Down On The Mile High Street: Volkswagen Beetle
I don’t see quite as many Old Beetles on the streets of Denver as I did when I lived on the Island That Rust Forgot, but a few of the clattery old Germans still serve as daily transportation in the Mile High City. Even though I’ve owned several Beetles, I still can’t nail down exact model years at a glance; we’ll leave that to you Volkswagen zealots aficionados.
Judging by the taillights, bumpers, and flow-through air vents, I’d say this is an early-to-mid-70s Beetle. By 1974, the Beetle’s 1600cc engine was rated at an even-worse-than-the-MGB 46 horsepower. Can you imagine what Beetles with the air-conditioning option were like to drive?
I thought this was a Super Beetle at first glance, but it doesn’t have the long hood of the Super. Even with its allegedly more modern McPherson strut front suspension, the Super had even scarier handling characteristics than the torsion-bar regular Beetle. Hey, what’s that black stuff on the engine lid?
Air-cooled VWs often have a little problem with fires in the engine compartment, thanks to the hot engine and leak-prone fuel pump and lines. The driver of this car was on the ball when his or her engine started to burn and put out the fire in time.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I stand corrected. It is a 1973. The 67 beetle, though, I'm sure still had the swing arm rear suspension. They did something to it to make it safe, though. It may have been a sway bar but I can't remember now. The fully independent suspension with cv joints appeared in the 1968 model, along with those ugly bumpers.
McPherson strut Super Bs were terrible. way too delicate compared to the twin beam torsion bar front ends. 65s had the old style king pins. 66 1300s had the big windshield and balljoints. 67s had a 12 volt electrical system. IMO a vast improvement over the 6 v system. 68s had 4 lug wheels. 69s had IRS. The 66 and down bugs were nearly unstoppable in snow. They didnt need much of road either.