Funkengroovin - News

VB has been busy with the invasion of the flying red ants, the electricity going out constantly, five kittens born on her windowsill, and some sort of strange illness. VB thinks it's called, "I'm sick of stinking bug spray, dirty air, hot weather, no electricity, and can't fucking wait to get out of Dodge blues." No she does not have a fever! Is she pissed (as in angry for you Brits out there)? Yes!!!!!! Someone explain to VB why the electricity needs to go off more than seven times a day?! Subsequently fucking up all connections - some including air conditioners, the Internet (glaciers move faster!), the Vonage phone (which operates through the Internet), the oven, blah, blah, blah, the fucking satellite TeeVee! Does the person in charge not realize that VB's life is based totally on electrical availability?! Rant over.

Today is mainly a news day since VB has been remiss at adding it on to the posts. Some old, some new, and two brand new music videos featuring VW Buses. Make sure you check those out. Both are very folksy - let's just say they're not the usual music videos VB features for Funkengroovin Wednesdays, but they do have VW Buses in them. The news articles are all interesting, and most have photos. Yes, some might be a bit oldish, but still newsworthy.

Here's your complimentary photo for the day (Thanks be to God for the most exquisitely allotted amount of electricity, which provides Internet, to download this totally worthless photo).

NEWS:

VW Related:

Touring Europe's Best Auto Museums
"Volkswagen's Autostadt, located directly adjacent to the sprawling factory that churns out Golf sedans, may be the most ambitious. In addition to a museum devoted to the history of the Beetle and other company products, the Autostadt (German for "auto city") features 11 restaurants, a Ritz-Carlton (MAR) hotel, and outdoor attractions such as an obstacle course where adults can muddy up VW's Touareg SUV. There's even a course where kids can learn driving basics in miniature Beetles."

You Will Respect This VW
"Count your blessings this thing isn’t running around your town, because the embarrassment of being shut down by a ‘53 VW van might be too much to bear." 1953 VW Bus Sets World Record on Dragstrip With 12-Sec Quarter Mile Run

Propane Conversion: How to Make LPG Cars
"It works. New York, Maine, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Texas, Utah, California . . . I've traveled miles and miles and miles in a VW bus converted to run on LP (liquid propane) and the easy-to-install system really does result in lower operating and maintenance costs, much longer engine life AND 70% less air pollution."


Karmann Fixes Its Own Roof
"A subsidiary of the German company that made the Karmann Ghia with Volkswagen has begun an aftermarket business to restore convertible tops."

"Replacing the original fabric, steel supports and even wooden components that make up the relatively primitive convertible tops takes skill and attention. Restoration jobs are expected to cost from $1,000 to $3,000, the company said.

“When you do convertible tops, you have to know also the body and the engineering of the vehicle,” Mr. Roeren said.

Mr. Roeren said the company will be able to work on only two vehicles at a time and each restoration will take two days.

The company said it expected to open up to five such restoration centers in the next five years, including in California and Florida, and to reach about $5 million in gross sales.

Wilhelm Karmann filed for the German version of bankruptcy in April, but Karmann U.S.A officials said the filing will not affect the American unit."

Ten dangerous vehicles (or are they?), part two

(From Ottawa, Canada) Beker’s favourite Bug

Temple man's VW affection started 25 years ago

I’m Ready To Give This Deadhead Thing a Try

Thornbury couple's camper van business is riding the recession
"Their rental business, Campers Away, has seen a huge increase in demand as the credit crunch is stopping more and more families from travelling abroad and encouraging us all to explore the great outdoors."

Unlocking The Mystery Of The Mystery Machine On The Movie Awards Set


Teen finally gets to drive his vintage cars "Dylan Tischer has seven Volkswagens"

The Perfect Beetle "Paul Amicone's Dream for a Rust-Free VW Comes True"

VW Bug Out fun with the people's car (Slideshow)

Super Project '71 "Part One: Introduction to the Subject, a 1971 "1302" Super Beetle"

Students take spin into the future
"TRENTON - At first, the vehicle circling the bus loop behind Trenton High School appears to be just a relic of the past. After all, it is a 1968 Volkswagen SandRail dune buggy."

Editor's Note: It's a Small Show After All
"So next time you catch yourself saying, "I don't want to go to that show because it is too small," remember, every big show out there, from the Classic to the Florida BugJam to Bad Camberg, started life as a small get together with people who share a common bond, these little cars. Support your local shows."


