Our June Car of the Month is from member Kate Kingshott. Here is Kate's car story :
"Here’s my story! When I was around 16 years old, my boyfriend at the time owned a campaign model MK1 Golf GTI in Helios Blue. He worked for a company called TSR Performance in Bridgwater, Somerset which specialised in VW tuning and performance parts so I already had a healthy interest in cars and all things Volkswagen. I had decided that I wanted to get either a VW Beetle or a Mini as my first car and went for a beetle. I figured that if I could drive a beetle, I could drive anything!
I got my first beetle aged 17 for £700. It was a red 1969 1200 stock beetle, drums all round and black vinyl interior. My dad picked it up somewhere near Slough and did a little work on it before driving it down to me to where I lived in Somerset with my Nan and presented it with a big bow on the front for my birthday. As it happens, during our search for a suitable beetle, I didn’t really have any specific requests, only that it wasn’t red and didn’t have upright headlights but that’s exactly what I ended up with! (Thanks dad!)
I hadn’t actually passed my test at that point and needless to say, my Nan didn’t want to go out in it with me so it sat outside my house until I moved to Newquay in 2003. My friend and I occasionally used to drive it a few yards up the very quiet road I lived on, only to roll it back again as neither of us knew how to reverse! I had no need for a car living in the centre of Newquay and couldn’t afford to continue my driving lessons earning £4.20 an hour and living on my own so my little beetle, Bert, went into storage before finally collected by my dad and living with him until I passed my test. In 2008, I contacted my dad again to let him know that I had restarted my lessons and that I was hoping to take my test around 3 months later. Disaster struck and after running out of fuel and breaking down on the way to his friends garage one Sunday, the police towed it and put it in a pound. As my dad wasn’t the registered keeper, he couldn’t get it out and I couldn’t time off from work to travel from Newquay to Slough to get the car out so it was confirmed as being destroyed by the DVLA a couple of weeks later. After this, I thought it might be a sign that perhaps I wasn’t meant to have a beetle and had considered getting a more sensible car, a polo perhaps? Until I saw a lovely 1967 Beetle, which is the one I have now.
My 1967 beetle is called Mr Tickle. Apparently, the 2 year old son of the lady we bought him from gave him the name and I didn’t have the heart to change it. When I bought the car, it was a metallic olive green colour which I believe was a colour from an early Scirocco and was running colour coded Empi 8 wheels. The seats were upholstered in a beige cloth with contrasting green piping and a green Wilton carpet. In 2016, I had him partially restored (he was in a bad way!) and resprayed back to his original colour of L282 Lotus White. He has had various looks over the years, going from chrome plated standard steel wheels, to smoothie style steel wheels painted in candy red metal flake paint. I do still have these wheels, they are just awaiting a little refurb so currently running the same style of wheel painted in white with a holographic flake. The interior has also changed and the seats are covered in a red and white leatherette with a tan coloured German square weave carpet set and tan aeroplane style seatbelts. Suspension wise, it is running a full air suspension set up, adjustable 4 inch narrowed front beam and adjustable spring plates at the rear. When aired out the car almost sits on the floor. The engine was replaced in 2018 - 1600cc with twin 34ict Weber carburettors and tinware painted in candy red metal flake paint to match the wheels. The original gear leaver was replaced for an empi T bar short shifter and the under hood area and glove box have been upholstered in red leatherette to match the rest of the upholstery in the car.
I think I joined SADCASE in 2017! I currently also own a 1959 T2 Transporter (splitscreen campervan) called Peggy, a 1972 T2 Baywindow high top campervan that has been converted into an ice cream van and have a 2006 T5 Transporter as my daily run around."
