Ultra VW Issue 99

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THE ONLY VW MAGAZINE YOU’LL EVER NEED! WWW.ULTRAVW.COM

AIRCOOLED

MK3 GOLF!

S L A M Z I L DUMPED DAILY-D LA RIVE R!

PLANET ULTRA: UK: VANFEST UK: GRILL’N’CHILL USA: BIG WEDNESDAY GERMANY: RUN TO THE SUN SCANDINAVIA: SCC DRAG MEET

PLUS:

RETURN OF A

WORLD’S LOWEST PORSCHE 356! RESTORED ‘MARATHON’ BUG BOB GILMORE’S TOY ARCHIVES

CALIFORNIA LOOK LEGEND

£3.99

CAN$11.95 US$9.25 www.ultravw.com

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BUEHLER’S

YEARS OFF The February 1975 edition of HotVWs magazine has had a profound impact on the Volkswagen hobby, worldwide. This issue focused for the first time ever on the California Look and featured five examples of the style, including Marc Buehler’s red ’51 sedan. After disappearing from the scene for decades, Marc and his Split are back – and the car looks better than ever! Words & Photos: Stephan Szantai Special Thanks to Ed Craig and Marc Buehler for supplying the vintage pictures

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olkswagen enthusiasts collecting magazines consider the February 1975 issue of HotVWs as the Holy Grail, though it cannot really be considered ‘rare’ by any stretch. Focusing on the California Look, its content paved the way for the VW scene as we know it today. The cover featured the Aronson/Holmes white ’63 sunroof Bug, which went on to become one of the most famous Cal Look cars of all time. Inside the magazine, readers could discover five rides influenced by this then-new trend: the above-mentioned ragtop, Mike Lemire’s ’56 sedan, our good pal Dean Kirsten’s ’67, Roger Grago’s ’62 Ghia and Marc Buehler’s ’51 Split. Until 2009, Buehler’s whereabouts

remained a mystery, but it took a post from Dean Kirsten on a popular Internet forum (Cal-Look.com) to divulge that he was very much alive. Better yet, the news came from Marc himself: ‘I was just messing around and found this forum and what do you know… What timing! Yes, Marc Buehler is alive and well, living in Marysville, Washington… and I still own the ’51 Split!’ In an interesting twist of fate, this sudden interest from the VW world led him to revive his forlorn iconic Beetle. However, prior to digging deep into the car’s chaotic story, we need to introduce you to the great Marc Buehler! His interest for motor vehicles began with a Yamaha motorcycle, purchased during his high school years in the early ’60s. More bikes

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THE LIFE CHANGER Daniel Leech has owned more water-cooled VWs than he cares to remember, however this was his first air-cooled model, and was nothing short of a life changing experience! Words: Paul Knight Photos: Matt Woods

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Things are pretty tight under the rear, but some clever reworking of Type 3 steels means there’s no rubbing at all

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PROJECT In its first guise, this car literally tore the scene apart with its wild stance and aircooled motor. Now, with a whole new look for 2011, Matt Balls is back for more! Words & Photos: Paul Knight

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he first time we clapped eyes on this project we just knew it was going to be bonkers. Rewind to the Players show late in 2009 and the first airing of this car, albeit in an unfinished state, where it was awarded four trophies, including the Best in Show award... not bad going for an unfinished project, eh? Back then Matt Balls and the T2D team rolled the car out as a ‘work in progress’, running an air-cooled VW motor in the boot and seriously slammed, of course. There was much left to do, but the basic theme was bang on the money, and the public went nuts for it. Moving forward to 2010, the car was completed in its previous guise. You may remember it painted white and running chromed and detailed 17-inch Fuchs rims. Of course, it cleared up on the show scene and did both Matt and the T2D crew proud. So why rework what was already an award-winning vehicle? Matt Balls explained, ‘I co-owned the car with Paul, but I wanted to do something fresh with it for 2011 so I bought out Paul’s share and immediately

stripped it down for a more hardcore revamp’. We should perhaps explain that Matt is serious about slamming. He told us, ‘I’ve owned lots of makes and models of cars over the years but they all had something in common, they were slammed’. Clearly Matt knows a thing or two about stance and getting a car to sit just right and there is nothing he won’t do to achieve the desired effect. You may recall his previous work in the shape of a ratty red body-dropped Bay window panel van... yes, Matt will happily chop a car into pieces if that’s what it takes! This particular project started life as a scrapyard find. When Paul and Matt found it, the Mk3 Golf was at the bottom of a stack of cars and, obviously, had some serious wheel tuck going on! The boys loved the look, so a deal was struck and the car was dragged back to the workshop. Matt commented, ‘I really wanted to do something a bit outthere, and as I looked at the car sat next to an old Type 3 chassis, a plan began to hatch’. He continued, ‘the wheelbase was pretty close so I fired up the grinder and set about cutting the floor out of the Golf’. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Within a few hours Matt had the Golf

