Looks good in green, but it'd be better with a hardtop. Never cared for Cabriolets - I'd prefer a Rabbit with a roof (maybe even a sunroof, if I decide I miss the leaks).
The Rabbit Cabriolet used to be the quintessentiall gay man's car. Two decades later the Volkswagen Eos earns that moniker. VW is obviously in it for the long gay haul!
My first car was a 76 Rabbit. It was brown, 2 door and had an automatic transmission. It was the best car I ever owned. Now what would make such a crappy bare-bones, oil-leaking, POS so great? It was the first car I got naked in!
When you're a nerdy rabbit-owning kid who is part time grocery store bagger, striking out with girls is standard equipment. But for some reason I caught the eye of a very attractive, slightly slutty, cashier named Lori.
I had two glorious dates with Lori. Actually they weren't really dates, just heaving make out sessions that, 25 years later, still make me smile. Between the brown vinyl seats and Lori's perfume-scented lithe teen body, I was in heaven.
The Rabbit got me places. But Lori brought me to places I'd only imagined. I've searched the internet for pieces of my past, but I've only found Rabbits, Lori can't be found....
I'm sure most of you have heard of VW's marketing partnerships with companies like First Act (electric guitars) and Trek (bicycles). Well, back in the early 80's personal computing was transitioning from Heathkit computers programmed via punch cards to "modern" devices running on BASIC with 16k of memory. VW recognized this emerging trend and partnered with an up-and-coming computer company to cross-market their products to a new generation.
What you see here is the incredibly rare VW Kaypro cabrio. For a short time in 1982, everyone who purchased a new Rabbit cabrio received a free Kaypro II personal computer. Frankly, I am amazed this one is still around. It's even sporting the OE vent window as noticed by the Black Bart alarm decal. I wonder if the car's owner bought the optional cassette tape drive or went cutting edge with that new floppy disk thing?
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
Hey, I've got one of those laptop keyboards taped to the wall in my house. Goddamn iBook keyboards are water soluble apparently, and the motherboard and sound card acting as a hat rack looked lonely.
My first car was an 84 Rabbit convertible (Wolfsburg edition white-on-white). Don't listen to the haters, that car was as good as something with so few horsepower could be, and probably appropriate for a young hoon-in-training to not kill himself with.
As an aside - all my friends with Mustangs and the like loved to say "hey, that's a girl car" - which was clearly true but not in the way they intended when all the good looking girls in high school used to come up to the previously-invisible me and asked if they could go for a ride in "your cute car". Good times.
Don't discount the possibility that those girls were all "Grace"-in-training and they assumed you were "Will"... Many pretty girls are drawn to gay men (we're "safe" and good listeners), and many gay men are drawn to white Rabbit Convertibles/Cabrios. At least in my circle of L.A. Faeries...
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was starred
Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face. was unstarred
If this was taken somewhere else in America, I'd guess that thing in the street was an acorn- but seeing as how it's California, it's undoubtedly some kind of nut.
Murilee, a friend of mine just bought a 1981 Rabbit Diesel. Yes, voluntarily. That's the only car I've ever driven that feels dangerously slow. He loves it!
@dculberson: There's a screw on the injector pump that will increase the fuel volume and make the car less dangerous - while decreasing efficiency significantly. I owned a few diesel Rabbits back when diesel cost 67 cents a gallon. In retrospect, I was a dumbass. 48HP with an adequate amount of torque. I got pulled over for doing 78MPH in a 55MPH zone. I told the state trooper that I only had 48HP - and he should give me a certificate of achievement instead of a ticket. He smiled and gave me a ticket.
@mikedrawcar: Ohhh no, have you ever been in a Rabbit Diesel?? A ZX2 will do 0-60 in the 7.x second range while that Rabbit is in the 21.x second range. Yes, really. Said ZX2 would be hitting somewhere around 120mph by the time the Rabbit was up to the speed limit.
Murilee, what's with the "rare" keyboard option anyway? Who in their right mond would glue a useless keyboard to the dash?
