This is long overdue. When I attended this show last August, I was very happy with my finds and planned on running a post within a week or so. I even went so far as to email Ed Stembridge a couple of “preview” photos. Well, things don’t always go the way we want them to, but better late than never. So with no further ado, let’s go check out some rear-engined CCs…
First up is this very early 1953 Type 2 pickup, quite likely the rarest VW at the 2012 show.
The engine looks a little lost in there, like it’s hiding. Check out the plumbing for the air cleaner–they really had to improvise to get it to fit.
Early Buses and Pickups were very much a utility vehicle, with simple controls and nothing unnecessary. This instrument panel makes a Bay Window IP look positively luxurious!
All Type 2 pickups–right through the end-of-the-line Vanagons–had extra-handy drop-down sides, meaning you could turn your truck into a flatbed in nothing flat (pun intended).
Inside, wooden strips were included to ease the loading of particularly large boxes and/or cargo.
I really liked this one–maybe you can tell?–but let’s move on to other cars…
This ’55 oval-window gunmetal-gray Beetle was lovely, with its wide whites and cool chrome horn grilles. I like how it is bookended by the ’70s Beetle in the background: “Before” and “After.” Or would the non-New 2013 Beetle be “After?”
Gotta love the Wolfsburg crest on this vintage VW. Interesting fact: the very last of the Mexican Beetles in 2003, offered in light blue or beige, had the Wolfsburg crest added, just like on this one.
The interior was just as lovely. Dig the cool bamboo accessory shelf!
Here’s the best angle: that oval window, with the “W” stamped into the engine lid. Also note the heart-shaped lights on top of the regular taillamps. These were added to make the running/brake lights more visible to other motorists. They are still a far cry from modern cars, which light up like Clark Griswold’s house whenever you hit the brake.
Here’s a really nice two-tone Karmann convertible from 1963. Nice colors!
Too sedate, you say? How about this chrome-yellow 1967 version, complete with chrome Fuchs wheels?
This one has nicely-bolstered late-model bucket seats and a classic “banjo” steering wheel. I normally prefer stock cars to custom ones but this one was very appealing to me.
This was just a stunning 1962 Beetle, in lovely Gulf Blue. Could this be what Ed has in mind for his ’63s restoration? I seem to recall him telling me this was his color choice when we had the CC meetup in Iowa City…
A most excellent choice. Blue is my second favorite color after green, and this shade is a perfect match to an early ’60s Bug. This one appears to have the European bumpers and taillights, too.
This was a very original 1966 Beetle, with lots of accessories, factory and otherwise. Just check out that “swamp cooler”, wheel-mounted toolkit and roof rack!
This one has a most interesting story too, being picked up by its original owner in Germany, driven in Athens for several years, and then spending thirty-odd years in Colorado before being purchased by its current caretaker.
The primer peeking through the paint and many, many travel stickers on its windows are badges of honor. This car has earned its stripes!
I always liked the white interiors frequently seen in Fifties and Sixties Beetles; they were so bright and cheerful. The mostly black and dark brown hues seen in the later Seventies versions were not near as cool.
This car has quite a history, and I have to thank the unseen owner for writing about it. After all, the stories behind our favorite Curbside Classics can be just as interesting as the cars themselves. That’s what we’re all here for, folks!
I liked the orange and white colors on this 1965 Kombi. The bumpers and wheel covers matched, too. This must be a later “Widow’s Peak” Type 2, as it has the flat turn signals, instead of the earlier beehive units.
Being that this show was held in August, I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t any vendors selling Creamsicles. Darn.
And there were not just VWs at the show, there were a couple of VW-adjacent models, like my dad’s ’60 356B Roadster.
The writeup on Dad’s “Porsh” is long overdue–he has had it since 1988, and it was a total basket case when he bought it–serious Swiss cheese, folks–but here is its first CC appearance.
Dad’s 356 was not the only one on site either, as evidenced by this nice ’63 B coupe.
This one is a T6, with the wider front trunk opening and “twin grille” engine lid. The original 1960-61 T5 B had a smaller trunk lid and single grille.
This was the penultimate development of the 356, with only the 356C and its four-wheel disc brakes to impress enthusiasts come 1964.
I have always loved the looks of the 356. Yes, yes, I know, the 911 has been a great car for Porsche, but they’re everywhere–and just try finding one in unmodified form.
Here’s that lovely engine. These things love to run, and a 356 is a great way to drive a (relatively) slow car fast. The top non-Carrera 356 during this time was the 95-horse SC. The less-powerful S engine, as seen here, had 75 ponies available.
image: Porsche356Registry.org
There are tons of 1972, 1976 and 1980 911Ts, SCs and Es turned into “tribute” (I hate that word!) 930s, Slantnoses and 964 Turbos. Me, I’d much rather have a 356. A C in Irish Green would be especially lovely! There’s just that slight issue of my inability to drive a stick…
And here’s something for you campers: a 1966 Westy, judging from the license plate. Those skylights in the pop-top are especially cool.
Step right in sir, the waiter will be here shortly! These Westfalias are always so homey inside, with their wood cabinets and curtains. The checkered tablecloth is the perfect touch.
Here’s the kitchen. Whether you want a pot of coffee or grill some burgers (brats would be more appropriate in this case), the VW can take care of that, whether you’re in the Target parking lot or the middle of the Cascades.
And when you’ve had enough to eat and drink, just hop up into your berth and take a little siesta. It would help if you didn’t toss and turn in your sleep though. What a way to wake up: Bonk! Good morning to you too!
Newer Westfalias were on hand as well, including this early ’80s variant. This 1984 has the lower grille, indicating it is a Wasserboxer, not an air-cooled unit.
The cabin is not quite as cabin-ey as the earlier ’66 model, but still looks quite livable. Very nice.
I was sure that this Westy was a 1986 or newer, with its “aero” wheel covers and halogen headlights. It was listed as an ’84 though, so it has apparently gotten some exterior upgrades.
The last year you could get a Westfalia Vanagon in the U.S. was in 1991, though sales were so sluggish that you likely could have found an untitled one well into 1992. Slow-selling then, beloved by VW folks today.
A Thing also made an appearance, looking pretty good in orange with wider tires and chrome wheels. This one is a 1974.
Here’s the usual Vee Dub 1.6L four-cylinder, looking quite fresh indeed. Someone really loves this Thing.
Here is its remarkably Spartan interior. So, which interior is more basic, this one or the Type 2 pickup at the top of this post?
At the opposite end of the VW prestige scale was this Karmann-Ghia, customized with Fuchs wheels and a slight rake. You might think it’s pre-’68 as it has the “towel bar” overriders, but it is in fact a ’71. Many VW owners like to change their cars to the earlier bumpers, as the ’71-up “Europa” bumpers are a bit plain.
The interior looked good in red vinyl. It does need some woodgrain contact paper for the glove box door, though.
As you can see in this shot, wheels were not the least of the modifications to this car. The engine upgrades appear to include dual Webers, and that exhaust pipe and muffler means business.
And I had to get some shots of that oh-so-’80s triple-white Rabbit convertible. This 1988 is a later model, which had added ground effects and grille-mounted fog lamps.
Inside, it is really, really white. Perfect for top-down driving. No fear of searing your arms and legs on the seats and armrests, which is a very real concern in a convertible with a black interior.
This one was like new. I still see these occasionally on the road, but none of them were as clean as this one. A cool artifact from an era I remember well as a kid.
Lastly, I want to share this far-out Beetle jalopy. Very different, eh? It looks like something you’d see at Bonneville, and I don’t mean Bonneville Brougham. The Halibrand wheels look great. According to the info, it started out as a ’62 Beetle.
Inside, it looks more like a ’30s American street rod, with lots of custom work. Check out the cut glass doorknob shift knob!
Another remarkable thing about this car is how low it is. The top of the door came only slightly above my knee, as I recall. I do like how the owner kept the Wolfsburg crest on the trunk lid.
Well, that’s it. This show was nine months ago, but hopefully you’ll agree it was worth the wait! And special thanks to the Bi-State VW Club for putting on such a nice show.
You made my morning, Tom! And yes, the ’63 will be Gulf Blue when done…
Gulf Blue is one of my favorite colors right up there with Java Green.
Hey Ed, my 63 Beetle project is Gulf Blue too.
Although it did turn out a bit more grey than I expected, but at least the whole thing is the same color, which is better than any other project car I’ve owned…
Great stuff. The Beetle roadster in particular cracks me up.
