My second Ghia - and my first NEW car
YEAR/MODEL: 1966 143 Coupe
VIN: 146604292
ENGINE: 1285cc, 50hp
PURCHASED: 26 January 1967FROM: Bushouse Motors, Battle Creek, MI
SOLD: circa Summer 1970
TO: Renner Ford, Hastings, MI
Acquisition:
My 1st car, a 1960 Ghia 'back lot special' was wrecked driving home from school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 1966, by a man who ran a stop sign and t-boned me. At first, I wanted some “Detroit iron”. I had a used ’65 Mustang all picked out at a local dealership, but my Dad, who worked for the insurance company said that if he was going to cosign a note for me that I was “going to be limited to 50hp” and that meant another Ghia.
We saw in the Free Press that one of the Detroit area dealers at the time, still had three '66 141 demos for sale and we were all set to go get one. Dad called the bank to arrange for out town financing and VERY COINCIDENTALLY got a call from the LOCAL dealer within 20 minutes of hanging up with the bank. The local dealer, Bushouse Motors, still had a BRAND NEW '66 coupe on the lot almost halfway into the ’67 model year and they were ready to deal! So dad arranged the financing for me and we were all set to pick it up on 26 January 1967. I was QUITE EXCITED to say the least. MY FIRST NEW CAR!!! I was just short of 17 years old.
The 26th was a Thursday and it began snowing in the morning. My buddy Duane was going to run me to the bank after school to get my $300 down payment from savings and then on to pick up dad at work and finally on to Bushouse Motors, the local dealer.
By 6th hour, the snow was getting worse so Duane and I decided to forge notes to get out of Electronics class. I suspected from the look on his face, that Mr. Kile knew these notes were forgeries, but he just kinda smiled and told us we'd better get going. So we left school an hour early in Duane's '63 Rambler with “three on the tree”, dropped by the bank and down to dad's office. The snow's REALLY coming down now!
Dad said I was crazy to get this car today and that we should all just go home. "Nope! Can't do it! First new car! Gotta have it!" Duane and I tried to talk him into leaving work early but he wouldn't do it, so finally at quitting time, we all piled in the Rambler and headed for Nichols’.
We only got about a block before Duane got stuck and burnt out his clutch trying to rock it out. Dad was mad. Standing in the road he pointed that index finger and yelled at me: "You boys get this car out of the road! I'm going to walk up and get the Ghia. Be ready to go when I get back!". "Yessir!" I replied. Then, just as he turned to go, he looked back at us and said "AND I'M GOING TO DRIVE IT HOME 'CAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU TO WRECK IT!" I can see him in my mind's-eye to this day, red faced with that vein sticking out of his neck! "OK, dad", I said. The snow's about 8-10" deep by now.
So Duane and I and the guy from the corner gas station finally got the car into the gas station lot and about an hour later we see the Bermuda Blue Ghia coming down the street all shiny and new. We yelled 'thanx' to the gas station guy and ran out to meet it. I jumped in the back and Duane rode shotgun.
About an hour and a half later we finally made the 4-5 miles to Duane's house and let him out. The engine case was rubbing the freshly fallen snow by now and Duane had to push us to get us going again. Another 20 minutes to get the last mile home. As we came down 21st Street we saw mom's '65 Mercury in the driveway, just off the street. I said to dad, "Where are you going to put it; you can't leave it on the street overnight, you'll get a ticket" (normally you would, but probably not THAT night, there were cars stranded all over the township by now!). Dad said "I'm going to try to shoot it up in the front yard, just missing your mother's car". I said "I'll get out and watch".
So I'm standing there behind the Mercury with my butt up against the license plate and dad gets the car positioned at roughly a 45 degree angle in the middle of the street. No backup lights on '66s but it was clear to me it was in reverse; he guns the motor a couple of times and let's go the clutch. The Ghia starts coming back very quickly, up over the driveway apron and into the front yard and just as it flies by, I hear this HORRIBLE scraping noise.
Dear Ol' Dad had caught the corner of mom's bumper with the left-rear quarter of my BRAND NEW car.
Almost 17 years old and I cried like a baby. 2 hours after delivery my first new car of my miserable little life had it's 1st scar. I never let my father forget the last words he said to me, standing in front of that gas station at the corner of McCamly Street and North Avenue!
School was closed the next day and the following Monday due to the weather. It had been the worst snow in recorded history up until that time and the first time in my K-11 years of school, that school had been closed. Battle Creek had received over 21" of snow that day.
