1956 Volkswagen Beetle - Oval Window Beetle

The restauration of my 1956 Volkswagen beetle, a so-called Oval Window Beetle. Or how to turn some boxes full of 50 year old crap into a Porsche Killing thing. If you want to provide feedback or want to know more about the beetle, please feel free to mail me: Mail About RaceOval 1956

Locations of visitors to this page

Sonntag, November 08, 2009

Cool Webpage



Flotoshop - Follow this link

Enjoy the virtual tuning stuff. I love following this site for regular updates !

Mittwoch, November 04, 2009

Internet find

compared to this, I have a not at all seldom car which is mass production. Check this out: the story of the restauration of the recently found VW Typ 38 Prototype:

http://www.vw38.de

Mittwoch, September 30, 2009

Eggbergrennen

Fo rthe time being, there is not a lot of progress. I managed to get the heating system going and fixed a little hole in the exhasut system. The next step is to fit a Lambda Probe attached to an ETAS LA4 Lambda Meter (the best Lambda Meter on the planet) which allows full data logging.

Last week-end was the 5th edition of the Historic Hillclimb at the Eggberg in southern Germany. Again a very wonderful event but also a lot of work, as I'm part of the organisers crew. My personal highlights were a March Formula 2 and the large crowd of historic formula Vees and Formula Fords.

Check this for pics and more: Eggberg Rennen

Sonntag, Juli 12, 2009

A new member of the family

It's a 1986 Porsche 944. More details abot this to be unveiled soon.
BTW: what ever I said about Porsche 944s, forget it ! This is a real Sportcar and behaves as such. Driving performance around the corners is just amazing. Only the engine is, compared with todays turbo-diesels a little too less sports car like. But we'll change that :-)

Donnerstag, Juli 09, 2009

Bitbug 2009

As promised, here are some more pics of the BitBug DFL Cal-Look Challenge. Congratulations to Tom Ratzek who took the award for best and fastest Cal-Look. Definitley the best chice, the DFL folks could do when selecting the winner. Also congrats to the DFL crew for making their Cal-Look challenge happen in that short time frame.









Cool down and relax

I installed a new Setrap 9-row oilcooler and an SPAL electric race fan. Now that's cool (meaning the oil)



Dienstag, Juni 16, 2009

Bitbug

Here are some first impressions of the Bitbug Weekend. It was a little frustrating, as the Oval-Window was performing quite well but every time I made my runs, the timing equipment failed, so I have no time slip at all for the whole week-end ! :-(

Some pictures of the DFL 402 Challenge will follow soon









Dienstag, Mai 26, 2009

BMW M1 ProCar

Some historical race stuff: this was when driving a formula One was just for kicks. For the living, the drivers had to participate in some paid series like the BMW M1 ProCar series. Here we have one of those at the Nordschleife:

24h Nürburgring 2009

Have you seen the first couple of laps of this years 24 hours at Nürburgring? Dirk Adorf in the Ford GT40 vs. Marc Lieb in the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 RSR! I thought that was amongst the best and most exciting Motorsports I've seen for a couple of years. Touring car racing at its bets !



And here's some interesting 2008 on-board of Marc Lieb. One lap in the 911 GT3 RSR. Enjoy the sound !

Babe's united

Bad Rappenau 2009:

1303 on Sprint-Stars

Some fiddling with Carb an out of the Garage we went. After some welding and engine tune up, another beetle is back on the road an joining the community. Looks sharp on Sprints, right?
Maybe something for the Sprint Stars Blog?



Bad Rappenau 2009

As found on Oli's Blog:

Mittwoch, Mai 13, 2009

Bitbug is Back / Das Käferblasen kommt wieder

The legendäre Kaeferblasen is back: BitBug ! 12. June to 14. June in Bitburg, Germany. Be there or be square ! / Das legendäre Käferblasen ist wieder da: BitBug in Bitburg vom 12.6. - 14.6.

Dienstag, April 21, 2009

thesamba.com for RC

This is by far the coolest Sand Scorcher I have ver seen. Big hand for the guy building it:



Checkout Check Out the Show-Room Section

Sprintstars

The 5,5 and 7 Empi / Lemmerz / Ritter Sprintstars have now finally found their new home: on the 1303 S of my brother. Looks nice, eh?





