Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Funkengroovin Wednesday - Scenes From A Museum, Miscellaneous

Reders will be relieved to know that this is the last in VB's series of posts about the VW Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. VB's "Miscellaneous" includes a few cars, and exhibits that just did not fit in with the previous posts.


Previous Museum Related Posts:



(Below) Experimental VW.
Forschung means research.




(Below) Type 3 aka Fastback:

From Wiki: "The Type 3 was introduced to diversify Volkswagen's product range beyond the Type 1 (Beetle), the Karmann Ghia, and the Type 2 (Bus). The Type 3 was designed to allow Volkswagen to make a more sophisticated car while maintaining much of the engineering from the Type 1. Though available to much of the world, the Type 3 line was not exported to the United States through Volkswagen of America until the 1966 model year, when the Squareback and Fastback were added to their line-up."

This is when Volkswagen's innovation started going straight down the tubes. VB doesn't like it! She says it's beginning of VW's fugly / boring car syndrome, (except for the Cabriolet.)





(Below) VW Golf:
"The Volkswagen Golf or VW Golf (Mark 1 and Mark 5 badged as Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada, Mark 1 badged as Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico) is a compact car / small family car that Volkswagen manufactures. The front-wheel drive Golf was Volkswagen's first successful replacement for the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle. Historically, it is Volkswagen's best-selling model and the world's third best-selling model, with more than 25 million built by 2007."





(Below) The body of a Golf, with all the parts laid out on a table.




(Below) Golf engine parts.



NEWS:

VW Bug owners have a blast at event

"Volksblast 2008, a classic Volkswagen car show, returned to South Miami on Sunday. Vintage Bug owners came from across the country to show off their vehicles." (Further information and photo at the link.)


Ahh, the Porsche/Piech/VW Takeover saga continues!
VW's Piech still trying to maintain iron grip, may oust Porsche boss


Volkswagen Baja Bug featured by Jalopnik. As usual many nice photos with details.


Who built the electric car?

"Garver, however, was not inspired by the 2006 film to build his own electric car. He built his electric way back in 1980 from a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle.

"It started like twenty years ago, in 1981 or '82. I got interested in it [building an electric car] and I found some articles where people had converted a Volkswagen out in California to electric power," Garver said.

"They were using old aircraft engines. So I thought 'this might be kind of fun to do.' And seeing as I work as a research scientist and all, I built a car with an aircraft engine in the '80s and ran it to the University a little bit then," he said." (More on Garver's car and a photo at the link.)


Eight 'Beetle guys' keep original Bug alive

"VW Germany stopped production of the Beetle in 1978 but Puebla making them, mostly for the local and Latin American market, where they were hugely popular. The last of more than 21-million Beetles was built there in 2003.

Mexicans fondly refer to it as "Vochito" - little beetle - and it continues to be the classic, indestructible Mexican taxi

But its days are numbered; cheap vehicles from China and India are entering the market, others from Japan and South Korea have been there a while.

Many Mexicans are unhappy about that; taxi drivers from Taxco, a high-altitude mining town with steep streets in the state of Guerrero have asked VW to at least continue to build Beetle engines. They claim no other vehicle suits the tough conditions there and there many enthusiasts who look after their Beetles like precious jewels."

Auto owners bare all in racy survey

"Last year, 1,000 men and women commissioned by Lifeskool, an on-demand cable show, took part in a "Cars and Summer Romance" survey. Nearly 70% said they wanted to have sex in their vehicle, and nearly half the respondents have been using their cars as a nookie nest since graduating high school.

In 2006, Britain's Daily Mail reported that 4,000 people said their top fave car to have sex in was the Volvo Estate (that's the V50 wagon here in the U.S.).

It's a surprising result given Volvo's overall non-glam reputation in America.
The Mercedes Sprinter — an upscale van — came in second, and the VW Camper van came in third. BMW's 3-series was fourth, and, believe or not, the Ford Escort was number five.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondees said they'd had sex in a car, but the most alarming news was that one out of 10 said they'd engaged in amorous activities while the car was moving.

A further 6% admitted to damaging their cars during the encounters."



And last, but not least a big "No Duh" for the linked article below. Oh, and BTW, go and express your opinion. This is it for this week's Rotten News. There's more on the web, but VB has her limitis!
Will VW loyalists turn their back on the Routan?

"...And if the buzz on the web -- including the comments on this blog post from About.com's Minivans site -- are any indication, the Volkswagenisti may be none to happy about the fact that the newest Volkswagen isn't a Volkswagen, but is in fact a Chysler."

WTF is a "Volkswagenisti"? That sounds awfully Italian! When VB tried to do a Goggle search for it, all she got was a bunch of Italian sites. Aand, then when she tried to get a definition, the closest thing Goggle could find was this:
"In the late 1990s, a group of Volkswagen enthusiasts formed Volkswagenism, a satirical religion based off of owners devoted loyalty to the Beetle, and the company. Under the leadership of founder Jason Gaudet, this "religion" has gained notoriety through radio, television and print coverage from around the world...turning ordinary fans of the car into Volkswagenists."


Bon Jovi - It's My Life (Two VW Beetles in this video.)



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