NEW BUILDS: Odd Bug Out

I’m probably as guilty as the next guy of making “impulse buys” but its rare that I’m this impulsive. So here we have something I totally cannot do anything with; it doesn’t belong anywhere or go with anything. And yet…its still pretty cool.

I was buying some sundries on Amazon recently and this popped up in the “suggestions” sidebar: a brand new Auto World release for a bargain basement price. Of course I had no use for a VW Bug-what am I gonna do, race it against Ford GT-40s and big block Corvettes?-but it was just so… cute.

That’s a word I don’t use often, but it was cheap, and I figured it’s an extra brand new Ultra-G chassis if nothing else, so, OK, “add to cart.”

While I admit I’ve never had a desire to own a VW Bug myself, I have known many people throughout my life who have owned and loved them, and while they are not really my thing, I do find them interesting. What most amazes me is that when I was a kid growing up in southern California in the ‘80’s it almost seemed like every 4^th car on the road was a Bug: the parking lot at high school was packed with them, and some of the local kids did some pretty nice customizing on those cars. And yet, today, I virtually never see one. Where did they all go???

So I suppose that was the trigger: this entire blog, this entire hobby, is motivated by nostalgia, and though I never owned one I will always remember how these cars felt; the odd sounds and smells they emitted and how working on one was so unlike wrenching on an old Chevy or Pontiac, the cars I cut my own teeth on. So when I saw this bright red and white one all shiny at such a low price, I couldn’t resist.

So I removed the Ultra-G chassis and put it away for future use on a racing car and decided to mount it on a chassis that’s as useless to my aesthetic as the rest of the car: one of the very early Johnny Lightning T-Jet 500’s before they added the traction magnet. That means its way too fast to run with the originals in The Road Crew, but certainly can’t race with the big bore sports and muscle cars. I added shortened axles and a set of original style T-Jet wheels and tires as well, although they are just a bit larger than stock to fill the fender wells that were made for the mag wheels and tires of the JL T-Jet 500’s. I even detuned it further by replacing the strong JL/AW blue/white field magnets with a set of the old black magnets from an original T-Jet; that slowed it down a little but it will still leave all the originals in the dust.

One point of great interest came of this, something I did not expect; it appears Auto World recently redesigned their guide pin to something completely different that is in no way related to the design of the original Thunderjet pin: this is a custom made metal pin that is threaded at one end, replacing the front body screw, while the other end is the pin: its got a hex-shaped shank to tighten with a tiny nut driver if you can find one the right size. At first this seemed like a really good idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I’m not sure I like the idea of the front screw post directly taking the hit of all those impacts of the pin going around the track; the original design creates shock insulation for the screw post and delivers the punishment mainly to the flat plane of the pin, and it seems to me like this redesign might lead to a cracked front screw post in short order. But on the other hand, it sure is nice having a metal pin! I’m leaving it on this car since its not a racer and will hardly ever be driven, so I’m not worried about it, but I think I’m going to pass on using these on some of my vintage 1960’s racing bodies; I’d rather replace the plastic pins when they break than try to repair screw posts!

So, not really anything I can do with it except keep it around for a little cruise every now and then and remember those days riding around in a real one. Come to think of it, I can’t really think of a better use for a vintage VW!