My Volkswagen Beetle

I have adored the beetle ever since I was old enough to understand what cars were. Some, including my family members, thought it dumb, called me stupid and what not, but I guess it was an in the blood thing for me to not let go of the bond that I shared with this vehicle.

By in-the-blood I mean that my dad was crazily into cars and I first put my hands on the steering wheel, when I was a year old (as confirmed by my mother), while sitting in my dad’s lap. There was no looking back after that and I started proper, uninspected driving when I was 10.

Got into college and started pestering my dad into getting me a car, but he kept on delaying it for one reason or the other and so the begging continued.Then one fine day, after my graduation, my dad made me accompany him to his friends place, to inspect a Bug that had been parked there for ages.

The i-just-have-to-have-it factor took over me and without realizing what condition the car was in, I got it. The experience was extremely brutal, as the car had been tampered with, as far as parts were concerned. So after months of arguments at home, I finally disposed the car off.

It was then that my dad took me to one of the VW Guru’s here and asked me to take my pick out of the cars for sale. I pinpointed out one (a 1970 model) and we handed over the keys to the mechanic to commence the resto.

Six long months of going over ideas, getting wet dreams about the final outcome, being robbed off the money intended for the denter, bearing the insults on how I was wasting money and other crappy happenings, I finally got the car out in September 2005.

The moment my baby hit the road, heads turned as though something had just landed off the moon. It was one of the happiest moments of my life and all who were against the whole project went mum at the very sight of my baby.

What further compounded to people going mum was the fact that the bone stock 1.6L engine kicked ass, no matter which car I went against. It was beyond the expectations of all that an old (so called unreliable) car such as the beetle could head to head with civics and corollas.

The sentimental value that my baby has for me is beyond words and I don’t think any other project of mine can ever come up to this level.