Car Post: Renting a Beetle

We needed a car during our stay in Wilderness and Monica, the Fairy Knowe owner recommended we rent a Beetle from a local couple. I was very excited to rent a non-boring car, especially as the price was quite right (R150, today ~ $20).

The Beetle we got from "Hippy Hop" was a 1977 model. I believe in the US this would be called a "Super Beetle". It is essentially about as good as Beetles ever got. Still no working defroster, no tach (four speed manual, of course), tempature gauge, and handles like a wet sponge - but quite fun from the moment we got in.

The large-for-a-Beetle 1600cc (50hp @ 4k RPM / 80 Lb/ft @ 2800 RPM) engine was handy as you have to take the N2 (mountainous South African version of a freeway) into George. Still quite slow of course, but the car doesn't weight that much...

The second day we had the car we took the beautiful "Seven Passes Road" which runs from George to Knysna. This was the pre-N2 road first cut at the turn of the century. It is a winding dirt-and-asphalt road that runs up and down seven river (really small creek) valleys over 50 km. The scenery was very beautiful, and besides the red dirt, driving on the wrong side of the road, and the fact that we were nearly at sea level I thought we could have been in Idaho at a few points. The land is dry, but covered in evergreen trees. There are farms and small towns scattered along the road.

The country-road drive in the old car was so much fun. The vinyl steering wheel, bizarre VW air-cooled engine sound, and the strange shape of the hood over the tiny windshield reminded me of endless mountain road driving in my friend Sean's 63' Beetle in High School. Fortunatley, we did not destroy the rental Beetle engine on a mountain road like Sean and I apparently did by backing into the side of a mountain...