Montag, Januar 26, 2009

Calendar 2009 - Miss December

As a birthday present, I got a pretty cool printed calendar from my brother and his family. All the pcitures were taken by himself. Here's a collection of my favourites !









Dienstag, Dezember 30, 2008

Favourites 2008








New Speed Shop

Another new Speed Shop in Town:

German Classics in Fellbach

Sprintstars 7J15 ET 16

Yesterday I happend to purchase by accident some 7J15 ET 16 Sprint Star wheels(positive 16mm offset). I have heard about those but never actually have seen them in reality. He thought he was selling a set of 5,5J15 with a funny offset.









We'll see them next year on my brothers 1303S:

Rust in Peace - 1966 Samba

On the parking lot of some super market, somebody approached me and told me about a Samba, that is hidden somewhere close to an old house in the neighbouring community. So my brother and me were searching for it. We took a spy glass / binocular and climbed on hills searching the landmark. After three days, we had found it and actually happend to buy it for a small sum. This is the result:







It was actually far beyond everything: beyond repair, beyond our skills, be3yond our budget and far beyond our willingness to suffer. So we scrapped it. The roof was cut and resides now on Christian Tröndles fake Sambe (sold some months ago). The rest of the parts were sold. I remember some folks from a T1 owners club near Frankfurt. They were interested in parts but did show up with a trailer, as they were expecting a restoration basis. We had a loud argue, as those blokes seriously wanted to get paid for the fuel, that they had used fro the trip and wanted the rest of the parts for free on top :-) They returned home without.

A look in the archives - 1993

Today, I had the chance to scan some old pictures from the days before digital cameras were invented (yes, I'm that old :-)

These are the cars of me and my two brothers back in 1993 (or was it 1994?). My Oval, the 1963 sitting on a 1968 plate and the 1303S (still in white at the point):







As a daily driver, my youngest brother purchased this Type 2 after the rather extreme experience with the Samba (watch out for more details in other post):





And here we see the 1963, the 1966 Samba and the 1969 bug, that became the donor car for my oval. Those pictures are taken on Polaroid (do you remeber this fancy invention from back in the eighties?)





And this was finally one of the first water coolers in the family: a 1980 Golf Mark I. To me, that was unbelievable: if you turned the heating system to the red, it became hot in the car :-)

Montag, Dezember 22, 2008

Merry Christmas

Sonntag, Dezember 21, 2008

Nose Down in Schwetzignen

Nose-Down Style at the Christmas Market in Schwetzingen !

DAS Drag Day Picture

Just found this picture in the Archive of the DAS Website of the DAS Drag Day #6

Der Autobahn Scrapers

New Speed Shop

There is a new Speed Shop in Town: the Richarzzz Speed Shop in Backnang. Check-Out his Website and Blog

Richarzzz Speed Shop

Donnerstag, Dezember 18, 2008

Sprintstar Detailing

I did detail some spirnt stars.



All of the story can be found here:
1969 Convertible

Sonntag, Dezember 14, 2008

It's not a bug it's a ....

... Feature !

This one is for the Software Developers amongst you :-)

Thanks for 10.000 visitors

Not at lot of Progress

Snowboard season is open ! Yeaheaaa ! Last weekend we went down to Austria into the Kaunertal glacier area for some snowboarding action. 70 cms of fresh snow, sunshine and just 12 cars at the parking lot. Meaning we were almost alone on the summit. Great fun, I tell you !





Samstag, Oktober 04, 2008

Eggbergrennen 2008 - March BMW Formel 2

Folks, this is serious: Erich Rostek and his March BMW Formula 2 Race Car. At hillclimbs, this is no toy; you better know what you're doing !