Other than the stinger exhaust (!), there’s little on the exterior of this car to suggest just how radical it is beneath the skin!

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TRUE BLUE From scrapper to show-stopper, this Blue Bug almost ended its days as a parts donor for other projects – that is, until Ashley Jay stepped in and worked his magic‌ Words: Keith Seume Photos: Mike Key

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ot everything is always what it seems. When Ashley and Heather Jay from Berkshire Bugs decided to go for a new project, the offer of an inexpensive 1972 Beetle seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. But closer inspection showed that it was best described as (to use Heather’s own description) ‘a scrapper’! Like so many late-model Bugs, what looked OK from afar hid multitudinous sins. Suddenly, that creased decklid and those bruised wings were of no consequence. It was what lay hidden below the pale blue bodywork that told the real tale. But what do you expect for £350 these days? The car was sidelined when a far better 1965 Beetle came along, this being restored and ultimately featured in this very magazine. Next-door neighbour, Adrian Burrows, helped with the resto of that car and, as is so often the way, he got bitten by the bug. The outcome of this was that he ended up buying the ’72, but it was Berkshire Bugs that got the job of restoring it. Sounds perfect all round to us! It’s hard to believe how bad a Bug can get. OK, the seats were shredded, and stuff like that, but you have to expect that after years of abuse. No, what never ceases to amaze us is what can be hidden. Even with the wings unbolted, things didn’t look too bad – at least it still had inner wings… But the sills had gone in a big way, with the right-hand jacking point hanging off and the left-hand quarter panel showing signs of some creative use of filler. Elsewhere things didn’t look any better, with the front bulkhead rotted out… In the end it was obvious that if the project was going to be done properly, there was no choice but to cut away everything that looked suspect. Looking at photos of the resto, that didn’t leave much! Basically, the entire front end, including both inner wings, the heater

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THE WORLD

CHAMPION Everyone has a story to tell about a Volkswagen, and every Volkswagen has a story to tell. If Mike Peckham’s Bug could talk, we’re sure it could keep you entertained for hours. You see, this isn’t the story of just any old Beetle – this is the story of a World Champion Words: Mike Peckham/Keith Seume Photos: Mike Key

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he tale begins back in 1972 – June 1st, to be precise – when George Daly from Crawley, Sussex, bought a new Volkswagen (writes Mike Peckham). Both of George’s previous cars had been Beetles, prompted by the fact that he wasn’t really interested in cars but had learned to drive in a Beetle in 1957. His first was a powder-blue 1958 bought new that year, while the second was a white 1200 bought new in 1964. It was in 1972, when he was approaching retirement, that George ordered his third and last car from Windmill Garages in Crawley. The car he chose was listed as a ‘Champion Beetle’, with a basic price of £879.00. Added to that were such things as Purchase Tax (£15.52), number plates (£5.00) and underseal (£15.00). All told, with £200 allowed against a trade in on his old Beetle, the new car cost George the princely sum of just £664.02.

The car in question was more correctly known as a ‘World Champion’ Beetle. This was one of a limited edition of 1500 cars sent to each exporting country to mark Volkswagen beating Ford’s record for the number of units produced of one model. In February 1972 the 15,007,033rd Beetle left the production line, taking with it the record previously held by Ford’s Model T. The special edition ‘World Champion’ Beetle was painted in Marathon Blue Metallic, with sports wheels and rubber bumper inserts, and came with a Gold Medallion set into a special certificate. The day George and his wife Eileen collected their new car, it poured with rain all the way home. Starting as they meant to go on, the car was leathered off in the garage and didn’t see daylight again until the sun was shining! George was not mechanical by nature, but he was a civil servant!

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It was all peace and love at the VW & Porsche Reunion, the feeling summed up perfectly by this great Bay-window

Words & Photos: Keith Seume

CINCINNATI SHOWTIME!

