We all know that the faithful Beetle was VW's first vehicle, and the mainstay of the company for years. We also know that VW made stuff other than Beetles. Until such time as I have a sufficient collection of any particular type of "Other Stuff", VW's other than Beetles which your humble host deems deserving to be included in these pages will appear here...
When WW2 broke out, the VW plant in Wolfsberg began the manufacture of small military vehicles based on the VW chassis/drivetrain and aircraft engine parts amongst others. This Schwimmwagen was one of those vehicles. The Schwimmer was amphibeous, and had a propellor on the rear, which dropped down. This isn't actually a local vehicle - I took this picture at a show down in Seattle, but you've got to admit it's a neat vehicle...
The other wartime production vehicle was the Kubelwagen - the predecessor to the "Thing". Pictures of both will appear here at a later date.
What a second, what the $%#&* is a Corvair doing here??? Ohhh, hang on...that's a what? A Type III Karmann Ghia you say? Well, who would have known! Yeppir, this car is Karmann's go at a Ghia body on a Type III pan. I personally like the lines of these cars. There weren't a lot of them produced (I don't have the numbers handy, but I might find them). This speciman has been immaculately restored inside and out, and is always accompanied by a nice display. The owner is justifiably proud of this one! There is another, black one cruising the streets in my area, but no pictures of it...yet!
Ok, here it is. You can search...nay...you can scour these here pages, and you won't find another vasserboxer anywhere. Why? Because this is the Bugmeister's AIRCOOLED Place! So why is this one here? Well, for one thing, it no longer has a radiator, which makes it an HONOURARY AIRCOOLED VW.
I raced against this car a few years ago (and won...barely), when it was green. The black paint job came later, and now it's white. Big Deal, huh?
What you're looking at is, to the best of my knowledge, the fastest front-wheel drive VW in North America - 11.89 in the 1/4 mile! Gerry removed every last bit of superfluous metal work, and then some; replaced the side and rear windows with lexan and turned the interior into something that makes a Thing look like a Cadillac. Being something of a mechanical wizard, he's built one quick engine, flow testing the heads, etc etc etc...Believe it or not, he was still using it for daily transport during most of this transformation!
Although he has missed the last couple of seasons, he's got a good excuse. He has built a full tube frame/roll cage, dropped the body off the hoist (that's another story), done major work to the engine and is aiming to get back on the track in '99. He flashed the engine up for me in the back of the shop, and it sounded beautiful - once you get used to your fillings rattling at the high rpms!
There are also large quantities of these early split window buses cruising about the local roads, some dating back to the late '50s. I also know of a couple "barn door" (1954 vintage) which are awaiting restoration...
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