dune buggies and hotVWs September 2022

I am writing this Semaphore column on the aircraft, a day after July 4th, on the way home from a memorable European trip. What a VW event marathon we went through during the last six weeks! We attended 15 major events every weekend in California, Germany, and Belgium. While in Europe between shows, I also visited many Volkswagen-related places: AutoMuseum Volkswagen, Autostadt's Volkswagen theme park, Old-timer Center, Volkswagen Classic Karmann Collection, and others. In total, I was out of the office for 25 days between May 28th and July 5th. I am still overwhelmed by what I've gone through. International travel was something we all missed for a while. This European trip was my first long-distance trip since the pandemic started over two years ago. My VW event marathon started with Sacramento's…

As VW nuts, we all know just how special these cars are and what their impact on the world has been. While American cars seem to be the primary focus at most automotive museums and events in our country, there are times where our friends the VWs are celebrated amongst the best. On a recent trip to the fabulous Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, I wandered through the halls and rooms of the building and enjoyed every bit of the vehicles on display. From the wildest of modern supercars to the antiquated contraptions of the earliest days of motoring, it all truly entertained me to the core. What pleased me most however was the fact that I saw some old friends amongst the displays. Not only were there a few VWs…

VW clubs have been around southern California for the last 50 years and more. The club scene has been the lifeline of the Cal Look and every other style applied to the Beetle. Back in the '60s, many types of Volkswagen clubs were around - even one just for couples! It was called Continental couples and was meant for mostly married VW owners to engage in events with their Beetles and of course each other. There were many of what I call city clubs, as in VW clubs that used the city they were located in as their club name. Some examples are Santa Ana Volks and Newport Beach Volkswagen Association. A lot of VW clubs used some form of German name and many misused the German words. But nobody cared,…

Fuel Filter Hey Jon, I'm using a 1600cc dual-port engine. I am wondering about the best location to install a fuel filter. I see some folks using a filter between the fuel pump and the carb, but several friends said that's a fire hazard. Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you. Michael Anderson Tempe, AZ Michael, a fuel filter can be both a hazard and a benefit, and you have to decide which location will serve you best. Most folks do put them between the fuel pump and the carburetor. This works well because any particles from either fuel lines or other components are caught just prior to plugging up your carburetor. I would recommend the plastic kind (not glass) and make sure that the fuel line you are using is a nice tight fit for…

For our fourth and final column on Westfalia campers (for now at least), we will cover the rest of the kits from ‘62ish until the end of the German Split Bus production in ‘67. Later on, like next year or so, we will cover some of the OTW (Other Than Westfalia) campers. There were so many conversions that we could spend an entire year on the subject without getting to the end of it. For 1962, Westfalia introduced two new kits, which were basically different applications of the same kit. The SO-22 and SO-33 kits. SO-22 was previously the designation for late camping boxes, but now it morphed into the evolution of the layout of the ‘58 and later SO-23 kits. The SO-33 was the fuller version of the same with…

Christian Stelzer's 1303 is an icon among German Look fans. The Super Beetle was first featured in 1996 in VW Speed, the magazine I just started to work for back then. Photographer Krishna Lahoti's spectacular action shots did the car justice and the poster included in that issue graced many bedrooms and workshops. Since then the 1973 sunroof Bug was featured in almost every VW magazine around the world and was even featured in hotVWs contributor Stephan Szantai's book “Demon Bugs”. It won the German Drift Challenge in 2003 and a Top 20 award at the famous Volks World Show in England in 2004. You can always recognize it thanks to its Marathon Blue paint and the gold-colored BBS wheels. The untrained eye may think it didn't change a bit since then,…