Please don’t accuse me of "voter fraud." After several months, this is the 2^nd time my cruiser bug was drawn for this expose’.

I bought my Super in AUG ’89, from the 2^nd owner. My oldest daughter, Tricia, needed something cheap to drive in high school. Something that wouldn’t need collision insurance. Teenagers! It had AC, that sort of worked and was powder blue. No, not baby blue ... chalky, powdery blue. And some 37,000 "certified" miles on the odometer. I think Tricia grew to, well... NOT love it as much as I did. It had ignition problems (wires falling off the coil & internal distributor injuries) that would strand her and it always smelled like gas. Oh, yes, it would also dump a bucket of water on her feet every time it rained. She worked in a dress store. Not cool.

So, when she went off to college in Springfield, MO, I was forced to finance her in a brand-x. My youngest, Melissa, inherited da bug that she would come to love. I finally started thinking like my German ancestors (spelled Kunkel) and figured out all the idiosyncrasies and "how to keep my bug alive." A bug is a terrible thing to waste. When Melissa married, I said "The bug stays." She had stars in her eyes and gave into my demand without much of a fight. But she loved this bug. So, I have sort of willed the all-new and improved "Lightning Bug" to her, SOME day.

Sometimes, I make her test drive it when she comes home from SC. After seeing how she was impressed with the power of the 1776, I am looking forward to her trying out the 1915 with dual Weber 44s and trigger wheel ignition. Arr, arr, arrrrr! Plus, her husband loves sub-woofers, so the Cerwin Vega in the back should be a hit too. Kids keep you young, but give you gray hair.

If you haven’t already guessed it, I like pretty cars. But they had better earn their keep in the 0-60 and handling categories. Lightning has been dropped in the front with adjust-a-struts and has a small air dam, low profile tires, stabilizer bars front and back, all wheel disc brakes, stiffened springs, and gas shocks. I don’t like that burnt clutch smell either. So it has a Kennedy 1700 pound pressure plate and CB Performance Super Disc clutch. Burnt tires smell a lot better, anyway.

In closing, I hope that my fellow VW lovers of the (stock) purist persuasion will forgive me for my "sins." I am weak. The speed demon made me do it! Shades of Flip Wilson!

To view more of this VW, Click Here