Betcha y’all didn’t know 48

[953 nut 64,011]

February 17, 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 to 1927.

[ri702bill 11,193]

Back in 1972 I dated a girl that had a 1971 Super Beetle. Long story short, the car was more fun than she was...

[953 nut 64,011]

My 1965 Beetle gave me about 140K relatively trouble free miles of service while I was in the Navy. I was stationed in Charleston, SC, and usually made a trip to Plant City, FL,  to help my grandparents once a month and another monthly trip to Syracuse to visit my parents and friends.

The VW dealer gave 3,000 mile service for the first year when the car was purchased, some months I was back twice in one month.

Not too sure I would consider a Beatle-Bug as ideal transportation today but it sure was then.

[Handy Don 15,798]

I bet a bunch of members here had Beetles. Mine was my first car, a ’64 I bought while in college. Lotsa memories. Ran it until it wouldn’t pass NYS inspection--the rust had compromised its body integrity to an unsafe degree. 

[Treepep 1,047]

yeah yep, I had a 63 Ford falcon, a 1991 ranger 4x4, a 1964 f2 2wd,  1951 F1.  A few dirt bikes a few tractors and a 1972 Beetle.  Paternal grandfather collected them and old Datsuns.  Wish I had ANY 1 of those cars!  Beetle was an absolute beast in the snow

[Handy Don 15,798]

10 minutes ago, Treepep said:

Beetle was an absolute beast in the snow

 

But on ice? Whoa Nellybelle!

[stevasaurus 23,575]

Bought my 1972 Super Beetle while in the Navy.  Wife and I drove that car for 11 years.  I got the Formula "V" shifter in it, it was like the Hurst shifter, plus a factory trailer hitch.  Payed $2500 for it new, I loved that car.

 

[953 nut 64,011]

28 minutes ago, stevasaurus said:

Bought my 1972 Super Beetle while in the Navy. 

Did it come with the factory shoehorn to get a big guy like you in there?                       

[wallfish 19,107]

Back in the mid 80s I used to tow my dune buggy ( made from a chopped Beetle) to the woods with a Beetle. If the buggy died or broke the car took it's turn. They were rugged cars and fun to drive.

We would also find them, probably stolen, out there in the middle of nowhere and we would scavenge all the parts we could off them for the dune buggies or to build another one. 

We also took one of the chopped off roofs, taped towels to the cut off supports for protection, waxed it up real good and had a bunch of guys ride it down the big hill in the snow like a sled. We were FLYING and out of control! It was a one and done ride as we couldn't get it back to the top. 

[pfrederi 19,816]

When I was assigned to Germany I was on an inspection team and we used rented VW vans.  Every so often we would get lucky with a water cooled one.  Believe me an aircooled Van in the winter is a cold ride.  Driving on the no speed limit autobahn it was foot to the floor the whole time and hope you didn't get rear ended by some flying Porsche

Edited 3 hours ago by pfrederi

[Handy Don 15,798]

6 minutes ago, pfrederi said:

Driving on the no speed limit autobahn it was foot to the floor the whole time

’64 had 50hp. 63 MPH on the flat on a calm day. One year my clutch plate had worn out but I had to get from school in NYC to home (near Rochester NY). At 45mph it started slipping so I drafted tractor trailers most of the way--my tailgating musta really ticked off the truckers but the extra 25 mph saved me hours. Ah, the folly of youth. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Handy Don

[Ed Kennell 44,732]

17 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

64 had 50hp

Yep, but they continued to use the clutch rated for 36 hp.   My new '64 burned the clutch every 10K mile , replaced three times under warranty.  The dealer told me after it was out of warranty (36,000miles) they could install the larger clutch used in the busses.  On my dime of course.   In the winter it was not quite as warm as the cab on my 520H..     Even though it was under the dealer maintenance, the king pins locked up due to lack of lubrication and the battery died due to lack of water. 

  I sold it at 32,000 and made two promises to myself.  Never buy an import and never finance a vehicle again.

[Handy Don 15,798]

43 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

Yep, but they continued to use the clutch rated for 36 hp.

That I didn’t know! I got it used at about 30k and in ’72 at ~45k it was a non-warranty repair by yours truly. I do remember the parts guy telling me “you won’t ever have to replace this clutch again” but not why. 

[Ed Kennell 44,732]

The early '60s was known as the VW bas@#*d engine era.  They were making some poorly engineered changes to boost the 30 hp up to 50 for the new USA market.