Sometimes an annoying situation can turn into a golden opportunity, as evidenced by my latest photo session.
My supervisor is a really good guy, but he frequently has the bad habit of sending me out on an errand to one of our other facilities just an hour or so before lunch. As a result, I am often forced to spend extra money buying my lunch nearby ( unless I want to go hungry ), when I already have free home-packed vittles sitting in the fridge back at the shop. The only good that comes out of this is the fact that it often presents a prime CC photo opportunity, as evidenced by these two air-cooled German machines.
First up is this 1966 Beetle, owned by one of the guys who works at this facility. Prior to this he owned a mint red one, but for whatever reason, he liked this one better. As a result, he sold the red one and snagged this. Many might question one’s decision to give up their clean vintage car in favor of a slightly rougher version of the same vehicle, but to each his or her own.
I wasn’t able to get any shots of the engine, but I have peeked under the lid on a prior visit. The engine compartment is the cleanest part of the car. The air cleaners, engine pulleys, and remote breather assembly are all black wrinkle finish billet aluminum with machined ribs. The fuel lines and wires are all meticulously routed, and everything in there is spotless. The owner says the engine is the original 1300, which the previous owner had professionally rebuilt. It sports dual port heads and a very mild performance cam, fed by a pair of small Weber downdraft carbs. When I teased him about the small engine, he said he needed something economical. Given the fact that his regular daily driver is a lifted Ford F150 Supercab with 5.4 liter Triton V8 power underhood, I can’t say that I blame him.
The interior is pretty clean also. Sharp eyed readers may spot the small-diameter custom steering wheel, as well as the aftermarket billet shifter.
The owner of this ’66 makes no bones about how much he despises the later Super Beetles. His level of sheer, unabashed hatred for Supers rivals Paul’s disdain for malaise-era big Fords. When I told him about this blog article, he made it clear that I’d better post his car first- or else. He still isn’t terribly thrilled about having his “real” Beetle sharing page space with a “bastard” Super.
Which brings us to our next subject- the infamous Super Beetle. Loved by some and reviled by others, this car is the source of much rivalry and trash-talk. Standard Beetle fans and Super Beetle fans often go at each other with the same religious fervor of UCLA vs. USC fans. I myself am biased towards the Super, but I know that many aren’t, and I respect that. Among Airheads, the Super Beetle appears to be quite a polarizing vehicle. Its fans praise it for its improved handling and ride quality ( thanks to its Macpherson strut suspension, rather than the standard Beetle’s torsion bar setup ), while its detractors view it more as the illegitimate half-sibling that is barely tolerable, much less lovable.
I don’t know anything about this car, and neither do the other guys. It belongs to one of the personnel who works in the main building and frequently drives it there. It looks and sounds all stock, though.
The large curved windshield denotes it as a ’73 or later, so it could be either carbureted or fuel injected. Are there any Super Beetle experts here who can clear this up?
Look at that interior. What a difference a decade makes!
Related reading: 1966 VW 1300 CC “The Best Beetle Of Them All”
What did this guy dislike so much about his Super Beetle? I’ve never driven a Beetle or Super Beetle, so I don’t know what either are like.
Aficionados of the VW Bug saw them as the “peoples” car, much like the Ford Model T was. The Super Beetle is seen as becoming unnecessarily more plush and expensive.
What I know is that the engines would all need rebuilt at about 60 to 80 thousand miles, making them no more reliable than the Northstar V8, and probably less so.
Ah! That makes sense. While I’ve never owned or driven a rear-engined VW Beetle, I grew up knowing what they are, and what they look like. I prefer the old VW Beetle over the New Beetle, that Volkswagen produced and released to the public in 1997.
As a die hard air cooled VW fanboi it tooks me decades to accept the Super Beetle , it’s O.K. , not bad atall , just different .
If you give me the first 1/2 id the VIN I can tell you what year it is , that yellow one is carburated .
I see City trucks in the ‘photos , did you know that L.A. DWP had TWO 1971 Super Beetles ? both had sunroofs and factory spin on oil filters , I bought the last one when it was salvaged with only 25,000 original miles on it .
FWIW, twin port 1300’s are pretty good , speedy off the line but less top end power for passing .
Original air cooled VW engines easily passed 150,000 miles unless you beat it to death or flat refused to maintain it’s mandatory 3,000 mile HOT oil changes and COLD valve adjustments .
