Seven VW Beetles, Five Decades: Converting Dad from Skeptic to Believer
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
Seven VW Beetles, Five Decades: Converting Dad from Skeptic to Believer
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Concept
air-cooled cars
Air-cooled cars are engines that stay cool by using air instead of water. This type of engine is common in older Volkswagen models.
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small car that many people recognize because of its round shape. It has been around for a long time and is very popular.
Car
Porsche 911
Car
Porsche 914
The Porsche 914 is a sporty car that was made in the 1970s. It's known for being fun to drive and has a different design compared to other Porsches.
Car
Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia is a stylish car that looks like a sports car but is based on the Beetle. It was made in the 1950s and 60s and is loved for its design.
Car
Porsche 356
Car
Volkswagen Bus
The Volkswagen Bus is a large van that people used to travel and go on adventures, especially in the 1960s. It has a unique shape and is known for being very roomy inside, making it great for families or groups of friends.
Concept
obsolete cars
Obsolete cars are older vehicles that aren't made anymore and might be hard to fix because parts are hard to find. People who love these cars often work hard to keep them running.
Car
BMW Isetta
The BMW Isetta is a small car from the 1950s that looks like a little bubble. It has a unique door that opens from the front and was made to be affordable and easy to drive.
Term
hot rodding
Hot rodding is when people make changes to their cars to make them faster or look cooler. It usually involves adding new parts or changing the engine.
Term
hot rodded
Hot rodding is when people make changes to a car to make it faster or perform better. This can include things like changing the engine or adding new parts.
Term
bolt-on
Bolt-on parts are upgrades you can add to a car without needing to change a lot of things. They usually fit right onto the car using the same screws or bolts.
Concept
wrenching
Wrenching means fixing or working on cars using tools. It's something car lovers do to take care of their vehicles or make them better.
Car
Volkswagen Super Beetle
The Volkswagen Super Beetle is a better version of the regular Beetle. It has more space in the front and a stronger engine, making it a popular choice among fans of the Beetle.
Term
oil embargo
The oil embargo was when some countries stopped selling oil to others, causing gas prices to rise and making it harder to find fuel. This changed how people thought about cars and fuel efficiency.
Car
Volkswagen Up Volkswagen
The Volkswagen up! GTI is a small car that's designed to be fun to drive while still being easy to park and use in the city. It's like a sporty version of a regular city car, which makes it exciting for people who want a little more thrill in their daily commute.
Car
Pontiac Catalina
The Pontiac Catalina is a big car that was made for families and people who liked to drive comfortably. It was known for being stylish and having a strong engine, making it a favorite among many drivers.
Concept
restoration shops
Restoration shops are places where old cars are fixed up and made to look like they did when they were new. They help keep classic cars on the road and looking great.
Term
customized suspension
Customized suspension means changing parts of a car's suspension system to make it handle better or look different. People do this to improve how the car drives or to make it more stylish.
Car
Audi Tt
The Audi TT is a small, sporty car that looks very stylish and is fun to drive. It's known for its good performance and modern features.
Concept
concourse judge
A concourse judge is someone who looks at classic cars at shows and decides how good they are. They check if the cars are original and in great shape, helping to pick the best ones.
Term
concourse event
A concourse event is a fancy car show where really nice cars are displayed and judged. It's like a competition to see which car is the best in terms of looks and history.
Car
Volkswagen Touareg
The Volkswagen Touareg is a larger SUV made by Volkswagen. It's designed to be comfortable and can handle rough terrains, making it great for both city and outdoor driving.
LIVE
To all the cars I've loved before, Listenerland, you have found the best car podcast you've never
heard about.
But you know what?
I'm going to have to get with my partner crime here, because that's really not, I don't
know if that's so appropriate, heard around the world, yes, and we would like to welcome
our new listeners in Phoenix, Arizona, New York, New York, Highlands, Texas, Avon, Indiana,
yes, Avon, I wonder if that has anything to do with the old cosmetics company.
No, Avon, yeah, Avon, Indiana, Washington, D.C., Henderson, Nevada, if you're in any
of these places, feel free to drop a line, hit us through any of the communique links
that our good co-host Doug has set up over time.
Henderson, Nevada, this might be my personal favorite, Mississauga, Ontario popped up on
our map by way of the analytics, Mississauga, Ontario, I hope I'm not massacring it, massacring
it.
You did a great job.
Yeah, I did a great job massacring it.
It is my favorite city to say now, maybe my favorite city, where we're heard, and
Iceland popped up on the map.
I think Iceland is new, Sweden had been around for a bit.
