Earlier this month, Poindexter posted his reminiscences of riding around his hometown on a bike, taking pictures of old cars. I had done a bit of that, and his post reminded me that I still had a photo of a VW Beetle wagon, taken when I was a kid on a bike with a camera (1971 or so). I was confident that this was a coachbuilt vehicle, not a homemade one-off, but it bore no nameplates and even decades later, with the benefit of Internet search, I had never been able to identify the maker. By the way, that’s my bike in the background, with the camera case balanced on the rack.
In fact, I had planned to post the picture and see if the CC crowd could identify the coachbuilder for me … but Mr. Editor Paul found my draft confusing, and as a result of an email exchange between Paul and me, and associated Googling, we found conclusive evidence that it was a product of the Swiss coachbuilder Beutler.
In this image, the wagon is shown above, and a delivery van with roll-up side doors is shown below.
Here’s a photo I found on the Internet, of a Beutler pickup conversion. And, in the course of my research, I learned that Beutler was the coachbuilder for the prototype of the Bristol 406. Mystery solved, I got distracted by a family visit, and then the holiday. But when I saw Roger Carr’s post about the Bristol 406 here, I figured I should share my 47 year old Curbside Outtake, just to complete the CC loop.
Wow, very interesting. You can see how that business model didn’t work out, it’s a pile of work for not that much increase on interior volume.
Well, it did for a number of years, albeit on a fairly small scale. They filled a niche. The interior volume increase may not have been huge, but the whole point was to be able to carry longer items and have a rear door. These would have been used by tradesmen and for delivery services.
The VW platform was so popular and reliable that for some, this was apparently a viable alternative to a VW transporter. I have to assume it was cheaper than one.
It doesn’t make much sense if they used the bug engine with the vertical fan shroud. I wonder if they used the Type 3 pancake engine.
These Beetle pickups predate the Type 3 – they still have semaphores instead of turn signals.
A few other sources I found commented that lack of cargo area was a drawback, so I suspect they used an unmodified Type 1 fan. Note also that the tail lights are standard early Beetle lights, turned sideways.
A rather remarkable find in the US. It must have caught someone’s eye while they were in Europe. It must have turned a few eyes in CA. I could see this as being a very in surfer wagon.
There was an ugly fiberglass version of this in Mexico in the last twenty years or so.
Very nice! Here are some other odd ones: https://youtu.be/zYXQRG5iT4M
Here’s one.
Wizard.
Wizard Roadsters was a British company which made fibreglass conversion kits which were a cross between a Hebmuller and a 1980s Camaro. The van conversions were very rare.
Here’s an interesting custom that must have been a lot of work.
I’m still getting “posting too fast” comments!
Never saw this before. Great find. Wish I owned it. The ragtop sunroof is a bonus.
Super rare find. I know Beutler had done an enlarged Porsche 356, but had never heard of their beetles before.
And speaking of Bristol, they created my favourite body for that marque.
Beutler also rebodied some VW Beetles in the late ’50s – sure doesn’t look like a Volkswagen.
Cheers. Not quite KG beauty, but the house style is apparent. This Simca also bears similarities.
Yes, it is a beautiful design, like the Karmen Ghia, also a beautiful design. And while it doesn’t look like a VW, the drive train is still…a VW!
Not sure. I found an article that suggests this was actually Porsche-engined on a Beetle platform. As with the first image I posted, these were both attempts to create a four seater Porsche. But according to this piece at Hemmings, Beutler placed a blueprinted VW motor in these specific bodies, with owners opting to replace this with a 356 engine.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2010/12/12/sia-flashback-beetles-beautiful-and-bizarre/
I also found this Beutler Beetle cabriolet, and there’s a coupe version of it online as well.
From what I can tell, the yellow body has ‘Porsche’ script along the hood. Nevertheless…
Don, the mix and match ability of early VW and Porsche parts made it very common to offer Porsche engines and brakes in many of these specials, as well as just on regular Beetles. And the Porsche nameplate not uncommonly came along.
The key differentiator is the VW’s longer wheelbase. Also, the VW’s platform was of course highly amenable to accepting all sorts of custom bodies; the Porsche’s more complex built-up structure not so. Hence the VW was the most common basis for these all.
Absolutely.
I just read a piece which explains the direct link between Beutler and Porsche.This came about through two Swiss individuals named von Senger (who bought the first Porsche mid-engined prototype) and Bernhard Blank, a Zurich car dealer.
They were able to supply the VW engines, gearboxes and suspensions Porsche couldn’t get access to in Austria – which quite literally was the lifeline needed to sustain the business.
Senger and Blank received the first Gmund coupe and six bare chassis in late 1948, and in turn commissioned Beutler to build some convertibles allowing Gmund to focus on building coupe bodies.
Porsche’s international exhibition debut was the March 1949 Geneva Show, a yellow Gmund coupe and a Beutler convertible. This original arrangement lasted only to August that year.
Beutler’s entree into four-seater Porsches followed the factory’s own Type 530 attempt in 1951
Geneva 1949
What really allowed Porsche and KG to thrive was that they had official access to VW components. Critical, as it made them more cost effective than the coach builders who had to buy a Beetle at retail and then tear off the body.