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WAGENSVILLE NEWS
THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE VOLKSWAGEN CLUB OF VICTORIA | JULY 2017
AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST AND LARGEST VW CLUB
2018 VW Arteon Australian details confirmed
New Members Introducing Jacob Walter
The Bug Movie Movie review by Jeff Ooi
Winter Volks at Woodend
NOTIFICATION FOR THE AGM ON 21 SEPTEMBER, 2017
VWCV COMMITTEE 2017n President Andrew Ermel [email protected]
n Vice President Michael Cronin [email protected]
n Associate Editor Mandy Turner [email protected]
n Secretary Chris Scane [email protected]
n Treasurer Matt Reynolds [email protected]
n Web Master Julian Langlet [email protected]
n Club Historian Chris Scane [email protected]
n Technical Officer John Goodison [email protected]
n Membership Secretary Charmain Green [email protected]
n Club Plate Scheme Officer Andrew Ermel [email protected]
n Cruise and Events Co-ordinator Chris Jeffes [email protected]
n Constitution & Association matters John Stevens [email protected]
n Day of the Volkswagen Lloyd Davies [email protected]
n Editor Andy Ryan® [email protected]
Disclaimer: All material in this newsletter represents the opinions of the author(s) and does not carry any endorsement by the Editor and Editor Assistant or Committee unless otherwise stated. Any material advertised for sale does not carry any endorsement by the Club and the onus is on the purchaser to ensure the purchased goods meet their require-ments. Each VWCV Member is a volunteer carrying out club duties in their own leisure time. The Club has no paid officials, only enthusiasts dedicated in furthering the interests of the Club and its members. Therefore, please bear this in mind when contacting Club Committee Members.
Wagensville is the monthly newsletter of the Volkswagen Club of Victoria Inc. Correspondence, articles and items of news or items for sale are invited and should be sent to: VWCV Editor: GPO Box 1215 Melbourne, Vic 3001 or [email protected]
VWCV MEMBERSHIP FEESSingle Annual Full membership $60Single 3 year Full Membership $155Family Membership additional $20 per mem/per yearMembership Joining Fee $10 first year only
WINTER VOLKS AT WOODENDOur club enjoyed the second annual Winter Volks at Woodend on Sunday, June 18th with Ballarat and Bendigo clubs.
THE BALLARAT CLUB, AGAIN THROUGH PETER AND MARGARET BRUTY AND ALSO ANDREA GREEN (BALLARAT VW CLUB – PRESIDENT), HOSTED AND RAN A GREAT EVENT FOR ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF THE THREE CLUBS.
The day started for us at the BP Service Centre near Calder Raceway at 10 am with a good gathering of VWCV cars to travel in small convoy to the Woodend Community Centre. It was a cold start, but the weather was reasonably mild with some sunshine in the late morning/early afternoon. However two days later it was minus 3 degrees in Woodend overnight! When we got there, we were greeted by the other two clubs, and we all had a good yak outside before a morning coffee/tea with homemade cakes.
Lunch was enjoyed with homemade soups and roast potatoes with lots of everything. Peter (pictured) is now officially the VW Milkshake Wizard with his wonderful five station milk shake refreshment centre which kept us well hydrated before, during and after a great meal. =
With the eating over it was on with the race rocker cover racing ably set up and prepared by our Track Maestro Bernd Wachs. The excitement level grew, and racing was on under the watchful eyes of Alan Stork and Stuart Ermel. VWCV came home with the biscuits via Andrew Ermel, but there were lots of fantastic trophies handed out that were very impressive indeed. The ‘kids’ were having a great time (as well as the smaller people) and overall it was a very enjoyable day.
Chris Scane
EVENTS
T H E VO L K S WAG E N S TAT E
WAGENSVILLE NEWS AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST AND LARGEST VW CLUB
NOTIFICATION FOR THE AGM ON 21 SEPTEMBER, 2017The 2017 VWCV Annual General Meeting will be held on September 21, 2017 – 8pm at the Austrian Club, 76-90 Sheehan Road, Heidelberg West VIC 3081, Australia. Nomination forms for all positions on the committee will available on the club web page, from the VWCV Secretary and the next club maga-zine. Please direct all inquires about the AGM to the VWCV Secretary.
Chris Scane, VWCV Secretary
Recent
PRESIDENT REPORTANDREW ERMEL
JULY 2017Wagensville News 54
Keep those old Volkswagens on the road and keep those club permits coming in too!