If you're an old Volvo mechanic who wants to get on the show, please, in Sweden, let
us know.
It's easy.
We're a sob mechanic.
Yeah, we're trying to get somebody on the show who's a huge sob person.
I don't know where we are on that, but we're always prospecting for guests, but
if you'd like to be on the show, it's easy.
I'm going to tell you how.
Christian at carslove.com, Doug at carslove.com, let's see, or you can go to our link tree,
and there is a link.
Do you want to be our guest?
So easy.
And let me spell it out for you, linktr.ee slash carslove.com.
That's a great little switchboard.
Doug's been working on that.
It took a quantum leap forward over the past week because we want to make it
easy.
We want to meet everybody where they're at.
So if you're a social media junkie, you can catch us on Facebook.
What else?
Instagram.
Instagram.
We're now on YouTube, effectively the second largest search engine in the world.
We're posting content.
You'll see nuggets and snippets.
So the way that, you know, as we study the industry, the way that we can keep
posting on a regular cadence is to slice and dice a lot of the hours and hours, dozens
of hours of content that we have right now.
And so you'll see these snippets getting spun off.
And that helps us remain publishing in these different, along these different vectors.
Where else, Doug?
Did I get them all?
Carslove.com.
Yeah.
People listen to us on the site player, which I never would have thought initially.
Where else?
What are we missing?
Anything further on how to, on how to get a hold of us?
Oh, I think, I think our link tree, say it for us.
L-I-N-K-T-R.EE slash carslove.com.
No, not .com, silly.
Oh yeah.
Sorry.
No, I said it wrong.
Get rid of the .com.
L-I-N-K-T-R.EE slash carslove.
New spot on the show.
Well, okay.
I'm going to call it.
You remember the old, you've got mail?
You remember the old, you've got mail?
That poor fellow just passed away.
Yes, he did.
Who actually was the voice of that.
I'm going to get his name by the end of the show.
We'll toss that in.
But instead of you've got mail, how about, we got notice.
We got notice.
Getting a little street cred by a trade rag called feed spot.
This piece was called the best car podcast on the planet, to which you might say,
what, planet?
But that's Earth.
We're not at Mars yet.
By the way, it takes six months to get there.
They don't tell you that.
They don't tell you that when you're booking it on Expedia.
So we were number 37 out of 70, all right, which puts us right in the middle of the
pack, middle of the bell curve.
So yeah, this is good.
This is good information, getting notice.
So again, the downloads have really amplified.
Now, throw a little kudos to my partner, the continual nuggetizing of our content
and spitting it off has, we're really seeing that the number.
So thanks for doing that.
And what do you think about this show?
It's a great way to, if somebody doesn't have 30 minutes or 45 minutes, it's a great
way for them to scroll through, find something that might be, especially something funny.
That's what we're pulling those sound bites that are funny or interesting and it will
get somebody's attention and hopefully they'll listen to the whole episode when
they get time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And maybe the two dozen media consultants that we just hired are starting to pay off.
So anything else on the best podcast on the planet piece, any thoughts around that?
No, we're just going to keep podcasting and keep listening.
Hopefully keep getting noticed.
Yeah.
The one thing we'd ask is give us a review.
If you can on Apple podcasts, if you can't pick your podcast set of choice or send us
a note, tell us what you think.
If you have a friend who wants to be on the podcast or who you think would be great
on the podcast, let us know.
If there's a couple, husband and wife, father, son, father, daughter, mother,
daughter, son and third cousin, fourth cousin, fifth cousin, sixth cousin.
Well, yeah, but cousin once removed.
Yeah, we'd love to have groups.
We've had some great interviews in the last several weeks.
There's so many I can't even begin to talk about, some with Automotive Tech
College that I learned about from PBS NewsHour.
Yeah, yeah.
Can't wait to get those out.
But that, I think, takes us to today.
Yeah, almost.
Let me say one thing real quick.
Doug is a segue machine, beautifully stated.
Let's pick that up off the floor, dust it off.
And I want to offer to the listening audience here and listen to the land.
We're starting to get reviews on Apple podcasts.
So and I didn't think we would get that so quickly, some kind words.
A lot of them say for Christian to lay off the coffee.
I don't even know what they mean, but please let us know.
Always feel free to email us, but give us a review, especially if you have
kind words and I will hand the baton back to Doug, because I think we have
a great guest today.
Yeah, thank you, Christian.
Yeah, so our guest today comes to us via another guest, Guinevere, who is on
a upcoming episode or future or previous episode, depending on when you're
listening to this one.