As best as I can tell, there’s not much VW in that roadster. It looks to have its engine under the front hood, a solid front axle, and RWD. It appears to be a classic American-style roadster with some VW body parts.
Looks like a box-tube frame and Model A (?) front axle…
So much awesome here.
The Single Cab, oh dear lord, I am drooling…… You can tell that is a very, very early one because the bed gates are smooth. Shortly into production they got the rectangular stampings on them.
The Westy has the Dormobile top on it. Those are especially cool and not seen too often. The full Dormobile had a very unique camper interior and is very rare. You could option a Westy interior with a Dormobile which is seen much more often.
Can you tell I’m a VW guy? Haha
Yes, that’s not the typical Westy pop-top.
The Dormobile is the best roof conversion I’ve seen.. A really good practical design.. It was used to best effect on the post 1968 Type 2 where it was set well forward, and combined with a really clever folding cooker that set up where the passenger seat is, with the chef sitting sideways in the driver’s seat.
I do like an old VW I dont want another one hell NO but I do like looking at them That single cab pickup had a twin at wheels on Windsor identical other than faded signwriting on the local one, I restored a 59 1200 beetle for a friend once in Dolphin blue looked good, yep that orange van is one of the last splits a friend has one with
all the period accessories and its travelled from England to NZ
It didn’t leak?
Love it. Someday I hope I see something that somebody did an engine swap with Kennedy Engineered Products or similar. I am thinking along the lines of Pinto Beans or the Road Cow Van. Doubt there are many still running around.
Have been a vw fan since before I bought my first new car, a 66 VW in St. Johns Nfld.
You know, I’m no longer so hip about car shows. Reason? So many of the cars – probably most of the above included – are either trailer queens or solely driven from one perfect-day car show to another. The sterile engine compartments are a dead-giveaway.
Nope, give me or show me a well cared-for (almost) daily driver and you’ll have my attention!
OR at least show me an example or two with Rolls-Royce front ends or at least a big wind-up key on the rear!
I regard most of the above examples as little more than model airplanes glued to the pylon, sitting on a shelf or desk, or under “glass” as is my metal model of a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air convertible that sits proudly on a bookshelf in my home office! The stuff of dreams.
However, I take nothing away from the owners of these cars, as I may be just like them if I had something really cool, like my avatar, back!
I’m probably just jealous…REALLY jealous!
I must be the only one, but I like the Beetles and Ghias from the early ’70s. Especially the special edition models – Sports Bug, Love Bug, Sun Bug, etc.
I really like the ’66 pictured here except the poor thing is burdened with all that stuff; racks and swamp coolers were rarely if ever seen on the Bug then, and it looks so contrived now. Nice car, though.
U.S. Ghias had the “overider” bumpers through the ’71 model year.
Thanks for the interesting write-up Tom, and I look forward to more air cooled VW and 356 features from both you and Ed. Maybe we need a “Beetles of a Lifetime” series since so many of us owned them at one time or another.
I’ve never contributed to this site but I have thought about submitting a COAL on my ’59 Beetle. My story with it is a bit unique.
I know I’d get some flak for some of the stuff I’ve done to the car and it’s still a work in progress, albeit a running one (I just got home from work in it as a matter of fact)
However, maybe I’ll give a shot……..
Submit your ’59 Beetle story – I promise not to make unkind remarks about it, even if you have a rack or swamp cooler. The first Beetle in our family was a new ’58, practically the same as a ’59.
Although I prefer a clean, original Beetle, I love them all. They taught me so about cars.
No rack or swamp cooler (although when I did have roof rack I did actually USE it) My car just sits a bit closer to the ground than it did originally……
My flat mate when I first shared a place had a nearly new Jeans Beetle with denim upholstery very 70s.I always think Beetles look best in bright primary colours,I always liked them but never bought one.Surprisingly my Uncle Larry Dad’s elder brother had 3 Beetles despite seeing the horror of World War 2 Arctic convoys and having an understandable disdain for almost anything German.I love the Roadster,what’s the rocket launcher by the drivers front wheel?
How well did those “swamp coolers” work? I find it intriguing…but I live where its probably too humid for it to be of any use.