Groundbreaking Works by Artists with Cultural Ties to Mexico and Latin America To Be On View
"PHOENIX, AZ.- Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement, opening July 12, 2009, at Phoenix Art Museum, is the first comprehensive consideration of the legacy of Chicano art in two decades and the largest exhibition of cutting-edge Chicano art ever presented at Phoenix Art Museum."

I can't believe someone makes... Snail Art Cars (video at the link)


(Great photo) - Reindeer Sausage Van in Alaska, Not Yet on Twitter
"...The guy parks on West 4th Avenue and F Street (map), serving up reindeer dogs from the blue Volkswagen van..."

VW Owner Shifts Gears, Goes From Gas to Electric

Volkswagen's Newest Twist On Camping: The 2009 Volkswagen California Black Edition
"All this coolness doesn't come cheap though. Pricing for this sleek people mover is 77,736.75 euro, or around $109,921 in Yankee money. Of course, that's if you could buy one here -- which, ironically, you can't. At least we get the actual state as a consolation prize."

Need an escape? Author Gordon Hempton listens for the sound of silence in new book
"Hempton takes his quest for quiet on the road, crossing the country in his¤¤'64 VW van, listening to a landscape and a people, putting together a "sonic EKG" of the country. He originally intended to make this trip with his daughter, who begged off, unable to engage with his quest, unable to detach from -- you guessed it! -- her iPod."

Meals On Wheels: Ten Great Mobile Eateries
"Sénor Tacombi
Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, the Sénor has combined two great Mexican products: the taco and the VW Combi, which was produced in Mexico until the mid-1990s. The story of Sénor Tacombi is one of a wandering soul/wrestler who marched across the Andes with Che, partied at Studio 54 with Freddy Mercury, and chilled with Gandhi in India. Today, he mostly served tacos to college kids who are looking to carb-up after a night on the town."

General:

Earth to California: Learn how to drive!
"GMAC surveyed more than 5,000 licensed drivers throughout the country, asking them to answer 20 questions gleaned from actual state drivers license exams. Based on the results of the survey, the insurer concluded that 20% of the licensed drivers in the U.S. — or about 40 million people — wouldn’t pass a written test if they had to take one today."

100 year anniversary of first woman to drive across America

Commute Driving You Crazy? Read On
"Commuting sucks. There’s no two ways about it. Our roads are clogged with half-aware nitwits less concerned with driving than with applying makeup or taking that call from Ed in accounting. If it isn’t brain-dead morons trying to kill you, it’s the potholes, congestion and countless other nightmares awaiting you every time you get in the car.

We feel your pain. So do the guys at Transportation for America. They’ve launched a website called, appropriately, My Commute Sucks, where you can spout off and tell Congress to do something about it."


World’s Smallest Car Fits In a Mini

Right-to-Repair Law Is Right On
"The Right-to-Repair Act would allow independent repair shops to compete for business that currently goes only to franchises and dealer-approved establishments. The bipartisan bill, introduced in the House of Representatives, would drastically increase the number of shops that could service late-model vehicles and make those repairs significantly cheaper.

By limiting the number of shops that can service your car, dealers drive up the cost to owners of those vehicles by 34 percent, according to a study Lang Research conducted for the Automotive After Market Industry Association. The study found consumers pay $11.7 billion in excess costs annually."

Not safe: Poll finds 1-in-4 Americans text while driving
"The problem is that texting while driving isn’t seen as an inherently dangerous activity, at least compared to something like drink driving; everyone knows that’s a no-no. “What’s the harm in sending out a text while I’m behind the wheel?” Well, mister-think-you’re-Fernando-Alonso, any time you take your eyes off the road that puts everyone in danger, and not just you. All it takes is one stray maneuver and you’re looking at a huge pile-up.

So, in conclusion, just knock it off already. That, or Greg will get really sad. We don’t want that to happen, now do we?"

(Photo Essay) - A Brief History of the Indianapolis 500


'Electric Car Guy' Has Been On The Energy-Efficiency Case For 40 Years
"He's watched as big car manufacturers compete to deliver the first practical all-electric car.

He celebrated when Northeast Utilities announced its plans last month to build the country's largest network of electric-car charging stations.

But the idea of an electric car is old news to Bob Rice, who for nine years has been zipping around in a Volkswagen Jetta that he converted to electric power. He recharges its batteries with an outlet he built and nailed to a tree outside his home in Killingworth.

The 67-year-old retired train engineer has been quietly tinkering and toiling for decades building electric cars and batteries. Thirty years ago, the automobile world wrote off guys like Rice as crackpots. Today, they're trying to catch up with them.

"Well," Rice said, "it's about time."