-Nate
I agree. Besides that, I’m not a fan of fuel injection, unless the engine is diesel powered.
As one of the ranks of Beetle “uninitiated” I find the year-to-year differences hard to spot, and it often takes me more than one glance to determine a Super from a “standard” Beetle. But wow…that interior difference really is night and day. Clean, artfully designed 60’s function against a black mass of seriously ugly 70’s plastic. The super’s interior is undoubtedly safer since that dash appears to be padded…but man. That’s pretty terrible.
I get what the guy is mad about with having a Super Beetle near his prize. It’s basically like putting an original Renoir piece next to its reprint. It looks the same, but the details and reactions are different. That being said, I hate the interiors and external trim details on the Supers, but I don’t like the front suspension and embedded headlights of the original Beetle. For my personal tastes I’d commit sacrilege and lift the interior from a pre-1968 and put in in a Super Beetle. Don’t judge me. The interiors of the Supers are damned small even for a person like myself who’s 5’5″, justifying me removing some bulk.
The Super Beetle is a 1973 – Texas yellow with small bumpers and the rounded “throne” seats. Fuel Injection came in 1975, and most of these cars that are left seem to have the FI yanked for carb(s). The Supers were very sensitive to wheel balance; I didn’t think they were any more comfortable than the Standard. I prefer the Standard Beetle for it’s relative simplicity and purity of design, but my early adult life abounded in Super Beetles and I have a soft spot for them as well.
Agreed with Nate, all you had to do was change the oil (hot) and adjust the valves (cold), and these would live for 150K or more. Even saw 200K out of a 1975 with FI.
All I really know is that someone I knew who had one, probably from the 60’s, said that the engines would need overhauled at about 70,000 mile intervals. But perhaps his problem was not adjusting the valves. There was someone who specialized in overhauling the engines in this area, so that was a common problem.
Yeah, Fred, the part of one’s “deal” with a Beetle was a strong commitment to the 3K mile oil and valve adj. service. If you held your end of the deal the car would serve reliably for many, many miles. OTH, we had a neighbor who did neither, and he’d just go out and buy a new one every 2 years/40K miles later when the engine seized.
My friend with the Beetle said that the valves would fail and then the engine needed rebuilt. Someone else who had a VW Bus with the same engine also said the engines needed rebuilt periodically for much the same reason. He was at the Space Flight Center when I worked there a few summers, so really did not know him well.
Sadly, the only Beetle I’ve ever ridden in (that I recall) was a taxi in Mexico when I was younger, and I think it was a ’93. Probably the 1600 engine.
Weren’t the engine rebuilds on Beetles something you had to do at 100,000 miles?
I thought I heard that was part of the SOP.
I never knew of that hatred towards Super Beetles. I thought Beetle fans liked them all mostly equally.
I personally would rather have the original. It’s so much prettier and had some nice details. The older the better.
Split windows are gorgeous.
Both these Beetles are nice though. Like the steering wheel and the fairly tasteful modifications. The wheels aren’t bad even.
My dad has a friend who is also a Volkswagen fan, and constantly buys mint Beetles or Buses and just changes them. Must be a Beetle owner thing lol.
Hope to some day own a Beetle. I’ve looked at them before but they can pricey.
There’s also my worry of whether they’ll be adequate for freeway use.
Thanks for the read!
I prefer the older Beetles myself, but then I’m biased since I came home from the hospital in my dad’s ’61 Beetle, and it was the first car I (sort of) drove. The earlier Bugs and Kombis had an honest simplicity about them, and they never fail to make me smile whenever I see one.
I had a ’68 1300, a ’71 1302 (super beetle with flat windshield and one of my friends had a Super Beetle with the curved windshield as featured here.
There is no way to swap the regular beetle’s dash into the Super Beetle’s interior. That would limit Jon “Vee” H. to choose the 1302.
I don’t miss any of them. The heat exchangers burnt through in all of them, fuel consumption was high, the brakes were awful, the front suspension wore out easily in the regular beetles and the Super Beetle’s strut towers were prone to develop cracks. And that is on top of the early engine failures because the 3rd cylinder didn’t get enough air cooling.
That ’66 is pretty cool though. It needs a “Blaupunkt Frankfurt” monaural radio like this one:
So simple but so beautiful… love that thing.