Eggbergrennen 2008 - Formula V (Formel V)

Beach, Utz, Kaiman, Formcar











Eggbergrennen 2008 - Formula Cars

GRD Toyota Formula 3


My favourite of the day: Lotus 69 Formula 3


Martini Renault Mk18 F3


NSU Brixner Bergspyder Type 2


Van Diemen Formula Ford

Eggbergrennen 2008

Eggbergrennen 2008

Renault R8 Gordini




Simca Rallye 2 und Rally 3




Ford Escort RS 2000


Lancia Stratos Street Version




Renault Alpine in Works Colouring for the 1973 Rallye Monte Carlo


Ultra-rare: Renault R12 Gordini

Montag, August 25, 2008

ADAC Rallye Deutschland - The real guns

ADADC Rally Deutschland has seen again Seb win. I mean, he is the best guy in the rally scene and deserves the victory. When watching his driving style, it was very visible, that he's quicker than Dani Sordo, Francois Duval and Miko Hirvonnen.

CU in 2010 back in Germany !







ADAC Rallye Deutschland - Slowly Sideways

One of the coolest things: the slowly-sideways folks (check: http://www.slowlysideways.com/) at the ADAC Rallye Deutschland this year. If you want to see a Mini Metro 6R4, Lancia Stratos, Renault 5 Turbo Maxi TdC (Tour de Corse), Audi quattro of Michelle Mouton, Opel Ascona and Porsche 924 Turbo of Walter Röhrl, Lancia Delta HF Integrale (Kenia Version of Hannu Mikola), Toyota Group B etc. then check out where those guys will start next. It's worth it !

























































Sonntag, Juli 13, 2008

Euopean Bug-In 2





European Bug-In







Europen Soccer Championship

Publiv Viewing in Stuttgart

Sonntag, Mai 18, 2008

Thanks for 5000 visitors

The RICHARZZZZ team crew in Hockenheim 2007

Montag, April 28, 2008

Parking Lot

And that's how the parking lot of an F1 race must have looked like 30 years ago :-)
Fiat Abarth 1000 TC Nürburgring, NSU TT, NSU TTS with Spiess setup, Ford Capri 3, some BMW 2002 tii (not the one on the picture), lots of Porsches, Ford Escort RS, BMW 2500 CSL, etc., etc., etc.

Jim Clark Revival - Yeah !!!!

Those were the days ! Real racing for real men !

































Freitag, März 21, 2008

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Egg !

Donnerstag, März 20, 2008

Thanks for 4000 visitors

Did you know, were the charateristic shape of the front bonnet was stolen from? Now you know it. Thanks for 4000 visitors



Please check out my current project@work here: http://westy78.blogspot.com

Sonntag, Januar 27, 2008

Thanks for 3000 visitors

Sonntag, November 25, 2007

Tour d'Alsace

The last sunny days in October were spent with a tour in the french Alsace region.









Sneak Preview

Guess what: the Bitburg Rolling Home impressed me a lot. Here's a sneak-preview of what to expect by next spring.

1978 Champagne Edition Westfalia. Lot's of welding and paint work but very solid interior.

Freitag, Oktober 05, 2007

DAS Drag Day - Rolling Home







Cooooooooooool !!!

Old-Style cars with big engine and modern rims. Our Style !


The orange Wets ist a 1979 Wetsfalia Helsinki of Jens. It's equipped with a 2,1 ltr water cooled flat four out of a T3. Therefore pulling the trailer was no issue for that machinery.

DAS Drag Day

DAS Drag Day #5, 20 -23.9.2007













Mittwoch, August 15, 2007

Welcome to my Blog

You have found my blog, thanks a lot. This blog is about my 1956 Oval Window beetle and how the restauration process went over the last couple of years.





Some data on it in short:
Body: 1956 ragtop beetle (mostly stock)
Modifications: Dashboard with Porsche Speedo and Tach, strengthening elements in the door area, wooden Raid steering wheel, battery under front bonnet, seat heating, Webasto air heating, hidden stereo mounting with a total of 1200 Watts, modified front bonnet lift ups, weld-in air inlet under rear license plate, etc.

