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That Little Bug - Owner: Billy Starr

Back in 1973 my aunt was a secretary for AT&T. She needed a car that would be good on gas and had A/C to drive from Elon North Carolina to Greensboro North Carolina each day. She went to the local Volkswagen dealership and found a yellow Super Beetle. Instantly falling in love, she had to have the car. She didn't like the wheels that were on it, so she bought a set of American Racing rims and discarded the VW hubcaps. She also had the dealership install a new factory AM/FM radio. She would write notes in the car for the maintenance guys when she took the Bug in for service. This became her everyday car once she retired from AT&T and she drove my then teenage mom around all the time. She eventually decided to retire the little Bug and get something newer in the 80s. Around 1991 she decided to sell the Super Beetle to her neighbor for his two sons. The neighbors boys drove the snot out of this car. Boys being boys broke stuff of course, wore the seats out, and blew the engine up at one point. Their dad had the engine rebuilt and after the boys grew up and got their own cars and moved out, he kept the little Bug and drove it around until one day it just wouldn't start. He wasn't a mechanic. Had no idea what was wrong with the car, so he let it sit. After awhile he realized it wasn't going to be fixed anytime soon and pushed it to his backyard. He taped the seals up with duct-tape and put a very good car cover on it.

Fast forward to 2017 and my aunt called my mom to tell her that her neighbor of many years was moving to the beach. Mom asked if the Bug was going as well, my aunt told her that he wanted to sell it because his wife said it was not going with them. My mom jumped on the opportunity. My aunt had watched the little Bug rot away in her neighbors back yard year after year and thought it was too far gone and it wasn't worth anything but scrap. She told my mom that it was going to cost more than the little car was worth to get it back to what it used to be. My mom, my aunts neighbor along with my dad looked over the car. The tires were dry rotted and it still had the American Racing rims that my aunt put on many year earlier. There was some rust here and there and a little mold and mildew inside the car. Even though it was covered, it would blow off occasionally. Mom paid the neighbor for the little Bug and the next day she was on a roll back coming to my parents house. After delivery my dad got work. He has always been a Ford guy and had restored many Mustangs and even raced a few. The little Bug was new to him, but he is always up for a challenge. He knew that the brakes didn't work, he just didn't understand why it would have just stopped running.

The neighbor told him that he parked it one day and he went a couple of days later to start it up and nothing. So, dad gets a battery and turns the engine over. It turns freely, sounds healthy. Puzzled, he pulls the distributor and there it is! The points are completely burned up. A $7 part caused this VW to sit for almost 17 years. He ran to the parts store and got some points, hooked up a little gas can because the gas tank contents were unknown at the time.. and fired the little Bug up! The Bug ran so good, just as it did the day the neighbor had parked it. Dad began to restore the car, taking it apart panel by panel, fixing the rusty spots, ripping the interior out while saving what he could. About a week later the little Bug was back on the road. As a driving project, dad had restored it to factory condition with the American Racing rims polished and shiny. The little Bug now gleams in the sunlight in the country, just happy to have survived it's long journey. My obsession with Volkswagens began when I was a little kid. My sister's first car was a '66 Beetle. I loved this little car and riding around in it with her. She sold it to a lady up the street and when I was able to ask about them selling it back to me, it was gone. Although that one got away, the little yellow Bug will stay in the family and be cared for and enjoyed as long as I live.

Super Bug from 'Straya' - Owner: Evan Ademovic

G'day from Oz! This is my '72 1302 Super Beetle named "Bumblebee". When I'm not tinkering with him, Bumbles is puttering around NSW, driving around western Sydney and going for cruises to the beach with long boards strapped to his roof.

Bumblebee has a special little badge on his dashboard, showing that he's a Limited Edition "15 Millionth Collectors Bug". Which would be the only type of Special Edition Bug to be sold in Australia. The Canary Yellow paint is evidence of an older restoration, and yes he's got some rust here and there, but he's still a solid little beast.

Last year he took home a 1st place trophy for unmodified Volkswagen Beetles at the Aussie Volkswagen Nationals. Bumbles sees lots of smiles and waves, a few punches and cheers as the bright yellow 51 year old hunk of steel still rolls down the streets of 'Straya'. Being an Australian Beetle, it was the first year to have the high back seats and the last year with an unpadded dash. He's a fun little cruiser!

Bugzy - Owner: Chad Plaggemeyer

I bought this Super Beetle when I was 15, but convincing my dad to let me get it wasn't easy. My dad is an amazing amateur mechanic. I only say "amateur" because he isn't professional trained, but self taught and an amazing mechanic. Mom and dad have a hobby of restoring old cars, so I always grew up around classic cars.

