My first VW at 14 years old.

by Brad
(Parksville/Errington BC)

I am sooo excited about being a part of this Fabulous website to share my passion for my first Vee dub!!! OK here I go. I was 14 and was living in the country on about 5 acres in a small town. I had a motor bike which I frequently rode up away into the mountains. That was fun. I wanted to have a vw to drive around the property, so I had a conversation with my dad (cause HE raced stock cars) about wanting a VW dune buggy. He thought that was a great idea. He phoned a friend of his and the next thing I know we were going for a ride in his truck some where into town. Hmmmmmm, I was very excited as my dad just said that he was taking me for a ride in his truck. This was one of my favorite things to be sharing with my dad....kind of a bonding thing. We pulled up into a long drive way. I saw a VW bug minus the body parked between a wooden fence and an old garage. That was it! The next day I was going for another ride with my dad in his truck and this time he was pulling the stock car trailer. Ahhhh, I KNOW where we are going THIS time! I was sooo excited. We arrived at the long driveway and backed the stock car trailer about 10 feet away from the old VW. We got out and pushed the VW up onto the trailer. OK, now ready for the transformation into a home made dune buggy! Yaaaaa!

Over the next 2 weeks of working on this VW every day after school and my Dad's work we created a roll bar VW dune buggy. The transformation went from just a VW pan to a full roll bar VW. Ok. Now for the engine.... hmmmm? Remember, I mentioned my Dad was a stock car racer? Guess what that means? This project must have a very powerful modified engine! I saved my money up from working two jobs and through a German VW friend named "Hemfky", I bought a modified VW engine from him for $500. It was an upright 1600cc bored out to 1800cc with dual one barrel carbs for a very healthy 100 HP plus wide throat headers. Wow! What an engine. Once the roll bars were done it was time for the engine to be installed. My dad showed me that process. Huh? Only four large bolts? The engine is in! Very cool!. Ok, now the start up. Vrrrrroooommmmm! The engine sounded like a V8 through the wide throat headers. My dad fine tuned it by adjusting the air/fuel mixture on each carb, going back and forth to synchronize them. I jumped in and off I went down the drive way and into the field on our property. I got up to third gear! With the wind blowing in my face I was having soooo much fun! Hey this was wayyy more fun than the rides at the annual fall fair and so different from my motor bike. I could jump into my VW dune buggy as I walked out the door of our home. Over the next few weeks of driving my VW daily for hours, I was able to teach myself how to master driving my first standard car. I really liked where the reverse gear was....(push down and pull toward 2nd gear). Once I got used to that it seemed like a natural place to have that gear...german engineering!...The engine had a kind of a grrrowl to it and I was practicing doing "peel-outs" in the gravel drive way, going from first to third gear, pulling about 6 thousand rpm. Haaa....and guess what?? I snapped two trans axle mounts by doing this. Ohhh it was sooo much fun. My dad created and welded a heavy duty trans axle mount and it worked. I had that VW for about a year and had sooo much fun taking the whole neighbourhood for rides and rips around the property. This was my first Vee-dub and my first car!