And we're going to talk all about air-cooled cars today, specifically
Volkswagen's, where our guest Dave, I'm going to let Dave introduce himself.
That's where he started, and it's a love of his through today.
And there's a lot of tie ins to his personal life and how he's given back.
But Dave, if you want to introduce yourself.
Thanks, Doug.
Thanks, Christian.
My name is Dave.
I am a lifelong air-cooled enthusiast and have owned multiple air-cooled
Volkswagen's throughout my existence and currently involved with a co-founder
of a club in the Connecticut area called Small Car Company, which is a little
bit different from a lot of clubs.
And I'd like to say that the minute we have dues and minutes and Robert's
rules of parliamentary procedure is when I quit.
So we've grown organically.
It's, as I said, it's enthusiast.
You see someone on the road driving a vintage Porsche or 911 or a 356, 914,
or a Volkswagen, a bus, a Beetle, a Carmen Ghia.
You all begin to get to recognize each other and get to know each other.
And 11 years ago, a neighbor of mine, who was also an air-cooled guy named Tom,
we said, hey, you know, look, we've got a couple of names that people we know.
Let's let's just let's get together for breakfast.
Let's get together on a Saturday or a Sunday.
Just go for a drive, just hang out, just talk cars.
Well, one thing led to another after a couple of those wonderful,
informal, completely impromptu, unplanned and, you know, rallies where we
most of our time was figuring out how, you know, how lost we were.
But but never, never without a smile.
You know, I woke up one morning and said, you know what, this could be a club.
And they went, how long did that take?
How long did that take before you kind of met?
I would say it fermented throughout a summer.
And then kind of the winter passage when we weren't driving
sort of began to put that whole together with said, I miss these guys.
I miss these guys.
Yeah, so just a few months.
So that's relatively quick.
Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Please. No, I love the story.
Love the story.
And but I think the other essence of the club is, you know,
how do you keep these obsolete cars on the road?
And I don't think that's a, you know, a a a condition or a problem
that's particularly true just only for Volkswagen and Porsche.
It's all these obsolete cars.
You talk to people, hey, do you know I'm having this trouble?
Do you know a source?
What about this part?
Do you know someone who could do this and do that?
So the club was more than just let's get together and drive
or admire these cars.
It was a support system for keeping cars on the road.
And then, you know, deep friendships really would develop along the way.
And we were always a kind of family oriented wives, kids and love that.
So the whole path of having a club that, yes, it centered on a mutual interest,
but it was really more about friendship and camaraderie in the end.
And that was we just had our 11th anniversary
and we've been doing an annual show,
which is kind of an all air cooled gathering.
We've had everything from Iseta's and
Crosby's amazing.
Some of them very rare cars come come
for miles away and we gather at the veterans green
on downtown Westport, Connecticut and celebrate all things air cooled once a year.
I love it. OK, so 11 years, you've been doing that.
And is this kind of an annual show that you do?
Or do you mean the show is annual?
But throughout the year, we're doing
rallies, drives and and and other charitable events
which have been a focus of the the club now for about seven or eight years.
Got it. Got it.
Well, that sounds fantastic here.
And before I stick you in the wayback machine and we go back to your first car
and we talk and think about how it all started, I have to tell
listener land that you have the neatest wall art behind you.
I think of anybody.
And so if you don't know people listening,
we we have a video conferencing set up here so I can see what.
So, you know, I'm very I'm a very nosy person
and I like to see people in their element, right?
So I can see Dave over this video conference and over his his his right shoulder.
He has the deck lid to one of his beloved VWs.
Or maybe it even predated you, right?
And it does. Yeah, it's sort of backlit.
It's a beautiful thing here.
And I wish everybody could see it.
But, you know, there's a there's a great story behind that that Dave told us.
Maybe you could tell us tell the audience real quick, Dave,
about that the story and the tie into the small car company, the original.
Well, I think it's one of those for me meant to be kind of things.
It really unfolded like this.
And I appreciate, Christian, what you're saying that that it was a, you know.
It's a deck lid, it's a piece of art in and of itself, but hung on a wall and back.
Yes.
And you probably can't see it, but there's also the license plate frame.
And there's a decal that say the small car company on it.
I can.
And therein lies the story that Doug mentioned.
So.
In that winter fermentation where where we said, let's make this a club.
Got to come up with a name.
And I said, well, to my friend, Tom, let's call it the small car company
because we live in a town where the probably back in the day,
the small car company, which we tipped the hat to as the name of our club,
was the largest air cooled VW dealer in the country for a while.