So dad finally caved, and helped me fix everything on my newly purchased VW. It was nice bonding with him over the restoration process. I had my Super Beetle until I was 21. By this time I was married to a Navy Sailor and expecting our third child. I have no clue how I was going to fit three car seats into that Beetle, and I also knew that we were going to be moving 3,000 miles away in less than a year. It broke my heart, but I had to sell it.

It is mostly all original, but since then I have since added the 15 x 4.5" chrome Mangel wheels, 165R15 Radar Dimax classic whitewall tires, upper windshield screen, rear deck lid and did a dash board cover delete. I enjoy driving my Bug everyday and seeing all the looks and smiles it makes. I named my Super Beetle "Bugzy" and I can't imagine life without it.

The VW Lottery - Owner: Randi Legates

I have always loved Volkswagen Beetles since I was young. I used to go on vacation every year as a child to visit my Grandparents in Tucson Arizona. My Grandparents have always had VW's, everything from Bugs to Karmann Ghia's and more. When I was 8 years old in 1981, my grandma took me for a ride in her yellow Super Beetle and I fell in love with it.

They then had a flash flood in 1983 and lost everything, including the Bug that sadly got washed away. Since that day I have always wanted one. Then in March of 2023 I decided it was time to and buy one for a 50th birthday present to myself. I found my 1971 Super Beetle in Lansing Michigan and towed it home around 150 miles to Grand Rapids Michigan.

I sold it, and we moved all over the place, thanks to the Navy. But that VW was always in the back of my mind. Fast forward 17 years later, and I finally looked up the person I sold it to... and they still had it! It had been sitting for 15 years and looked just awful. Both my parents were my super heroes, they stepped up and got right to work on it. A little while later t looked like new again! I feel like I won the VW lottery.

Bumblebee - Owners: Nathan & Beth

I have been a VW Beetle fan since I was a child. When I started high school I began saving my money to buy a car, just like most teenagers. I was in marching band and I had a few older friends that already owned a Bug. This fanned the flame for me to find one. On April 1992, I bought my Bug; a 1971 Super Beetle that I named Bumblebee. I bought it from an elderly man, which had it in a shed for 5 years, for $850. If I remember correctly, he was the first owner and his son was the second owner. The irony was that I did not know how to drive a manual transmission. My Dad had to drive it home. For a few months it sat on the driveway because it did not have seat belts, horn, brakes, and it had the typical rusted out spots in the floor pans. Needless to say it needed a lot of work. I took it to a man, that my dad knew, that use to be a mechanic for Volkswagen when the Beetle was on the showroom floor. He got it road worthy and I was able to drive it at the beginning of my senior year of high school. From that moment on Bumblebee and I were inseparable. After graduating high school we stayed together through five years of college.

Both of us made it through with only a few bumps and bruises. After graduating college in 1998 I got a teaching job. Unfortunately, Bumblebee couldn't handle all the driving I had to do. I had to retire her and get another car. Sadly, she sat on my parent's driveway for a few years waiting for me to return. Let's fast forward to May 2003. One day, as I was visiting my parents, I went out to Bumblebee and wanted to drive her around the neighborhood. Sadly, the engine smoked horribly, the driver side front brake was frozen. I had her towed it to a VW mechanic and his diagnosis was painful. The fuel pump had broken and flooded the engine with gas. He told me I needed another engine. Most people would have junked her or sold her part by part. Not me. At that point I decided it was time to restore her. I had her towed to my wife's parent's house. Her father has a large array of mechanics tools and a large backyard. Every weekend that we visited her parents I was in the backyard, sometimes in the rain, taking off parts. Little by little I would bring parts back to Nashville. It took me about three years worth of weekends to get everything back to Nashville. Obviously, this project was more of a labor of love and not a car show deadline project.

As often as I was able I would be down in the garage rebuilding, repairing, restoring, or replacing whatever needed; which turned out to be pretty near everything. Oh, something I didn't mention, I have had no formal teaching on restoring a car, especially at this depth. At the time I had enough mechanical knowledge to properly maintain automobiles and do minor repairs. My philosophy is: "If it's already broken what worse can I do? "Let's fast forward, again, to 2013. I was gaining ground with the restoration so I self-imposed a deadline; to finish the restoration between my birthday (June 9) and Father's Day (June 16th).

Well, on Father's Day Sunday June 16, 2013, I was able to drive Bumblebee out of the garage with 99% of the car complete. After 10 years of blood, sweat, and frustration I was reconnected with Bumblebee. I use any reason to drive her even if it meant driving to get the mail. Sometimes, just driving her around is reason enough. As with all car projects there will always be upgrades, tweaks, and adjustments. It really never ends. It is just more fun to be able to drive it AND work on it. Bumblebee and I have gone on several road trips to car shows and local cruise-ins.

