Wednesday 18 December 2013

My Beloved EBP 323.


                                   

My first car (acquired aprox 1967).

A white Volks 1200 cc Beetle, circa 1962 (?), numbered EBP 323.

I loved that car. It seemed quite distinguished at the time; classy, but without being pretentious. When I first had it, I would wash and polish it every week (as one does), but one soon becomes blasé and as a student it became filled with chewed chicken bones and greasy chip wrappers, as well as the mice that lived off them.

It followed me through my college days, then came to France with me when I moved here in 1972.

I declared it on my French import papers (as part of my goods and chattels), and about two years later a whole car-full of jolly uniformed customs officers turned-up from Bordeaux, wanting to inspect it. By this time I had already sold the car, so they simply took advantage of the warm sunny day to have a picnic, before making the 150 Kms return trip home.

I'd sold the car to an old friend who later informed me that she had died in Spain; I was devastated.

RIP EBP 323; so many happy memories.


21 comments:

  1. I must have had my first car in about 1967..it was a red mini SNR 456G. It was 3 years old and had 50K on the clock.I loved it and it served me well until after I was married. We used to hurtle up and down the A1 between Morpeth and Leicester in it! It was sold with 99K miles travelled, and still going well.

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  2. My dad had a white one- not sure if it was as powerful as that..I just remember the glow-worm headlights running off the 6v battery....

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  3. I remember riding in that car. I also remember have to close the door gently to avoid popping out the rear window.

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    1. Yes, you had to open a window before closing the doors, as it was airtight.

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  4. I did own a beetle, about early 70s, it was left hand drive, an import from Germany, brought by a man who came to work in GB and sold when he'd had it here for 2 years, there was some rule about that 2 years. It looked to be 2 years old, as in those days it was allocated a new registration when it was imported.

    It had split windscreen, port-hole back window, 6 volt electrics and a radio that could be removed and taken away to be used anywhere, just plugged in.

    I paid £50 for it if I remember correctly, can't remember much else about it except it was light blue colour, don't remember how long I owned it or what became of it.

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  5. Something special about your first car. Mine was a mini - (in 1976) complete with fake sheepskin seat covers. Loved it because it gave me the freedom to go anywhere I wanted. Beetles were dead cool.

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  6. My first car was a '57 Morris 1000. I cannot remember how many cars and motorcycles I have had since, well over a hundred if you count the cars I bought, refurbished and then sold on again after a couple or three months of enjoying them.

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    1. I suppose the Morris 1000 was the UK equivalent of the Beetle (and the 2CV in France). All wonderfully simple.

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    2. I loved it. Leather interior and it still had its original handbooks. I found it amusing to note that the quoted 0-60 time was 36,2 seconds. After half a minute, who cares about 0.2 of a second!

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  7. What a beautiful beast! All I remember about those Bugs is that the heating system was entirely insufficient for a Canadian winter. :)

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  8. The updated model is nowhere near as good looking. My first car was a sporty Talbot - Talbot! no longer - gone the way of most British car producers.

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  9. Cro, while stationed in German during my military commitment, I purchased a 1971 Super bug. The fastest most powerful Volkswagon beetle that could bought at the time. It sported a full 65 horsepower. It was a great car. I brought back to the states and run it for many years. My first wife got it in the divorce and burned up the engine by driving it when the fan belt broke. Being air cooled they don't last long with the belt breaks.

    My first car however was an old used Chevrolet (1953) station wagon with a stick shift on the column and straight line six cylinder engine. When it was new it was purchased by a local bus company to bring people from the airport to hotels and had a big Indian Chief painted on the sides of the car. I drove the wheels off the car but it just wouldn't die. I'm not sure what ever happened to that car but I suspect it made it to the deep ravine where Dad dumped all the unwanted cars. It was a way to keep erosion from happening to the farm land.

    Have a great car memory day.

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  10. Better looking than my first car.....I always wanted a beetle......I had to be content to share an Austin 1300

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  11. Our first car was a 64 red volkwagen, we took her to Germany, brought her to Texas and traded her in on a VW square back. Had another VW that we bought in Germany in 73 and it went to Colorado, back to Germany, to Georgia, to Turkey and we finally sold it in 1988, great cars.

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  12. The wife and I decided to re-live our youth when we bought our 2006 Beetle….well not completely re-live our youth….don’t see how we did that back then…ahm! I do love the heated seats something our old one didn’t have

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  13. The folks had a bug back in 58 or 59...powder blue....no gas guage. Fun ride.

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  14. I had a circa 1962 VW in 1968. Green, the only color I can recall them. No idea they had numbers. Its drive shaft broke in 1973, and it still delivered me to my drive way.

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  15. My first car was a 1969 Beetle, semi-automatic. I loved that car. It caught on fire while i was driving it in 1980. The engine block melted. The mechanic working at the gas station to where i towed it, found another motor to drop in it and kept it running at least several years after that.

    I test drove a Golf about the time the new Beetles came out, as i was told they had the same carriage. I had a very difficult time finding a standard transmission, and once in the driver's seat, i couldn't get the seat comfortable enough for me. I guess they decided to cater to taller, fatter people, so squatty bodies like me were out of luck.

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  16. My first car was a 66 Beetle...navy blue with white interior. The payment was $32 a month, which I paid by working part time at an ice cream shop. I loved mine too....good memories.

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  17. Had to comment as le beetle was also Bobs first car that he had when I met him his number plate was EGO507 never forget it we had a ball in it,the amazing thing was the amount of other kids he could get in it!!!

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