VW NATIONALSWe have only just returned from the VW Nationals at Sydney last month where we had a great time as we always do. Lots of very nice cars and lots of nice VW things to buy and look at.
The highlight of my trip was travelling to Sydney in John Goodison’s 78 Kombi Microbus with great company: John Stevens, Shea and Aaron Goodison. We had fun on the trip, and our stay at Rydges Parramatta was awesome. The VW that most impressed me at the Nationals was the 1950 split Beetle of Boris Orazem’s from Vintage Vee Dub Supplies. This is a rebuild that you must see and the detail of work especially the body work is done on the car so far is absolutely superb.
GENERAL MEETINGOur last general meeting was held at the Tivoli German Club in Windsor just this past week. It’s been a long time since we’ve been there and the place is still pretty much as good as it’s always been. Much thanks to Chris Scane the Secretary for organising the change of venue and we hope that we can return there again soon for some more club general meetings.
Next month’s General Meeting will return to the Austrian Club in Heidelberg, and we plan to have a bring and brag night where you can bring any item of your interest (preferably a VW related item), and talk to the members for a few minutes about it.
WINTER VOLKSFINALLY, THE LAST EVENT WE HAD WAS THE WINTER VOLKS AT WOODEND.
Thanks to all the club members who turned up and participated in the fun.
Special thanks to the crew from Ballarat club who did a magnificent job of catering and setting up on the day, especially Peter Gerard Bruty and Margret Bruty.
Thanks to Andrea Green the president of VW Club Ballarat for doing the officiating and welcoming all the members of the three clubs.
The food prepared by the Ballarat crew was delicious we had a morning tea consisting of coffee tea and homemade cakes.
For lunch, we had homemade soups, and I enjoyed the mulligatawny soup made by Barb Smart as it reminded me of my Aunties soup that we had as kids.
We also had roast potatoes with all the trimmings and Peter made milkshakes on his wiz-bang newly restored five station milk shaker maker!
The team of Ballarat members did a super job of feeding us. It was great to see all the crew from Bendigo club there too with lots of cars and lots of chat going on in the car park.
ROCKER COVER RACINGThanks to Bernd Wachs for bringing along the race rocker cover track and setting up for the rocker cover racing.
It’s a big job, and Bernd does this without any fuss and packs it all up in his van for the next time. Alan Stork and Stuart Ermel who did the
scrutineers jobs for racing did a great job and ran the racing on the day. I’m pleased that my old faithful 40hp rocker cover made the finals and did the Melbourne VW club proudly.
GARY 2 KNOCKED OUTThanks to Kellie Handicott for racing the past champion Rocker cover "Gary 2". Unfortunately “Gary 2” got knocked out in the final. I will be retiring the older crusty rocker cover now and will work on building some new rocker covers for the kids to race next year.
The kids had a ball today, and it was wonderful watching them race and enjoy the day as much as they did.
I will start building my own house in three months’ time so I might not be at as many VW events as I would like to in the next year. Until the next meeting or magazine or next time I see you, cheers and happy VW motoring!
I’m writing this report having just wound up after a big month of VW events; I’ve got to say it’s been a very busy month doing VW stuff!
ANDREW ERMELVWCV PRESIDENT
There are many positions that will need good people to help with.
So if you think that you would like to help out with organising club activities, then this is your opportunity to be on the VW Club Committee and give things a try.
COMMITTEE PARTICIPATIONThe Annual General Meeting is coming up in September, and we are calling for some new blood on the committee.
It’s important that we have new people interested in the running of the club and bringing new and exciting changes to the VW club in the upcoming years. The club in now the healthiest it’s ever been in regards to its memberships and financial position.
VWCV COFFEE RUNOn Saturday 17 June we had our monthly coffee run to Rocco’s in Port Melbourne.
We had about 20 members turn up during the morning, and they enjoyed a bit of light breakfast and coffee and looked at a few new and interesting cars.
The coffee meets have been well attended this year, and we may consider changing the meets to different locations each month
as we have done with the general meetings this year to help spice up the attendance at the events.
This we hope will keep the interest in our coffee meets and attract some more of the new members along to meet and socialise beyond the normal general meetings.
We also do the club permit inspections at the coffee meets and this has been very successful in getting the new VW club members along to meet the regular participants.
HAPPY VOLKSWAGEN MOTORING!