In my old W108 Benz, I had a classic – and fully functional – Becker Europa stereo that I… (god, it kills me to even write this)… ripped out… to put in a cheapo Best Buy CD player, and then lost somehow.
I was a teenager and stupid, but I know that’s no excuse. I recognized how cool the Becker was, but actually being able to listen to CDs was more important to me at the time. Music in the car is still important to me, but nowadays you can rig up some kind of iPod/MP3 player connection to just about anything – or get a portable transmitter at the very least. I still wonder what the hell happened to that stereo. I don’t think they’re even all that rare or pricey, but what a stupid waste of a classic piece. Think I probably left it in the trunk of another car I had at the time that got junked 🙁
What I wouldn’t give for a vintage Mercedes-Benz, even a Diesel model, with a fully-functional Becker Europa radio.
E-bay.
I googled for that picture and I found a number of pictures with vintage radios stacked high.
Anyone need a primitive GM radio out of a 86 Cavalier? Let me know.
Ha! Amazingly, out of all the car junk I’ve tossed out (accidentally or on purpose) over the years, I still have the crappy Audiovox “dealer option” analog AM/FM/Cassette player from my ’89 Cavalier.
Anybody need one of those, or brand new brake rotors for a mid-80s G-body? Those are both taking up space here for no good reason.
If mid 80’s G-body rotors fit a late 70’s A-body (likely given they’re the same platform, just renamed) then I could probably give them a good home…
66 beetle was my first new car. Had more pep than it had a right to. Paul said it had a bigger engine and same as 65 and earlier transaxle. I am sure he was right and it sure would get “off the line” quickly. Statements about the valve settings and oil changes are right I think but the beauty of these is that an engine change was only four nuts (or bolts, I forget) and a very few wires/cables. Engine light enough that engine changes were very easy and simple.
Good or bad they were what I needed while young and in the Navy. Owned 3-4 pre 68 models and possibly 3, newer ones. Never a super beetle. They got complicated the newer you had. The book “for the compleat idiot” got me through.
I didn’t know about this regular Beetle vs. Super rivalry and that it was so intense. I understand completely though — I almost didn’t open the article because it wasn’t a Super Beetle and then bam… nice save!
The wrap-around windshield and beefier trunk helped the proportions and worked better with the big bumpers (it’s a ’73, the mounts in ’74 changed to struts). The SB was able to modernize and at the same time connect the car more closely to the Porsche 356. Functionally it provided better visibility, more airy-ness and was safer.
That ’66 Beetle is really well done. Great colors, wheels and just the right amount of accessorization. Looks like an older restoration (or at least a repaint) that has had a chance to age, which would be my preferred way of owning one of these. Old Beetles don’t look right when the paint and chrome are too shiny.
I wonder if rebuilding a Beetle engine was cheaper than changing the timing belt with the other things often/usually done at the same time like water pumps?
I remember speaking with a guy who said he stuck with an older version of the Falcon 250 engine because it was cheaper to rebuild than the overhead cam version – now that is long-term ownership planning!
Dunno about cheap a rebuilt 1600 twinport was $1200 in Sydney in 91 I put one in a van for a friend, but I bought a good running Falcon 250 and 3speed box for $75.00 cheap as chips and the go for a while too unlike VW motors.
Rebuilds were cheap and frequent if not done well. If you bought one of the factory rebuilds they lasted a long time. Kennedy Engineered Products would supply you with plates and flywheels to let you put a big selection in the back in place of the air cooled units.
My favorite was the “road cow” which was a van with a 1700+ Toyota four and any of the Pinto Beans (Ford Pinto Engines) racers. Honda ran backwards but Bryce says the gearboxes are a cinch to reverse and I believe him. I have seen mid engined sbc engines so just about anything is possible. Subaru swaps are popular but no real advantage over some of the others IMO. I suppose KEP still exists and looking at the selection is an eye opener ref what is possible.
The super beetles were not so respected because they had a batch of glitches when they came out. It was time to go with something else and a water cooled rear engine would probably have done well. The technology was certainly there.
Or, how about ditching the air-cooled engine and putting in a water-cooled engine? Perhaps a Subaru boxer engine?
Yeah the fit fine or a Essex V4/V6 will go in ok radiator in the spare tray up front.
