New to Vw's and Loving my 71 Beetle

Im new to the VW scene, After buying my wife a 09 Beetle I was offered a 71 Beetle for Free!

go the superbug

I bet the last owner ended up with arm muscles like Arnold with front tyres that wide and a sports steeringwheel

definately won't fall over through corners!!!!! lol

Joel wrote:I bet the last owner ended up with arm muscles like Arnold with front tyres that wide and a sports steeringwheel

It's only a Beetle, not a big heavy car. There isn't much weight on the front so in my opinion they're not really that heavy in the steering even with wide tyres and small steering wheels. Certainly heavier than what a lot of people are used to these days with power steering even on small cars, but people used to drive big V8 muscle cars on race slicks without power steering. A Beetle on street tyres is nothing by comparison! My Aunt is a nurse and she drove a HZ Kingswood with manual steering and three on the tree right up until about a year ago. Some people today would say that's got heavy steering but she parked it in a packed hospital carpark just fine.

It's not so much to do with the wieght, its more the tyre contact on the ground and steering gearing.

Trust me you're talking to someone who has a 13" steering wheel and used to have 225 tyres on front, and effort required was just as bad as my old commodore with no powersteer

Well, I've got 195s on the front and probably a similar sized steering wheel (whatever the old '70s leather Formulings are, maybe 14"?) and mine isn't too bad. I suppose the extra bit of tyre would make a difference, but I still maintain that people these days are too soft with their cars. A bit of steering effort is good, lets you know you're actually driving a car.

Oh, and not to get too sidetracked in stealing this thread, welcome to the VW world NTSuperbug! That looks like a good project car which I'm sure you will have fun with and learn plenty.

The fronts are 245's and the rears are 265's however as you can see I am going with a little ratrod look and have swapped the fronts for 195's that sit in the guards. It is at the shop now and hopefully be finished soon I will go in and get more pics this week! I am only very new to this scene as this is my first beetle (asides from the wifes new one)

look forward to seeing your progress

more update

more pics