Ultra VW 103

Page 1

001UVW103NEW.qxd:UVW

9/2/12

11:24

Page 1

WWW.ULTRAVW.COM

ter mar.qxp:Feature

7/2/12

15:25

Page 46

1

FRI

2

SAT

3

SUN

4

MON

5

TUE

6

WED THUR

7

8

TUE

WED THUR

e Tar Bab MON

HUR

FRI

SAT

SAT SUN FRI TUE WED THUR SAT SUN MON 27 28 29 30 31 FRI TUE WED THUR 21 22 23 24 25 26 SAT SUN MON st 15 16 17 18 19 20 a big exhau 9 10 11 12 13 14 A Beetle with

FRI

bs ate Du co.uk Ultim.ultim ate-dubs. www Freddy Files

Issue -200, August 1976

n Park Sandowsworldshow.com www.volk

Aid uk2 b duba Duww. id.co. ril) - 1/Ap arch (31/M

(Belgiumn)

freddyfiles2012.skynetblogs.be

DOUBLE-SIDED PULL-OUT POSTER

WITH MONTHLY EVENT GUIDE!

PROJECT 1 IS DANBURY MOTORCARAVANS’ BRAND NEW, RACE-INSPIRED PARTY BUS!

DAMN FINE

PLANET ULTRA: CANADA: FUEL-INJECTED OLD-SCHOOL ’LOOKER USA: HOT VWs DRAG DAY OVERVIEW BELGIUM: GROUND-SCRAPING RAT BUG

SLAMMED912 NARROWED AND DROPPED CLASSIC PORSCHE 912

£3.99 CAN$11.95 US$9.25 March 2012 www.ultravw.com

PLUS: LUST FOR RUST SHOP TOUR STATUS VW BARNDOOR RESTO PT4 TURBOCHARGED TYPE 3 DRAG CAR


026UVW103.qxd:Feature

9/2/12

12:09

Page 26

PROJECT1 When your business is high-class Camper conversions, sometimes you just need a break – time to indulge yourself and try something new. That’s exactly how Project 1 came about... Words: Paul Knight Photos: Gwynn Clark

26 ultravw.com


026UVW103.qxd:Feature

13/2/12

16:09

C

Page 27

ampers, Campers, Campers... cool as they may be, if they’re your bread and butter and you deal with countless pastel-coloured variations on the theme on a daily basis, sometimes you just need to get out there and try something a little different. And that’s exactly what the highly-skilled team at Danbury MotorCaravans has done with this vehicle – an exercise in just what can be achieved with a little imagination and a touch of fun. Project 1 was assembled in 2011 as a kind of demonstrator-cum-concept vehicle for the business. The guys decided it was time to put together a more ‘hardcore’ street Bus... the kind of thing that would most certainly stand out in a crowd. Starting with a brand new Brazilian Bay window Kombi, the guys first set about sorting the bodywork. The

exterior is actually pretty much factory spec, with a couple of minor exceptions, namely the engine lid, which has had the number plate holes filled and smoothed over, the rear bumper, which was dropped and notched to fit around the custom exhaust tail pipe and a rear view camera, which was fitted just above the tailgate. Yes, it may have been brand new, but the decision was made to repaint the entire Bus to achieve a ‘better than new’ finish. The black and white hues chosen are both from the current VW range, whilst the one-off orange and black vinyl graphics were designed in-house, and certainly draw the eye to this wild ride. What followed was a good deal of colour-coding and detailing. The front radiator grille, upper grille and headlight rims were all painted white, while the handles and bumpers received a coat of gloss black. Only the

March 2012 27


056UVW103.qxd:Feature

14/2/12

10:26

Page 56

NOTCHBAD! Considering how few Notchbacks there are on the road, it’s never ceased to amaze us how many have ended up on the drag strip! The latest is Scott Oliver’s bad to the bone turbocharged terror… Words: Keith Seume Photos: Paul Knight

