Buggin’ Out

I’ll tell you I’m freakin’ out over the Volkswagen end of the car collecting hobby.

When I went to SEMA in 2012, I stopped by the Imperial Palace (now called The Quad) to see The Auto Collections there. It was great to see all the Corvettes, Ferraris, Duesenbergs, Packards and . . . . Volkswagens?

One of the VWs — a red Beetle — even belonged to Auto Collections manager Rob Williams. Gee, we remember our friends in college driving these cars right into the ground where most Bugs live. And now — they are museum pieces! No wonder most of us want to go back to the '50s and '60s!

In the spring I attended the Air-Cooled Volkswagen Funfest at Midamerica Motorworks in Effingham, Ill. (If you ever go crazy and decide to restore a VW, they sell the parts in their catalog.) There was everything there from a giant Beetle named Walter — because it’s built on a Walter fire truck chassis — to Hippie vans and World War II German military Vee-Dubs!

I listened to seminars by restorers who said the minimum price for a VW van restoration is $100,000. Holy cow!

At Funfest I also met a man who races a Beetle at Bonneville and gets it up to nearly 100 mph. I saw Mexican Beetles, Beetle-based Bugatti kit cars and all sorts of stock, custom and hopped up VWs.

In the fall, a lady with a hopped-up ’63 VW Double Cab Pickup asked me to try to sell it She wants $30,000. Well, you know what? Even though that sounds crazy to me, Mecum’s Infonet suggests it’s low.

I had a ’67 VW camper once and I liked it. Maybe a Double Cab pickup would be even more fun.