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Every Month, A New Super Beetle Story
The Features section showcases standout 1302 and 1303 Super Beetles from across the community, highlighting restorations, survivor cars, custom builds, and the personal stories behind them. Each feature offers a closer look at the craftsmanship and passion that define the Super Beetle. Explore the latest featured car below and revisit the stories that make these models so memorable.
A Lifetime of Super Beetle Joy - Owner: Erika Hansen
For some enthusiasts, the love of the Volkswagen Beetle arrives suddenly. For others, it’s planted early and never lets go. For Erika Hansen, it began in seventh grade with a simple school assignment. While classmates circled sports cars and futuristic machines, she flipped straight to the Beetles. “I honestly can’t remember not wanting a Beetle,” she says. Her dad’s stories about his own Bugs and childhood rides in friends’ family cars sealed the deal long before she ever sat behind a wheel.
That moment finally came when she earned her driver’s license. Determined to find the right car, she scoured the classifieds until she discovered something she hadn’t known existed: a semi-automatic Super Beetle. For a new driver who didn’t yet know how to work a clutch, it felt like destiny. The car she found was a 1971 yellow Super Beetle, and she named it Sunshine. “She made me happy every time I looked at her,” Erika recalls. Sunshine became her first car and the first chapter in a lifelong VW story.
Life took her across the country after high school, and Sunshine had to be sold. It was a painful goodbye, but not the end. Seven years later, Erika was back in the classifieds, hunting for another ’71 semi-automatic. The seller kept the ad short to save money, leaving out the color entirely. On the drive to see it, her boyfriend asked what she hoped for. “Anything but orange,” she joked. So naturally, the car was orange. And naturally, she fell in love. She named the car Calliope, after the whimsical carousel calliope that reminded her of childhood magic. “The name just fit,” she says.
Calliope followed Erika through moves, jobs, and new chapters. When she relocated to North Carolina, the Beetle received a garage of her own and a protective undercoating to guard against rust. But the region wasn’t kind to her mechanically. “I couldn’t find a mechanic who could keep her reliable,” Erika explains. Calliope became a weekend car, cherished but limited, waiting for the right time to shine again.
That time didn’t come quickly. After returning to California and later having children, Erika found that car seats and Beetles simply don’t mix. Calliope spent years loaned to a friend, even appearing as a backdrop on a ukulele album. When that ended, she went into storage at Erika’s in-laws’ garage. Money, space, and time all worked against keeping her. “My husband mentioned selling her more than once,” she admits. “I couldn’t even consider it. She was my dream car.”
Everything changed in 2019 when the family moved to Southern California. Calliope was already stored nearby, and for the first time in years, the stars aligned. Erika found a skilled air-cooled mechanic just a mile from home, and Calliope was running beautifully again. Then the pandemic hit. With the world paused, Erika finally tackled the restoration she’d always imagined. She stripped the interior, repainted the car in its original factory orange, installed a new wiring harness with help from her brother-in-law, and refreshed the headliner and carpet. “I always wanted to change the interior from black to cream and tan,” she says. “All the better to be a hollow pumpkin.”
Today, Calliope is practically perfect, quirks, aftermarket parts, and all. She is a rare semi automatic, a version fewer people preserve each year, and Erika loves that uniqueness. She drives her almost daily, waving to every Bug she passes. “Being in the club always makes me smile,” she says. People often tell her, “Of course that is your car,” and she agrees. Calliope fits her. She always has. After decades of devotion, Erika cannot imagine ever letting her go.