Wagons and Wolfsburgs return to local line-up
Pricing and specifications for the wider 2017 Volkswagen Golf ‘7.5’ R range have been revealed ahead of its August arrival, marking the return of the limited-edition Wolfsburg models, while the more prac-tical wagon version is back as a permanent member of the family from January 2018.
As revealed in May, the Golf R hatch will start from $52,990 with the standard six-speed manual transmission and $55,490 with the seven-speed DSG. The Golf R hatchback sees no price changes with the ‘Mk 7.5‘ update, but adds extra equipment over the vehicle it replaces.
Headlining features include a more powerful 213kW/380Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cyl-inder petrol engine (up 7kW), the new 9.2-inch Discover Pro navigation system with gesture control, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 12.3-inch Ac-tive Info digital driver’s cluster, vienna leather seat upholstery with heated front pews, elec-trically-adjustable driver’s seat with memory function and power lumbar adjustment, power folding door mirrors with memory, privacy glass, 19-inch ‘Spielberg’ alloy wheels, premi-um LED tail-lights with dynamic indicators, along with automat-ic LED headlights with dynamic cornering lights.
From January, the Golf R wagon will return as a permanent offer-ing, priced from $57,490 fitted as standard with the seven-speed DSG transmission. Extra fea-tures for the wagon are limited to chrome roof rails.
Also available from launch will be the Golf R Wolfsburg Edition, available in hatchback ($57,990) or wagon ($59,990) forms, both equipped as standard with the seven-speed DSG shifter.
Limited to 300 examples in each body style, the Golf R Wolfsburg Edition adds nu-merous extras like 19-inch Pretoria alloy wheels in Grey Metallic, real carbon-fibre exterior mirror caps, ‘Carbon’ nappa leather seat upholstery, a 400W Dynaudio premium sound system, and the Driver Assistance Package.
CAR REVIEWS
2017 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R PRICING AND SPECS
Volkswagen’s Golf R hatch and Golf R Wolfsburg models will land in Australian showrooms in August. The ‘regular’ Golf R wagon will arrive next January.
2018 VW Arteon Australian details confirmed
Australian specifications for the upcoming 2018 Volkswagen Arteon have been announced ahead of its launch in October.
Replacing the ageing Volkswa-gen CC, the Arteon is essentially, like its predecessor, a four-door coupe version of the Passat. Despite this, the Arteon will in-troduce an array of technology not currently seen in the Passat range, or Volkswagen’s current local line-up for that matter.
Only one trim level will be offered, the 206TSI R-Line, likely positioning the Arteon in the $60,000+ bracket – though pricing is still to be confirmed at this stage.
Headlining equipment appoint-ments include a brand-first head-up display (HUD), an ‘Area View’ surround camera system, dynamic light assist, dynamic indicators, ambient interior lighting with three colour choic-es, frameless side windows, heated rear seats (outward), and 19-inch ‘Montevideo’ alloy wheels.
On the safety front, the Volk-swagen Arteon will debut the company’s proactive occupant protection system, which uses the blind spot monitoring sen-sors to detect imminent risks from behind the vehicle (when moving or stationary), and if so turns on the hazard warning lights and closes all window and sunroof openings. The seatbelt tensioners also pull the belts taut.
Volkswagen’s flagship fastback will also be the first model offered with Emergency Assist 2, which acts in conjunction with adaptive cruise control and lane assist functions if the driver takes their hands off the wheel for too long – particularly when suffering a sudden med-ical condition like a seizure or stroke.
If the driver doesn’t respond to the various gongs and brake jolts following the hands-off warning, the vehicle will acti-vate the hazard warning lights and slowly move over to the emergency lane to bring the vehicle safely to a stop.
Under the bonnet is the same 206kW/350Nm 2.0-litre turbo-charged four-cylinder petrol engine seen in the related Passat and Skoda Superb – with peak torque arriving between 1700 and 5600rpm.
Drive is sent to all four wheels via the company’s front-biased 4Motion all-wheel drive sys-tem via a new seven-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission (DQ381). Volkswagen claims the Arteon 206TSI can sprint from 0-100km/h in just 5.6 seconds.
Additionally, the Arteon will be available with one solid exterior paint (Pure White), five cost-op-tion metallic colours (Pyrit Sil-ver, Manganese Grey, Turmeric Yellow, Chilli Red (pictured) and Atlantic Blue, along with an optional pearl hue (Deep Black).
Pricing is yet to be confirmed, as previously mentioned, though with the Passat 206TSI R-Line starting at $57,990 before on-road costs for the sedan, expect the Arteon to carry a $5000-$10,000 premium.