I think they came to be to be in the fifties
and folded tents as a car dealership in the late seventies.
And.
One thing led to another when we decided to have our first car show
at probably our second year of existence as a club.
We contacted the property owner who was renting the space
then the back in the day dealership, the small car company.
That was their original headquarters, their dealership.
It was all the property was owned by a restoration shop,
local restoration shop.
They said, hey, great, you know, you can use my parking lot,
you can use my showroom, you can set up coffee, you can do whatever you want.
And it was a really fun event.
We had a great turnout.
And I was just saying to Doug that sometime at some point during the show
when there we had about 50 cars, I looked around and said,
my goodness, this is more air cooled cars on this parking lot
today than there have been years.
Yeah. At the end of the show, we were sort of we were cleaning up
and the fellow who had lent us the space came out from the back.
He said, I knew I could find this.
I've been meaning to look for it.
Someone said it was under the pile of trash and, you know, he came out
and he was holding this deck lid and it had the small car company
decal and license plate on it. Oh, and he said, here, it's yours.
Oh, man.
Oh, it was a, you know, a fun affirmation of what was beginning to happen.
And obviously something that, you know, didn't become a light fixture.
And office right away went to the corner of my garage.
Right. It went from the corner of their garage to the corner of your garage.
And then I'm sure years later in OK, Doug, Doug wants to strangle me
because he wants to go on to the talk.
But remind the air cooled show that I went to down here in Pensacola
called the rare air show.
Oh, it was so good.
Oh, my gosh.
And I gave out a bunch of cards and I haven't heard from them.
But they there they have the
that your deck lid reminded me of of all the parts for sale.
Door handles, dashboard pieces, lids of every stripe and size.
Just with masking tape and a little price on them.
So wonderful.
And anyway, OK, let's let's go way back to when you were a young man,
because it all had to start somewhere, Dave, where do you want it?
Where do you want to kick it off?
You know, it it preparing to meet you gentlemen
began and was asked to think about all of that, which I hadn't for a long time.
And that was a real pleasure.
And yeah, it's a very simple story.
When I was in middle school, probably seventh or eighth grade in Connecticut
and, you know, coming from a family that had a Chevy and my neighbor had a Ford.
There were very few foreign cars around.
And a friend of mine
who became a friend in seventh or eighth grade had just been
Triz family had just come in from California.
And they the parents were a very kind of stylish
couple that do tall and tan and playing tennis all the time.
And they drove a oval era, mid fifties,
beetle, beautiful black paint with a beautiful red interior.
And I love the car.
Sounds beautiful.
Can't, you know, I can't explain the why or how just it was.
Yeah. Love it first sight.
Yeah, I can see it in my mind's eye from your description.
I can see the car. Beautiful.
Iconic. Yeah.
And, you know, as I got a little bit older
and went to finished high school, went on to college in Massachusetts,
I was in need of a car to begin to commute
and take on my first serious summer job.
And I went to the small car company
in Connecticut in Westport to look for a used car
and found the perfect candidate, which was a 1969
VW beetle in reasonable shape, reasonable price.
And as I went out, as I was about to test drive at the salesman,
said, and by the way, this this was owned by a Connecticut tech
student, Norwalk tech student in the next town
who knew a little something about hot rotting Volkswagen's.
So it might feel a little different than what you're used to.
And it was.
It was mildly hot rotted, probably raised compression
and a couple of other, you know, bolt on types of things.
And it was a great car.
I just drove the heck out of that car
and loved every second of it.
And, you know, without getting too wordy about the whole thing,
it was also an opportunity to begin to learn to wrench on my own projects.
Yeah. Yeah. Maintain the car.
And I found that I absolutely love that process
as much as I love the car itself and.
Had that car for years and.
Went on to own a seventy three standard beetle, a sixty six
beetle convertible and a seventy two super beetle,
which I currently have.
So you have a type.
We could say you have a type.
I would say so.
That's a very good reporting.
Yeah. OK.
So in the early on, let me squeeze in here real quick, partner.
One of the things that you had mentioned earlier
that I thought was I just want to tease it out a little bit.
One of the things that you really love about these automobiles in general,
OK, is being able to drive forever on five dollars worth of gas.
Love that.
And fewer times at the line during the gas embargo.
And for our younger listen, listeners, very real, very, very real thing.
So if you're like that was a real part of the early experience,
the gas embargo hit very heavily.
And, you know, the ability to, you know.
What was it? What is it a ten, ten and a half gallon tank of gas would just take
me anywhere I wanted to go without, you know, being crushed by the experience
of being on lines or, you know, now worried about getting stuck.
