1966 Old School Beetle

From the time he was first turned onto VWs at the age of 17, when he went camping in the Forest of Dean with a Bug-driving friend, Nigel Fleet has owned a long list of VWs. As he really liked his friend’s Beetle, in 1982 Nigel bought himself his first car, a Texas yellow 1300. He kept this for three years as his daily driver to drive to and fro from his home in Cheshire to Huddersfield Polytechnic. After racking up the miles this Bug was scrapped due to rust, but a succession of Beetles followed and in 1997 he had his first ‘feature car’, an Anthracite grey 1964 Beetle loaded with EMPI parts and a 130bhp John Maher Racing engine. The car was featured in VW Motoring and then later in Total VW magazine. Sadly, a divorce meant the ’64 had to be sold, and by the time Nigel had got back on his feet he’d spent a year without a Beetle, but then he couldn’t own the sort of car he wanted as he was living in London with no garage. However, a move to Bristol saw the opportunity to own a nice Beetle again, this time a 1954 Oval which our Technical Editor, Matt Keene had built. After a while the Oval was sold to fellow fan, Lee Levitt, and Nigel was now with his new lady Rachel, who’s now his fiancée, and together they’ve been on a quest to own every Mk1 Golf GTi in the country – or at least it seems like it, as at one point they had four at the same time and even today they still have an A-1 condition 1981 Mars red Mk1 GTi, with just 20,000 miles on the clock, sitting in the garage.

With the move to West Sussex, Nigel had the space and time for another project and turned an unrestored 1959 into a Gasser-influenced street racer called ‘Pure Juice’ with a JMR 2276cc 48IDA motor, rollcage by Cotsweld and Seventies drag racer-styled signwriting.

Today they have a collection of top quality Beetles, most of which are magazine featured concours winners with reams of history: A 1973 GT Beetle in Apple Green with 44,000 miles on it, a 1971 1302LS Oettinger Cabriolet, and an original unrestored December 1951 Split Beetle that’s totally original bar the lowered suspension and EMPI Sprint Stars.

As if this collection wasn’t enough, Nigel also owns this beautiful 1966 Beetle, inspired by the cover car of the 1st Volkswagen Annual from 1966; a Sea Blue ’66 EMPI GTV accessories...

For the full story check out the February 2009 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 29 December and then available through back issues.

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