Founder Tim Hildabrand recounts tales from the early days of New Dimensions.
Before New Dimensions
My father introduced me to my first Volkswagen, unwittingly sparking my life-long love affair with the Volkswagen Audi brand of automobiles. On Christmas Day, 1972, he gave a 1967 Bug to my brother and sister to share. It was a fun car and my brother even rebuilt the engine in the garage after blowing it up. (This may be where I learned my technique for blowing up engines.) Fast forward to 1978 when I finally got my own Bug - a '66. Fun, peace, and happiness until it's stolen. A friend found it in the woods three weeks later, totally stripped.
I bought my second Bug, a nice '64 ragtop. It was stolen from the same place. Arrggg!! It showed up many weeks later parked behind an apartment complex - in perfect shape, like someone had borrowed it. Undiscouraged, I bought a nice yellow '70 Bug and installed an antitheft device to prevent further casualties. I sold the '64 (I know, I sold the wrong one!) and kept the newer, cleaner '70. I worked at a Volkswagen dealer then and did a few mods in my spare time.
In 1979 I was doing the PDI on a new Scirocco S and fell in love! I found a very clean white '78 Special Edition that was to be my first water-cooled. The love of this Scirocco led me to join Club Scirocco, the national club of the Scirocco enthusiast. I started a Northern California chapter and was an active tech writer for the club newsletter, Desert Wind. The club grew and other chapters sprang up in a few large cities. A few years later the club fell apart and I started a new club, Second Generation, which was open to all water-cooled Volkswagens. Under the leadership of Mike Krider and the volunteer board, membership quickly grew to over 300 people. We hosted many events from technical sessions to autocross and driving schools. It was a lot of fun.
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