By the late ’60s, VW was in a legitimate full-on panic about replacing the Beetle: somehow, they never really managed to figure this out. The Beetle was just selling too well for too long to worry until it was almost too late. Eventually, the Golf saved the day, but there was a brief moment where it looked like VW’s salvation would be much weirder.After VW bought NSU and Audi in the late ’60s, the much more conventional water-cooled, transverse front-engined Golf/Rabbit was derived from NSU/Audi designs and saved VW’s bacon, as well as set the company’s fundamental technical DNA to this day. But this was a sort of last-minute desperation plan. The goal of replacing the Beetle as VW’s core product went back much further, and almost culminated in a surprisingly sophisticated and unusual car, the EA266 prototype.
Do you like VW‘s? Then you’ll love to visit http://bandwagen.wordpress.com. This is a great looking bug!!! I’m glad he didn’t turn it into a drag car.
This blue Cal-look beetle was in my life for twenty two years. I purchased it with a friend back in 1988 with the intention of building a drag-car to enter the recently formed VWDRC. The basic plan was to weld up the doors, cut off the roof, fit a roll-cage and run a more or less stock 1600 engine on methanol and nitros oxide… this was back in a time when you could pick up as many used and running engines as you wanted, for around £50 each! The car only cost us £100 so we figured as long as we got a few quarter-mile runs out of each engine before they blew, it would be fairly inexpensive but fast fun!
As you’ve probably guessed from the pictures, the plans changed drastically when my friend lost interest in the bug. Thank god he hadn’t got around to hacking the roof off! I bought his share in the car and decided to use it as the basis for a Cal-look project. Over the next couple of years I started collecting parts and in 1990 it went into the body shop to fit the early panels, some de-chroming and a respray in Ford electric blue.
Once painted, I rented a small, two-car barn on a local farm with another friend who was also working on a project beetle. The bug slowly came together over the following eight years. I’d work on it when time and money allowed which wasn’t too often – I was in my 20s and money was tight so there were usually other things that had to take priority, like paying the mortgage and food!
After a final push it was all together and driving in 1998 and I made it along to the Stonor Park VW show that year. Things have been updated and changed over the years including the addition of the 4″ narrowed beam in 2009 which was just before I decided to sell it. This beetle only covered 8,500 mile in the 22 years that I owned it which must be some kind of record! It’s still fairly local to me and owned by a friend of the guy who bought my ’72 Bay-window camper, but as they say, that’s another story…
Body:
Pre-67 front and rear valances, early wings and lights (US-Spec fronts containing orange indicators)
Long-bonnet and glass W-decklid.
Cal-look window rubbers.
De-chromed with smoothed/hidden catches on front and back lids.
Grey tinted one-piece door glass and matching rear side glass.
Stainless-steel blade bumpers.
Bodywork and paint by Paulespury coachworks in 1990 (still looks great!)
Running gear: New front suspension set-up fitted by Sayed @ Batts VWs in 2008 comprising of:
4″ narrowed and adjustable front beam, custom built by Gavin @ Trailer Queen Restos CB Dropped spindles
New KYB Front shocks
Long-travel ball joints
Rear…
Adjustable Koni shocks.
New IRS gaiters
Type 3 IRS Gearbox
UVA Adjustable rear spring plates.
Copper brake pipes fitted throughout
Standard drums and disks re-drilled to Porsche 5-stud (VW 4stud fitment still retained as well)
Wheels & Tyres:
Fully-polished early Porsche fuchs, 5.5×15 fronts and spare with 185/55R15 Continentals
Original deep 6×15 rears with 185/65R15 Nankangs
Engine:
Built by Sayed @ Batts VWs and fitted in Feb 2000 (only done 6K miles!)
1641cc fully balanced.
Twin 36 IDF webber carbs with hex-bar linkage.
Engle 110 Cam.
040 Cylinder heads.
Hi-volume oil pump.
Remote oil filter with braided lines.
009 Distributor and Bosch blue coil
Polished, louvered stainless firewall.
Engine tinware painted electric blue.
Interior:
Grey vinyl/velour high-back sports with matching side panels and rear seat. Grey carpets.
Grey cloth headlining. Short-throw T gearshift. Custom painted speedo. Grey sports steering wheel. Fire extinguisher. 80s Pioneer cassette player with 4x speakers on custom rear parcel shelf. Auto-watch Alarm & immobiliser. Billet dash knobs and door handles/window winders and buttons. Additional oil temp gauge.