Even in electric car circles Rice is known as a pioneer. Members of the Electric Auto Association, a nonprofit group based in San Jose, Calif., described him as a "fundamental change agent" when they gave him a lifetime achievement award last month."

From Caracas, Venezuela
For a City in Gridlock, a Lifeline and a Scourge
"In an anarchic city, thousands of motorbike couriers known as motorizados make life there treacherous and viable at the same time."

(Slide show at the link.)
Sparkling Chrome, Beer Budget
"For those who would rather be driving an interesting car than fussing over the originality of its headlamp bulbs, there are many vehicles in the lower price brackets."

The Real Car Crisis:the Disappearance of Style and Passion in Design”

Funky Cars You Love to Hate


From reestore
Theo, The gearbox table
Date of birth:
2007
Previous occupation:
Car gearbox


Highlighting our investor's love of cars, the aptly named Theo table's glass top rotates on the salvaged gearbox pedestal. Suitable for meetings and dining alike, looks great accompanied with shopping trolley chairs.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Price:
£1600

Egypt:

10 Reasons to Visit Cairo
"Whether you love it or hate it, a Cairo taxi ride is a simultaneously life affirming and life threatening experience. Taxi drivers are a law unto themselves, and the only thing in Cairo more insane than the traffic is the cavalier way in which the drivers negotiate it. There’s nothing to do but hold on tight, and try to convince yourself that true traveling is more about the journey than the destination. Just pray you don’t get one of the taxis with musical brakes, because you really don’t want to know how seldom they get used!"

EGYPT TO LIQUIDATE OR SELL NASR AUTO
"Founded in 1960, and known for producing licensed versions of Fiat, FSO Polonez, Tofas and Zastava, “Nasr has a long history in Egypt,” said Salah El-Hadari, secretary general of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association."


Reed KD has spent the better part of the last three years between two places: his VW Vanagon (living out of it in 2007 and 2008, traveling the country and writing music) and his Santa Cruz bedroom (where he recorded his new album "In Case The Comet Comes," out June 9th). Reed KD shot a video for "Winding Roads," a song he wrote about traveling the country in his van. He filmed it recently while driving from Santa Cruz to Los Angeles. It's a trip he's made often - driving his van through forests, sprawling coastline, desert and maddening LA traffic.

Below: The video "Winding Roads"




Yusuf Islam (remember him as Cat Stevens) has a new video out as well. Here it is:
YUSUF Islam - Roadsinger

Funkengroovin Wednesday - One Afternoon, One Road

Auto NEWS From Cairo:
Check out the TIME Magazine video:
The Relentless Din of Egypt's Capital - "Cairenes find their health threatened by dangerously high noise levels."

IN THE MARKET FOR A CAR?
"Located on the outskirts of Nasr City in the Tenth District, the popular car market is one of the town’s modern-day landmarks. The sprawling parking lot covers more than 20 acres teeming with around 20,000 cars and their owners from around the country."

Forgotten history of Ramsis car resurrected in new documentary
"We watch Nasser proclaiming that Egypt will eventually become entirely self-sufficient, will manufacture everything from sewing needles to rockets, as his audience quite literally dance with joy.

The Ramsis was not even 100 percent Egyptian made: many of its components were imported from West Germany (the car itself was based on a German car, the Prinz), the interior the only entirely locally-produced part of the car.

An un-automated production line meant that only five cars were turned out a day. The 550 cc cars themselves were boxy, utilitarian, ugly — a Mogamaa on wheels — but little matter, for this was Egypt’s first Popular Car, a slice of national pride available for only LE 200."

(Below): Broke Down.




(Below): VW Van er "Bus".








Below): Riding On Top. This bus was in front of us and we caught it on the turn.


(Below):Attention VW Shoppers! A new dealership is opening in Maadi! (Actually not the same road.)



NEWS:
(Photos and full article at the link): JustKampers Gives New Meaning To Term "Short Bus"

Just Kampers; Slammed Van, Thank you Jam!

Readers share VW memories

(Photo at the link): Mushroom Men: Collectibles With Pre-Orders (and Mushroom Men VW Bus)

(You have to read it to beleive it. Thank God Candy has the common sense to drive a VW. As for Woofie - he deserves what he gets. Apparently somone's been messin' with his Dewars!) Wolf Blitzer's DIARY:
"... I knew even before I entered the store that Candy Crowley was inside, since her beat-up, avocado-green VW bus is one-of-a-kind. She appeared to be purchasing some apricot schnapps. I'm going to watch her future purchases VERY CLOSELY. With Candy's birthday coming up, I want to stay on her good side. As you know, I'll spend a lot of time with her at the conventions this summer and she's a wild woman if you get her angry...."

