Exotic or rare vehicle sightings

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by JSH

Porsches are an everyday sighting.

Same thing in my hometown, yet some models may still be more eye-catching than others. Odd enough, a former Porsche owner told me his '67 Beetle seems to be more eye-catching than the Porsche he used to own. Maybe it's because more people here tend to have affectionate memories about Volkswagens...

[freebeard]

I had a '67 around the same time as the Notchback. Zenith Blue with gray primer rear fenders and a functional sliding metal sun roof.

It drew less attention at the time than the Beige Superbeetle does now.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I had a '67 around the same time as the Notchback.

Just remember the Beetle had a different evolutionary timeframe in Brazil, so the local Beetles look older.

Zenith Blue with gray primer rear fenders and a functional sliding metal sun roof.

Considering the Brazilian Beetle had such sunroof as an option only around '65 to '66, after the "Cornowagen" moniker hindered any marketing perspectives, makes me wonder if that option in US-spec Beetles was maybe a surplus. The sunroof fitted to Cornowagens was sourced from Webasto in Germany anyway...

It drew less attention at the time than the Beige Superbeetle does now.

People tend to underappreciate austere econoboxes until they're nearly extinct...

[freebeard]

US-spec '67 was one year only, German manufacture. I forget the parts that are unique, door handles and engine lid IIRC.

Zenith Blue 1966-08 until 1968-06, essentially a one year only color.

[larrybuck]

Wow so much Birmingham talk. A few years ago, I drove twice from home here to Birmingham and back, as I was checking out a sports car to buy, and was not going to buy it sight unseen, so I drove one of my cars at the time which was a 83 Volkswagen Quantum diesel station wagon manual 5-speed. I have to look back in retro fondness as I only spent about $450 for the full of round-trip Drive and fuel. I decided to get the car, so I drove the Volkswagen home and then change the oil and got my tow vehicle ready and took a trailer go get it and that's when I got offended in the Birmingham area. I was traveling south in the Birmingham Metro area in the slowest Lane of the freeway minding my own business when this JERKO decides to take an exit right in front of me at the literally very last Split Second. So the much last second, that I had to take the exit as well just to avoid not hitting him broadside!!! You know how it goes. Traffic was heavy took about 7 or 8 minutes just to get back on the freeway again as I had no normal intentions of ever turning off there. My remembrance of that still ticks me off. I have seen semis in LA on the freeway that literally have taken an off-ramp from three lanes further over to the left at a true 45° angle. Unreal. Within the last year, I delivered a truck which is my part-time job to the Birmingham area and then hot hooded it in a rental car to the Atlanta airport to fly back to Portland. I for the most part have grown up here in the Pacific Northwest. But I also have had the experience of living 11 years about 46 Mi Northeast of Asheville North Carolina. So I'm sure you ex Alabama guys can appreciate the fact of leaving the weather of the dreaded Eastern humidity.

[larrybuck]

I've had a few Volkswagens. In order of ownership a 62 bug, a 64 bug, is 67 bug, a 72 Super Beetle, three different 82 83 and 84 Volkswagen Quantum diesel station wagons oh and I almost forgot back in the day I had a 63 bus with almost a full length sunroof. The bus was a nightmare to drive into a strong headwind even at 50 miles an hour and it would blow you all over the road. The 64 was okay, the 67 which should have been a real treat because of the 12 volt system ended up being an electrical nightmare for me, as I took it to an independent repair place in Tigard that specialized in Volkswagens to have them fix it, and two weeks later they told me they couldn't do anything with it so I sold it to get rid of it. The 72 Super Beetle could be described as almost a barn find that I kind of brought back to life that it handled like an ox cart and I was not impressed At All by it. The quantum wagons were great road cars for me that got excellent mileage, but if you need body parts or suspension parts, they're almost impossible to find without buying another parts car. The 62 bug was the best one for me in the early days. I guess I was an eco-modder even way back in the day as in the early eighties I was already experimenting putting 50 lbs in the tires so I could get about 45 miles per gallon. I do like my current rabbit pickup truck and am surprised how well at 6ft3 inches with long legs that I still fit good in it with stock seats. But back to the subject of exotic or rare cars to behold, has our Brazilian friend seen any of the Volkswagen SP2 s or Pumas???

