George Knighton

<p>Am I the only person to whom it has occurred that our <strong>starter motor</strong> has more HP than a 1963 Beetle?</p><p><img alt="" src="https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/what.gif" title="what" /></p>

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I did not think of it, but it is interesting. The SH is faster than a Cayman too!

hondamore

When I was young and stupid (even more stupid than I am now), I drove around Europe for 6 months in a 1969 Volkswagen van. I certainly believe you George. I think I've driven lawn mowers with more power than that thing. Good times none the less, but I most certainly prefer (and feel safer) with the 377hp available to me now.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I think my first Honda had about 75hp.

George Knighton

<p></p><p>My first *Porsche* only had 75 HP!</p>

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I was wrong. It was 72hp. I have nice memories with that car. The hatchback was quite useful on dates! I think I got about 150k out of the car before the engine blew. At the time I did not realize that white smoke out of the tailpipe meant that I had already blown the head gasket. A new engine for the car and I was good to go. I think it was about a $1000 repair.

Malibu Flyer

My first car was a '63 VW convertible. Even with the small horsepower it was a kick to drive. First gear was so low I could win every drag race from a traffic light light for the first 25 feet. I put about 65,000 miles on that bug. That small engine was pretty reliable. Had it through most of college. I remember my 600 mile drive from home to school. I would hit the thruway, put the gas pedal on the floor for 12 hours and barely ever stop for gas.

Building new memories now with the Sport Hybrid. Equally as memorable and even more fun to drive.

fsmith

And my first car was a ('64-'65 - not really sure) Austin Healy Sprite (aka MG Midget) that I drove across country with all my belongings in the (sort of) trunk. A little research shows it had 56 HP and weighed 1466 pounds, but that didn't bother me going through the rockies with the top down. I was young and stupid, like others here. I do not think that was a particularly safe car.

George Knighton

I'm not sure I'd have had that kind of courage at any age.

You must've had clear weather all the way.

Hillman, Triumph, MG, Austin, Jaguar, Rover, they all had their own unique set of problems, sometimes made worse by the very few Leyland parts they had in common.

This diversity of manufacture led to the ultimate demise of the British motor industry. It was just awful. It was a part of the Wilson settlement with labour unions of that day.

That was a hilarious time in British politics.

Wilson would come in and nationalize everything.

Heath would come in and sell it back to private investors.

That happened a few times.

I remember starting up my 1977 Ford Cortina (which, in London of those days was a big car) and hearing as soon as I turned on the radio, that the government "fell" at such and such a time that morning.

It was maddening. The country could not decide what it wanted to do until Thatcher came along and we took a hard right.

But even that was a problem as evinced by the Queen's going over her head to give Reagan permission to invade Grenada, and even worse how long it took the Royal Navy to get to the Falklands. Part of her hard right was reducing military forces to such an extent that even Thatcher was surprised when the Navy told her, "We really can't do that. At least we can't do it when you want us to do it."

flagship

My parents had a beetle as one of our family cars, learning to drive on a beetle and owning/driving a few prior to the first of many Honda cars...lot's of memories.

wstr75

The summer of 1973 I rebuilt my 1967 VW 1500 cc motor in my bedroom. It had previously overheated and lost its bearings when the sound deadener piece on the firewall got loose and sucked over the intake fan. Line bored the crankcase halves, put new 1600 cc barrels on the 1500 cc heads because 1600 barrels were standard equipment and the 1500 barrels were a one year thing for VW. To this day I refuse to knowingly have Champion spark plugs in my vehicles because I had to remove the motor during Christmas 1973 college break so as to have helical inserts put into the heads because the Champion plugs installed during the rebuild were 2 threads longer than the OEM Bosch plugs and literally reamed out the heads when it was time to replace the spark plugs. Yes, I should have compared the Bosch plugs to the Champion plugs, but as a 20 year old guy, it never occurred to me that a well known manufacturer could screw up something as simple as a spark plug. Since that episode, my first instinct is to use OEM components unless absolutely assured aftermarket parts fit correctly and . . . . can also provide noticeably better performance. Ramblings from an old guy . . . . . .

George Knighton

Remember how easy it was to drop the whole power package out of a Beetle or a Porsche 356?

:-)

Even a dummy like me could work on them.

wstr75

Yep, those VW air-cooled engines were designed for simplicity. As I recall, four bolts held the engine to the transaxle. I would put a hydraulic floor jack under the engine, loosen the bolts by jacking the engine up and down so as to put tension on the individual bolts to make the nut removal easier and then to gently lower the whole engine down. Ooops, forgot the important step: First jack up and block the entire rear of the car so as to provide sufficient clearance to pull the engine and blower housing assembly out from under the car. Those were the days . . . .

fsmith

In your bedroom?

wstr75

Yep. I put the engine block on a typewriter stand and put it together late into the night as I was working a summer job between junior and senior years at college. Bought the car for $300 with burnt up wiring. The 1967 VW was a bit of a mishmash of years as it had the bumpers and overall look of the pre-1966 cars, a 1500cc (1.5 liter) engine and was the initial year conversion to 12 volt components. The 12 volt back-up light circuit in the 1967 was prone to shorting-out and when it did the rest of the wiring harness usually also went up in smoke, too. I rewired the car Christmas of my junior year as I could not find a VW Indy shop that would do the job. I remember pulling the firewall insulating cover out to pass the rear wiring through that area and I remember putting the insulating cover back into place. What I apparently failed to do was to consider how the tabs once bent so as to allow the wiring room to pass through would not have the same shape and strength afterwards. Thus the killing of the engine on I-40 at 75 mph when I suddenly heard the engine song change and smoke started billowing out the back caused by the firewall insulating cover coming loose and completely blocking the cooling fan air-flow. It was too late and even through I immediately changed the oil, it was apparent the gray, viscous stuff in the oil was bearing babbitt materials and a whole lot of other stuff inside the engine that had succumbed to high temperatures and poor lubrication. Long story to simply say, yes, I rebuilt the engine the following summer in my bedroom.

George Knighton

That's a real oddball issue. I've never heard of that happening to anybody else, although it's possible I didn't hang out in the right circles.

With a 356 or pre-'67 Beetle, has anybody done the 8-volt tractor battery trick to make everything brighter?

:-)

wstr75

George, this youtube brings back memories and also explains the engine compartment "tarboards". It is obvious to me 42 years later that I did not properly straighten-out the pointed pieces so they could subsequently be bent back over the rear tarboard. BTW, the computer spell check keeps changing tarboard to starboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrWNSbEErl8