Kathy & Shamrock Shake

Model:

1971 Karmann Ghia

Name:

The car is green and when I first got it, it would shake when it went fast!

Color:

Willow Green. When you buy a used VW, you are never quite sure where it has been. It looks like there have been different layers of paint, but Willow Green was a stock color for 1971.

Mileage:

99,000

Motors:

There is the one it came with, and the one being built for it now . . . so at least two, but probably more!

Owned since:

2016

Owners:

One can only imagine! I purchased it off a Craigslist ad in Newport Beach, Oregon. The owner didn’t provide any history on the vehicle.

Location:

California

Favorite driving song:

“Green Onions” by Booker T. & the M.G.s.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t inspired by Pretty In Pink and Molly Ringwald in my desire to own a Karmann Ghia. That may have been the first time I saw a mustachioed car. There’s also a self-portrait by Tamara de Lempicka of her driving a Bugatti, and she looks so cool. And Emma Peel in The Avengers driving her little sports car—it just looks like so much fun. And it is.

When I saw Shamrock Shake, I fell in love with the green color. It gives me so much joy. It is fun to drive, and people are always waving and honking wherever I go. Being able to drive a stick shift and being able to fix something mechanically is an enjoyable skill.

I come from a long line of women drivers of antique cars. My grandparents started a Unique Car Club, so I have many lessons from my grandmother and mother in driving old, peculiar cars. When I was little, we would attend these club meetings, go on field trips, have potluck dinners, and exchange stories and parts and much more.

My grandmother used to attend car club events in her 1931 Ford Model A Sport Coupe (named Hilda, after the original owner). She would take the car out to drive in local parades, and I would ride in the rumble seat in the back. She also liked to drive a riding lawn mower on her property as well . . . okay, I don’t know if she liked it, but I did as a kid!

My mom drives a Model A (the same car my grandmother drove), a 1933 Hupmobile rumble seat coupe model 321 K

(that she and my dad restored), and a 1956 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop. However, her first car was a 1963 VW Bug. She likes to take visitors for a spin in one of the older cars. She often visits assisted-living facilities with the Model A to

brighten people’s spirits.

I recently participated in the Volkswagen Treffen, a ten-day rally of air-cooled Volkswagens starting near the Canadian border and traveling the length of the West Coast to the Mexican border. I drove the part from Mill Valley to Pacific Grove. You’re always in the slow lane. You look at things, you take more stops, you have a smaller gas tank. People help you too. The Volkswagen community is like another family, so if you see one pulled over, you might have the part they need or the assistance they need. On the Treffen, I didn’t realize it, but I had shredded one of my tires. Before I knew it, thirty people dropped what they were doing to come fix my car.

I’m forever trying to see how I could modify it to make it more unique. I added a little stoplight in the back and an ejector button. I want to change it into a spy car. The ejector button doesn’t work yet—as you can see it’s not a convertible.

Maybe it goes back to The Avengers, the mystery of being in a little sports car that doesn’t go that fast, but it’s the illusion. It is so simple and so basic that you can’t help but smile when you’re driving.

My husband has a ’67 Bus. It was his grandfather’s. He grew up in it and learned to drive in it, so he was my entryway into the Volkswagen world. The Volkswagen community is great. You get people of all different walks of life: old hippies, young skaters, BBQ enthusiasts. They all help each other out, want to hang out and tell stories, work on cars—it makes your life easier and more fun.

For me it’s about the color, the appearance of a little mustache, and just Fahrvergnügen.