Gene’s love affair with the VW Beetle started in 1956. From that time on he worked on hopping up and racing VWs and supporting events all over the world in one form or another. Some of his first experiences were not all that good and even stock VW parts were impossible to get except from the dealer. Everything that was needed had to be fabricated from nothing or another automobile part had to be modified to work. At that time, he was only interested in making his personal VW run faster. He and Dee had been married for a couple of years, and they had 3 sons. Gene depended on his car for daily transportation so it had to maintain its full reliability.