W

hen was the last time you saw a Volkswagen Type 3 Notchback in use? Indeed, when was the last time you saw a Notchback, period? We bet it was in the concours display at a Volkswagen show or – and this is what is so crazy – on the drag strip! For some reason – partly aerodynamics, partly just to be different – VW’s rather humble three-box family saloon has carved itself a place in recent drag race history. Back in the late 1960s and ’70s, you’d never have seen a Notchback on the track, and even in the 1980s, when the PRA and VWDRC series were really taking off on either side of

56 ultravw.com

the Atlantic, you’d rarely, if ever, see a Notchback take to the staging lanes. But all that changed in the 1990s with the arrival on the scene of cars like Ron Lummus’s ‘Bugpack Bullet’ Pro-Stocker in California, and Jolly Jim Warner’s streetdriven Notch over here. Since those days, there have been several new Notches taking to the track, the latest in the UK being Scott Oliver’s turbocharged terror shown here. Scott recalls when he first came across the car: ‘I bought it about four years ago from a nice chap near Salisbury. It was in a job-lot of vehicles advertised in the free ads for which I paid £9000. These included a 1965 RHD double-door Split-screen, three early


056UVW103.qxd:Feature

14/2/12

10:26

Page 57

March 2012 57


050UVW103.qxd:Feature

2/7/12

11:29 AM

Page 50

Words: Paul Knight Photos: Kevve.be media

BAD-ASS!

What makes a water-cooled enthusiast take time out from his usual waxed-to-the-max late-model VWs and turn his attention to a rough and ratty, air-equipped Bug? Paul Knight finds out...

50 ultravw.com


050UVW103.qxd:Feature

N

14/2/12

10:01

Page 51

ys Diëgo is a 24-year-old metalworker from Heerstert in Belgium. He is also a dedicated VW petrolhead with a past history to shame even the most dedicated water-cooled VW fanatics. When we asked him about his previous history of modified rides, he smiled and reeled off the following list; a Mk3 Golf, some Mk2s, a Passat estate, Vento, Caddy (Mk2), three Audi A4s (B5 and B8 and a B8 Avant), a Passat 3C, an Audi A8 and his current daily driver, a Mk5 Golf! With such a colourful and comprehensive

history of customised water-pumpers, the decision to ‘go air-cooled’ came as quite a shock to his friends and family. Nys told us, ‘I’m a member of VW Club Charly’s, which has both water- and aircooled divisions’. He continued, ‘The club was putting on an air-cooled only meeting so I decided it was time to build a ride of my own and something totally different to my previous vehicles’. There was one slight problem though – the event was only a month or so away! Therefore, no time was wasted, and the search began in earnest. And, believe it or

not, the perfect project was located almost right away and to really sweeten the deal, it had just been pulled from a barn less than 10 miles from his home! Nys told us, ‘It was perfect – flat paint and perfect patina up top and rock solid underneath... it just needed slamming, and lots of it!’. The car is a ’67 1300 model with its original 1300cc motor and less than 77,000km on the odometer. As you can see from the pictures, the body is completely stock and exactly as it left the factory... well, perhaps a little worse for wear, but ’factory’

March 2012 51


020UVW103.qxd:Feature

2/13/12

12:27 PM

Page 20

Words: Keith Seume Photos: www.gac-bespoke.com

ULTRA912 Cars don’t come much cleaner – or cooler – than Andy Rice’s stunning 1966 Porsche 912. It’s a classic Porsche with a hint of Resto-Cal. It’s a traffic-stopping, head-turning masterpiece

20 ultravw.com


020UVW103.qxd:Feature

14/2/12

12:19

Page 21

Y

ou can’t deny there’s something very special about an early Porsche, especially one of the pre-1974 – ‘pre-impact bumper’ – 911s or 912s. There’s a certain purity of line that was lost when they all started sprouting wider wings and spoilers. Andy Rice, who owns this beauty, has been into Volkswagens for over 20 years, having owned several Beetles and Buses. The move into the world of Porsche was ‘a natural progression’, to use his own words. He bought the car in 2001 from his friend Mark Pugh – or, more correctly, swapped a 1968 Camper for it – who had imported it from California in 2000. It came with a set of Sprint Stars fitted at the time. ‘I’ve always loved early Porsches and wanted to do a resto-cal style one,’ says Andy. He took us back over the history of the car: ‘The Porsche was originally sold in Santa Clara, California. It was Gulf Blue and had chromed 4.5J wheels fitted. Being a 1966 model, it has a three-dial dashboard and a four-speed gearbox, and is fitted with the diagonal “912” script on the engine lid. ‘When I got the car, it had been painted