Yeah. Yeah.
I I read somewhere that if you would look at your license plate
and if the last number was odd or even, you know,
is that true?
It's it's definitely true.
And with a three dollar limit when it got really.
Oh, I didn't even know that a limit.
Wow. OK. OK.
The three dollars seven family Chevy station wagon went a little differently.
You're reading my mind.
That was the next thing I was going to say is your your as they say your
mileage may vary. Sorry, Doug.
I didn't mean to interrupt.
We got all these questions, man.
No, I'm glad you mentioned it.
I think the oil embargo was started in 1973, was it?
Yeah, that was the year I was born.
So I knew I knew there's some significance there.
There was another experience that I had two experiences
that may be not to go too far afield.
But one was going with my then girlfriend, who is now my wife
of over 40 years on a ski trip to southern Vermont and it snowed.
And at the bottom of the access road to the ski mountain
were all these cars that couldn't get up the mountain, the access road.
And I said, I think we can do it.
And the had snow tires, but the combination of the weight
displaced or or transfer back the engine over the rear transaxle,
all of that, you know, the little engine that could made.
So good.
But I think one of your told us there was a I think it was her
that there was a Volkswagen ad and it said, what, you know,
what car does the snow plower driver own?
Those were the iconic ads by I guess it was a
significant Madison Avenue ad agency.
Yeah, yeah, you know, they that they were all black and white,
beautifully photographed with these wonderful tag lines.
They're quite collectible, of course.
You probably saw them at your swap meet in Florida.
No, no, no, I had not seen that.
But then I went online.
Oh, boy, we're we so I think we saw some last night when we were talking.
We did the top 10 most memorable votes, Volkswagen ads ever created.
And boy, there are some good ones here.
Yeah, brilliant, brilliant.
Sorry, Doug, keep going.
No, that's OK.
So yeah, so I'm glad you glad we were able to bring up Volkswagen use
in in snow.
And of course, you know, being air cooled, how well they run in the in the winter.
So how long did you have that first car for, Dave?
I sold that car about a year after the oil embargo to a local teacher,
because at the time I was moving to New York and didn't need a car.
Right, right.
Exactly.
And what was also very interesting experience as a as a car owner in general
is that I didn't lose that much money selling it.
And because it just was running so well, it held up.
Who knows how many more miles could have been put on at the time that it was being sold.
Do you recall how many miles approximately towards the end of its time with you?
Probably 50 to 60,000 miles.
OK, yeah.
So it had a couple hundred thousand more in it for sure.
Easily.
Yeah.
Yeah, awesome.
And so you're in New York for a while and then eventually you got out, right?
Finished, moved a little south.
When my academics were happening in New York at the same time,
there were summer jobs and I was still in need of transportation.
But during this process of me finding the 69 Volkswagen, my father who was a World War II,
a decorated World War II veteran, was very upset with me.
Couldn't understand why a son of his would buy a German car.
A car, yeah.
The simple logic was I risked my life to beat them.
And my youthful response was your generation did beat them.
And that's why Wolfsburg would go on and make these incredible cars that people like us can
afford and buy and use them as transportation.
What a reasoned response.
And their culture, right?
Well, at that time, the culture thing wasn't as big to me as the transportation thing.
I think it was beginning to grow, certainly.
And so long story short, my father's 57 Chevy wagon broke down and he said,
could I borrow a car?
And he did.
And that was the longest conversation it had for about two months.
Can I borrow your short?
And that weekend, he went down to the small car company and bought a 73, brand new 73 Volkswagen.
Man.
Wow.
It just took a weekend.
Convert.
A convert.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was about to think of how contrapunctual your small car was next to what he was
driving, the big lanyards of the 50s just couldn't be more different.
Couldn't be more different.
Well, and I think he understood it because as someone who as a veteran and someone who
had been in Europe and probably driven a Jeep.
Totally.
Got a small maneuverable vehicle and also someone who understood what it cost to
make a wage and pay for gasoline.
And it wasn't an easy conversion.
It was an easy conversion and there he was.
So roll the camera forward.
I didn't need a car for a long time.
He had that car.
He let me borrow it.
He was very generous with it when I needed it.
And when he passed away, my mother said, should I sell the Volkswagen?
It's running quite well.
And I was at that point taking care of it.
And I said, yeah, you should sell it if you want to use the money for something else.
And that weekend when I saw her, she handed me an envelope and it had the title to the car in it.
Oh man, love it.
How long did your dad have that car?
Oh my goodness.
I would say about 10 years.
So my mother just said, look, you took good care of that car for your father.