It’s been a while since I’ve provided an update on the restoration of the 1975 fuel injectedVW bug that I’m project managing for a former workmate. So I thought I’d post of some details andsome pics.
The car is called a “Standard” – that doesn’t mean a manual shift (although it is a manual 3 speed), that means the most stripped down, no optioned, VW you could purchase. I’m talking interior door panels with a thin covering of fake leather over (almost as thin) cardboard. Rubber floor coverings (I wouldn’t even call them mats!!!), a headliner, cloth seats were the total of trim in side. There was no upholstery covering the rest of the interior – just painted metal. It did have an AM radio – which was replaced it a JVC.
Not much to the door panel.
Headliner and sun visors are about the only other upholstery, the rest is painted red like you see here.
In fact importation of these striped down models was halted shortly after about 100 here shipped to the US in 1975. This is one of the 100 allowed in. Pretty cool story.
This particular car belongs to June Yang and she purchased the car, brand new, while attending college in Iowa. The car lived in Iowa it’s entire life (until now) and it show’s signs of every winter too. The car had been stored for years and suffers from a severe case of rust and by all accounts shouldn’t able to sit up-right on four tires.
But like many folks, who love their V-dubs, June has a lot of memories tied to the rusted fenders, college, and other life milestones. So when she moved to Tucson, Az she thought of bring the Bug with her. She was advised that the car was not safe to drive down the driveway much less the block and certainly not 1/2 way across country!!! And that was an
understatement!!!!!
I met June when she came to work at the same establishment where I labored. I’m not a closet car guy and a visit to my office at that time it was pretty clear. Eventually she asked about having the car fixed and her desire to have it join her in Az was discussed and although I had no idea the exact condition. I helped arrange transportation to Tucson.
The goal was to get it here to some place that could get the car running (it wouldn’t start and brakes hadn’t been serviced in some time). In run condition, the thought was we could then running it around (save a few $$) to the various places I had planned to do the work. Unfortunately even running it wasn’t going to be safe enough to drive. See here<<<<>>>>
The transport had one bump when the driver’s truck died en route. The company immediately arranged for a local company to pick it up and finish the trip. I believe June called them every hour for updates. Eventually, the car showed up at my favorite auto repair shop and Tim Sisk gave me a call to come look the car over.
These pictures don’t nearly capture the condition this car, frankly I was taken back as well and I grew up driving a 1930-ish Ford stripped down pick-up that served as an alternate tractor on my grandfather farm, in upstate New York – no floor boards and the like. This VW was nearly eaten alive by oxidation.
Rust 1
Rust 2
And here's a little side view.
See the highlighted area? It's not attached. It should be. It holds the body to the frame!!
So are you saying WHAAAATTT???? Pretty much the standard response… but don’t fret….there’s a plan!!!
Ok…I sorry (not really) but I have to consider what my readers like. And to date one of the most read articles on my blog is the piece I did on the Mustang II King Cobra http://wp.me/pKHNM-uY . (Go ahead you know are going to go read it!!)
So I’m going to do a series on the Mustang II (after all I’m project managing the restoration of a 1975 VW, I could spend sometime on that era Mustang). We’ll touch on the 4 and 6 cylinders and yes there was a 302.
So we’ll start with a history lesson.
1973 was the last year for the more powerful and larger bodies Mustangs. Ford may have thought they were going back to the original size Mustang and the 1974 version was in fact close to that size. The 1966 Mustang had a wheelbase of about 108 inches ( 181.6 inches in total) and the 1974 was 96.2 (175.0 inches over all). Compare to the 1973 which (depend on which version) was 187.5-190.0 inches over all.
The generation ran from 1974 to 1978 and sported some collectible cars, the King Cobra and Mach I…yes Mach I’s in a Mustang II.
I don’t normally do this but every now and then someone will drop some spam on this blog and I’ll actually read it. Rarely are these worth while bit I did find this one interesting.
The car brand is called SEAT and EXEO is one of its models.
Seat Exeo
The is actually made in Spain at the SEAT factory. Volkswagen has a hand in the build as well. The base platform for this 5 seater is the Audi. Manufacturing started in 2008.
It comes in 4 and 5 door bodies and is considered “a large family sedan”. It is based on the VW Group B7 platform which is the same platform used for the Audi A4.
Wide range of power plants for this car from the 1.6 liter I4 to the 2.0 liter 16v that has the Turbocharged Fuel Stratified Injection set up.
