I. 3. My Experiences with VW’s

When I was working with a Film Production company, we had a fleet of production vehicles for location shootings, among which were two 1965 Kombi’s. These were our shooting workhorses. We would load each of them with at least 11 people and all their gear plus about a dozen 4 ft x 8 ft plywood reflectors. I was impressed with the Kombi’s performance and reliability that in a behind the scenes documentary, “The making of The Pacific Connection”, I took a camera shot showing the Kombi’s fully loaded, fording a river in a southern province.

At a hilltop botanical garden, also in the province, were we shot a portion of the film, we were told by the guard at the foot of the reservation, to park our Kombi’s there and just hike and haul our gear to the top. He told us that only the all-wheel drive 6x6 logging trucks can negotiate those steep grades and unpaved roads. Much to the guard’s surprise, our Kombi’s made it to the top. These VW’s function as personnel carrier, mess vehicle, make-up and dressing quarters, and sleeping quarters at night. We just open the doors, set up the equipment inside or set up a platform in the roof rack and it becomes a camera vehicle capable of making tracking shots for documentaries. These vehicles were still in service when production ceased in 1974. The Kombi was a very practical and flexible vehicle.

When I joined a building electronics contractor, I had my ‘66 KG and then my ‘61 KG. I was working on the Cinema Dolby sound and projection systems. Our group had to run from one theater to another all over Metro Manila. We would be 7 in my car with a sizable quantity of test and installation equipment in the luggage compartment in front and some behind the rear seats as well. We had a very hectic schedule but my Karmann Ghia our dependable workhorse, did not fail us.

In the early ‘70’s I had the ‘67 Fastback. I installed 1700 pistons, EMPI Race Cam, Competition Push Rods, Flywheel and Pressure Plate, Hurst Shifter, EMPI Extractors which I bought from DMG, the local assembler of VW. I even had the machine shop shave the cylinder heads to increase the compression. The Fastback was so fast that not even the stock V8’s can out-accelerate or overtake me in the highway from our residence to our studios. Although I am a drag racing fan, I never joined official drag races at that time. Being young then, I find it more thrilling and fun doing those tire screeching, burst of acceleration at the traffic lights and drag racing with my friends at deserted roads in private villages. Unfortunately at that time, I did not know about using thread inserts in the crankcase, I always snap the clutch cable and break the clutch cross shafts every month. The engine was always brought down. Lucky for me, we had this motorpool in our company who took care of it. When the last oversized studs were installed, I had to dispose that VW. One lesson I learned is that you cannot comfortably use as an everyday car, an improperly modified vehicle.

During the heavy floods of the ‘80’s my Karmann Ghia which were lower than the Kombi’s and the Beetles, never conked out in the flooded streets of Manila and the suburbs. VW’s stand out in this situation.

I find the VW design so uncomplicated and straight forward, that by just having a basic understanding of cars and some common sense, whenever it breaks down on the road, which is not often, with just a few simple improvisations, you could always manage to limp home without need for a towing vehicle. It is light enough so that you can push them to a side street or parking area all by yourself.

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