And I can't sell it.
Why did you take it?
And it became my daily driver.
It wasn't just, it wasn't, to me, I mean, I've cherished it and I took good care of it
and all those things you do with a beloved vehicle.
But it was my driver.
And my wife and I, when we were married, that was our honeymoon getaway car.
I think there's a photo album somewhere with a just married paper.
Oh, gotta dig up that picture.
Is there any way you could dig up that picture?
Yeah, I'll put that all together.
We got to see it, man.
We got to see it.
Yeah, love to see it.
Oh my gosh.
Dave, all these memories, and I did not want to interrupt you.
When you first mentioned in preparing for the show, we get this with a lot of guests
that coming on the show, in talking about these things, few people have used the word cathartic
healing, makes me think of things I hadn't thought before, made me smile, made me text
my dad, a parent, a brother or sister in fact check, hey, where'd this car come from?
Was it a Catalina?
Was it that?
So it's really, we get that a lot.
It's one of the very happy things for the show.
And Doug always says from the word go, Doug's big thing about the show was family,
family, family.
It's amazing how much fleshy people come around these metal machines
and you can't really talk about these machines.
And that's why I think we serve well by being, we're really a podcast about nostalgia,
talking about people.
In fact, the branding of the show ended up being the right thing.
But I originally wanted to call the podcast first car, second car, third car.
And Doug being the marketing genius that he is, he said, that's the dumbest name ever.
I just bought carslove.com and this was low these many.
But okay, we got to move on.
We got to move on.
I want to talk about Dave, something that you had mentioned.
You're obviously very thoughtful in all about community with your club that you
started, but could you tell us a little about mentors and motors?
I'd be glad to.
Mentors and motors came about in 2017 where I was sitting with my founding partner, Tom,
and we said, you know, we're doing these shows, we're doing rallies, we have people from all
at a show that year, I think we had two Rod Emery porches, which you're talking about
probably cars that cost a million dollars.
And, you know, all very exciting and very heady.
But we were beginning to recognize that the people we knew running the restoration shops
primarily hadn't really begun to focus on dealers yet, but we would go on to.
Everyone was saying, I can't find skilled people.
My head mechanic is, he's about to retire.
And talking to the people in our club, other clubs, people were saying, hey, you know,
that guy who used to be able to do the valve job on my flat six Porsche engine,
he just retired.
What am I going to do?
So I started really thinking about this incredible talent pool of kids in the state,
just locally really in the state of Connecticut, who are studying to be auto techs and wondering
out loud what percentage of these kids would be interested in being trained or getting
interested in general in restoration, just the way we did, helping someone fix a car or
inheriting a car or buying a used car.
So out of necessity, a lot of people learn to fix things that dealers didn't want to fix
and they found themselves being self educated as restorers.
And through a process of research and then just sort of meeting people was able to meet
probably the strongest educator or instructor in the state at the time,
who was the department head at the Bullard Haven Technical School in Bridgeport,
which is part of CTEX, Connecticut Technical Education Career Systems,
learning that there were 10,000 students in the state of Connecticut studying auto technology.
And this person, this head of this department, liked the idea of reaching out to these kids and
opening up doors for them and realizing that a lot of the problems they were having within our city
and kids of limited means is they had never been told, hey, you have a green light to go
and make your way in the world and meet people and self advancement, things that
we thought we could help teach because we're not teaching them the ins and outs of being a
mechanic, we're teaching them about life. Yeah, playing skills.
So it was a marvelous experience and I'll send you the picture of it. They said,
why don't you come next week to meet the students? And by the way, our classroom
is a garage and here's the big door, drive your car in. So I grabbed my 72 Super Beetle,
which is a very interesting car because it's a 200 horsepower Volkswagen.
What? Oh, crap.
With, you know, set up like a German look car with, you know, all the customized suspension.
It's sort of, you know, like, you know, where I took it to with that particular
bit. Yeah.
I thought the kids would be interested in that car because it still is so primitive.
You could put it on a lift, you could open up the engine bay, you could understand
all the systems of a car just almost by looking at it because of its simplicity.
And maybe that's in the end what was so enduring for me. But it was just a fantastic
day. Ended up spending, you know, what was scheduled as a 45-minute appointment, ended
up being a couple of hours kids hanging after school. And so the mentors and motors just became a
manifestation of finding these kids, talking to the instructors, bringing them to events,
having them, hosting them at our own events. And just one little anecdote, we had a
we had an event last summer at the Malcolm Prey Foundation in Bedford, New York,
Lily Prey. And her father was, Malcolm Prey was a Volkswagen and Porsche dealer in Greenwich.