[freebeard]

The 72 Super Beetle could be described as almost a barn find that I kind of brought back to life that it handled like an ox cart and I was not impressed At All by it.

That's surprising. I appreciate the MacPherson struts shorter turning circle. I bought my '71 out of a farmers field. It had been in a barn for 14 years.

The 62 bug was the best one for me in the early days. I guess I was an eco-modder even way back in the day

My 1956 sunroof Beetle. I ditched the spare tire and ran 145s on the front.

[larrybuck]

Nice 56. It seems to be a small world. My mother had a 56 bug that she used for years commuting as a school teacher. It had nonstock bronze exterior color with stock olive green interior with a black topped manual sunroof. As a teenager, I was impressed that I could listen to the car radio straight from the battery with the key not having to be turned to accessory mode like most American cars. Even as a teenager, I had input to what cars my parents bought. Before she bought the bug, she was considering a Fiat sedan owned by somebody that she knew, and I was very negative about that. When my parents looked at typical American station wagons, I was there when they test drove 1966 full size Dodge wagon. I again through in my negative comments, and we ended up with a 66 Bel Air Chevy wagon with a 327 in it. Anyway, I tried to convince my mother to sell the bug eventually to me so it would be my first car but she refused saying that one of the four bolts holding her seat was broken and she also said that it would pop out of third gear once in awhile and she didn't think that was a good idea for a new rookie driver. Of course looking back now, how easy it would have been to have fixed a couple of those issues. I ended up happily owning a 67 Chevelle Malibu four Speed on the floor as my first car with absolutely no regrets other than the fact that my dad and I bought it off of a used car lot, and it had 327 badge on the front fenders. I found out a year later that it wasn't the 327 it had been replaced with a 64 283. But that was okay because a year later, the 283 morphed into a high performance rebuild. TRW 12 to 1 Pistons, Edelbrock high-rise intake with to Holley 600s, much go and no stop manual brakes haha. Naturally the high performance motor was done just in time for the fuel shortages in 1973 and I sadly sold the car soon after as I was only getting 7 miles per gallon. The high-rise manifold had a weakness in that there was too much bolt separation for the gaskets. The gaskets kept popping under the pressure, so before I sold the car, I went back to a more conventional intake with one Holly 600 on it, and got back to 12 miles per gallon.

[freebeard]

Did someone say "my first car"?



My first Beetle was a 1958 convertible (black on black) that had a radio that cut in and out when the car hit bumps. I'd drive down I-5, hallucinating that the car was a needle and the traffic lane was a record groove. It was the 60s.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by larrybuck

Wow so much Birmingham talk. A few years ago, I drove twice from home here to Birmingham and back, as I was checking out a sports car to buy, and was not going to buy it sight unseen, so I drove one of my cars at the time which was a 83 Volkswagen Quantum diesel station wagon manual 5-speed. I have to look back in retro fondness as I only spent about $450 for the full of round-trip Drive and fuel. I decided to get the car, so I drove the Volkswagen home and then change the oil and got my tow vehicle ready and took a trailer go get it and that's when I got offended in the Birmingham area. I was traveling south in the Birmingham Metro area in the slowest Lane of the freeway minding my own business when this JERKO decides to take an exit right in front of me at the literally very last Split Second. So the much last second, that I had to take the exit as well just to avoid not hitting him broadside!!! You know how it goes. Traffic was heavy took about 7 or 8 minutes just to get back on the freeway again as I had no normal intentions of ever turning off there. My remembrance of that still ticks me off. I have seen semis in LA on the freeway that literally have taken an off-ramp from three lanes further over to the left at a true 45° angle. Unreal. Within the last year, I delivered a truck which is my part-time job to the Birmingham area and then hot hooded it in a rental car to the Atlanta airport to fly back to Portland. I for the most part have grown up here in the Pacific Northwest. But I also have had the experience of living 11 years about 46 Mi Northeast of Asheville North Carolina. So I'm sure you ex Alabama guys can appreciate the fact of leaving the weather of the dreaded Eastern humidity.

yup. the humidity is horrible in alabama. it always baffles me when people here in portland complain about it being humid, or even people showing houses and apartments saying things like '' its super humid in oregon. you need a dehumidifier to fight the mold!'' and so many other references. im assuming they are california transplants who are saying oregon is humid. its still nothing compared to the south east lol