I Met a 1972 Volkswagen Baja Beetle at a Party

And I Don’t Even Remember Her Name

Saturday night I went to a party in New Jersey and saw a beautiful 1972 VW Baja Beetle parked in the driveway.

I asked the owner, Adam Brick, if he’d show me around the car a little and he was happy to show it off. It has the oversized tires and wheels (larger in the rear), the Baja style steel tube cage welded to the front and rear, and the rear engine decklid and sheetmetal totally removed. But the best part is the 1914cc engine which apparently puts out 125 hp.

The largest standard factory Beetle engine they made was the 1.6L, that’s 1600cc; and the 1.3L (1300cc) was by far the most common on the road. So 1914cc packs a much harder punch than average. I asked him to start it up at around midnight, and we probably woke up all the neighbors on the street. It’s definitely a badass machine, my only regret is that I didn’t get to drive it around, but I don’t think any of us were sober enough for that.

Thanks to Tim Beitz for some of the drunken night time pictures, and Cindy Beitz for the sober daytime pics.
Check it:

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Pimp My Ride: Law Enforcement Edition

In a contest sponsored by the publication “Law & Order”, law enforcement vehicles throughout the nation compete for the “best design” award. This year, a police cruiser from Newport News, Virginia took first place; largely because, said judges; “It’s got bling.”

The cruiser is not a standard issue Virginia patrol car (I can personally attest to this fact inasmuch I, personally, have had the luxury of closely observing quite a few of them in my rear view mirror) but actually a recruiting tool used by the Newport News Police Department – thereby accounting for its “flash”.

The cruiser itself is a 2008 Dodge Magnum (“Man Wagon”) outfitted with the factory standard HEMI V8 engine and 425 horsepower – so even without the exterior accoutrement, it’s still a fairly impressive vehicle.  In addition to its performance under the hood, the Magnum also features a rather spacious interior - the ability to seat 5-7 passengers coming in handy for larger-scale dope busts.

A photograph of the vehicle along with the full article can be viewed here.

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Custom Hotrod Furniture

There are all sorts of things car lovers need. One of them is furniture with a car motif. Or better yet furniture made from car parts.

Jakes Chop Shop is a custom furniture maker that does just that.

After working in an auto body shop in North Carolina, Jake figured he’d rather be working for himself, and opened his own shop Richmond, specializing in pre-’64 customs.
(more…)

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What’s safer: a 1966 Cadillac or a 2009 Civic?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently announced their 2009 Top Safety Picks, with 72 vehicles earning the honor. (Interestingly, Chrysler is the only major automaker without a single Top Safety Pick.)

That’s twice the number of winners in 2008 and three times as many as in 2007. The IIHS chalks up the huge increases to automakers making strides in how their vehicles perform in front, side and rear crashes. New cars also have improved seat and head restraint design and offer electronic stability control as a means to avoid accidents.

All this new safety technology appears to be paying off, as estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show the number of people killed in traffic accidents in the U.S. this year is expected to be the lowest on record (recordkeeping began in 1966).

The question is will those numbers continue to decrease as the size of new vehicles also decreases? It’s logical to assume that the bigger the car, the safer its occupants are. I was once at a Hummer dealership and the salesman told me that to date, no one had ever been killed inside a Hummer as a result of a car accident. While this is great news for a Hummer owner, it’s not so great for someone who gets into an accident with one! 

Considering how many different sizes of cars are on the roads, it’s logical to assume that the heavier ones provide more protection than the smaller ones, regardless of what technology is used. Even though a 1966 Cadillac DeVille has no airbags or emergency stability control, I’ll bet a lot of people would choose to be encased in its solid steel body in an accident, even over a 2009 fully loaded Civic with the newest safety gear.

As cars become laden with safety features and traffic deaths are at an all-time low, it’s apparent that something must be working right. My bet is that the newest accident-avoidance features, such as ESC, must be paying off by resulting in avoidance of accidents in the first place. 

We want to know: Have the latest safety features protected you in an accident or helped you avoid one? Let us know in the comments section!

-tgriffith

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