Engine: 2176 ccm Type 1 engine (~ 160 PS)
Porsche cooling system, 44 IDF carbs with central air cleaner, Oettinger 78,4 mm crank shaft, Mahle 94 mm Pistons, 044 heads (heavily modified), mild compression ratio, 215 mm clutch, Ahnendorp Road Racing exhaust system, Mercedes Oil cooling (in front of the car below the battery modification to the body), Engle Cam shaft, Melling Oil Pump, Gene Berg Oil Sump

Chassis: 1969 chassis
Modifications: 7x16 Porsche 993 rims in front, 8x16 Porsche rims at the back (under stock fenders !), changed from Swing-Axle to IRS setup, drilled and ventilated disc brakes in front with Type 3 calibers, stock drum brakes at the back, 15 mm anti-roll bar in the front, 14 mm Porsche 924S anti-roll bar at the back (including adjustable camber), Porsche 944 spring plates in the back (adjustable ride height), adjustable front beam with Udo Spiegler front beam support, 1303S gearbox with super diff and gearbox support, Porsche 944 torsion bars at the rear, lowered spindels at the font

Dienstag, August 14, 2007

More Pics





Sonntag, Mai 27, 2007

Videos from Bitburg

Thanks to Salva and Richarzzz, here are some videos from Bitburg from the various runs. Enjoy !

First Run

Second Run

Third Run

Fourth Run

Montag, Mai 21, 2007

Race Day

ok, ok, a 14,8 best time isn't really perfect but at least I got better with each run. And a R/T of 0,042 secs isn't bad either. But for the street eliminators, that was far too slow. The bumbspot was a 13,2 secs and in the SE field, you'd better have a 10 secs car if you're looking for the win.





Travel to Bitburg

The new tow-bar on my Passat worked just fine. In here you can see my style: original car (no body modifications and big wheels (also on my Passat)



Crazy Frog Racing


Sonntag, April 29, 2007

Stance 'bout right

Lookslike the stance front/right is ok now. That's how I like it. Bye the way: some body a good idea on how to paint the rims?







Montag, April 23, 2007

Bitburg Roll-Out - CU There

19.5. - 20.5.2007, Bitburg, Toyo Tires Street Eliminator 2007 Shootout



The very last moving out of the garage of the Oval was back in 2004 at the DAS Drag Day #2. So I thought, why not have the roll-out after finishing it again in Bitburg in the 2007 season. So here we go:



http://www.street-eliminator.de/DRAGRACER28_SE_Shootout2007.pdf




In the 2004 weekend, the throttle cable broke. So I fixed it at place (rela race mechanics stuff :-). After being back in the garage at home, I had to replace the cabling anyhow. I thought: "it would be much easier with the body lifted off the pan". So that was the igniting factor for starting off with the full restoration.

Sonntag, Dezember 10, 2006

Sound Design

Guess where the music will come from? I started building the sound board.

New Garage

A new garage is just a like new life ("Eine neue Garage ist wie ein neues Leben" :-)
Finally my new two door garage is in operation. Enough space.

Donnerstag, Oktober 19, 2006

More Pics





Montag, Oktober 16, 2006

First time Gassi

We took it for a little Gassi going out to the woods of the Schoenbuch (between Stuttgart and Tuebingen). Everything worked fine: no leaking just a little high on the back-end (needs some lowering over the winter; but that's easy thanks to the Porsche 944 Trail Arms) and the front end torsion bar gets contact to the rim. So I'm more than happy that the machinery made it out of the garage for it's 50's anniversary.









Dienstag, Oktober 10, 2006

Some more progress pics





Donnerstag, Oktober 05, 2006

First Time Out

Today it left the Garage for the first time in 2 years on its own wheels. Engine is fired up and needs some fine tuning.





The 'Zielgerade'

Some more progress: windows are in, front-end bumpers etc. are mounted. electrics are done and the heting electrics are done (incl. seat-heating). Please note the semaphores also: the can be activated by a switch and the lamp is blinking together with the driving direction lights. BTW: thanks to my Dad, the semaphores are 12V (no resistor, just simple modification for 12V usage)









Mittwoch, September 13, 2006

Back-end Work

Dashboard finalisation. As it seemed impossible to get a good warn-light switch. I created one of my own.


Rear bumpers installed

Dienstag, August 22, 2006

More Puzzling Games

Looks way cool, but there's only one word for that: "Schweinearbeit" :-)







AArrgghhhh !!! The first scratch !!!