Ultra VW heads to the USA’s Mid-West for the annual VW & Porsche Reunion as guests of the Cincinnati Volkswagen Club

Water-pumpers rubbed shoulders with the aircooled cars and everyone had a great time – we did!

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Lovely 1965 Cabriolet was gorgeous, with metallic blue paint and that tan interior


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Hot-rod Bug was certainly worthy of a closer look – it was full of neat one-off mods

Gotta love a 23-window Samba! Cool ride was a headturner in its duo-tone paint

Slammed rides and patina finish are popular across the whole VW world!

Straight out of Hot VWs magazine in the early 1980s – the graphics on this Baja were über-cool!

Semi-customs were popular – we loved the period tuck’n’roll style to the interior of this otherwise stock Bug

Ice cream sales were strong, but we never did get to try the local speciality: pumpkin flavour!

Not just any Porsche Speedster but a genuine Carrera Speedster. Wow!

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hen a Volkswagen enthusiast from Europe plans a trip to the USA, to check out the VW scene across the Pond, almost invariably California ends up being the chosen destination. And for good reason, of course, as there is so much going on there throughout the year. We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve been asked ‘We’re planning a trip to America – when and where should we go?’ The usual answer is ‘California in June, for VW Classic, Pomona swapmeet, DKP Cruise Night, etc etc…’. And for sure you’d get good value for your money but – and it’s a pretty important ‘but’ – there’s far more to the American VW scene than just what happens on the ‘left coast’. A few years ago, we were guests of the Cincinnati Volkswagen Club, a large and very active club based around the Ohio city of the same name, and invited out to attend their annual show. We accepted the kind invitation and had a whale of a time. So when we got the call again this year, we had no hesitation in saying ‘Yes!’. Flying from Heathrow to Cincinnati, via Detroit, made a refreshing change from almost 11 hours (or more…) going non-stop to Los Angeles. The five-hour time difference made it easier to handle than the usual eight-hours, too. We got off the plane ready to go party – only to find our ‘ride’ (courtesy of Cincinnati’s Mark

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trimmed in designer Eley Kishimito ‘s‘flash’ material

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products. Note also the ‘minimalist’ seat cushions

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17-inch Fuchs replicas are one of T2D’s best selling

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Words & Photos: Paul Knight

This is probably the wildest Porsche 356 we’ve ever featured… welcome to the crazy world of Type 2 Detectives, where it seems nothing is impossible!


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STANCE POLIZEI I

f there’s one thing Paul Medhurst and the team at T2D (T3D) excel at, it must surely be aesthetics. Every car that passes through the workshop comes out with the perfect stance. And it seems there are no limits to just how far these guys will go to achieve the right look... after all, it takes quite some balls to chop up a 1950s Porsche 356 to accommodate some big rims and air-ride suspension! The car in question is a 1959 356, which belongs to Jason Maclean. Jason and Paul Medhurst have been assembling cool rides together for about 20 years, and Paul describes Jason as both a good customer and a

great friend! Paul commented, ‘We both have very similar tastes when it comes to modified cars, so I knew exactly what Jason was talking about when we first discussed building a slammed 356 daily’. Yes, that’s right, this car is due to become a regular sight on the streets of central London where we’re sure it’ll literally stop traffic dead! The car itself was sourced via renowned vintage VW and Porsche trader, Steve Walker. Paul joked, ‘It was pretty messy, but to be fair, that’s exactly how Steve had described it!’. It seems that not only did the coupé have a serious case of rot in the floors and sill sections, it had also been involved in a shunt at some point in the past,

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THE ONLY VW MAGAZINE YOU’LL EVER NEED! WWW.ULTRAVW.COM

AIRCOOLED

MK3 GOLF!

BUEHLER’S

BACK! RETURN OF A

CALIFORNIA LOOK

LEGEND

PLANET ULTRA: USA: CINCINNATI REUNION UK: VANFEST; GRILL’N’CHILL GERMANY: RUN TO THE SUN SCANDINAVIA: SCC DRAG MEET

PLUS:

SLAMBA

WORLD’S LOWEST PORSCHE 356! RESTORED ‘MARATHON’ BUG BOB GILMORE’S TOY ARCHIVES

DAILY-DRIVEN

21-WINDOW DELUXE

US$9.25 CAN$11.95 £3.99 www.ultravw.com

Issue 99


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