Stay tuned to CarAdvice for final pricing and specification information closer to the Arteon’s October launch.
WAGENSVILLE NEWS JULY– 20176 7
T H E VO L K S WAG E N S TAT E
WAGENSVILLE
MANDY TURNER
Review MEMBERS WHO RECENTLY READ MY ARTICLE OF MY ANTARCTICA WHITE ‘71 S LAST NOVEMBER WILL REMEMBER MY BEETLE-CRAZY COUSIN. WELL, TRUE TO FORM, JUST OVER A YEAR AGO, HE FACE-BOOKED ME PHOTOS OF LEGO RELEASING A FAITHFUL RECREATION OF THE VOLK-SWAGEN BEETLE TYPE 1 IN ITS ‘CREATOR’ LINE. Made up of 1167 pieces, in Azure Blue, the Lego model is 29cm long, 12cm wide and 15cm long; very close to 1:35 scale.
I had dropped some quite unsubtle hints to my Mum, Dad and wife last year for my upcoming birthday, but no one “got it” till I sent them all a TXT titled: “No Socks! Please get me Lego 10252: Creator VW Beetle!”. I had conditions slapped on it though. No-one knew where to get it, so I had to bid for it on eBay, meet the seller, pay him and wrap it myself.
Then on my birthday, I feigned surprise with a little squeal as I tore through that very familiar wrapping paper and pressed my hands to my face as good as any Moonlight cast member at the Academy Awards and thanked everyone profusely.
I waited until nightfall when my kids had gone to bed before I began the build.
The kit overall is like a “Lego Friends” set … only err … bigger! The box is huge and the instruction manu-al almost too big to fit in my hands. I now know how my eight-year-old Juliana feels when she gets stuck into her Beauty and the Beast set.
I ALSO FOUND THAT LEGO HAD BAGGED THE LEGO IN THE NEW STANDARD NUM-BERED TRANSPARENT BAGS SO TO SPLIT
T H E VO L K S WAG E N S TAT E
LEGOJeff Ooi's
BEETLE
ASSEMBLY IN LOGICAL CHUNKS SO YOU COULD FIT IN BODILY FUNCTIONS SUCH AS SLEEPING, EATING AND SHOWERING.On the first night, I started at 8 pm and opened the massive bag of Lego marked with a number “1”. I quickly got frustrated when I found some pieces missing, sure enough, 10 minutes, after later pulling my hair out, I found another bag marked “1”. In fact, there were three bags marked with that very number.
Tipping the rest of the contents out, there were actually three lots of each number. I found that quite ridiculous and just pulled them all apart to save time. Before l knew
it, it was 1 am, and I’d only just finished the seats and front headlights. It was not until after another night’s building (up to 11 pm) until I finished it, a good 7 hours in all.
Depending on whether you’re a diehard old school Lego fan though, there are some minor annoyances. If you’ve seen Lego recently, you may have noticed that the number of customised parts is rapidly on the rise. In at least every set being released these days, there are specific (sometimes unique) parts made depending on the theme.
THE LEGO CREATOR RANGE WAS MEANT TO COUNTER THIS AND HARK BACK TO OLD TIMES WHEN MODELS WERE JUST MADE OUT OF STANDARD PARTS. Just this once, I would’ve preferred for Lego to have made a custom bonnet for this set. Frankly, it looks like it’s been involved in a crash with the gentle curved “nose” replaced by a flat-almost rear-ended
front piece. A rubber rod that is meant to be the chrome bonnet strip actually accentuates this almost 45 degree crack in the curvature.
The other slight peeve I had with the set were the car doors. For some inexplicable reason, they were made out of a mish mash of different sized bricks making the square door look very uneven and, well...un-door-like!
Overall though, it’s a great, fun car for the price of AUD $140. The Beetle is a very 60s Azure blue with a giant Malibu surfboard, yellow towel and an esky
containing wine glasses, soft drink, and even ice. The number plates are custom and range from California to British to Queensland.
Sharp-eyed Beetle fans will notice the painstaking attention to detail like the bell-shaped engine lid, 40-litre fuel tank with VW-badged fuel cap, curved twin tooth, front and rear bumpers, over wheel-arch indicators and the amazing engine.
The only thing not letting me give it a score of 10 would be the crashed in bonnet, the mudbrick door look and a very shrunken-looking spare wheel.