Donnerstag, August 17, 2006

Finally some progress

Believe it or not, after weeks of no operation, I finally have made some progress. And you know what? This is thanks to terror ! Here's my personal story of terror and the benefits I took out of it: I was scheduled for a trip to the US last week. The trip was supposed to be via London. So I entered the Biritsh Airways Flight Stuttgart -> London and arrived at London on 2006/08/10. Yes the day with the big thing at Heathrow. No way of continuing towards the US, so I decided to return to Germany the next day. And my personal benefits out of that are:

1. I did get to visit down-town London (I've never been there). I only can recommend this city. It is by far the most international feeling city I've ever been to. And I have seen all of them: New York, Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco just to name a few.
2. Finally my bedroom is painted terracotta. Maja and me decided to use the rainy sunday for some paint jobs in the bedroom (I said paint jobs !)
3. The fully cleaned up calendar allowed three days of full garage work :-) Results are below

By the way: good job, Scotland Yard ! Thanks a lot.




Cable work is fun ! all black cables :-)







Donnerstag, Juni 08, 2006

Puzzling III

To all readers of this: I'm sorry, but due to the current job situation, progress here and on my oval is pretty slow.

Mittwoch, Mai 31, 2006

Puzzling II

The fuel line is now running through some bulk-head fittings so it gets out of my way and there's more space for other stuff in the engine compartment.





Donnerstag, Mai 18, 2006

Puzzling I

The big Puzzle game starts ! Started to put the pieces back into place. Good news is, that other than for real puzzles, I don't have to make up my mind, where the part might fit :-)




Mittwoch, April 26, 2006

Marriage

Pan and Body are united and married again. After being together for 13 years, then being separated for almost 2 years they married now again for the second time. Whitnesses of the marriage were Jens (Mr. Richarzzz), Joachim (alias Salva) and my Dad. Thanks a lot guys for your great help !









Coming Home

The babe is coming home finally. After some traffic jams, huge rain and enormous consumption of fule (can you imagine the wind forces on a trailer large as that one?), we got the body back from the paint shop. Thanks to my Dad for lending his car and joining me on this trip.









Montag, April 10, 2006

Paint Job is done !

Finally the color is on the car ! Heinz and his crew have finished doing their magic. Now it looks like as if the ball is back in my field and I have to put the puzzle pieces back together.









How it looked once upon a time

The green one is mine. The blue one belongs to Mr. Käptn Blaubär (check our license plates !) and the white one is the one of Gunns.

Sonntag, März 26, 2006

First Paint work done

It is getting ready for the final paint works. Interior is already painted !









Freitag, März 10, 2006

First Primer work is done





So I just recently got some pics from the paint shop, showing where we are at the moment. Basic Primer work is done on body and its almost ready for some paint work.

Sonntag, Februar 12, 2006

Some Chassis impressions

Some impressions from the chassis






And the fully polished Porsche Ventilation







Mittwoch, Oktober 12, 2005

Arriving at the Paintshop

Finally, I got rid of the body and moved it to the paint shop, so that those folks can do their job



Dienstag, April 12, 2005

Front Oil-cooler ventilation

Air-cooled engines need all the cooling they can get. I have mounted an oil-cooler instead of the sapre tire. Above the cooler, you'll find the car's battery. Here are some holes in the front sheet, that allow air to flow to the hidden oil-cooler. The holes are in a perfect straight line. I have no clue, why they look so funny on the picture. Once the front bumper is mounted, there will be a plexiglas between the bumper and the body, that prevents air from flowing under the bumber and then up in between front hood and bumper (it really is a problem). I already had discovered that issue and if you don't believe me, check out German Kaefer-Cup cars.

Samstag, März 12, 2005

The rear hood needs some work

I was in need of a new rear W-decklid. I got that one from a friend of mine (thanks Gunnnns). The decklid was in perfect condition but there was no mounting hole wor the handle. So I had to build a handle whole.
Check out Gunns Blog at: http://narrowedbeam.blogspot.com/




I did build the handle fixing from sheet metal

As the Porsche cooling is in desperate need of fresh air, I did build in some ventilation, that will be hidden behind the license plate.

Freitag, Januar 14, 2005

Get the rest of the color stripped down

Kids: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME ! Your neighbours will kill you. Two days of grinding results in a lot of noise and a lot of dust.






The body is now paint free. The doors and hoods will under go chemical de-painting later on.

