{"id":25476,"date":"2020-06-05T17:24:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T21:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=25476"},"modified":"2020-06-05T17:24:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T21:24:23","slug":"payne-turning-back-the-clock-in-a-64-vw-beetle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/payne-turning-back-the-clock-in-a-64-vw-beetle","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Turning back the clock in a &#8217;64 VW Beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/e5b53f71-e9ec-4de0-83b5-02e28875bc77-bug_vinsetta-side.JPG?width=520&amp;height=390&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The 1964 VW Bug's distinctive profile in front of the classic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak.\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><p><span class=\"js-caption\">The 1964 VW Bug&#8217;s distinctive profile in front of the classic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak.<\/span><span class=\"credit gallery-viewport-credit\">\u00a0Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">The year 1964 seems like yesterday. And a lifetime ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">Its highlights still reverberate through our culture today. The Beatles first tour of America. The release of Mary Poppins, just remade in 2018. The 1964 Civil Rights Act. Carroll Shelby\u2019s triumph over Ferrari at LeMans, setting in motion the war that would be Ford v Ferrari. The debut of the Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Yet, I just drove a \u201964 Volkswagen Beetle, and 1964 couldn\u2019t seem more remote. The automobile has been utterly transformed in the last six decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Chugging across Oakland County\u2019s twisty roads, the Bug felt heavy despite weighing only 1,728 pounds, about 1,200 pounds lighter than its modern successor, the Jetta. The Bug didn\u2019t have power steering, now a standard item. That\u2019s not the only thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">A lot of that absent weight is lack of safety equipment and sound insulation, and my Beetle was LOUD. Its signature\u00a040-horsepower, 1.2-liter flat-4 cylinder engine may be behind the rear wheels, but its warble was ever-present in the cockpit. I rowed all four gears with a stick shift as long as an oar protruding from the floorboards as I merged onto I-75. If you owned a Beetle in 1964, you learned to drive a manual \u2014 no automatic available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">No tachometer either \u2014 you had to shift by sound. Man, we have it easy today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">After what seemed an eternity I reached the Beetle\u2019s top speed of &#8230; 72. Just above the speed limit. I kept to the right lane as traffic whizzed by me at 80 mph, the Bug wandering unsteadily in its lane, the bubble roof buffeted by crosswinds.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SwmAP4cB0p8\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/c18cde92-994d-45cb-9df3-05868b6f6281-bug_curves.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The 1964 VW Bug is rear-wheel-drive and was developed by Ferdinand Porsche, and can be fun to drive through Michigan's twisty roads despite just 40 horsepower.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/c18cde92-994d-45cb-9df3-05868b6f6281-bug_curves.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/c18cde92-994d-45cb-9df3-05868b6f6281-bug_curves.JPG\" \/>The 1964 VW Bug is rear-wheel-drive and was developed by Ferdinand Porsche, and can be fun to drive through Michigan&#8217;s twisty roads despite just 40 horsepower.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">But it wasn\u2019t nearly as tall as the vehicles around me, most of them Detroit Three pickups &#8230; and something called SUVs, the best-selling vehicles in Michigan. You couldn\u2019t find the term SUV in a \u201964 dictionary. Webster\u2019s didn\u2019t adopt the term until 1986.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The first Beetles arrived for sale in the U.S. market in 1949. Two were sold. From those humble beginnings, the Bug would become on of the world\u2019s all-time bestsellers and lay the foundation for what is today the world\u2019s biggest-selling automaker, Volkswagen AG.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">By 1964, six\u00a0of 10 foreign cars sold in the United States were\u00a0a Bug. Mine\u00a0sold for $1,563, the equivalent of 13 grand in today\u2019s greenbacks. Try to find a new car for that price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">But the entry-level Bug \u2014 competing against the likes of the Chevy Corvair (also featuring a flat-cylinder, rear-engine design) \u2014\u00a0was hardly the best-selling vehicle in America. That crown belonged to the Chevy Impala, which sold nearly 900,000 models that year. In 1965, the Impala would set an all-time, single-year sales record of 1,074,925 units.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SwmAP4cC7aI\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/8fddb703-d455-4ccc-818f-07c2720e4d6d-bug_int-fr.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The dash of the 1964 VW Bug is a simple affair with one gauge for speed, a radio, and a four speed manual shifter on the floor. Controls were limited to windshield wipers.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/8fddb703-d455-4ccc-818f-07c2720e4d6d-bug_int-fr.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/8fddb703-d455-4ccc-818f-07c2720e4d6d-bug_int-fr.JPG\" \/>The dash of the 1964 VW Bug is a simple affair with one gauge for speed, a radio, and a four speed manual shifter on the floor. Controls were limited to windshield wipers.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">As I steered the Bug onto Woodward Avenue, I saw few Impalas. The nameplate expires this year. The top-selling non-pickup\u00a0in the U.S. now is the Toyota RAV4 SUV, and the Impala\u2019s production plant is being converted to make electric vehicles to compete against EV-maker Tesla Inc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Parked in my garage next to the black Beetle was a black Tesla Model 3, which has made the term \u201cfrunk\u201d fashionable for the 21st century. The term is derived from \u201cfront truck\u201d \u2014 an added storage convenience made possible by EVs opening the front engine bay by storing their electric motor\/battery drivetrain in the floor. Original Beetle owners know what a frunk is.