red and had a black interior in vinyl. I lowered it slightly and drove it as it was for a year. It was OK, but starting to show its age, so I garaged it with a full restoration in mind.’ But as so often happens, life got in the way and the project was put on hold: ‘I got side tracked for six years after buying my first property, but when the work was done on the house I started to look for a workshop to work on the car. Luckily a friend had recently moved his plumbing business and still had the old workshop empty, so he let me use it for a year.’ Now that sounds like our kind of friend! ‘I was in that workshop every night and most weekends for 14 months until the car was ready,’ says Andy, who clearly has more than the average talent when it comes to this kind of thing. ‘I’m a professional body and paint man and I have worked in high-class body shops for 24 years, I had my own business for 10 years, restoring air-cooled VWs and in 1996 I built a 19-window 1965 Split-screen Bus for a friend that went on to win Best of Show at every event it entered – it was featured in several magazines. I now work for Jaguar Cars and I prepare new

March 2012 21


078UVW103.qxd:Feature

2/7/12

11:59 AM

Page 78

40-LOVE Believe it or not, this wild road/rally car is actually based on a Beetle chassis. James Hale checks out Gary Candy’s Bonito kit Words: James Hale Photos: Paul Knight

78 ultravw.com


078UVW103.qxd:Feature

2/13/12

4:44 PM

R

Page 79

e-bodying a VW Beetle in the 1960s often meant turning it into a Buggy and heading for the dunes. Very quickly, though, builders wanting to convert a pensionable Bug into something more stylish for road use started demanding kit cars with more finesse. One of the first kit manufacturers to see the trend was Californian-based Fiberfab, who designed a Ford GT40 sports coupé replica called the Avenger. A further refinement of the VW-based kit led to the neat FT Bonito, a well-proportioned and tasteful alternative to expensive sportscars of the day. Such was the success of the kit that production licences were granted to manufacturers in Sweden and Germany. It was in the latter – the very home of the VW

Beetle – that the kit further developed under the auspices of Fiberfab Karosserie in Stuttgart. Not to be left out, British company ACM in Poole imported, and then subsequently manufactured, the kit between 1981-83 before new owners AED developed it into the Seraph kit on a spaceframe chassis with Ford power. Fast-forward to 1999 and garage owner Gary Candy, from nearby Parkstone in Dorset, was one of the lucky few to find an original German-made car languishing in a garden. The heavily-weathered glassfibre bodyshell was sat on a ’63 Beetle but re-registered on a ‘Q’ plate when converted in ’86. The car ran a Morris Minor engine adapted to the VW gearbox, but the vendor kept that and Gary slipped in a 1600 Ford Crossflow engine instead. A further seven years of work on-and-off were required to

March 2012 79


068UVW103.qxd:Feature

13/2/12

16:46

Page 68

1

EIGHTH-MILE

PARADISE

Last year marked the 10th season of the CB Performance-sponsored HotVWs Drag Day and, as has been the tradition, two race meetings were held at Irwindale’s eighth-mile track. Stephan Szantai recalls the standout cars and race highlights from both the March and October meetings... Words & Photos: Stephan Szantai

2

3

4

5

6

7

68 ultravw.com


068UVW103.qxd:Feature

13/2/12

16:48

Page 69

8

9

10

11

12

13

B

ack in 2002, Southern California rekindled its love affair with the HotVWs Drag Day, which had disappeared from the Volkswagen scene in 1983, the year Orange County International Raceway –

distance. Californians had been competing over the accepted quarter-mile strips for decades, but Irwindale Raceway could only offer an eighth of a mile... Funnily, I had forgotten about these negative remarks until Keith Seume brought

