OLDS — One of the entries in 2025 edition of the Mountain View Pistons Show & Shine held recently in Olds was a 1967 purple Volkswagen Beetle.
But not your ordinary VW Beetle.
This one has two transmissions, including one from a motorbike.
Standing by it was central Alberta resident Dexter Hebert and son Tyler, nearly two years old.
“It's a CBR 600 out of a Honda motorcycle, and then it has the original Volkswagen transmission. So you get 24 gears and six reverse gears,” Hebert said during an interview with the Albertan. “It's got two shifters.”
Tyler had heard enough about the details of the car. He wanted to drive it. So he climbed into the driver’s seat and twisted the steering wheel every which way while his dad continued with the interview.
Hebert was asked if he’s ever used all the gears the car has.
“Yeah, on the highway, you do, for sure,” he said, although he admitted it hasn’t been driven that much.
He said top end, the bug can probably do 8,300 RPM, “depending on exactly how far you rev the bike out.”
The interior features two tawny coloured seats.
“They're out of a F150, like a 2000, rear seats,” he said. “They're the smallest, skinniest seats we could find.”
Hebert said the car was obtained in Calgary. He and some friends have probably spent six months restoring it.
“There was a big dent in the hood, and the floor was rotted out and had no motor in it. So we kind of put it together from there,” he said.
“We got it chopped, and most of the body work was done. We repainted it, but we put the roll cage in it, did the motor, redid the floor pan, -- stuff, a couple little things.
“It's kind of became a back burner project now,” Hebert added. “We want to do the interior. We want to finish the back here and stuff.”
The purple colour certainly stands out. Hebert was asked if it was that colour before.
“No, it was a, like a maroon red kind of thing, like, but the purple was kind of a favourite,” he said.