(Must see photo of a bent Van - no kidding.): Telekinetically Bent VW Van

Under The Big Top
"Taking a cue from 18th-century garden flowers, an architect designed a garage that's both fanciful and functional."

VB complains about pumps that don't have the clips on the nozzles so you can pump your gas hands free. Some states don't allow it. This article probably explains the reason why.
Static Fires Are a Peril at the Pump
"It may sound like urban legend, but fires at the gas pumps can be sparked by static electricity.

F you think gas prices are scary, consider a far worse fright that Kelly Shager of Lynchburg, Va., got at a gas pump. Eight months ago, Mrs. Shager drove her 1999 Ford Ranger to a self-service gas station, engaged the nozzle’s hold-open clip to have it fill automatically, then sat in her vehicle.

When the tank was full, she slid out and reached for the nozzle. Touching it, she felt a shock.

“Then fire kind of came out of the tank,” she said.

Mrs. Shager ran into the station’s convenience store for a fire extinguisher, but flames were already leaping over her truck. By the time firefighters controlled the blaze, the pickup was a charred ruin.

According to Greg Wormser, the Lynchburg fire marshal, the fire was ignited by an electrostatic charge that had collected on Mrs. Shager as she sat in the truck. When she reached for the nozzle, the charge grounded, igniting the gas vapors around the pump.

“You should never re-enter a vehicle when you’re fueling,” Mr. Wormser said.

That’s because when a person who re-enters a vehicle and slides across the seat can acquire a static charge of thousands of volts, caused by friction between two electrically dissimilar materials, such as clothing and seat upholstery, said Dr. Robert E. Nabours, an electrical engineer . If the charge is not harmlessly discharged through the person’s shoes or by the person touching metal, such as part of a grounded car,, an electrical arc can jump from a hand to the nozzle, igniting gas vapors and starting a fire."

Putting the Dream Car Out to Pasture
"America’s romance with the automobile is being severely tested now that every trip causes financial worry, environmental guilt and self-consciousness about the size of your car.

Beyond the bad economic news may lurk a less remarked shift in Americans’ psyches: a change in the role the automobile occupies in people’s emotional lives and self-image. For decades, automakers pitched cars as sex symbols, as extensions of drivers’ freedom or affluence or eye for beauty. Even if that pitch is inverted — if hybrids or minicars become the most desirable wheels, bespeaking a driver’s thriftiness or environmental sensitivity — is it really possible to be passionate about a compromise?

“You wear your car like you wear a Ralph Lauren suit,” said Clotaire Rapaille, an anthropologist and psychiatrist known as the car shrink, whose company, Archetype Discoveries Worldwide, studies consumer preferences."

Tom Vanderbilt's Why We Drive the Way We Do Unlocks How to Unclog Traffic
"Driving down a New Jersey highway three years ago, Tom Vanderbilt decided to stop being a goody-goody. He fought the urge to merge at the first indication that his lane was ending and rode it right to the pinch point, wedging his way in front of a furious driver at the last second. Racked with moral misgivings, he eventually looked into the science of merging and discovered salvation in high math, which proves he made the right choice — and not just for his own time-saving benefit, but for humankind (or at least commuter-kind — the seemingly selfish strategy keeps traffic moving faster for all). "It doesn't have to be an ethics problem," Vanderbilt says. "It's really a system-optimization issue."

Behind the Wheel at a Club With a $125,000 Entry Fee but No Speeding Tickets
"Officials at a new racing club scheduled to open on Sunday in Monticello, N.Y., said the sputtering economy has not deterred the big-bucks, big-horsepower types they are looking for."

From Esquire:
What It Feels Like...to Almost Drown in a Car
What It Feels Like... To Hit Someone with a Car
What It Feels Like... To Be Hit by a Car
What It Feels Like...to Drive 900 Miles Wearing Adult Diapers
What It Feels Like... To Race a Car Blind
What It Feels Like...to Drive 675 Miles Per Hour
What It Feels Like. . . To Be a Blind Race-Car Driver’s Navigator


Little Feat Fat Man In The Bathtub

Funkengroovin Wednesday - Scenes From A Museum, The Oddities and Egyptian Relatives

Trying to make up for lost posts during VB's return trip to Egypt and then the sudden Internet outage, VB presents another edition of Scenes from a Museum. And, yes, she knows it's not Wednesday anymore.

Previous Posts:
Scenes From A Museum, included Transporters
Scenes From A Museum, Beetles, had all Beetle photos.