Dienstag, Januar 11, 2005

Sandblaster in Action

The next step after the body works were done was to sandblast the body. Sandblasting was only applied to lower portions of the body. For all folks out there: never ever do sandblast the outer and visible body parts. That will kill the body and you can hand it over to the guy of the junk yard ! And don't do this at home !













Samstag, Dezember 11, 2004

The body work starts

Some hard to find and real expensive stuff: original NOS front sides. Obviusly the last ones, that were around in Germany. I did call everybody who is into Volkswagens and only got that pair ! Luck !



Serious Body Work starts:










Back into place:





Rear left side:





And looks like a car almost again



Samstag, September 11, 2004

Getting it down there for Body Work

Getting it to the Body Shop


The great Richarzzz himself.
Watch out his Blog under: http://richarzzz.blogger.de/



The Pan is left over. Engine and Tranny isn't removed

Mittwoch, August 11, 2004

DAS Drag Day 2004

Racing it for the first time: the 2004 DAS Drag Day in Bitburg. Ended up with a 14.7 on the quartermile. It didn't get the point on how NOT to spin the wheels and just get grip and get it going. Next time better luck. At least I got the Golf !









!!! The other cars around are proud members of the GROUNDSPEEDPILOTS !!!

Two weeks after the event, I was in my garage, had some garage beer and said to myself: "Well the little ol' one did well. It deserves being in better shape." So I started to pull it apart the very same evening.

Freitag, März 09, 2001

Step 4: more power, wider Rims

Here's how it looked back in 2001:






It features now a 2165cc Type 1 engine, Kerscher ventilated and drilled brakes, new gearbox mounting and Porsche Cup wheels (16"), 7" on the front, 8" on th rear. Yes it fits under stock fenders, but we did a hell lot of stuff to make it fit (and I won't tell here, what needs to be done). The exhaust is an Ahnendorp Road Racing, carbs are 44 Weber IDF, central air cleaner unit (for noise reduction), etc.

The picture below is actually one of my alltime favourites. Jens and me were working all winter long in parallel. It's his garage, as I didn't have a garage to work on the machinery at that time, so he did get me back into action by lending me space in his holy halls of fame. For those of you who are all-time readers of german VW Speed magazine, Jens is "Käptn Blaubär".


Having learned from the 1776cc step 2 desaster, I asked somebody to build the engine who really knows how to build that stuff: this is Mr. Don Hott of Kramasa ("Kraft Maschinen Spezial Anstalt"). We came up with that KRAMASA name at 4:00am while working for the second full night over week-end on the engine. The engine is just a dream, thanks Don Hott ! And by the way: it is completely street legalized in Germany. And for those of you who already dealt on such things with the german TÜV, you might know what I'm talking about.


Dienstag, Oktober 12, 1993

Step 3: even more power

On old saying goes: "Power can only be replaced by more power!" So we fired up step 2 of the engine build a year later in the search for more power. The same 1776cc, but now ported intake (check them out on the photo). Thanks to Mr. Martin Barth, who did some serious Bihax action on the intakes. Then Pauter Machine stuff, new valves and double springs, a new Camshaft, and a 69mm counterweighted, german Oettinger crankshaft. Lot more power.


But the engine finally prooved some of the sayings, that are around for aircooled engine tune ups. It basically lastet only two Autobahn runs and then was gone. And here's what prooved to be true:

"Only build and engine, if you know what you're doing"
"Making experiences on your own is pretty costly on Type 1 engines"
"A 10 cent piece can ruin thousands of german marks pieces"
"A bissl was bleibt immer übrig, und wenn's nur die Vergaser sann" (Mr. Kurt Hassmann)

Basically, we used the wrong engine case sealing. The sealing material dried out in the oil, closed the oil pump and that was it. The only remaining pieces of that engine were the carbs and the exhaust system. The rest was just gone. 10 cent mistake !!!!