Possibly. While it may take away from the originality of the car, I would think a water-cooled engine would be more reliable than an air-cooled engine.
I’ll never understand the Beetle vs. Super Beetle war that rages in VW circles. I’ve always kinda liked the Super Beetle a little better myself. To anyone who isn’t a fanatic, they look virtually the same.
I also love those (EMPI?) wheels on the non-Super Beetle, but why so low? That’s another thing I’ll never understand.
The first new car I purchased was a 1973 Super Beetle; it was marginally more comfortable and easier to drive than the ’61 VW that my friend operated from 11th grade through his college graduation. However, many of the things that made the early VW’s rewarding to drive, such as fuel economy and the devil may care attitude, were not present in the one I bought. Apparently the effort to meet the increasingly strict emissions standards sucked the vitality out of the VW aircooled engine; the one I had barely topped 20 MPG. I could have lived with the poor mileage but the driveability was terrible and the thing had no power whatsoever. You could get it up to 65-70 on the highway but it took a while to get there. I was happy to get rid of it after a year or so; of course I replaced it with a Vega so you might say my automotive losing streak continued.
@ Just Plain Joe :
Yes , after the 1971 models came out with the twin intake port 1600 , the drivability and economy tanked along with terrible emissions due to retarded ignition timing and too small jets in the SMOG compliant 34PICT carby ~ however , it turned out that VW knew what they were doing , the notched timing mark had been changed to 3° ATDC (!) but the pulley also had a ” smoosh ” on it to the left a bit that was the base TDC mark so if you had a decent timing light you’d connect all those damn vacuum hoses and run it up to 3,200 RPM and set the timing dynamically to 32° all in and guess what ? it now ran O.K. and still easily passed the emissions test ( @ 2 % CO & under 700 PPM HC , I always ran them below 500 PPM HC) plus it got 32 MPG’s like it was designed to do .
Further simple tweaking by opening the idle jet from the factory g50 to the correct g65 made it idle perfectly even in cold weather and opening the main jet up from the stock 125 or 127.5 (depends where the car was sold new) to 130 , gave you over 5 HP and made the little car come alive in a big way .
Someone here bought my old ’67 # 113 DeLuxe Beetle and was amazed at how well it drove , after he rebuilt it’s old 1600 engine he retained my modified carby and dizzy and likes the way it drives .
He even took the time to ever so carefully hand scrape off the awful copper paint job my buddy who’d bought it new and sold it to me had sprayed on in 1982 and Lo ! the original beige paint was in VGC with a few primer spots here & there , I’d re painted it but as he said ” it’s only original once Nate ” .
I _hate_ primer & rusty patina .
Most Super Beetles came with ” Freeway Flyer ” final drive ratio of 3.73 IIRC and that tranny is a direct drop in for any 1969 > Beetle , making the car happy to cruise @ 75 MPH all day long , even in Death Valley .
They’re dead simple cars , ruined by mandatory smog tuning .
I’ve never had one fail a smog test after my simple modifications .
The fuel injected Beetles had the vastly improved AFC FI system , simple and direct , trouble free it was dead easy to tune it for more power or extreme economy and still passed smog testing either way .
Still and all , I’d prolly want a pre ’56 36HP Beetle was I ever to buy another .
No wait ~ I’d want a ’68 AutoStick Shift with sun roof and single port 1600 and dual Brosol Solex Kadron carbys .
No wait , I’d want another ’69 Tip III Fast Back with the B-W M35 three speed fully automatic tranny and original Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection .
No wait , I’d want a ,
Oh never mind , too many choices and all were very good to me even when I drove them mercilessly in the Third World sh*tholes I lived in back then .
Even the raggedy ’48 Standard Beetle Nigel sold me , was a fun and reliable car , ” push and pray ” mechanical brakes and all .
-Nate
Your mention of the mods to make the VW run better triggered a memory for me. My friend, the one who drove the ’61 VW for many years, had a “VW Guy” in our hometown who knew how to improve driveability and so forth. As it happened I was a little reluctant to have the mods performed until after the warranty ran out. My the time that occurred I found that I could sell the VW (this was the 1974 fuel crisis) for more than I had paid for it. The only time I have ever made money selling a car.
