1970s Bug owner - WPT971L

Hi everyone - I was watching Car SOS last night and saw what I believe to be my old car, WPT971L, being put through its paces on a racing circuit. I bought the car from Tom Cowie's original motorcycle dealership in Millfield Sunderland in June or July 1973 and I believe I was the second owner, it had less than 2000 miles on the clock - from a faded memory. I bought the car because my new girlfriend (now wife of 46 years) lived in Pembrokeshire and I lived in County Durham and only had a motorbike license and regular 800 mile round trips on a bike held little attraction, so my Triton was traded in for the bug. I kept the car for around 10 months, till we decided to do a camping trip to Cornwall at Easter 1974 and discovered there was not enough room for any camping gear, whereupon the Bug was traded in for blue Reliant Regal Van - by then the Bug had done around 10000 trouble free miles (apart from one small corner tip (the least said the better!), which was fixed perfectly by the Reliant dealer in Stafford, where I was studying at the time).The only small doubt that I have whether this was my car is that I think I remember it as a 700ES rather than a 750ES, but after almost 50 years I cannot be absolutely sure. The only non-standard things that I remember on the car were the gear knob, which had been replaced by the original owner with a home made T-shift finished in Hammerite and the 8-track player which I fitted - the back shelf was always full of enormous 8-track cartridges (two or three of which I still have). I don't think I have any photos of the Bug, but will check to see!

I still love old cars, have a pristine 1956 Morris Minor Convertible which has been to Italy and back and completed LEJOG and now that I am retired I am currently restoring a 1937 Standard Flying 10, which is almost complete. I would love to own, or restore, another Bug at some time in the future - maybe a trade for the Standard!