But what hurt the most, I think, was with no school that Friday, Duane and his brother Clarence, decided to snowshoe over to our house. The first thing Duane said when he got inside was "What happened to the Ghia?"
My 2nd accident:
It also really hurt that I had this brand-spanking new set of wheels outside buried up to the side moldings in snow and I couldn’t go anywhere in it! But by the time the following Sunday rolled around, I was able to get it out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pump the brakes fast enough and slid into the back of a stopped pickup truck at the light and dinged the nose. This is a real “no-no” for a Ghia owner.
So it went into the body shop in February, with not one, but two less-than-mortal wounds. And it NEVER got hit again for as long as I had it.
Girlfriends and my Hoodlum Friends:
All the girls liked the car, but hardly any of the guys. That was OK. I’d rather give a ride to Barb F., Linda S., Shirley R. or Cindy F. over Bill Mahoney or Duane Buchko anytime. But soon, I’d have plenty (8) of guys riding in that car!
A minor annoyance with the ’66 Ghia was the strap that held the battery in place. It was often a little loose and the battery would sometimes slide back when you “jack-rabbited” it. I was taking Linda S. out one night and we were at the corner of Capital and Columbia in Battle Creek; one of Calhoun County’s 3 busiest intersections at the time (and probably still is).
Fortunately, as soon as I opened the engine compartment, I saw right away that the battery had slid back and pulled the “30” wire from the voltage regulator. So I shoved the battery back up into position, plugged the wire back in and off we went. SHE HAD TO BE IMPRESSED!
The guys I hung with in high school would often beat me out to the parking lot after school and more than once I found them lifting my car up by the bumpers and setting it over the curb. I don’t know how many times I had to take the car down to the dealer to have the bumpers realigned. I eventually learned how to do it myself.
Hill climbing out at Fine Lake
One fall evening in 1967, Bill Mahoney took his ’64 Beetle convertible and I took my Ghia, and a couple of other guys took their other small cars (there was an MG there as I recall) out to Fine Lake where we had friends Jerry Ball and Peg S.
We had a little beer and decided to go hill climbing in a farmer’s field. I had the EMPI extractor exhaust on my Ghia by this time, and it hung a little lower than the standard VW muffler.
We would take turns running our cars up this hill in the field, but during my last run, my tailpipe scraped the dirt and the header tube got pulled off the passenger side heat exchanger. I was running open on one cylinder.
Somehow, running around in that field that evening, I lost a sandal. Mahoney picked it up and threw it in the back of his car.
So we all went back to Peg’s house, to listen to some music and have a little more beer. I wound up alone with Peg in her room, “making out” to Eric Burdon & the Animals “The Twain Shall Meet” album. I particularly remember the instrumental track “We Love You Lil”. Sweet girl; a night I will always remember.
Peg and I eventually dozed off for a short while and woke up about 1:00 am only to find that several people had left, including Bill. I asked whoever was left if they knew where he went and someone (perhaps Jerry) said they thought he was headed for Speed’s Coffee Shop in Lakeview (that’s where we all hung out in those days).
So I kissed Peg goodnight and headed for Battle Creek: half-drunk, one shoe, wide-open exhaust - what could be more perfect? Walked into Speed’s with one sandal on and found Mahoney. Made him take me out to his car to find the other one.
Great times. Wonder where Peg is today? Still listen to “The Twain Shall Meet” from time to time and every time I do, I think of her. I hope she is well.
Lakeview High School Last Day for Seniors, 1968
As soon as we arrived at school the last day for Seniors 1968, several of us gathered in the cafeteria to discuss what Senior pranks we could pull that would live in infamy. Finally, Steve Savage said he had a partial box of M-80 firecrackers at his house. So we headed for the parking lot and on the way out, we decided that we would all go to Steve’s house together in the Ghia. There were 8 of us.
I drove of course, with Savage riding “shotgun” and Mahoney “on the hump” There were four more guys in the back seat (Pat Craig, Tom Fettes, Duane Buchko and Mike Gould) and one more stuffed in the luggage compartment behind the back seat. I don’t remember the exact seating arrangement in the back, but 6’-3” Steve Winslow was back there somewhere – he may well have been the one in the luggage compartment. Winslow was always up for a good time!
When we arrived at the house, Savage went in and emerged a few minutes later with the M-80’s. He and Mahoney quickly counted them out as we headed back to school. There were 65 which meant 8 apiece and one left over. We decided the 65th should be tossed at a Jr. High kid we saw walking to school. So Mahoney pushed in the cigarette lighter while Savage held up #65. When the lighter popped out, Mahoney touched it to the fuse and it started to burn.
