Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i VolksWorld

FROM THE TOP I’m sure I’m not the only air-cooled VW owner that dislikes the winter. The cold, wet weather, short days and grey skies are a million miles from those hazy summer weekends when I couldn’t wait to wind down the windows, don the sunglasses and set off to the next VW event. Yes, I realise some of you will be lucky enough to have pretty decent weather all year round, while others endure far colder conditions than we ever have here in the UK, but my point is that I simply don’t like to park my cars up for long periods. I have fond memories of my grandfather patiently explaining the reason why we were placing the pet tortoise into a shoe box to be stashed in the…

’57 VOLKSROD “The front suspension, as with all great Volksrods, uses an early Ford beam axle” The title of this feature refers to the fine line – in my own mind – between love and hate when it comes to certain things. In this case, it’s Herbie replicas and Volksrods. Let’s face it, there have been a ton of both created over the years but, if you’re a details person (like me), the majority aren’t worth a second look. In the case of the former, because most bear no more relation to the movie cars in terms of correct details than some stickers with the right number on. And often even those aren’t quite ‘right’. That’s just my opinion of course. Yet, despite the fact I’ve become desensitised to both,…

THE COLLECTORS - FRED JOLY There are so many cool offshoots of the VW scene that there’s enough to keep most people interested for a lifetime. Some, however, choose to explore a particular niche within the scene, and that one rabbit hole is enough to keep their interest alive for decades. For Fred Joly from France, it’s original EMPI parts, and memorabilia surrounding the early days of California Look. And boy, has he gone deep down that rabbit hole! Fred’s VW journey began, like many in France, at the Super VW Nationals in Jablines. There, in 1992, he bought his first Beetle and, five years later, purchased his first genuine EMPI part for it. The GTV steering wheel came from an old friend of VolksWorld, Kobus Cantraine in Belgium, and…

CUSTOM ’64 NOTCH After 30 years of dipping in an out of the Pacific Northwest Volkswagen scene, Mike Russell has some very cool builds under his belt, but one dream car he’d always aspired to had somehow evaded him. So, in 2019, he decided he could wait no more and sought out an early Notchback project car to turn into his ultimate build. The reason it had taken so long to get there was down to the usual frustrations of life, which seem to pull us in so many different directions, especially these days when everything just seems so much more complicated than it used to be. Between the demands of holding down a career, keeping yourself mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally healthy, having a family and nurturing all the…

HIS ’N’HERS KARMANN CABS When Simon Gough lost his convertible Bug in an accident in 1991, it wasn’t just the sorry Beetle that left him. “The feeling I had with that car never came back,” he says, sadly. “I went through another three Bugs during ’92 and ’93, but eventually they were all sold and I just moved away from the whole VW scene completely.” If you think you’re ever going to fall out of love with Volkswagens, we have news for you. It just doesn’t happen. There may be gaps in ownership, but you will never lose it. Simon’s situation is a perfect case in point. A year shy of a full three decades later, he found himself in Sheffield negotiating on another Beetle Cabriolet. “I always knew there…

Your SHOUT! The KDF Saver Dear VolksWorld, I’d like to introduce you to my ’61 KDF saver Bug, which I’d also like to exhibit at the VolksWorld Plus event in March 2024. One of the ideas in the 1930s that accompanied the introduction of the Volkswagen was the concept of purchasing one of the vehicles using a savings stamp system. Many potential VW owners followed this call to save money. However, all those who participated in the scheme to buy a KdF Wagen before and during the Second World War were left disappointed. During this time, the Volkswagen factory concentrated on vehicles for armaments and savers were left empty handed. In the 1950s, there were court cases against Volkswagen where savers tried to enforce their right to own a Beetle…

CUSTOM ’67 BUG Some people build to a rule book, while others just go with the flow. Both have their merits. Take Cal Look for example. Following a strict set of ‘rules’ produces a very particular kind of car, yet one that can still have its own vibe. In the realm of ‘custom’, however, is where madness lies (they do say it borders genius). All of us in the VW world have a habit of pigeon holing cars to help us better understand them, and perhaps the process used to build them. Yet here is Nick Avery’s dream project, steadfastly refusing to be labelled. It’s a little bit of everything rolled into one, and we love it for that. If you want to try and push it into a box,…

This month we turn the spotlight on a particularly nice tin plate Oval Window VW toy produced in Japan. Over the years, we have seen the popularity (and attendant rising prices) of Japanese tin cars produced in the 1950s and ’60s, and this tin VW is therefore not only desirable to VW model and toy collectors, but also to collectors of Japanese tin toys in general. This Oval Window VW toy was manufactured by ALPS Shoji Ltd., based in Tokyo, and the company’s appropriate trademark insignia was a mountain. The logo looks more like a mountain you’d find in the Swiss Alps than that of the local Mount Fuji, but maybe there’s more to the story behind the name than we are aware. Anyway, the ALPS VW is about 200mm…