GTP Cool Wall: 1971-1979 Volkswagen Super Beetle

  • Thread starter Thread starter White & Nerdy
  • 83 comments
  • 7,216 views

1971-1979 Volkswagen Super Beetle

  • Total voters
    99
  • Poll closed .
Aren't most VWs Hipster cars anyways? Every VW club event I went to locally was chock full of hipsters.
 
Nessy
Nope. I was thinking of a Fedora. :sly:
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Nope.

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I like old beetles, and, they are kinda cool. I still couldn't bring myself to vote higher than "meh".

I blame hippies and hipsters.:p
 
I see "hipster" is being confused with "hippie".

Being the Super Beetle, makes it Super Cool, so I've got to go with Sub Zero on this one.
 
Formerly driven by hippies and now driven by hippies who never moved on and hipsters. Otherwise an instantly recognizable classic. I'll give this a cool.
 
RandomCarGuy17
The peoples' car!
Yes, cool. Question though, what's so super about this beetle?
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homeforsummer
More power, better suspension, more trunk space, better visibility, better cooling, marginally more refinement... the only thing it was really worse on was styling, and some people aren't as keen on the plastic-fantastic 70s dashboard either.
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You want an aircooled motor in the desert, reliability tops all when you're 100 miles from the nearest water source.

Can't decide on the rating, and if it takes me this long to decide then I just put it in the "meh" category.

Original would be cooler for some reason.
 
Bopop4
You want an aircooled motor in the desert
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"Air cannot boil, nor can it freeze" as various pieces of VW literature put it at the time.

Of course, air cooling still doesn't stop it overheating (cylinder #3 is particularly bad, I seem to recall hearing), nor does it stop the carb icing in cold weather. But not having a radiator does make maintenance a lot easier.
 
Really truly "air cooled" is sorta half the story. Oil is doing as much for cooling as air. If you have oil flow and air flow all should be well. Idling for extended periods of time could be an issue though?

Then again I've never owed a beetle. My most recent air/oil cooled vehicle was H-D Sportster Sport so..
 
Bopop4
You want an aircooled motor in the desert, reliability tops all when you're 100 miles from the nearest water source.
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Not always, especially if your not moving enough to get airflow (IE in traffic) plus if the air temp is to high it might heat soak.
 
Badasp5.0
Not always, especially if your not moving enough to get airflow (IE in traffic) plus if the air temp is to high it might heat soak.
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I've actually had worse experience with liquid cooled engines at idle.

It couldn't pull enough air through the rad while an air cooled engine was perfectly happy to stay still.
 
playnthru
Really truly "air cooled" is sorta half the story. Oil is doing as much for cooling as air. If you have oil flow and air flow all should be well.
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True. There's an oil cooler inside the fan housing.
Idling for extended periods of time could be an issue though?
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I think it depends how healthy the engine is in the first place. The day I picked up mine I spent the first 30 minutes crawling in traffic on a reasonably hot day. With no temperature gauge I have no idea how hot it was getting, but it still ran well so I can only assume it was fine.

Mine had a reasonably good engine though, and it'd just had a service. I expect things may be a bit different on some other engines.
 

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