And they have a car museum and they're all about education. And we had a marvelous group
of mentors. We invite people that we know. And one particular fellow is the owner of a
significant restoration shop. And he was very impressed by this one sophomore from Canar Tech,
Bethel, Connecticut. And that kid's now working at that shop. He's doing some cleaning parts.
And then, you know, but I said, well, this fellow shop owner said, Bob, how did you
recognize this kid's talent? I said, I could just tell by the way he talked about car.
There was nothing there. And when I spoke to this young man's instructor, they said, oh, yeah,
so and so. Not only does he, he's a great tech, very intelligent mind and gifted
mechanically. He can draw, if you say draw a picture of an Audi TT, you just get the pencil out,
draw a quick sketch. Oh, wow. He's so he was an aesthetician as well,
which struck home for me as an architect, as something that's a huge component. So
mentors and motors moving forward, you know, there's a lot of so-called STEM education,
science, technology, engineering and math. And we're going to put the A in that and do some
STEAM work with the art. Not with a STEAM engine. It won't be with STEAM. It will be with gasoline.
Yes. Air cool. Air cool. So the whole the whole mentors and motors program is really STEAM. It's
science, technology, engineering, art and math. Yeah. And it's really about people as much as
it is about the cars. When you said STEAM, I thought you were going to say that A stood for
automobiles because anymore when you work on an automobile, you're working on a computer with
wheels, you know. If you go into today's job market, that's what they're going to look for.
You have to be credentialed. You have to get certificates. I can work on this sort of system,
this subsystem, modalities. Yep. Yeah. You can quote one of our pass guys.
Yeah. These kids graduate with a with a ASC certificate. They're not and that's it.
Yeah. They're on the glide path. Give them about eight years. They'll have their master
mechanic certification. Yeah. It's interesting as a lot of them are being snapped up by the
aerospace companies, of course. Oh, wow. Because they have all the prerequisite skills to be
cross-trained in aerospace. That's an interesting little detour. That's an interesting detour.
Yeah. Wow. That is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. As we guide the podcast to the
off-ramp here, Dave, I just wanted to say that the mentors in motor, the thing that sticks out to
me is that it allows for young people to understand that learning is not a book.
I feel like you get taught that from a very young age. You can rethink the formal structure
of education as it sits. That's what you're doing. That's what you present to these young
folks. I think that's just a wonderful thing. I tell you what, partner, I think we're running
close on time here. One of Dave's problems is that he's so interesting. We knew we weren't
going to get to it all in one podcast. I think we're going to have to have you back, Dave, but
could you tease just a little bit some of the car judging? Now, we've never had a car judge
on before. Concourse judge. Concourse judge. Sorry. Yeah. Can you describe that in just a
moment or two? I would like to have you back on a future episode to not only talk about that,
but Doug and I had, while he was talking about his, the club that he has, I would love to get up
there for one of his rallies and one of his cruises be a great opportunity for some video
content. Sorry, Dave. Spring. Let's do it. I say we do it. I say we road trip to see Dave,
but Dave, tell us a little bit about the concourse judging. Well, I think for me,
it was the evolution of being in the car community. It wasn't something that I woke up one day and said,
I really want to aspire to this. So it started, like a lot of things innocently with someone
saying, hey, could you help out at this event? And someone else saying, hey, oh, we have an air
cooled section at the New England concourse, which was the first one that I did. Could you
be the head judge for air cooled? And I think I had an immediate case of imposter syndrome.
And when someone's going to tap you on the shoulder and say, if you just step right this way
quietly. Yeah, but you strike me as the perfect package, the perfect package. You have all the
elements that I think would lead you to do well at that. Well, and I appreciate that because part
of the element to me is it's for me, when I'm a judge, it's people first. What is the story?
How did this person get connected with this car? What brought them to this moment in time
where they're taking this incredible, you know, if it's a concourse event,
it's the best of the best. These are cars with a pedigree. These are cars that
the best examples of their kind. And so what would bring someone to that moment in time in
their own story? And I think it's just, for instance, at the New England concourse,
the Volkswagen that was represented there was the rarest
early Volkswagen bus that I've ever seen. Oh, man. It was at 8,000 kilometers on it,
somebody do the math, so that's not lost. Geez, no. It was, you know, in iconic colors of
candle wax red and sepia brown. And it smelled like a new car. And the person who had it was a
lifelong enthusiast, obviously someone who had earned enough money in his life to be able to buy
something like that. It had traded hands many times. And there's a somewhat cynical moment
where you think, oh, I'm just going to be hearing a rich person tell me about an asset.
