Does any one remember the Citrus Red '76 beetle of Greame and Heath Giles that was around in the early '90s ?

It was a '76 Cal Look car built by Jeff Unwin and Paul Chrisitie when they had Rogwin Motors together in Caringbah. The attention to detail on this car was astounding.

This car did the shows for a number of years, and then seemed to dissapear. Anyone know where it is ? or its condition ?

I think Greame still owns the car

[ Edited on 9-4-2006 by vw54 ]

Hi

I saw it a few years ago, looking sad, sitting under car cover under a carport.

Steve

Quite a shame really, I worked for Jeff and Paul while at school. I watched this car come together, and even helped a bit too. Everything was like new, it set the standard for that era.


I dont suppose any one has some photos ?

Hi

Update, drove past the home of Firebug, its still sitting in a carport under a tarp.

Steve

Hi

Sorry to drag up an old post but I just found these photos of Firebug in a cupboard.

Steve

Wonder if it has been sitting under the tarp for another 5 and a half years??

yeah I wonder what 5.5 yrs under a tarpatina would look like

I've got a bunch of pics I took of it at Valla in 95 somewhere, the detail in that car is (was) unbelieveable.

It's got me stuffed how someone can pour so much $$ into a car then let it rot away.
Maybe it will become next years rat.

I remember this car for the mags way back when and also wondered what happened to it. Looks like I know now.

I remember it well too. It did the show's for years, winning many, many trophy's and best of's. Built with the 'best of'everything available, to top quality. Started with the '76 beetle......also 'best of'.

Looks like somone needs to pay the owners a visit with some cash. I remember seeing this bug in a mag back in the day.

Why does it have a CROSSPLY spare?? nice looking car tho.

so it will fit in the spare wheel hole

so radial tyres dont fit in that carrier? anyone know what happens when you mix crossply and radial tyres on the same axle?

I like how the car is held up only by the factory jack to show the underside. Probably wouldn't be aloud to do this these days with OH&S bullshit The stand could slip out and hit some poor onlooker

Everyone makes up show quality stands these days.

Kev

It was always a controversial car because it was (usually) entered as a daily driver and what the definition of daily driver is. I remember the debates extremely well. they were seldom friendly.

I too remember watching the car being built and seeing the dollars sunk into it. As a young fella i had a beetle which jeff from rogwins often helped me out with. It keep blowing fuel lines and catching fire. The car for years sported on the engine lid the words "fire bug", and was known by all friends and family as Fire Bug. One day while at rogwins graham seeing the inscription on the engine lid, and states that he was a great name im going to call my beetle the fire bug I suggested he should be a little more oringinal. So unoriginal and stolen name. But nice car and big $$$ for the time.

That must be the '90's version or the original "Emergency Spare" and speed limited of course!

The 90's saw a lot of "daily drivers" bought to shows on trailers lol. I still to this day cannot believe judges of that era couldn't spot the difference between a trailer queen/ driven once a month around the block type car to a car that is actually driven daily/ every second day!!!!

One car in particular in Qld kept winning and beating car I thought very worthy so I took a odometer reading at one show then checked it at the next. It had done a whopping 9 odd kms in 5 months lol

The problem is the definition of daily driver. There's probably nobody that drives their car every single day. There's heaps of cars out there that everyone would be happy to call a "daily driver" that dont even get driven every weekend. I'm happy to call a car a daily driver if its regularly driven to club meetings and events and the odd sunday drive. Others maybe not. But then there are others who think daily driver means "has oil in sump and can be started".

maybe there should be a minimum number of stone chips to make you eligible for daily driver.

How cars date.
T54

So true.

Now instead of every nut and bolt shining like a new pin there are folks intentionally making there cars look derelict.

Imagine 20 years ago if someone asked how to I make my shiny paint look old and shitty

Nothing at all against the rat crew, I just find it comical how times have changed from one extreme to the other.

^ don't worry there are still the OCD clean freaks about

My daily driver averages 20'000ks + a year. I have the miles on the pink slips to prove it. I drive the kids to school, race it on weekends & take it to the shops. I can fit my 2 mountain bikes & my road bike in it, I've carted countless bags of cement in it, moved house in it, carried a washing machine where the front seat goes whilst a matress was tied to the roof! Taken things to the tip etc etc.

I had entered my car in the nationals in the daily driver class for I think 15 years straight. Never got a look in.

I finally got a trophy when I had the car resprayed & re did the interior. It actually for the first time didn't look like a daily driver cause there were very few stone chips cause the paint was only a month old. go figure.

Jak

wow nice bug. until today, the only firebug i know was a mozilla firefox addon for web development

loved those S&S exhaust systems.

Quote:

Originally posted by Joel So true. Now instead of every nut and bolt shining like a new pin there are folks intentionally making there cars look derelict. Imagine 20 years ago if someone asked how to I make my shiny paint look old and shitty Nothing at all against the rat crew, I just find it comical how times have changed from one extreme to the other.