It’s odd the things you can remember 40 years on. Apparently by the time my Super Beetle came out there was a law requiring that the heater/defroster controls be illuminated. Volkswagen accomplished this by having a miniature light on the bottom of the dash that was aimed in the general direction of the heater levels.
I’ve never liked the US govt deciding how safe a car has to be in order to meet their safety standards. It’s not the *car’s* fault that people get into accidents or get hurt. it’s the *driver’s* fault. The driver is responsible for what the car does, and if he’s too drunk, or too reckless, guess what? He shouldn’t be driving. And about the emissions standards cars have to meet in order to be sold here is un-realistic at best. I like to breathe clean air as much as anyone, but is it really possible to completely eliminate all the pollution that comes out the tailpipe of a car? Or how about the polluting emissions that come out of a factory chimney?
You’ve conveniently left out the folks in the car that innocently get hit by the drunks and idiots, or a riding in their cars. If drunks and idiots only ever killed themselves, I (and the govt.) might buy into your argument a bit more readily.
But you’re right: “he shouldn’t be driving”. Maybe the govt. will find a way to keep him from doing so? I wouldn’t mind, actually. I’d rather not have one cross the center line at me.
You’re right. There are people who get drunk; the reckless show little to no regard for their own safety or others. I believe they’re the 1%, and they shouldn’t be driving or operating machinery. 99% of us simply want to get from point A to point B safely as possible.
Drunks alone account for some 33% of all traffic fatalities. The rest are mostly by folks doing stupid shit that they shouldn’t. I don’t know where you get the 1% number. What makes more sense is to say that about 99% of fatalities are caused by drinking and driver error. There’s almost no such thing as an “accident”; they’re almost all “negligents”.
I agree. I’ve had my share of accidents, but I’ve always been sober.
I’ve had my share of driving accidents, but thankfully none of them fatal, to either myself or the other person.
Big +1 – in a perfect world, I’d agree with what Jason is saying with regards to safety, but we don’t live in anything resembling a perfect world. Ultimately, though, there’s very few safety features that are in any way a real detriment to the driving experience. Airbags are most of the weight, but it’s not really that significant. ABS, traction control, ESP, lane departure warning, etc. all weigh next to nothing. Crumple zones don’t weigh any more than non-crumple zone unibody shells… if you can have these things, why wouldn’t you want them?
I do wish there was some way to buy new specialty cars, like a Caterham 7, that could never possibly jive with safety standards. Some kind of system where you can only drive a very low number of miles on public roads per year and would be required to insure the crap out of yourself and assume more liability in order to get it on the road. The only problem is there really wouldn’t be any way to enforce it. Not that anyone is really going to drive an Ariel Atom or something 20k miles a year anyway…
As far as emissions go, I can’t see why anyone would want to get rid of those regulations either. It’s not like they’ve prevented engines from becoming insanely powerful or anything. I do think that a lot of people have unrealistic and overblown ideas about just how much cars contribute to pollution compared to industry and other forms of transportation, but who really cares? That’s just annoying at most. If you could have a dirty 400hp engine or a clean 400hp engine, why wouldn’t you rather have the clean one?
Hey Sean. I agree. We don’t live in a “perfect world”. As long as we humans drive or operate machinery, we’ll always have to deal with people who are drunk, reckless, or just plain idiots.
I would love to have a clean burning 400hp engine. I would give anything to drive a clean burning diesel engine. But is it even possible to achieve? As long as an engine is running, it has to have some form of outlet to relieve some pressure, otherwise the engine may destroy itself.
I don’t like the way Super Beetles look and I don’t like how they drive. The front end is feels too light and I really hate that dash and wrap around windshield of the 73+. I like the earlier stuff. Same way in that I like how the earlier split window Buses drive vs the bay window. To the casual observer they may “all look the same” but just like ANY other car, to the enthusiast they are not. It’s like asking someone with a 66 Mustang “Why don’t you like Mustang IIs? They are small and kinda similar and all. It’s still a Mustang.” Not to the enthusiast.
As far as the reliability I can tell you first hand that with proper maintenance they last way longer than 60k. Not doing the maintenance and complaining that they don’t last long is like buying a car that requires premium fuel but putting regular in it and complaining that it runs like crap or buying a turbo car and not using the proper oil and saying that it’s junk because the turbo blew up.