But what I heard from that person as they showed me, let's say, the owner's manual was
almost like a child speaking about something that their most precious possession.
Wow. That's a neat little of that. That's a really neat. So let's leave it right there and
we can pick that up next time. But that's a really neat one thing that's really struck me
about many of the people that we've had on the show is that they ended up getting their dream cars,
but they're not independently wealthy. They had a dream, they had a vision, they stuck to it,
they said, I'm going to put this amount of money away. Every paycheck or I'm going to start a hobby,
side hustle, I'm going to put all that money in a bank account and doggone it when it gets
to where it needs to be. I'm going to break that piggy bank and go buy my dream, you know?
That's inspiring too because it shows division, dedication, hard work, and sticking to something.
I mean, all things that will get you there. Well, Dave, it was such a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you for making time. Pleasure meeting you both too.
Thank you, Dave. And sharing some of your stories in time with us. I had a blast.
If I look at, as you're talking, I'm looking at a computer screen at the show script,
I'm looking at the stopwatch off to the side, I'm chatting Doug off to the side,
I'm taking notes. And if you look at how much ground we covered in, you know,
which really we just kind of just kind of walked through your life, it was a delight.
I just want to thank you for sharing a bit of your space with us.
Thank you so much, gentlemen. This was a real pleasure.
Thank you. Thank you. We will have you back. We will have you back.
So what do you think, partner? Is that about time to head down the off-ramp and guide this car
into the center block garage? I think so. But I do have one last question for Dave.
It's okay if he doesn't know the answer. How many Volkswagen's have you owned?
Even ones you own today into the count? Including the two I own today.
It's less than 10. It's probably seven. Okay. That's a lot. That's a lot.
And not all Beatles? No. No, I've only had Beatles. That's what I thought. I heard you say
only Beatles. Seven Beatles. No, the Touareg. He drives Dalek.
Oh, you were air-cooled. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I missed that car. Yes. I did mean classic.
But yes, apologies. He also has a Volkswagen as his daily dropper,
but it's a modern, water-cooled Volkswagen. And did I say it properly? Touareg?
Touareg. That's the first time I've said it properly my entire life.
And I think that the people who speak German, they'll put a little bit of a W as a Touareg.
Oh, boy. You're making my life hard, Dave. You're making my life hard.
I've never said it properly, so I'm making my own life. Oh, Dave.
We got to stop while we're ahead, buddy. But again, it was a pleasure.
And you had just heard the high-reving, low-mileage, late model heard around the world
authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He is Doug at CarsLove.com.
I am Christian at CarsDoveLove.com. He was Dave. Everybody clap.
Please follow the show. Tell a friend. Download. Email us.
Hit up the link tree, l-i-n-k-t-r dot e-e slash cars love. And you'll find that's our digital
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our next local car show or rally. We're always in the neighborhood. Thank you for listening.
Keep the rubber side down and we will see you next week.
About this episode
A heartfelt journey through the world of air-cooled Volkswagens unfolds as Dave shares his passion for these iconic cars and the community he has built around them. From his first Beetle to founding a local car club, Dave highlights the camaraderie and support that keeps vintage vehicles on the road. The episode also touches on his father's transformation from skeptic to enthusiast and the importance of mentorship in the automotive field, showcasing how cars can connect generations and inspire future mechanics.
Original notes
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Some car enthusiasts are born. Others need convincing. Dave's father was definitely the latter when it came to VW Beetles.
Growing up with a dad who didn't understand the appeal of air-cooled Volkswagens, Dave faced a challenge: how do you make a skeptic fall in love with a car they've written off? The answer involves patience, persistence, and one very specific Beetle that changed everything.
This episode explores the deeper question behind Dave's story: Can you really convert someone to your automotive passion, or do they have to discover it themselves?
In this episode, Dave reveals:
- Why his dad initially dismissed the VW Beetle as "not a real car"
- The exact moment his father's attitude started to shift
- What makes air-cooled VWs so special to enthusiasts (and why skeptics miss the point)
- The specific Beetle that finally won his dad over
- How sharing car passion across generations changes relationships
- Why some cars require an acquired taste—and how to help someone acquire it
But there's one detail about the conversion process that Dave almost didn't share. It involves a road trip, a breakdown, and a revelation that neither father nor son saw coming.
Related episodes:
https://buzzsprout.com/admin/2316026/episodes/16886205-air-cooled-and-carefree-guinevere-s-vw-beetle-tales-and-family-restoration-traditions
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