All pics are digitized versions of photos taken during our trip to Germany, 1996, when we visited the Wolfsburg VW Museum.

(Below)VW Invader GT (?)



(Below) DKW, Baby Thunderbird:
"DKW cars in the 1950s were all based on characteristic 2-stroke engines which were gradually becoming obsolete and an aerodynamic body shell developed just before the War. Marketing these cars became more and more difficult and DKW desperately needed an image boost.
And so director William Werner, of US American origins, ordered his stylists one day in 1956 to design "a sportscar that has to look like a bomb". The stylists decided to check out what was on the market and ultimately came up with the 1000Sp; a German interpretation of the 1957 Ford Thunderbird with a non-removable coupe top not unlike that of the one-off 1956 Ford Thunderbird "Five-Window Hardtop" prototype." (Read and see much more about it on the link and here at Wiki.)

1965
"Daimler-Benz sold their shares in Auto-Union to VolksWagen Werke, who thereby got influence in Auto union. In 1965 DKW and AU 100 were removed from the manufacturing and a new Audi was introduced."




(Below L) Off White Car, NSU
(Below R) Predecessor to possibly the Wanderer W25 (VB's thinking this car is related to the Auto-Union line, but she's not exactly sure where. It took her several days of studious undertaking to come to this inconclusive guess.)

From Wiki: "The trademark of Auto Union was a symbol of four overlapping rings, symbolizing the four member companies (all four in a line, in an attempt to avoid confusion with the 5 Olympic rings). The trademarks and company names of the member companies - Horch, Audi, DKW and Wanderer - were continued; the four ring logo was used only in racing. The four ring logo of Auto Union is still a trademark, and now used by Audi."

Talking about strange relationships, especially since VB is in Egypt:
"In 1969, just as the car was about to be launched, NSU was taken over by Volkswagen, who integrated the Neckarsulm company with Auto-Union/Audi, which it had acquired in 1964." (Wiki)

From Marc's NSU Pages, NSU Ramses: (Check out more of the description, and pics at the link.)

"The NSU Ramses Utilica was the first car produced in Egypt, and was the result of a coorporation between the new egyptian car firm Egyptian Automotive Co., and the german NSU. The factory was located right next to the Great Pyramids. Plans were to produce around 10.000 cars a year, most of the work being manual labor.

Other models created by were the Ramses Limousine, and Ramses Gamila, a two-seater sport car with a vignale body."

The Independent ranks The Ramses as one of the, Top Ten African Cars, "Based first on the British Frisky and then the NSU Prinz. As the name suggests, made in Egypt. One of Colonel Nasser's pet projects in the 1950s."


Further on down the genealogical automobile road:

"Nasr, (Arabic: النصر‎, long form: El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company) is Egypt's state owned automobile company, founded in 1960 in Helwan, Egypt. Since 1979 the company has produced licensed versions of the Fiat 128 and 125, and in 1991 introduced a further range of Fiat designed cars licensed via the Turkish company Tofaş. In the early 2000s Nasr began producing the Florida range under license from Serbian manufacturer Zastava.

Nasr was a replacement for the short-lived Ramses automobile (also state produced), which suffered from poor design and performance. The Nasr was intended to be an affordable car for the average person of means (though it was still too expensive for a large proportion of the Egyptian population). The company's creation was also part of the general industrialization process initiated after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which would see millions of Egyptians flock to urban areas to gain work in newly built factories and industrial centers."

VB wonders if any of those NSU Ramses,the Ramses Limousine, and/or Ramses Gamila are still around. That would be interesting - possibly another post too. For now - back to the Museum.

(Below): The Beetle Trolley Car




(Below): Experimental - ARVW: Much better photo at Wiki.

Also, here:
"The ARVW (Aerodynamic Research Volkswagen) set two world records, and seven class records, for diesel vehicles at the high-speed track in Nardo, Italy. The fastest lap was completed at a speed of 362.07 km/h. This experiment was designed to provide detailed information on the effects of aerodynamics on fuel consumption at high speeds. The drag coefficient of the ARVW, the "Silver Cigar," is 0.15. The test concluded that the vehicle consumed 6 liters per 100 km, at 250 km/h, and at top speed, 13.61 liters per 100 km. In comparison, renowned sports cars required 38 liters of fuel for 100 km."




(Below): Stretch Beetle Convertible





No music video today. Music videos offered only on real Funkengroovin Wednesdays. BTW, spellcheck is still not working, and the Internet is still fairly slow - no fun watching videos when it takes over an hour to load them. (VB hasn't really tried lately, since it has turned into a frustrating ordeal.)