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ad-position-74\" class=\"partner-placement partner-spike partner-placement-visible\" data-ad-placement=\"native-article_link\" data-ad-sizes=\"[&quot;fluid&quot;,[3,3], [2,6], [300,250]]\" data-monetization-id=\"native-article_link\" data-monetization-sizes=\"fluid,300,250,3,3,2,6\">With its engine out back, I popped the Bug\u2019s frunk and stuffed in my groceries \u2014 just behind the spare and on top of the gas tank. More storage abounds inside. Despite the tight interior, the two-door Bug provided a full shelf under the dashboard for additional sundries.<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">That dashboard is the most obvious difference between the \u201964 Bug and today\u2019s chariots. And I\u2019m not just talking about the Tesla\u2019s radical, tablet-dominated interior. Modern compacts are stuffed with electronics from Sirius XM to auto climate controls to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto navigation apps.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SwmAP4deM-A\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/cccfc030-5f5d-471f-a9e0-05af6a74e1fb-bug_engine.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The 1964 VW Bug is powered by a rear-mounted, 1.2-liter flat-4 cylinder engine making 40 horsepower.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/cccfc030-5f5d-471f-a9e0-05af6a74e1fb-bug_engine.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/cccfc030-5f5d-471f-a9e0-05af6a74e1fb-bug_engine.JPG\" \/>The 1964 VW Bug is powered by a rear-mounted, 1.2-liter flat-4 cylinder engine making 40 horsepower.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Beetle\u2019s dash was still innovative. The Bug featured sidentical glovebox cut-outs at each end of the dash so the steering wheel could be located on either side for sale abroad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Glovebox aside, my \u201964 Bug had a radio to hear the Beatles. Period. No traction control button. No head up display. No climate controls. Want to heat the cabin? A valve on the floor let in hot air from the engine bay. My ride had a sunroof option introduced for 1964.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">My racing buddy Jim grew up in a \u201962 Bug in New Hampshire. His family took it to the ski slopes in the wintertime \u2014 ski rack (now a collector\u2019s item) mounted on the back while the weight of its engine over the rear wheels helped it gain traction through the snow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">That rear-wheel drive also made the Bug a surprisingly fun car to drive. With a well-engineered unibody chassis and rear-drive, I could naturally drift it around tight corners. I set up a mock autocross course in an Oakland County parking lot and had a blast (to the limits of my sliding around in the un-bolstered couch seat). Still, the car\u2019s upright aerodynamics never made it a natural performance car despite its Herbie the Love Bug movie racing legend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">I grew up racing a 1966 Porsche 906 \u2014 with a comically giant steering wheel just like the Bug\u2019s \u2014 from the same era. Like the Bug, the \u201960s cemented Porsche\u2019s international reputation as supreme engineering made it the brand to beat in 24-hour racing. Porsche still references its \u201960s icons to sell today\u2019s production cars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">There\u2019s gold in these 1964 legends. One of the Shelby Daytona Le Mans cars that took it to Ferrari in \u201964 has sold for $7.25 million at auction. 1964 was the last year of production for the Ferrari 250 GTO, a model that fetched $32 million at auction last decade.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SwmAP4e4uf8\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/92db3bfd-5603-46f1-a0ea-bda4ea8ea234-bug_tesla.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"New meets old. The 1964 VW Bug (left) and a 2019 Tesla Model 3. Both are compact cars, both have frunks.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/92db3bfd-5603-46f1-a0ea-bda4ea8ea234-bug_tesla.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/06\/02\/PDTN\/92db3bfd-5603-46f1-a0ea-bda4ea8ea234-bug_tesla.JPG\" \/>New meets old. The 1964 VW Bug (left) and a 2019 Tesla Model 3. Both are compact cars, both have frunks.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">My \u201964 V-dub might become a collector\u2019s item as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Though the Bug was re-introduced in 1998 as a Jetta-based, front-engine &#8220;New Beetle&#8221; with modern amenities, the rear-drive original will forever be the brand\u2019s touchstone. My Beetle was one of three meticulously restored to star as \u201cMax\u201d in VW\u2019s 2009 \u201cDas Auto\u201d commercials. Speaking with a German accent into a microphone, Max the Beetle introduced the brand\u2019s all-new Tiguan SUV to the U.S .market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">With its big peepers and beetle shape, everybody loves the Beetle. I got regular waves from passersby. Maybe the Beatles\u2019 1964 smash hit, \u201cCan\u2019t Buy Me Love,\u201d had it wrong.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"presto-h3\">1964 Volkswagen Bug<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Vehicle type: Rear-engine, rear-wheel drive, 5-passenger coupe<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Price: $1,563\u00a0in 1964 ($13,000 in 2020 dollars)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Powerplant:\u00a01.2-liter, \u201cboxer\u201d flat 4-cylinder<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Power:\u00a040 horsepower, 56 pound-feet of torque<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Transmission: 4-speed manual<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Performance: 0-60 mph, an eternity<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Weight: 1,728 pounds\u00a0(curb weight)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Fuel economy: 31.5 mpg<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Report card<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Highs: Adorable; rear-drive handling<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Lows: Zero-60 in eternity; where\u2019s the infotainment system?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Overall: 4\u00a0stars (I\u2019m a sentimental fool)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 1964 VW Bug&#8217;s distinctive profile in front of the classic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak.\u00a0Henry Payne, The Detroit News The year 1964 seems like yesterday. And a lifetime ago. Its highlights still reverberate through our culture today. The Beatles first tour of America. The release of Mary Poppins, just remade in 2018. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25477,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25476\/revisions\/25477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}