Practically Classics Forum

...........it'll become a classic!



I saw this today in the B&Q car park, I've sen this car around for as long as I can remember, with an old feller driving it whatever the weather, and I stood up in my car and snapped a pic on my phone. Just as I was sitting down again the owner came back, must be around 80, and we had a chat about old cars and he told me he'd bought it secondhand, 1 year old, in 1970! He paid £875 including having a towbar fitted, and he's never had another car.....his parting words were "better than all this modern s***e"

There are a few Beetles I know of around Melbourne with a similar story. The owners are not enthusiasts as such. Rather the Beetle did what they wanted at minimal expense so they keep driving it.

Similarly my mother-in-law still has a 68 Holden Kingswood she bought second hand in 1975 when my wife was one year old. Its been looked after and maintained as a daily car, not with any view to it being a classic. It's had one respray and at least two engine rebuilds its 500,000 miles.

does that apply to clothes?

I am told by a friends daughter that if you were young enough to wear them the last time they were in fashion, you are too old to wear them this time.
I have had to throw my little black dress away and find something else to wear on a Friday night

It's a wonder this hasn't been locked because it's another definition of a classic car thread In point of fact, it's spot on. It's a bit like my MG Midget; that was only five years old when I bought it (Though the closure of Abingdon did make people treat late Abingdon MGs like classics before what would normally have been the case).

My mother had a new Beetle in 1972 (Also red) and that was about £800. I don't think the towbar would have been more than £25 (VW towbars were very neat), so at £875 used, I'm guessing maybe a 1600 model (My mother's was a 1300 Deluxe; there's a description that's gone from car brochures). A bit of a fiddle to service and the roadholding was iffy but nobody has ever built a car better (More luxurious yes, better no) It would do about 75mph but it would do 75 all day. I'd sooner run round in his Beetle, than in a modern.

Good luck to the old gent; I expect his bank balance is a lot healthier, than if he had been buying new cars all these years. I bet he keeps it in a garage He's lucky that the Beetle has a good following, so far as spares are concerned. Other 1970 cars might not be so good. This gent may be a rare (Perhaps unique) phenomenon but I can't help feeling you won't find a 2010 Golf, in similar circumstances, in 2030, let alone 2050.

I met a man, in 2011, who had owned the same Riley RME, since it was six months old. Another coincidence, was that fifty years or so before, he had, by chance, met my father Small world.

If the old boy's Beetle was one year old in 1970, then it's a 1968-69. From 67 to 70 you could have a 1300 or a 1500. The 1600 was first available late 1970 in the 1302 Super Beetle.

I drive my 1303 daily, but I've only had it three years. Whenever I have a new VW behind me I think, "Show some respect! Your car would not exist if not for mine!"

I think the 1302s had McPherson strutts and front disc brakes, which was no doubt an improvement over my mother's car (It had to be driven with regard for it's handling abilities). Not long before my mother had the Beetle, my father had a Type 3 Variant and that suffered from being lethal in crosswinds, as VW had enlarged front boot around 1970 and it caught the wind more (Engine access was if anything worse than the Beetle). However they could be forgiven those faults due to the outstanding build quality. If BMC/BL, who perhaps had better basic designs than some, could have combined them with VW quality, I think BMC/BL/Austin Rover/Rover (Have I missed any incarnations?) might still have been with us.

well said martin.

Struts were, on VWs as on other makes - starting at Ford - neither more nor less than a cost cutting measure, their geometry was identical to that of the torsion bar and trailing arm front end as both were moving through the same plane, the difference was more that the struts' top bearings seized and caused stiff steering, the steering box sleeves on strut Beetles had a tendency to crush the box section in the body that had been devised in a hurry to accommodate [the box] and the roll centre rose about 9" on the cars with the struts.

Far more difference was caused by the difference between (rear) swing axle cars and those with fully independent rear suspension which was what came on all of the ones with the struts at the front.
The later cars that had the suitcase engine, such as the type 4 (411/412) were great handling cars that were a touch sensitive to crosswinds but they were no worse than a Tandy camper in that respect. One of my then colleagues - from BBC days by Ascot - managed to roll a customer's T4 Variant on a straight road just 10 yards from the gates of the workshops after he got a bit of a tank slapper going in it by taking far too tight a had of the steering wheel. He rolled the window of the inverted and previously rather tidy car up and slid out unhurt so whatever else was up with that design, they were certainly stiff and strong. Its suitcase engine later found its way into my own T2 Loaf, now that really was an evil thing to drive. Build quality. Hahahahahahaha!

If struts were a cost cutting measure, then why wouldn't VW use them across the range and keep them going in Mexico and Brazil?

They were used for superior handling and extra boot space, but later killed (except on the cabrio) to reduce costs.

I deliberately sought out a 1303 for those reasons. Also I prefer the more modern dash and the curved front screen!

The best handling Beetle of the lot was the 75 onwards 1303 with a steering rack and golf-derived struts. Mine is a 74 so it has the late struts but unfortunately not the rack. The steering box is the Achilles Heel of the 1302/1303 - it wears pretty quick and causes soggy steering. For many years new replacement RHD steering boxes were unavailable and good second hand units were highly prized.

Disk brakes varied according to market and engine size. I understand most US 1302 and 1303 had front drums, despite the 1600 injected engine! All Aussie built beetles from 1968 with a 1500 or 1600 engine had disks. It was only the poverty pack 1300 standard Beetle that had drums.

My car is an Aussie build, made in the factory that now makes the Holden Clubsport and your Vauxhall VXR-8's.