They don’t do a bad job at all if you cannot have regular AC. If you are in a high humidity area they are worthless since the secondary job of the AC is to reduce humidity as well as cooling. Some will tell you that humidity is the primary job. In Houston and other gulf states (I suppose) about the only time you see a swamp cooler is for makeup air at a restaurant where the kitchen has a strong exhaust vent.
I have ridden in cars with these and they do nothing a modern system won’t do as well. Airflow is a negative factor if sitting still. At least in the ones I experienced less than highway speed meant not much airflow. I could imagine a dc plug and 12v motor but have never seen one. My mom had it’s swamp cooler home equivalent in her home in Kansas and it worked fine. HVAC cost money so all is relative.
That 1984 Vanagon-Westfalia could have been mine. Same color; mine was titled 1985, but with a low-production niche car, who’s counting?
Wish I still had it.
Love these cars, but as Zack indicates…these have all the tellings of being rolling show-props and display pieces. If you can’t drive ’em, you can’t live the life…in which case it’s all a lie.
Fantastic stuff. The only thing missing is this 1953 Beetle Sphere:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/05/the-beetle-sphere-an-actual-1953-vw-beetle-formed-into-a-perfect-sphere-by-ichwan-noor/
Beautiful 60 beetle.
Had an ’89 Cabriolet like the white one, mine black over black with grey interior. Given my experience trying to keep the grey cloth seats clean, I can only say that that car must have been scotch guarded by God himself.
On the weekend, in Dornbirn, I saw a yellow Thing in a low rider configuration. Don’t think such us for me, but I do really like the wheel/tyre combination on the Thing in this story.
That ’66 has the small ’67 and-later-hubcaps, which have a smaller wheel bolt pattern. Those came with the swap from swing axle to the later style IRS that didn’t have the camber changes through wheel travel. Unless his is some kind of end of the year oddball, it looks like someone has swapped pans with a later model.
I assure you, those are the standard flat hubcaps and wheels from a ’66, when the new ball-joint front end arrived, which had shorter hubs that allowed those flat hubcaps, even though they were still old-style bolt pattern.
The double jointed irs didn’t arrive until 1969 (1968 with autostick). The ’67’s had a wider rear track, but still had swing axles, as did stick shift ’68s. The smaller bolt pattern does not verify whether the car has the newer rear suspension.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1966-vw-1300-the-best-beetle-of-them-all/
WANTWANTWANT
The only thing that tickles my funny bone more than old-school Vee-Dubs is 1970s AMCs. I dig the oddball stuff.
That Thing is in amazing condition!!!
Oh boy… all excellent, but I’m waaaay into the pickup, the blue ’62, the Ghia coupe, bullet Porsches and the expedition edition ’66. The Karmann Ghia looks especially badass and damn near perfect in black with the Fuchs. Only thing I’d do differently is the early European bumpers and a slightly less gargantuan exhaust.
Was ’53 the first year for the T2 in the US? I never would have guessed Volkswagen was selling them here that early on. It’s such a shame that we didn’t get the later versions of the Transporter pickup, although I know quite a few have snuck in (think they may have been sold in Canada at one point).
…and what’s this madness about not knowing how to work a manual transmission, Tom? Your dad has owned a Porsh-uhh-f-ing-3-5-6 for the last 25 years. Regardless of how old you are now, you need to channel your inner Ferris Beuller and take a day off to get familiar with that drop dead gorgeous beauty!!
They first sold the Type 2 in 1950. The sales matched the previous year’s Beetle sales, a whopping 2. Yes, 2. The first few years were just a trickle, though a steady increase.
Great article and pictures. I’ve always been a VW fan – I came home from the hospital in a ’61 Beetle and I always thought there was something friendly about them. My favorite of this batch is the old Transporter. Last summer I came across a ’59 in a similar shade of blue but in much worse shape. I took some photos and talked to the owner. It had moss growing around the engine cover and 1977 plates. Still, though, the body was reasonably solid and he was going to restore it. I emailed him some photos and I’ll drop by their store this summer to check in on it. I also like the campers – especially the ’66. I’d love to pack one up and take my wife on a trip in one of those. The best thing about an old VW, though, is that it doesn’t matter what you do with them. You can restore them to showroom condition, you can leave them as a daily driver or you can customize them any way you want. They’re still the same car, and they make you smile.
The small bumpers are original to the 1971 Karmann-Ghia.. The big square ones arrived the year later, along with the big Type 3 tail lamps.