“Local enthusiasts overwhelmingly welcomed the return of this iconic event” its home base – drew to a close. Local enthusiasts overwhelmingly welcomed the return of this iconic event. Yet, a number of drag racers and spectators voiced their discontent about an important feature of Drag Day: the track’s

14

15

16

up the subject, during last October’s event – Uncle Keith commented about the fact that 1/8th-mile ETs seemed rather foreign to him. Memory flooded back and suddenly I remembered the commotion within my small group of friends; one of them, who shall

1. Racing aside, the

9. Travion Watson on

area behind the main

his way to a strong

car show welcomes

pass in Outlaw Turbo,

what is arguably

the fastest class at the

Southern California’s

HotVWs Drag Day

largest VW swap meet

10. You’ve seen it in

2. Dove Blue must

Ultra VW before (all

surely have been one of

dressed!) This is Roger

the most popular

Crawford’s fantastic

colours for early,

Outlaw Turbo Ghia,

commercial-model

which relies on a

Type 2s! We dig the

nitrous bottle rather

slammed ‘54 Kombi

than a turbocharger

belonging to Johnny

(competitors can

Jimenez – a member of

choose to run NOS over

the well-known

a turbo, if preferred)

‘Barndoor Mafia’

11. Scott Kelley

3. Rumour has it that

entered the Super

Sal Scolaro has in

Stock class with his ’69

excess of $35,000-

Fastback, which he has

worth of accessories

raced since the ’80s.

bolted to his ‘66

This car was a Sport

sedan... And that’s not

Compact NHRA record

counting the cool

holder in 2001

vintage trailer in tow!

12. Mike Lawless has

4. Randy Carlson (of

won countless races

Oldbug.com fame)

with his tough-looking

turned up with this

’65 Ghia. With fat

sweet ’66 Bug – the

slicks, this methanol-

100,000th Bug to roll

injected 2332cc Ghia

off the Emden-based

launches real-hard!

VW assembly line!

13. Tasteful pastel

5. Type 3? 412? Nope –

colour, dechromed

this is a Brasilia!

shell, fully polished

Volkswagen produced

Porsche alloys... We dig

over a million of these

the 1980s-styling of

between 1973 and

this convertible, which

1982, yet only a

was entered in the

handful ever made

‘ladies-only’ Powder

their way to the USA

Puff category

6. Take a look at the

14. DKP member Jim

Type 2 taillights and

Kurlinski owns a couple

large-diameter wheels

of fast street Bugs,

on this turbo buggy – it

including this

was registered in the

handsome ’66 ’looker,

T2 class (8.59-9.99

which he drove to

second bracket)

victory in the T1 class

7. That’s John Meade

(8.58-sec and quicker

wrenching on his

ETs) at the first 2011

Outlaw Turbo ’62 Bug,

Drag Day meeting

which he occasionally

15. Japanese drag

drives on the street...

legend and Type 3 guru,

(Yes, this car is

Shin Mukai, raced his

licensed and insured!)

2442cc-powered ’62

His best ET over the

Notch, which delivered

quarter-mile is a mind-

an impressive 285bhp

blowing 9.45-seconds,

on engine-builder Jack

with a terminal speed

Sacchette’s dyno!

of 145mph!

16. Looking cool and

8. Karl Koppenhaver’s

powered by a potent

2276cc, turbocharged

2007cc/48IDA motor,

’68 Bug was built with

Don Metz’s ’68

help of Ron Lummus

Cabriolet (a DKP II

Racing and was

member) first appeared

awarded Runner-up in

in this guise at Bug-In

the Outlaw Turbo class

31 (way back in 1983!)