Finally, I would rather have something not perfect vs a completely restored car. The slightly rough car is much more enjoyable to own if you like to drive it. You don’t cringe when it rains or you hear a rock chip the paint. It’s just much less stressful.
That’s not really a great comparison. There’s much less difference between Regular/Super Beetle than there is between Mustang I/Mustang II. The latter were two entirely different cars with similar names, the Super Beetle was just a revised version of the earlier Beetle.
Obviously there’s reasons to prefer one or the other. I like the looks of the original slightly better as I’m sure most people do, but I also like the upgrades that the Super Beetle received. I can’t really speak to how one drives versus the other, and maybe that would change my mind, but I’ve always thought the consensus was that the revised front suspension was a huge upgrade, no?
Anyway – what I’m saying is, I don’t get how these relatively subtle changes could elicit such strong emotions. Preference is one thing, even very strong preference, but the Beetle vs. Super war is another thing entirely. The Super Beetle is still at least 80% of the same car that the final Beetles were. How could you love one more than life itself and passionately hate the other?
I agree. I like the look of the Beetle over the Super Beetle, but I like the more upgraded interior of the 70s Beetle. Since I’ve never driven either, I can’t make a decision either way.
Well how do you know they are subtle changes? What may look like subtle changes to yu may be huge to me.
Ok, they look like they have a swollen nose. The front end shimmies and feels like it’s floating on air. The 73+ dash doesn’t look or feel like a Beetle.
The entire feel of the steering is different. That’s not some minor change. It makes it a very different car to drive.
You act like you know everything about them despite never getting behind the wheel.
The Super has it’s fans and I don’t begrudge them in the least. If that’s what you like, great. I give you a wave from my ’59 and welcome you to my VW show.
However, the consensus with many people is what I have stated above. It doesn’t drive like a real Beetle. IMO it was a last ditch effort to try to update the by the 1970’s hopelessly out of date Beetle and it shows.
See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. How did my comment possibly elicit this response?
I certainly don’t know everything about them, but I do have eyes – and they’ve spent the last 30 years looking at many other cars in addition to only air-cooled Volkswagens. Generally, when two cars share nearly the same exact sheetmetal from the cowl back, and similar sheetmetal in front of that, people would say they look similar. Very similar, even. In the regular person world, this is also not considered an offensive statement. The looks are entirely subjective, but try looking at it from a perspective other than your own for a moment. The difference amounts to little more than a significant mid-cycle refresh on any other regular car.
I don’t even really have a preference between the two. If we were in some fictional scenario where I was going to be given one or the other and had to choose, I’d probably go 21st finger on it. I love both of them, and both early and late OG Beetles, and Mexican Beetles for that matter.
I like the styling on the original better, enough that I might rather have one of those for that reason alone. But I still think the Super Beetle is almost as good looking, and the suspension, steering and fuel-injected engine make it slightly more appealing in some ways. Both dashboards are cool, I don’t really have a preference even though the original is obviously more iconic.
Is anything I said here really worth getting pissed off about? Is this really the same Adam Simpson who wrote that nice article about his ’59 Beetle?
I didn’t mean it to be so offensive.
You said you don’t understand how someone could love one and hate the other. I felt I was just trying to explain.
Again, not trying to be a jerk but I’m just explaining as if someone was with me in person and asked why I don’t like a Super Beetle. I have my reasons.
1. They don’t feel the same with the changed front suspension. I’ve driven a few of them and I just don’t like how they feel. I’m sorry if that’s offensive but that’s how I feel.
2. When I’m behind the wheel of a 1973+ it just doesn’t feel like a Beetle to me with that dash.
3. I don’t like the looks of the front end.
I understand how they look the same to the general public. You see in classifieds all the time that someone has a 1973 and wants 10k for it because they saw another Beetle sell for that much (but it was a 1960)
To the non-enthusiast, it’s basically the same car but to a VW crazy, it’s not. I’ve had to try to explain this to a few people as to why they are getting clowned for asking so much money for their car.
No, Beetles did not have major changes like many other cars but to VW weirdos, the relatively small changes are major ones.
Don’t interpret this as vehement hate. 99% of the time the guy driving the ’55 oval window Beetle who hates Super beetles will stop and help the guy driving a ’73 stranded on the shoulder.
