A 1303 Super Beetle pictured in a VW UK press photo of 1975

On October 16, the Volkswagen 1303 from 1972 was awarded the “Golden Classic Steering Wheel” having been voted the “Classic of the Year 2012” by the readers of Germany’s AUTO BILD KLASSIK magazine. With 8,432 votes, it won the coveted prize awarded for the third time with a significant lead over its nine competitors.
With the car celebrating its 40th birthday, the readers of AUTO BILD KLASSIK have given the 1303 Beetle a very special gift.

The 1303 model, also known as the Super Beetle in the US market, was launched in 1972 and was the final stage of the decades-long development of the Beetle and a successor to its predecessor the 1302 that was introduced two years previously. The 1303 was primarily developed to address increased safety and security requirements for both domestic and global export markets.

In Europe, the 1303 model was usually fitted with a 1300cc engine while the 1303S badged version indicated a 1600cc engine. Some early cabriolet versions sported 1303LS badges, like the 1974 left-hand drive version I owned in the early to mid 1980s. Whilst the cabriolet version built by Karmann continued in production until January 1980, the saloon/sedan version of the 1303 was discontinued in 1975 with a final lavish special edition for both the US and European markets in three special metallic paint finishes – Hellas beige metallic (L98C), Ontario blue metallic (L95M) and Moss green metallic (L95C) – and had body-coloured matching door cards, sumptous pile carpet and courduroy upholstery. In addition, the dashboard had a wood-effect facia, plus a padded sports steering wheel, wood gearknob and 5½J x 15 sports steel wheels and black side stripes. In the UK and Europe this was called the 1303 Big Beetle, whilst the US last edition version was named La Grande Bug and, unlike its European counterparts, was more high-tech featuring air-conditioning with a fuel-injected engine and catalytic converter.

Enhanced safety features on the exterior of the 1303 which were most noticable were the large curved windshield that increased the distance between the glass and the head of the driver and front passenger, a marked difference compared to the almost flat glass and dashboard of its predecessor. At the rear, the three-segment tail lamp units were greatly enlarged to provide brighter and more visible lighting. The lamps were nicknamed “elephant feet” by fans.

Credits go to Pete Frost to share this information with us.

We’re getting tired, everybody had a kind of a”dip” today, after thre days of non stop hard work, but we will continue and finish….

First there was our buddy Wayne that brought a larger trailer, so we could load Three cars or at least the left overs from Three cars…:)

Then there was finally the truck that had to empty the trash container, there is a lot more trash… our friend Lyle (the owner remember?) didn’t threw away that much, but he’s very very happy he gets help from friends from Belgium to clean up the place…:)

So yes, slowly we’re getting organised in this building, ready to attack building “B” today!

As it was Tuesday we went to Hooters for Dinner, kids eat free on Tuesday,, so Mom and Bert are the parents, and we where just all the kids…. so sad they didn’t believe us…:)

Oh yeah, Hooters came with the obligatory pictures!  Gonzo where is that other arm? so sad i can not put Gonzo’s noise on this blog….:) so we’re ready for day 5 now, stay tuned for more!!!

Mom took it a little more easy today, but still…  she helped Bert and Nicolas moving some tyres around, Gonzo is very happy moving transmission around and get them to pallets, Koen started to take cars apart… he gets help from Frederik, who seems to do just fine with wrenching. Linda was helping out where needed and i was sorting out all day smaller parts.

Between his transmissions Gonzo let also beetles “fly”….

and Koen takes them apart, most cars are just not valuable enough to pay for the expansive shipping. Koen try to cut up five cars a day…..

Finally our pallets and pallet boxes arrived, partially to ship our parts back home in the container, the other part is to ship the cores to the West Coast.

Strong guys? ….or strong forklift???

The last corner of the first warehouse, day 4 we should start on warehouse B

My new buddy Wayne, he picks up all the scrap and bring it to the dumpster, from tomorrow he will load three cars a day, sad to see them go crunched, but they’re life is over, and they are the bad ones, to cheap to restore…. they will proudly serve to get crunched, melted and made into new steel to build new cars… maybe there is a part of an old beetle in your new car…:)

On there way to the scrapyard…. Still an impressive sight huh????? stay tuned for more….