A baja beetle is the coolest car you can drive on the road. I will attempt to offer proof of this with the following reasoning. Please check my math and let me know if I've made any errors:
Status symbols are not cool. Some cars may be cool other than their status value, but any percieved status value definitely hurts, not helps. The VW beetle was too cheap and common for far too long to ever be a status symbol.
A baja bug is both a historically important link to european rear-engined boxer design like Tatras and Porsches, and a specifically american style of customized vehicle at the same time.
It may have started as a well designed and interesting little hippy car--er, wait, nazi car. Whatever. With some modifications, herbie turns into a Steve McQueen-mobile. It's light enough to do real offroad with a little suspension lift, without being too high to take corners on the road at a sporting pace. The engines can be tuned to an extremely surprising degree, but will always sound like a cross between a kit plane and a vintage sports car engine--maybe for obvious reasons. A baja bug is pure machismo, sprung from the bud of flower power. Now tell me what's cooler and I believe I'll be able to refute.
3 comments:
I was one RCH away from buying a Baja bug when I was 17. Some rich kid in Brookfield was sick of his toy, selling it for $500 I think. It was rough but ran well and I was about to buy it when my parents informed me there was no way I was parking a shitty car in their driveway. No amount of arguing about what "shitty" constituted would change their ruling. I moved out a while after that and could do whatever I wanted, but found out quickly there was no money for a Baja bug, much less food (outside ramen noodles and peanut butter.)
Aircooled boxers are way cool. Baja bugs are way cool. All bugs are way cool. Just for the record, New Beetles are NOT bugs.
1600 cc's, dual weber carbs...FUCK YEAH!
Air cooled dubs have been a big deal to me since forever, now they are all but gone, thrashed, or horribly over-priced.
such is the way of life...
Oh, I forgot to even mention the exposed engine with exhaust sticking up in the air.
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