Feature cars
SCORCHER SAND VolksWorld is proud to bring you the story behind the most faithful replica
of the iconic Tamiya radio-controlled Baja Beetle you could possibly build Words: Cathal O’Toole. Photos: Stefan Bau
56 Feb2010
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’63 Karmann Cab
Like buses, you wait nearly 40 years to own a show- winning VW, then two come along at once...
Words: Mike Pye. Photos: Kiki de Bois
48 Jan2011
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o you dream of owning a show car? Or a magazine feature car? Or a car worthy of winning a Best of Show award at your favourite VW event? Perhaps not all of you do but, I know from the earliest Bug Jams and VW Actions I attended, these were the cars that inspired me, made me want to achieve something similar myself – not necessarily for the accolade itself, but just because I love a job well done. And it was the cars that were detailed everywhere – often in those early days including inside the brake drums – that really left me in awe. These days, there’s a whole movement away from this style of car, towards less showy, more useable cars, and I can fully understand why, but for me it will always be the full-on show cars that really get me hot, the wild creations that owe more to art than to a useable means of transport.
38-year-old Eliot Vancil, from Midlothian, Texas, is clearly someone who feels the same way. Having a father who was into VWs and an uncle who was a VW mechanic and into drag racing
meant really there was only one route for him to follow when he started driving and a ’66 Bug bought from another uncle became his first set of wheels. “That car wasn’t much to look at, but I built it and I loved it. There was no interior when I got it and the seats were milk crates that I bolted down to the ’pan!” he recalls. “The stance was awesome though, with an adjustable beam and eight-spoke EMPIs.”
Eliot even went as far as to build himself a mild 1641cc motor for that car, complete with a Holley Bugspray carb and a stinger, but then fell foul of a local body shop that offered to paint the car cheaply for him, only to then fold, taking his pride and joy with them.
“After college, I spent 10 years building up a couple of companies, which left no time for VWs, but I never stopped dreaming about them and reading every magazine I could get my hands on,” Eliot continues. In that time, like all of us who have been involved since those early years, he witnessed the scene evolving and the quality of the cars being built improving all the time. And finding himself now with some money in his pocket and a little more time to devote to his hobby, he decided to dive back in. There would be no milk crates this time and no leaky carbs, just an amalgamation of all the best ideas he had been taking in over the past decade.
Back with a vengeance “I found a ’64 Bug that I thought was fairly straight, but soon found it to be a real rust bucket after I disassembled it. I worked on it for a while, welding in new ’pans and the like, but eventually got frustrated with the effort and money I was going to have to spend on a not-so-good car, so sold it and bought a Stratos Silver ’55 three- fold ragtop that had been featured in Hot VWs magazine. It’s all been downhill from there!” he laughs. The list of cars Eliot has had since getting back into VWs in a big way reads like a VW lover’s wish list and some, such as the ’59 Split Double Cab, the original paint ’68 Squareback, the matching numbers ’55 Oval and the ’51
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With a mix of Standard original and restored Volkswagens, cool Resto Cals, hot California Look Beetles, unique customised VWs and any other style of air-cooled worth talking about, we’re really proud to say we feature the best cars not only from the UK but from all around the world. With top quality photography and design, VolksWorld sets the standard
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’64 Devon OTAL DEVOTION
Previous SSVC ‘Van of the Year’returns after major surgery to become the first to take the award twice!
Words: CathaI O’Toole Photos: Andrew Sydenham
aking on a stock restoration bears a lot of responsibility on the owner in many ways. For one, he or she is
probably going to take their pride and joy to a show and that can leave you wide open for criticism about the originality of the finished article and how accurate your 100 point restoration has been. You can usually skirt around those criticisms by restoring your VW to your taste and that can be a very handy ‘out’ when you are cornered by the stock police. The restoration of this Bus was always going to be done to bring it back to stock specification, bar the engine, so James Marshall, the owner, left himself wide open but that didn’t faze him at all, nor did the fact that he had bought a very well-known Bus and one that members of the Split Screen Van Club were waiting patiently to see again. You see, this Bus was the pride and joy of the late Gordon Patterson who was president of the SSVC. No pressure there James, eh?
Re-Restoration James had been on the hunt for a suitable project Split Camper for more than a year when he heard of this 1964 Devon Caravette for sale not far from his home. It was being offered for sale by Isabelle Patterson, Gordon’s wife. It had been off the road for about a year and looked like it could be the perfect basis for a restoration. Gordon had owned the Devon for many years, having purchased it from the previous owner who had it restored in the 1980s. As with any 1980’s restoration it was – how can I put this? – it was full of filler! Nowadays that kind of restoration would be seriously frowned upon
68 Feb2011
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ACHTUNG Karmann Cabriolet
With almost as many Porsche parts as the city of Stuttgart, Jamie Bixley’s Karmann Cabrio is pure German Look Words: Bryn Musselwhite. Photos: Dan Pullen
ou have to make sacrifices in life to get the things you want, as it’s a plain and simple fact that everything worth having comes at a price. For
any of you who’ve had to endure a winter driving an air-cooled Volkswagen, you’ll know what we mean. You probably removed the rusty old heat exchangers the previous summer thinking the replacement J-tubes would only be needed for a month or two, right? The next thing you know it’s minus something outside and you’re scraping ice off the inside of your windscreen. We prefer to look on these times as an apprenticeship. Many of us have been there and will never go back. But you know what? Your memory can play tricks on you if you’re dedicated enough, and often a smile breaks out at thoughts of these times, where non-believers might grimace. And if you can get through such experiences then maybe you’ll end up where Jamie Bixley is today. Do you really think his past has been filled with killer German Look Karmann Cabrios? Ahh, no. It has been filled with Beetles though. But with a build cost of twenty five grand, his latest ride is no first time project, and the results are those of somebody who’s been there, bought the cheap chrome and now knows the difference. The seed of this project was born way back when, though, as Jamie explains: “I’ve had some rotters over the years and I’ve had nice ones. I had an Italian Karmann Cabrio when I was 21 and I thought to myself when I’m a little bit older with a proper job I’ll do one like this that I can win a show with.”
Fast-forward roughly a decade and a half and Jamie is in the position to commit to that project he’d always promised himself. Well, sort of – here’s how he found the base for his German Looker: “I was in Austria with my friend on a beer-based trip and he asked me, what are you going to do when you get back? I said I’m going to buy a Beetle and do it up. He said ‘no you’re not’. So I went back to the lobby of the hotel, went on the internet and bought this car.”
This was in the middle of Euro 2006, and by his own admission Jamie was the best part of 15 lagers deep by now, as he adds with a laugh,
6 Dec2010
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Hard cha
’55 Oval Cal Looker
Look car, you Words: Ivan McCutche
If you want th
60 Dec2010
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