This page is dedicated to my club. So far, there are 5 and a half of us that hang together, and work on our Bugs. We don't have a name, and we haven't yet had a meeting, but we still call ourselves a club. The members consist of Ted, Fred, Bill, Reggie, myself, and Darius, who makes up the half. Between all of us, we have a total of 11 Bugs, ranging from a '51 split to a '74. I'm going to give some brief descriptions of each, but I won't divulge any specific info about them.
Ted has a '66 called the "Frankster", which is considered to be the O.B. (original Bug) of our club. We rarely ever go cruising without this one. The Frankster is always the first at everything. If she's ever down, you can believe major work is getting done.
Fred is the lucky owner of the '51 split, which has been completely redone to resto-custom specs. He also owns a '73 Super that up until a few months ago, had a Rolls Royce front hood on it. We dubbed it "Big Blue" cause it's big and kind of oafish looking. He catches feelings about it if we joke too much.
Bill has another '66, that I have to say, is the sweetest Bug I have seen. It has a fresh yellow paint job with purple flames, and a totally custom interior. It's so nice,I'm scared to touch it. I won't even start on the engine, but if you ever come across it, I don't care what you're in, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN IT!!!, unless you want your feelings hurt. Believe me, this Bug has hurt feelings numerous times already. Bill also has a '58, but he hasn't unveiled it yet.
Reggie has the biggest project of all because he made it that way. It's a '74 with an imacculate pan, but he's doing some major, major, major custom work to it. We are all hoping that he can finish it.
Darius is Fred's son, and he owns a '69 that has some serious issues. He has been considering getting rid of it, and picking up a Crown Vic, that's why he's the half. We are trying to keep him in Bugs though. He might buy my '65.

Even though we aren't a club, we're trying to be, though We've been trying for the past three years. We haven't yet had a meeting, or even driven our Bugs at the same time, but hopefully this year. The main obstacle that we need to overcome, is thinking of a club name that hasn't been used. As you can tell, we aren't exceptionally creative individuals, and we are even less so as an entire group. So far, we are just the guys who work on Bugs. We are trying to get a decent shop so we can have a nice(warm) place to do our automotive work where we don't have to worry about complaints, county officials, etc. Of course, the shop that we are looking at is right next door to a church. I doubt if they will appreciate their praises of "Hallelujah" to be answered with the cracking of a baffleless stinger as much as we would, unless they practice Volkswagenism. Actually, if our engines crank over, we'll probably be the ones singing "Hallelujah".

We are all waiting for the show/strip season to begin so we can bring out the fruits of our labor. Some of them may be a little bruised, or pitted, but they will all run like bats out of hell, some faster than others.

Well, like I said before, the shop fell through. It's probably a good thing though. Darius is no longer the half since he has sold his Bug to Fred. The rest of us, except for Bill of course, are doing engine work partly because I showed everyone some of what my engine could do. I have the smallest engine out of everyone in the club with my 1641, so nobody thought that I would be any competition...until I gave them a little taste while leaving a stop light. Then, Ted tried to run me while leaving another stop light, only to find that he could not pull away from me at all. Ted's engine is also significantly larger than mine (just under a 2-liter), and he also has a race tranny compared to my stock swingaxle. After that happened, everyone went back to the books, except for Bill, who isn't in any danger of being beat...yet. The only reason I went back to the books is because both Ted and Fred are going to run the same cam as I have in my 1641, so I have to find another means of making my engine a competitor. Fred has offered to sell me the crank, pistons, and case for an 1835 for only $350, so I'm going to try to jump on that deal while I can. Even though everyone else will be well into the 2-liter range by April, I have some tricks up my sleeve that will hopefully make that 1835 run with them. I refuse to be left behind.

The biggest factor that we are facing is time. For some reason, we always get started on our projects late, and end up rushing just to get them finished on time. April is right around the corner, and the only one that is ready is Bill, who is definitely coming home with a trophy for something from the first show. Reggie won't be ready any time soon, since his project changed from stable to serious condition. Ted and Fred are building big 2-liter engines. And I might have a new engine to put together, but if it's not done by the first show, I won't stress it.

Everyone is making progress on their Bugs, except me. Ted and Fred should be getting their fresh 2-liter engines back by next week, Reggie has begun piecing together his engine, Bill already has the fastest engine, but he's working on a 5 speed tranny with a close first through fourth, and then there's me. Nada, zip, zero has been done as far as my engine goes. My 1641 may be quick, but it's NOT going to run with a 2 liter that was built with the tricks that were up my sleeve. I figure that I will bust a CV joint in my '74 by mid April while trying to keep up with everyone, then who knows what life has in store for my Bug.
Bill launched his Bug hard for the first time last night and pulled the front wheels off of the ground, with street tires. There is no way that I can come close to messing with that Bug in any was, shape, or form. The good thing is that neither Ted or Fred can either, but I figure that by July, I should be able to. I'm also going to do a body off resto on the '66, and maybe, just maybe, I can have a Bug that looks as good as Bill's too.

Well, it finally happened. Bill lost his second gear last week after a few hard launches, so he's down with the rest of us. We were all wondering how long it would take that tranny to break under all that power. Don't worry, a fresh transmission is already in the works. Ted got his fresh 2-liter engine back recently, but he hasn't put it in the car yet. Fred is still waiting on his 2-liter engine. Reggie just scored a 2-liter longblock out of a Porsche 914. See the trend yet? Still no big engine for me though.

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