The one trip that we love to do the most is meeting up with other VW enthusiasts and travel up and down the Tail of the Dragon (Highway 129 in Tennessee). The event is called "Bugging the Dragon" every June. As a matter of fact, we are getting prepared to go again. I could not have done the restoration without the enormous support and help from all my friends and family. But my biggest supporter and and encouragement comes from my wife, Beth. I thank God she is also a gear head, like me. Bumblebee is a 1971 Super Beetle who's actual birth date is 12/1970. Her original color is L12D and she is basically stock except for a few additional gauges, wheels, and a 2180cc engine with a center-mount 2-barrel Dellorto DRLA 40 carb.

The Circle - Owner: Jesse Navarro

My mother bought this Super Beetle brand new in 1979 and she couldn't even drive a stick shift at the time, but she knew she had to have this VW! Only 900 of the Triple Black Epilogue Super Beetle were ever made, so we're lucky to own one. It was involved in a hit-and-run accident and sat in our garage undrivable for years, until my grandfather and I started rebuilding it, beginning with the complete interior. Unfortunately, he passed away during the project. One day when I was eagerly headed to my grandparents house after school, then I discovered that he had passed on his front lawn on the day we were to start the engine rebuild process. I didn't want to have anything to do with it for a while, because it brought back so many memories. But that's what drove me to complete the project later on in life, or at least to get it to the point where it is now.

It once again sat in in the garage since I was still in High School, I didn't have money, working a part-time job, and I was also in line to start College soon. Many, many more years it sat in our garage, collecting dust, and I dreamt of the day that I could turn that engine over and drive that Super Beetle for the very first time. My family and I were fortunate enough have our Volkswagen put into a Sonic Drive-In TV commercial that aired nationwide for over two years and were able to save the extra funds to bring it back to life. Which were surprisingly significantly less than I assumed they would be. It probably still needs a true rebuild, but it fires up and drives like new, and spits oil like an old VW should, lol! This Beetle will never leave the family and one day I hope to pass it on down, keeping it running and driving as long as I can. A couple fenders, a new convertible top, some Coker whitewalls, maybe a slight drop, and I think this bad boy would be complete!

Who knows, maybe I'll throw a fresh coat of paint on it, but I kind of dig the flat black look as is. Getting to drive the car all around town with my family in tow, and being able to take my mom for a ride in the car that she drove for the first time 44 years ago is really pretty amazing... the circle is complete.

Tigger - Owner: Hezekiah Sunshine

Meet "Tigger" my 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle. I bought Tigger spring of 2019 from my friend David Wiley, the owner of Creative Car Craft, a website for aftermarket fiberglass VW body panels. When I first picked him up he had dry rotted tires, no exhaust and very little brakes. I had to use the e-brake to stop, which made for an exciting experience on the nearly three hour drive home. Today he has been well loved, as I slowly reworked and shaped him into the road hazard you see here, lol! He's powered by a 1776cc VW motor that was built by Tri County VDubs here in Kentucky. Tigger sits on stock wheels on the front with widened 8" stock wheels on the rear. Lots of custom parts and accessories have been made by me and other VDubbers. I wanted to give him a unique flare that turns heads everywhere I go, because after all these Volkswagens really should be an extension of the driver. Up front the suspension has been refreshed and the drums changed to disc brakes. All done by my friends at Sam's Import repair in Middle Tn. As for the exterior, only the finest of rattle can Orange for me on this originally orange car. As for the rest of my little touches to the exterior, I added hood spikes and the angry duck hood ornament. Bolts were attached on both the sides, replacing the none existent chrome trim, and the custom Baja side steps are all part of the personality of my VW.

I'll never forget at a car show that I frequent on the main street in Portland TN, a little girl said that my car looked like it came from a Mad Max movie. I remember that for two reasons; one being that's the look I was going for when I started playing with my beloved Bug, and two, because any 10-year-old who knows about Mad Max is a really cool kid in my book. The transmission is a Freeway Flyer installed sometime in the 80s or 90s by a previous owner. Paired with the 1776cc engine it will keep up with traffic just fine. The "custom interior" is far from perfection by any means, but for me it's what I like. The carpet is nothing special, just some old carpeting cut to fit with a razor. The door panels are 1/4" plywood stained with something Ii had lying around, and the headliner is a Mexican blanket. And in case you were wondering, the radio doesn't work.

I was never planning on owning a Bug, much less a Super Beetle. My VW fascination was always with the Buses, particularly my mom's 1978 Bay Window Bus that I grew up with. I now own and am restoring my mom's Bus after tracking it down and buying it back from the last owner. I also have a 1981 VW Rabbit truck, so I guess you could say that I have a VW addiction. However you like your VWs, whether trashy, cashy or flashy... enjoy it and make it your own.

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