I had a good friend who LOVED Super Beetles. That’s all he would drive. In fact only 1975 and later ones because he wanted the rack and pinion steering, the fuel injection “I hate foolin’ with them damn carbs (or caaabs as he’d say it) and the bigger “double” heater boxes.
He’d give me hell about my clackety “horse and buggy” front end and ask me if I needed his coat so I didn’t freeze since his car was all warm inside and I’d ask him how far along until his Beetle gave birth since we’d joke that it looked pregnant with that poofy hood and joke that his car was so new it was still under warranty. All in good fun. Cancer took him a few years ago and I miss seeing those Supers of his pulling into the cruise-ins.
Sorry to write a novel. I get carried away when it comes to these things.
I’ve spent time in a Super Beetle and yes the front end felt light. I’ve wondered what could be done to address that in terms of ride height adjustments and wider wheels/tires.
Seems like most of the regular Beetles around here have been lowered which I know is easy to do with the torsion bar suspension. Those look really well planted but I can imagine quite a bit of bump steer.
Design wise I like the early Beetles and Super Beetle with the wrap-around windshield. The proportions were just perfect on that one. I think the Super Beetle with the flat windshield looks pregnant. I wonder if that model has a fan base.
They do. As “unloved” as it may seem that they are, they do.
You can either just slam your beetle or the sake of being low and it be terrible (like my ’59 has been) or you can lower it to improve it a bit (which is what I’m changing to) As they say, there’s always a right way and wrong way.
My Bus, which is just a bigger, beefier Beetle beem essentially is lowered and had terrible bump steer when I bought it. Curing it was a simple as changing out the cheap-o shocks for some quality KYBs.
I’d say they’re both nice, but as the owner of a bone stock 1963 Beetle neither are my cup of tea.
Can’t get into the hate though, maybe the 66’s owner needs to read John Muir’s VW maintenance manual. “You must do this work with love, or you will fail”
If both the modded owner and the super owner are enjoying their cars, that’s good with me, I’m sort of a non-denominational worshipper.
Motorcycle riders are the same, but probably worse. I ride a Kawasaki and like to tease my Harley riding friend, but he rides and likes it, and that’s what it’s all about.
I’ve never driven either the Beetle or the Super Beetle, so I can’t really judge which I like more or less. I’ve known people who have owned VW Beetles. 🙂
I had a ’63 Beetle which I still miss today!! A kid in his dad’s company car (Dodge Charger) was being chased by the cops. It appears that the kid and his buddies were smoking a joint when a cop spotted them. With the cops in hot pursuit, the kid lost control when coming around a corner and knocked my parked beetle up against an oak tree. The right door was pressed into the passenger seat approximately 11 inches. We sold it to a woman who want to “tinker” with beetles.
I then bought a ’68 beetle which was a disaster from the word “go”.
The early beetles (6 volt) were the best. Any thing after was just not the same!!
I owned a 69 Standard and a 73 Super – the 69 is the only car I’ve ever owned I wish I’d never sold. The Super was a better driving car with the strut type front end but it wasn’t worth the additional maintenance hassle. The 69 was a great combo of older-style sheet metal, 12V electrics and IRS instead of swing axles. The goofy diagnostic system with bundles of wires as thick as your arm running back to a socket in the engine compartment that plugged into VW’s proprietary computer plus the ugly dash and seats were all parts of VW’s lame attempt to modernize the Bug and make it Super. The bigger luggage compartment was handy though. Add in the extra weight and emissions gear and its not hard to see why folks prefer the older versions.
@ Adam Simpson ;
You’re _not_ being a jerk and your post was in fact a well thought out reply .
VW’s tended to attract the younger crowd and many are not mature enough to be able to discuss differing likes and wants .
You needn’t be apologetic about this as you did nothing wrong .
I too don’t like either to looks of the front hood nor the ride of Super Beetles although I’ve owned several and yes , they ride much smoother , that’s what Wolfsburg was shooting for when they designed it .
If you’re an early Super Beetle loved but are going bonkers with the shimmy and other front end problems , you’ll be happy to learn that the ’73 and later (curved windshield)
front end components are bolt in and are vastly improved in several ways…..
I wish I’da kept my ’53 Oval dash split window ” zwitter ” (Google that for a laugh) DeLuxe # 117 sliding sunshine roof Beetle…….
-Nate
Thanks.
I’m glad you interpreted it the way I intended it.
