The End of an Era.

Today was the end of my 1974 Super Beetle.

En Route to the drag races, about 8:45am, the car suddenly pulled hard right, went off the road, and the slope of the embankment/shoulder pulled me down and head on into a telephone pole.

I am fine, just a little shaken up, no injuries, just some bruising where the seatbelt saved my life.

The car is totalled.

My knee busted the dash.



Buckled the door.

WOW! Sorry to to hear about that. Glad you're OK!

That is a complete bummer!

But the good news is you came out ok, but still a bummer...

Tool box was destroyed on impact.

The car is in a slight "U" shape.


Huge gap on driver's side.



No gap on passenger side.

It sure was nice to have steel front end. A Baja and it may of been a different ending. Having the gas tank set back helped. Sorry to hear about the bug.

David

I think its lucky where the point of impact occured. That's a lot off support it had to gom through, if it would have been over to where the fender made full contact, damage would have been much worse, and/or all the way to the drivers compartment.

How fast were you going? You had the front bumper on? Can you imagine if you had a tin foil blade on the front. The bumpers on Lowla right now are older knock off blades they would of been useless. and are.

David

Clip it and call it a day... That will buff out and you will not. Glad you are Ok.

I was doing about 55 when I went off the road. Roughly 25-30 feet from when I left the road to the point of impact.

Those 74 big, heavy bumpers definitly absorbed some impact.

I will say this though, roughly 50 mph head on into a power pole and I walked away with just some bruising. Lucky, and good to know these cars can take a pretty good hit.

I rolled one 3 1/2 times no seat belt and ran away.

Sore yet?

David

Overall not too sore. Just have a huge bruise across my chest where the seatbelt worked. A little soreness in my neck and back. Nothing major.

WOW sorry to hear about the accident . Glad your alright . Its sad to see yet another great car off the road .

What happened to make the car head off the road? Are you going to let it go or rebuild?

At least you have other vehicles to drive.

When mine was rolled into the insurance offered to pay for a rental....... I should have taken them up on the offer. It took almost a month to get the estimate and check taken care of.

Not positive what broke. There are plenty of damaged suspension parts, but who's to say what happened before or during the impact.

I'll keep the car in hopes of one day repairing it. I know it can be done, probably never will be to its former glory, but it will be fixed.

For the time being, I will transfer the motor, tranny, and some other items to the 70 Street Bug so I can drive that. It hurts me to essentially part out the car I have so much history with, but I know that the car will live in the parts I use. Even some items will be used in honor of the Super. Like the mismatched window cranks will be moved into the 70 Street Bug, along with the minorly damaged license plate frames. The mismatched lock knobs will be put into the 70 Drag Bug, along with the Rivieras. The license plates will be put on my "Wall of Fame" with the plaques and stuff I won with the car.

Since the wreck my driveway has a few more spots. I do believe the air cooled cars are crying.