 1968. After losing OCIR in October 1983, these two events have remained in the participants' memories forever. A drag race, a car show, and a huge swap meet during the same event was a perfect combo, which the VW scene in Southern California had been missing since OCIR's closure. When Rich Kimball of Periscope Enterprises found out that Irwindale Speedway was going to open in 2002, he moved quickly to restart the hotVWs Drag Day, thus bringing back OCIR's “good memories” for many. Rich, the promoter of Bug-In and Drag Day to this day with his son…

Now, the spindles. Start by removing the plastic cover that protects the boot on the new ball joint. Slide the spindle up onto the lower ball joint and install the washer and new nut, don't tighten the nut yet. The washer on the lower arm has a smaller OD than the upper one. Ready for more fun? Remove the plastic cover on the upper ball joint and slide the eccentric onto the ball joint. The nut-looking-thing that is tapered is called an eccentric. Thread the nut on without the washer. This will hold the eccentric on and allow it to go through the spindle. At this point, you're going to do some grunting. Jack up the lower arm and tilt the spindle to get the upper ball joint into the…

DESIGNED FOR HAULING SMILES AND MAKING MEMORIES The focus of this article, however, is on a pair of VWs that were constructed for the business of fun. Sure, the end result of their use was to provide profits for the owner. Yet the overall benefit of pure joy and happy memories, which have filled the minds of the thousands of people that rode on board or have seen them in passing, has been the real value added to the world. In 1929, the year that the Great Depression slammed the population in America, Arthur E Fritz found himself in a tough spot financially and needed to find a different way to make a dollar. Being a builder and contractor by trade, the prospects of new projects seemed thin on the…

VW CAMPOUT & SHOW ON THE WATERFRONT The event's location, Aburatsubo, is about 15 mile south of United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka (aka the Yokosuka Naval Base) and 35 miles south of Yokohama. An inlet on the west side of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, it faces Sagami Bay on the Pacific Ocean. Humans began living 25,000 years ago on this peninsula during the Paleolithic (prehistoric Age). During the Sengoku period (1467-1590), the Aburatsubo inlet was selected by the feudal Miura family to build a series of fortifications, with Arai castle at its center. The castle fell after a 3-year siege to the rival Later Hojo clan in 1516. The Hojo later managed to unify most of the area. According to some stories, the name Aburatsubo (which means…

If you've heard a dull whining or humming sound coming from the rear of your car, chances are the axle bearings are at fault. The rebuilding of your stub axles (also called “rear wheel shafts” in some manuals) can be accomplished with the diagonal arm on or off the car. For clarity and easy viewing, we will show the job with the arm off the car. It should be noted that the particular diagonal arm used for this article wasn't in the best shape. It had obviously led a hard life lying out in some junkyard for a lot of its years. We used it as an example, and it won't be used on a running car! Starting on the drum side, we removed the axle cotter pin and 36mm…

As I sit here in front of my computer, I'm thinking back at 2022 and how different it was. Because of many things, it was a year to remember and reflect in this column. For me, it began with thoughts of the coming race season both as a race director in the Triple Crown series and as a competitor in the Bugorama events. It was a year of political unrest, conflict and inflation just to name a few. That last part, inflation, made even going racing more expensive! Along with these, we had a continuing pandemic with new variants. All of this affected VW people and events. It was not our best year in the Cal Look scene. As a matter of fact, I remember when in my life a…

For quite a few years now, I have been making the annual trip to Scottsdale Arizona to attend the assorted classic car auctions. This is an attraction that has drawn me in for much of my conscious life since attending some of the very earliest Barrett Jackson auctions in the 1970s as a wee lad in the shadow of my father. The auctioneers' ramble and the smell of exhaust fumes satisfy something deep within my soul and, every time I go, I just love the experience. One of my longest known friends was also a kid following his father to these sales in the early days and we usually join up together to attend and have a good time. This year, one of my brothers came along as well, so…

Back in 1967, America's Volkswagen scene was undoubtedly different compared to today. The aftermarket had not embraced VWs and the California Look hadn't been “invented” yet, while few enthusiasts showed interest in not-so-old Split Window Beetles. Buses? Dirt cheap, they remained hippie and surfer favorites. And of course, dune buggies had a huge following. The publishing world took notice of what many considered a fad, starting with Parkhurst Publishing Company that launched DUNE BUGGIES AND HOT VWs as a Cycle World magazine Special Edition in '67. The very first issue, sold for 75 cents, had majorly heavy dune buggy as well as off-road content. In fact, the cover prominently featured a Meyers Manx, the model which should be credited with starting the whole VW-powered, fiberglass craze. Only buggies graced the…