The CC effect strikes full force once again. My first car was a 66 Beetle this exact color and had black and yellow California plates. It was purchased new by my Dad and sold to me in 72 when I first started driving. Mine was stock except for 71 highback seats I installed to replace the torn up lowbacks. A pickup with a camper parked in front of a stop sign and my own inexperience in driving totaled it about six months later. Later I bought a yellow 73 Super Beetle (around 75), same color as the second car. Mine was a Sport Bug, that’s what the steering wheel in the pictured car came from. It had cloth Recaro type seats, black painted bumpers with yellow tape in the center and wider “sport wheels” with Pirelli Centurato tires. I put a lot of money in that car, sent it down to the port to have VPC (Volkswagen Products Corporation) AC installed. I built a 1835 CC engine with big valve heads and ported them myself, Engle Cam and 300 CFM Holly “Bug Spray” carb. Headers with quiet muffler. I went step by step with the “How to hotrod VW engines book”. For the times, it was quite fast. Suprised a lot of Camaros, etc. It helped that emissions were screwing up new cars, so it could keep up, no problem. My Super was as Super as I had the money to dump into it. The car, with sway bars and a slight front end drop could really corner. That car was fun! The 66 was like a Model T in comparison. But, that car was the most unlucky car I ever owned. One day in a parking lot, the steering lock pin popped out while pulling into a space, engine still running. None of the techs at the dealership ever heard of that happening. After getting it unstuck, I cut off the pin, I was afraid to replace it and have that happen on the freeway. Then, stopped at a light an auto parts delivery truck rear ended it. Only bent the bumper, and the parts company paid that one. A few months later, again stopped at a light, a drunk speeds out of a gas station and T bones me. He had no insurance. The whole side of the car from the door back was replaced. A few months later, parked in front of a house someone in a pickup backed into it, caved in the hood and front fenders, a dragged it half a block down the street before the bumpers unhooked and he took off. Insurance fixed again. Cancelled me because I was an “unlucky driver”. Had to sell the car, I was making payments and couldn’t pay the now skyhigh rates. Best unlucky car I ever had! Speed up the Grapevine at 75 mph, in July windows up, AC blasting, passing everyone and the looks I would get was a blast!
I loved the Sport Bug! It had that stripe under the rear window over the vents too. Your car sounded incredible!
Great to hear the Super Beetle can be made to handle well. I used to drive my aunt’s ’74 and sometimes it would feel light up front with anything less than a full tank. But I think it may have had bias ply tires and it did seem to ride high with the factory settings.
I’ve never driven a regular Beetle but the ones I see seem to have a very nervous ride like there is very little suspension travel.
From this discussion I’ve learned the Super Beetle suspension was improved in ’73 with the curved windshield. But someone said rack and pinion steering came later in ’75? That’s a big change for just three more years. Could that have happened in ’73 or ’71?
Yep, just 75 and up. So originally only in the Super Beetle sedan for one year since in 1976 the regular Beetle sedan was the only hardtop Beetle available. The convertibles lasted through early 1980 and they were all Super Beetles.
VW does some strange stuff sometimes. One I’ve always found amusing was that their primitive air-cooled vehicles got fuel injection in 1975 while their all new, modern front wheel drive, water-cooled line up still had carburetors.
That FI in the Beetle was an act of desperation/necessity in order to get it clean enough for the EPA. The air cooled engine was intrinsically dirtier than the new water cooled engines. BTW, that FI Beetle was strictly a US-only item; not available in Europe or the rest of the world. VW wanted to be able to sell them for another year or two, especially the Cabriolet, and that’s what it took to make it work.
Perhaps what VW should’ve done was make a water-cooled engine for the Beetle.
In the US, 77 was the last year for the Beetle Sedan. The last 2 years, 78 & 79 were Super Beetle convertible only. In California, 75 up were fuel injection and also had catalytic convertors. I even saw a couple auto stick with AC 75 and later cars. Talk about a hot running engine! Some dealers had 79’s sitting in the showroom for a couple of years, trying to get top dollar for the last year. After my car was T boned I had the whole car repainted but did not install the Sport Bug stripe. I thought it looked better that way. It felt better in crosswinds then the 66, the ac evaporator assembly was in the trunk and added a little more weight over the front end. Lowering the front a little also helped.