Lisa & MYGHIA
Model:
1971 Karmann Ghia Autostick
Name:
Because it’s my Ghia.
Color:
California Orange
Mileage:
30,760
Motors:
Original engine.
Owned since:
1994
Owners:
She was abandoned in the seventies, and I spotted the smiley headlight from afar in the nineties.
Location:
Massachusetts
Favorite driving song:
“Sun Is Shining” by Bob Marley and the Wailers.
A cousin of mine had a Karmann Ghia, and I was lucky enough to get to ride in it when I was ten. We went to get some ice cream, and I fell in love with the car. I started looking for one when I was in middle school. I searched and searched, for probably over a decade. When I was in my late twenties, I spotted a headlight under some junkyard debris. I stopped my car, and I was like, I think that’s a Karmann Ghia. So I went back at night, went into the back of the junkyard property, pulled all the old tires and junk off it. And sure enough. It was this car. I checked it all out, everything was solid—it needed floor pans, of course.
It’s a head-turner. People see it, and the punch buggy comes out again.
I researched the color. I called a company in California, the only place around at the time that you could get Volkswagen parts, and they looked up the color codes for this particular model and sent me the paint. I taped plastic shower curtains around the garage and spray-painted it myself. It’s got no clear coat on it, just a lot of wax. The seats are still stock seats. I recently had them redone because the seats were just plain brown and starting to get torn and weathered because the car is fifty-something years old. I put a pattern together to match the outside of the car, and that’s how I ended up with those seats. If you look at the side here or there, you might see little dings and bangs. And that’s how it is. I found a diamond in the rough.
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My children were brought up in it. They used to sit nice and cozy in the little back seat, which is really just a luggage seat. They loved riding in the back. The first time I tried to teach Nadine how to drive Autostick, she took off into our neighborhood. I’m waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally she comes around the corner in reverse. I’m like, “Oh my, what happened?” She says, “The only gear I could find was reverse.” So she drove the whole way back in reverse. I did ask them recently if I was ever going to get rid of the car would they want it, but they don’t seem to have interest in an antique Volkswagen.
I went on my first rally trip with ten other Volkswagens to a car show in the Berkshires. Three days. That’s my farthest trip with the car. We all had our rally numbers and magnets on the sides of the car, and we stopped at different places along the way as one big Volkswagen family. We traveled up the mountains, and it was the trip of a lifetime.
I’ve worked long and hard—my hands have a lot of grease on them through these years of doing things.
Across the front of my Volkswagen catalog, I wrote “My Christmas and birthday wish list.” I just circle all the parts throughout the whole book. All the things I would love to do for my car. Just little things I never got to do, like putting new knobs on everything. The knobs are old and original, but I’d like to have the cream look in there. Give it a classier look. Keeping it all stock looks kind of messy and old. I want to change it.
I baby it. I cradle it, give it a kiss when I take it out. I don’t keep it out too late at night, because I don’t want to be out in the dark, where people might be not paying attention and might hit me. It’s never seen rain or snow. I drive it all year, but as soon as we have snow and salt, I put it away. I give it a kiss when I put it back in storage. I love my car.
I went back the next day, planning to make an offer. I had called a tow truck company and asked them to meet me a half hour later. At the junkyard, I said, “The car in the back, I want to purchase that.” He said, “It’s been sitting there since the end of the seventies, sitting back there under all that debris.” I said, “I want the car, and I’ll make you an offer,” and he said, “OK.” I said, “I’ll offer five hundred for the car.” And he said, “OK,” and signed over the paperwork to me. I ran out the door, whistled to the guy with the tow truck to come and pull it out, and off we went with my car.
When we got to my house, the driver said, “Oh, just for the heck of it, let’s shove a battery in and see if it works.” And I said OK. He put a new battery in, I turned the key, and it started. He said, “This car was meant for you. This is your car.” And it’s been mine ever since. More than thirty years I’ve owned the car now. My dream come true!
It’s all stock, all original. The only thing I did was weld new floor pans in and reconfigure some of the wiring—but most of the wiring in there is scary because it’s still all original from 1971. I’ve thought about changing it out, just for safety reasons. But I haven’t had an issue with the car ever so I’m not going to open that can of worms. I’ve kept everything tidy, like the hubcaps, original rims. I haven’t changed any of that out. The engine bay, it’s still like it was when it rolled off the sales floor in 1971. I still run on the 1600cc engine. So it’s 53 horsepower.
I was the only woman driver in the rally. I am usually the only woman driver in a lot of the Volkswagen clubs. I’ve tried to be part of some of the local smaller car clubs, but they won’t let me in, because I’m a girl. I get invited to every single event they do, but I can’t wear one of their club T-shirts. I need to make my own club.
I’ve won fifteen to eighteen awards. Pretty much every show I would show up at, I would win. I’m shy and embarrassed about it now. I know I’ve worked hard, and I know my car deserves the recognition, but now I just want to show up and have fun. At one really big show, over three hundred Volkswagens, I heard the girl behind me say, “Oh no, of course she’s going to win,” and that was the end for me. I stopped entering shows because I feel I’ve won enough now and I don’t want to take from other people who are trying to show their progress with their cars. I’ve surpassed that thrill of hearing “Oh yes, you have a great car.”
Volkswagens have always been America’s favorite car. They’re all slow, they stink, they drip oil everywhere, you have to carry extra oil with you. But it’s America’s favorite. I think people just love these cars. I would like to have a nice fast car too. It’s not my time for that. Just keep going slow and steady. Take out my little Karmann Ghia and that’s it.