March 2012 69


006UVW103 7pg.qxp:Feature

2/13/12

10:11 AM

Page 6

Words & Photos: Stephan Szantai

TEAM WORK

Located in the Southwest corner of Canada, the city of Vancouver is home to several talented – make that very talented – VW builders. They often join forces to wrench on publicly-acclaimed project cars, such as this Granada Red ’60 sedan. Its construction also heavily involved the owners, Mike Stacey and his twin sons…

T

he process of assembling the Volkswagen of your dreams can easily turn into a nightmare, if you aren’t surrounded by skilful professionals. Sure, you can build, say, a Cal Look Bug if you live in

6

ultravw.com

Alaska; but your job will be much easier if you call Fullerton home, for instance. This community located in Orange County houses a variety of VW shops; you can thereby look over the shoulder of many talented specialists as your project car begins

to take shape. In a few minutes, one could travel from an engine builder (Roger Crawford at Heads Up for example), to a gearbox guru (how about Der Transaxle?), to a respected upholsterer (West Coast Classic comes to mind).

Still a fairly unusual choice, the Flat-4 Enkei rims simply look terrific on any high-performance VW


006UVW103.qxp:Feature

2/13/12

4:13 PM

Page 7

Right: The beige upholstery and Wolfsburg West carpet set contrast beautifully against the L650 Granada Red paint Far right: Retrosound manufactures these modern radios, inspired by vintage models and fitting 1958-67 Beetle dashboards like a glove

To the untrained eye, this might appear like just another nice interior, yet a few smart details make it quite unique...

“And let’s not forget upholstery genius Gary Economy (his blue ’67 Beetle graced our May 2007 issue!), together with Darren Krewenchuck, who certainly knows a thing or two about hot Volkswagen engines” March 2012 7


062UVW103.qxd:Feature

14/2/12

15:14

Page 62

OR

SINK

SCHWIM

Paul Bussey gets up close and personal with Mike Foster’s fabulous and freshly restored 1943 Type 166 Schwimmwagen Words & Photos: Paul Bussey

62 ultravw.com


062UVW103.qxd:Feature

14/2/12

14:44

Page 63

R

estoring a Second World War vintage VW Type 166 4x4 amphibious Schwimmwagen isn’t your typical run of the mill Volkswagen restoration project. Owner Mike Foster wasn’t in a position, or experienced enough to carry out the work himself, so this was entrusted to specialists. Even then it proved to be a time consuming undertaking, often frustrating, with irritating teething problems, but perseverance paid dividends, and was ultimately most rewarding. While the Schwimmwagen may only be a relatively small vehicle, looking through the album of photos showing the various stages of restoration, it was clear a huge amount of work was required. Military vehicle enthusiast Mike Foster was thoroughly imbued with owning and driving his Ford GPW Jeep to shows, something that he’d enjoyed doing for the past 21 years. However, when attending the 50th Anniversary D-Day celebrations at Sainte-Marie-aux-Anglaise, in Normandy, France, a convoy of military vehicles drove into the town, and amongst the vehicles Mike spotted a VW Type 166 Schwimmwagen. It was one of life’s defining moments for him; he’d never seen a Schwimmwagen before (meaning swimming car) but he fell in love with it, and knew he simply just had to own one! Developed by Porsche around the basic Kübelwagen running gear, produced by Volkswagen and Porsche, with bodies made by Ambi Budd in Berlin, Schwimmwagen were popular with both the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS during WW2, though in reality they were rarely used in the water. Upon returning home to the UK, Mike soon sold his Jeep and started to look around for a Schwimmwagen, but unbeknown to him, at the time, they weren’t that readily available! He placed wanted advertisements in several different magazines, including Classic Military Vehicle Magazine, but it would be two years before he eventually received a reply! The vendor, John Fletcher, was selling his 1943 Schwimmwagen due to ill health. It wasn’t in a roadworthy condition, but it was 30 per cent restored. The vehicle had been discovered by John in a derelict state in the back garden of a house in Holland. He then purchased it and brought it back to the UK. Mike travelled down to Surrey to take a look at the part-restored project. John Fletcher had entrusted a restorer of German vehicles to take on the project for him, who in turn had a company called Metal Magic tackle the restoration of the bodywork. Mike liked what he saw, and did a deal, whereby the remainder of the work would be completed by the restorer. Around seven months later Mike received a letter from the restorer stating that he’d never attempted the restoration of a Schwimmwagen before and didn’t feel entirely competent to proceed any further, but knew a man that could!

March 2012 63


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.