So the engine was replaced by a stock and brand new 1600cc, were we fitted the carbs and the exhaust system. That's how it lastet for another 2 years. During that time, I was in my studies of mechanical engineering and couldn't afford a garage nor a sceond daily driver. So the car was used as a daily driver for four full years (including two winters), which didn't help in overall condition. In 1996, I had to decide to focus on my studies and on my job later on. I decided to stock the car in my parents garage. It lastet there for 4 years until spring 2000. In 2000, my job brought me back to the Stuttgart area, where I rejoined some of my closest friends. One of those guys (thanks Jens) motivated me, to get the thing back on the road and have some fun. So did I and the 1600c made it back on the road.

Freitag, März 12, 1993

Step 2: the need for more power

A stock 1500cc engine isn't too much fun for some serious german Autobahn action, so the need for more power was there. This is step 1 of my 1776cc Type 1 engine. Very solid engine building, roughly 110 horsepowers (german DIN) an a lot of fun to drive. Yep, I got the GTIs on the black forest roads :-)



Donnerstag, März 12, 1992

Step 1: How it looked like back in 1992

That is how the machinery looked like back in 1992 after the resoration. It featured 5,5x15 Lemmerz steel wheels, 195/50 on front, 195/60 on back, a single muffler, Scirocco GTI seats, no rear seats, a 1500cc stock engine with some paint work, etc.




This is actually a family picture from 1992. Me and my two brothers with their beetles. The 1963 and the 1303 S. Can you imagine, three bothers in beetles (BIB=brothers in beetles). We drove our parents nuts, as there was always something towork on and the garages were always filled with beetles and parts. The 1303 S got some paint work and tuning later on. It still is owned by my brother but didn't see the daylight for some years now. Later on he purchased a 1966 T1 Samba, which never got restored, as it was just a piece of crap, so he switched over to a 1977 T2 camper. My other brother changed the 1963 for a 1975 T2 window bus (yellow and white; really nice machinery)



Montag, März 09, 1992

How it all started

After the 1963 was in good condition, I decided not to drive it through the hard winters of the black forest (the area I originate from). So I was out looking for a car, that would serve well for the winter driving. What's better in winter than a beetle so I looked for one. I found a 1969 standard beetle, that an old man did sell. First looks showed good condition so I purchased it and had a bargain in mind. Guess what: the car wasn't stylish enough for me, so new paint job and stuff should have been applied before the winter. I did put it apart and found out, that the body was just a piece of crap. The old man did a real good job of 'modelling' a beetle body just by plastics :-(

So threw away the body and rethought what to do. There was a good pan left from the huge amount of parts and I was all fired up for having an oval window body on a newer pan with high-power engine. Very hot those days (and still hot these days).


My Dad, my brother and me at the re-union.




On this one you can see my Mom. I really can hear her when she asks stuff like "what kind of little thing is this down there? Did you forget to remove that?". Then we go "Muuuum". And she goes "Ok, do you folks need some coffee and some brownies out here? It's freezing cold, you better come in and warm yourself up a little bit."


This is Norman, a close friend, who helped a lot during those days.

Freitag, März 09, 1990

Getting infected by the Virus

It all started back in 1988. I was 16 years old and was desperately in need for a car, because there were only 2 years left, until I will get my drivers license. You see, it was urgent :-)
So I was out searching for an Opel Kadett C Coupe. That was a hot car at that time (nad it still is, at least I think so). But I ended up purchasing a 1963 beetle Export which was sitting on a 1968 pan. It had wide rims, sporty steering wheel and some more bells and whistels, that you need, when being 16. Although in quite qood shape, I decided to have it repainted. Some months of work and a good paint job in the garage, my brother used to work in and I was ready for driving on my own and see what the chicks will be about my new toy.
Anyhow, the beetle virus was there and I was infected. So the story continued by putting a Sauer&Sohn exhaust (completely opened up the outer exhaust outlets ==> very loud :-) and other fancy stuff.







Some time later (when I started working on the Oval), my brother used to drive it for some time and then sold the car. The guy who bought it decided some months later, that such an old car doesn't fit his needs and sold it to a wreck yard (can you imagine: perfect condition on a wreck yard). Luckily enough, the wreck yard guy realized what he has in hands and sold it for a ways higher price he purchased it. That's when I lost track of the car. I'm in hope, that the car is still around somewhere in G.ermany. Actually if somebody knows about, where the car is now, please notice me, as I'm interested to buy the car back. It once used to have the german licence plate of "WT-ZV 13".