The differences between Beetles made in the Australian, Brazilian, South African, and European factories (plus a few other locations as well) are significantly different. Even the Beetles made in the European factories were the subject of major variations over the years. Most of which were very visual ones. Even so, to many people (and virtually…
Eve Muir interview
Eve in Mexico. Sometime ago Peter Aschwanden’s widow, Deborah Reade, did a series of eight interviews with Peter’s friends and family. These cover a wide range of topics including Peter’s early life, who he was as an artist, life at John Muir Publications in Santa Fe and much more. Lots of pictures. This one is…
The Special Edition Beetles Manufactured in Mexico for Export to Europe.
A very specific period of SEB history: Volkswagen AG took the decision that when European Beetle production ceased at the Emden plant in January 1978 the dwindling demand for new Beetles in Germany and a limited number of other European countries including, initially, West Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland, could be satisfied…
Peter Aschwanden: Anxiety and Joy in the Illustration of Machines.
Okay here’s the thing about Peter Aschwanden. He was a 1960’s hippie beatnik artist that made a living illustrating technical manuals. An off-the-grid naturalist who created incredibly detailed illustrations of machines in a remote mountain cabin by kerosene lamp. He first came to my attention decades ago in high school when I gained possession of…
Forward Into The Past With John Muir’s “Idiot’s Guide”
The Idiot’s Guide. Classic VW owners know and love this well. A great blog post reproduced here from Samuel John Klein. Back in the 60’s, see, the VW was more truly lived up to its name “the People’s Car”, becoming a badge to the hippie culture as much as owning a Subaru strongly suggests one…
The Beetleness and Flathead Graphix story.
2019 was a pivotal year for Beetleness. Beetleness was created to showcase some of my own artwork and to support the website sebeetles.com – the history VW forgot. SEBeetles is a non-profit site and does not carry advertising purely for the benefit of VW fans worldwide and thus encourage editorial contributions. It has become famous…