dune buggies and hotVWs January 2020

As you may already know, the Volkswagen Beetle was originally developed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche through Germany’s “People’s Car” program in the 1930s. It was established for German workers, giving them the opportunity to own an affordable car. The “People’s Car” (“Volkswagen” in German) program was originally a project undertaken at Hitler’s request. While Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was running a small design office, the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler’s price demand for the “People’s Car”; Hitler requested the car to be sold at 1,000 Reichsmarks or less (the cheapest cars sold for over 3000RM at the time). However, Porsche had a proposal which attracted Hitler and was accepted by the German Labor Front (DAF: Deutsche Arbeitsfront). Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s dream of building a car for everyone was becoming…

Teach them young, they say. Easily said. But everybody knows that puberty can change everything. The greatest, young baseball talents turn into party people with focus on the other sex, or the beloved violin or piano turns into an unused apartment decoration. You may know it from yourself or your kids. Jill Kemp is different. The young lady started racing at age 11 in 2006 and finished her first complete season in a 230hp Beetle last year! And no, she’s not obsessed with Motorsport. She received her high-school diploma, started studying at the University and finished her bachelor’s degree in marketing, now doing her master’s degree in marketing and communication. But let’s go back to 1995. Sabine and Thomas Kemp took their little 3-month-old girl to her first drag race, where…

12V Conversion for a 36 Horse Hi Jon, I am driving a 1957 Oval Window, all stock, running a 36hp motor. I am trying to keep everything original, but would love to upgrade the electrical system to 12 volts. I’ve seen several 36hp motors with a 12-volt system before. What do I need? Thanks Steve Stormer San Jose, CA Steve, we did one of these conversions in our shop a while back, so I’m familiar with it. In our case we found someone to “rewind” the armature of the generator to be 12 volts. Finding an “old timer” to do this for you may be a little challenging, but they are out there. Another, but more expensive way, would be to find a generator from a 356 Porsche. They are the same diameter as…

As we shared last month, it’s been a pretty active car show season here in the Midwest this year, with new shows popping up alongside old favorites on the calendar. In the new show category, we decided to make a run for the border, and head on over into Canada for the Bayfield Volkfest. Now in its 5th year, Bayfield Volkfest has grown from a small gathering of enthusiasts to a burgeoning festival of Woodstock proportions! Volkfest is held each year on the last Sunday of September in Bayfield, Ontario, in Clan Gregor Square, the center of this quaint picturesque village on the shores of Lake Huron, about an hour northeast of Port Huron/Sarnia. Volkfest began in the mind of Ryan Somers, a Bayfield local who is a huge Bus enthusiast.…

When you have been in the VW scene for a long time and way too many VWs have passed through your hands, I think you tend to get a little jaded. Over the years, I have spent time behind the wheel of most every model of air-cooled VW and love them all deeply, but the human mind always likes to chase a challenge. I have found that some of the most enjoyable chases have been for things that are difficult to catch. Fishing is no fun if the fish just jump in the pan and fry themselves up for you… You need that long drawn out battle to really feel some satisfaction in achieving the goal. It’s for this very reason I have decided to chase something that I will…

Buses were first produced as prototypes in 1949, and then as production models in 1950. These first Split versions were produced at the factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Over the next 26 years, there were over 2 million Buses built in factories on four continents with the last Split being made in Brazil in 1975. By the ‘60s, Type 2s were sold in almost all the first world countries and most of the third world countries, but the second world [the industrial socialist states that were under the influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War – Ed.] got none. The vast majority of Buses we see in the USA are German-produced models, as those were the only ones originally imported and sold in the USA. Even when VW was making…