Anyway, these cars were pure rubbish in my opinion. I owned a Jetta MK1 of the same vintage, and because of that car, I will never own at another VW, ever.
@voodoojoo: This is the myriad of problems I had with that Jetta (This was also an Automatic Equipped one):
1) 4 Starter Motors had to be replaced in the 4 years I owned it.
2) The Transmission was rebuilt once, then replaced twice.
3) I had to replace an engine ignition rotor, because the car progressively got harder to start over time. It finally let go and had to be towed.
4) There were various electrical gremlins that cropped up every once in a while. There was a couple of times that it smelled like burnt wires.
5) I had to replace the front struts at least once every six months, because the front end crashed when I went over certain bumps on my way to work.
6) The A/C Compressor was giving out. When I turned on the A/C, it still cooled the cabin, but the compressor made a grinding noise, like the bearings were going to let go.
Want to know what car actually replaced this "German Engineered" VW? A 1986 Hyundai Excel! What is the kicker here is that Excel was a lot more reliable than the Jetta, and I bought them both brand new! The Hyundai was traded for a Suzuki Sidekick 4 Door in 1994.
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
When you're a nerdy rabbit-owning kid who is part time grocery store bagger, striking out with girls is standard equipment. But for some reason I caught the eye of a very attractive, slightly slutty, cashier named Lori.
I had two glorious dates with Lori. Actually they weren't really dates, just heaving make out sessions that, 25 years later, still make me smile. Between the brown vinyl seats and Lori's perfume-scented lithe teen body, I was in heaven.
The Rabbit got me places. But Lori brought me to places I'd only imagined. I've searched the internet for pieces of my past, but I've only found Rabbits, Lori can't be found....
03/29/09
My first car sex was in a '68 Mercury station wagon... Bench seats are very accommodating.
03/29/09
What you see here is the incredibly rare VW Kaypro cabrio. For a short time in 1982, everyone who purchased a new Rabbit cabrio received a free Kaypro II personal computer. Frankly, I am amazed this one is still around. It's even sporting the OE vent window as noticed by the Black Bart alarm decal. I wonder if the car's owner bought the optional cassette tape drive or went cutting edge with that new floppy disk thing?
03/29/09
And was the most flamboyantly heterosexual dude you'd ever meet.
03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
As an aside - all my friends with Mustangs and the like loved to say "hey, that's a girl car" - which was clearly true but not in the way they intended when all the good looking girls in high school used to come up to the previously-invisible me and asked if they could go for a ride in "your cute car". Good times.
03/29/09
Don't discount the possibility that those girls were all "Grace"-in-training and they assumed you were "Will"... Many pretty girls are drawn to gay men (we're "safe" and good listeners), and many gay men are drawn to white Rabbit Convertibles/Cabrios. At least in my circle of L.A. Faeries...
03/29/09
/broken record
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03/29/09
03/29/09
03/29/09
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03/29/09
03/29/09
Terrifyingly slow.
03/30/09
03/29/09
Anyway, these cars were pure rubbish in my opinion. I owned a Jetta MK1 of the same vintage, and because of that car, I will never own at another VW, ever.
03/29/09
03/29/09
1) 4 Starter Motors had to be replaced in the 4 years I owned it.
2) The Transmission was rebuilt once, then replaced twice.
3) I had to replace an engine ignition rotor, because the car progressively got harder to start over time. It finally let go and had to be towed.
4) There were various electrical gremlins that cropped up every once in a while. There was a couple of times that it smelled like burnt wires.
5) I had to replace the front struts at least once every six months, because the front end crashed when I went over certain bumps on my way to work.
6) The A/C Compressor was giving out. When I turned on the A/C, it still cooled the cabin, but the compressor made a grinding noise, like the bearings were going to let go.
Want to know what car actually replaced this "German Engineered" VW? A 1986 Hyundai Excel! What is the kicker here is that Excel was a lot more reliable than the Jetta, and I bought them both brand new! The Hyundai was traded for a Suzuki Sidekick 4 Door in 1994.