Savage, for whatever reason, only rolled the passenger window down about an inch and a half and then tried to peg this lit M-80 at this miserable little 8th-grader walking down the road. It hit the weather-strip at the top of the window opening and fell back into the passenger compartment.
So now we have a 1966 Karmann Ghia, rolling down Columbia Avenue at roughly 40 mph carrying 8 high school boys with a lit firecracker rolling around on the floor – good times! Mahoney and Savage are frantically trying to get a hold of this thing, but it’s rolled under the passenger seat. Too much traffic on Columbia Avenue for me to stop, but I had no choice: I jammed on the brakes just enough to get the thing to roll out, Mahoney quickly scooped it up while Savage rolled the window down the rest of the way and Mahoney threw it out. It burst in mid-air.
When we got back to school, we divvied up the remaining 64 and went our separate ways.
The toilets at Lakeview High School were the new modern kind that bolted onto the wall so that the floors could be cleaned easily underneath them.
Sometime around lunchtime, Mike Gould tossed an M-80 in one them in the boys bathroom behind the cafeteria snack bar. It exploded and destroyed the inner bowl. Looking at it from a few feet away, it looked completely normal, but when you got up to it and looked inside, there were chucks of porcelain floating in the water.
After lunch, Mahoney perfected the Gould technique: he flushed. We heard about this just before 5th hour and begged Mr. Stan Williams, our Government teacher to take a bunch of us down there to see it. We were met at the bathroom door by a very angry Assistant Principal, Walter Johnson. Still, he let us in since we were escorted. It was quite a sight: 4 chrome bolts sticking out of the tiled wall, each with a little chunk of porcelain clinging to it. All the rest, along with several gallons of water, on the floor.
By the end of the day, two toilets had been destroyed and Mr. Mahoney and Mr. Gould did not get their diplomas until their parents’ checks cleared.
Souping it up:
Next, came a tuned extractor exhaust, also from EMPI. I convinced Dad that this was needed to “increase fuel efficiency”. It also knocked it up to about 55hp from the 1300’s standard 50hp. And it sounded sexy too! Made it growl like a Porsche!When we lived on 21st Street in Battle Creek, my folks had friends across the street who were almost a generation older than them: Earl and Effie Nottke (he’s the brother of the Bowling Alley Nottke). The Nottke’s were retired by then and had a son who lived in L.A. They would drive their Oldsmobile out and winter with Jerry and his family every year. In the winter of ’68-69, they invited my folks to come out to L.A. in early spring, spend a couple of weeks with them and then drive back to Battle Creek as a foursome. Mom and Dad agreed and so one Saturday in March of ’69, I took them down to the station and “saw my Dad Jack off on the train”. SORRY!! That’s an old bar song – I saw my Mom Kathleen off on the train too, but it’s just not as funny!
Of course, this meant that for two weeks, I had their ’65 Mercury at my disposal. The train probably hadn’t hit the Indiana line, when I had my Ghia on the rack at Jerry’s Marathon and the engine pulled.
1600 pistons and sleeves, dual port heads, ported and polished, Engle cam, Heavy duty oil pump, heavy duty clutch, electric fuel pump, Mallory centrifugal advance distributor and dual Solex carbs from a 912 Porsche. I might be forgetting something here.
Driving to Muskegon to see my cousins, I could get the speedomter up to between the Oil Pressure Light and the Turn Signal Indicator.
Disposition:
By 1970, the Ghia was starting to get a little long in the tooth, and I needed more room so I decided to get a domestic. I had a friend Jim, at work, who built dune buggies and he offered me a 40hp 1200 and $400.00 for my engine. The hot motor didn’t make any difference to the Ford dealer I was going to buy from, so I made the deal with Jim and traded the Ghia in with the old 40-horse installed in the summer of 1970. I would not own another Ghia for 38 years.
Jim later said he rejetted the carbs and had it dynoed at 210hp.
Addendum:
A year or so ago, while perusing the web for another Ghia, I saw an Orange ’66 coupe on Craigslist. Orange was NOT a standard VW color in 1966. It was not a popular color then and didn’t come out in any shade until 1970’s L 20 E (14) Amber.
I tried to contact the seller for weeks to ask if there was any evidence of the original color, what the VIN was, or any evidence of certain other modifications I had made to mine in those years.
Despite weeks of trying, he ignored all my e-mails and the listing eventually ended. There was a very good chance that it WAS originally my car – but I will never know for sure.