I think Juliana put the final appropriate touches on this beauty with a couple of 1960s Fisher Price people taking her out for a spin with the top off. Very satisfying.
9/10 GREAT! HHHHHHHHH
JULY 2017 9
Wagensville News10
JODI’S STORY STARTED WHEN SHE BOUGHT THE CAR FROM A MAN IN CALOUNDRA, QLD ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO.
She saw the car advertised online and drove for an hour after work that day to have a look...and with no real intelligent analysis, she bought the car even though it had no brakes, seats were ripped, and the windows didn't wind down. The Beetle was imme-diately taken to an elite Porsche mechanic nearby, and they helped fit new shocks and brakes to bring it back to safe standards. It took her two days to clean the car: the interior was covered in dirt. She then also bought a new generator. Jodi knows of another owner who had the car for 20 odd years. He told her that he had installed red seats and panels and did the re-spray.The car is a 12v conversion, and it has a 1600 motor that goes well. Six months ago the entire fuel system was clogged with fuel tank liner that had disinte-grated from the new fuels sold now. So the tank, fuel pump, lines, and carburettor was flushed and cleaned: a job that set her back about three months.
From Jodi’s understanding, the car was built late 1962 and was most likely assembled in Germany because it has an unusual ignition barrel placed un-der the steering column instead of in the dash. The colour is Beryl Green L478, and so the car's name is Beryl, and she thinks this colour was introduced in the years 1961-1963. The door panels were installed with ivory and basalt green colour made from West Coast Classic Restoration in California. The seat covers are ivory from TMI Products, and the head-
Jodi BurleyT H E VO L K S WAG E N S TAT E
newMEMBER
liner is traditional beige cotton cloth, from the USA. The wheels are replica Porsche plated chrome with original VW hubcaps.
Jodi relocated to Melbourne a few months ago and trucked down the VW Beetle, with no dramas. Three years ownership has passed quickly, so in that time the newly installed seat covers, headliner, door panels and flooring have given the car a huge lift. It looks like Jodi has done a great job of finishing all the work and installing the door panels and flooring herself.
Since owning the car, Jodi has made many friends in Brisbane and Gold Coast area with the VW clubs, and she has gone on many trips together such as Valla Spectacular 2016, German Show in Brisbane 2016, and many other interstate VW shows.
Most recently the car has been to a few shows in Melbourne and has ended up in the latest Just Cars Magazine feature for the Susie Harris Memorial Car show which raises money for medical research.
Jodi hopes to make new friends in Melbourne in the car club scene and go on many day trips around this beautiful Victorian countryside. She loves the chrome and green colour of the Beetle, and it is a much-loved car and people seem to have a smile when they see it. It's a joy to own, and Jodi feels she has done the best for the car in bringing it back to life for herself and others to enjoy.
Member profile
This piece from Jodi Burley tells how she obtained the car and got it to its now impressive
status. So if you have an email in your inbox from the Secretary, bounce it back to us, and we will do our best to present your story in the maga-zine, for everyone to enjoy! We have seen some great stories so far, so don’t just leave it to later, get it going now. It will give you a great feeling when you hit the send button! – Thanks, CS
VW eyeing hot R-badged SUVs
The boss of Volkswagen is said to have confirmed the company is working on high-performance ‘R’ versions of its SUV models, according to a new report out of the UK.
Speaking with Auto Express, Volkswagen chief Herbert Diess said the company is right now developing several SUV R mod-els to expand its performance line-up.
“We have a second sub brand which is R. With R we are con-sidering. GTI has something to do with the hatch and this size of car – we shouldn’t expand this brand,” he said.
“For high-performance SUVs there is definitely customer demand. There are some premium cars there already that are quite successful. I agree that it is a good fit for the brand.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Volkswagen has offered an R-branded SUV, of course.
The first-generation Touareg was offered in V10 turbo-diesel R50 guise between 2007 and
2010, developing 257kW of power and 850Nm of torque.
The company also offers ‘R-Line’ versions of its current Tiguan and Touareg, and, in Australia the sporty variants are paired with the most powerful engines in their respective ranges – such as the Golf GTI-powered 162kW/350Nm Tiguan 162TSI R-Line and the 250kW/800Nm Touareg V8 TDI R-Line.
CAR REVIEWS
2017 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R PRICING AND SPECS
The upcoming T-Roc small SUV could be a candidate, spawning a hi-po T-Roc R and likely using a version of the Volkswagen Group’s 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, which comes in various states of tune.
The 206kW+ version seen in the Golf R would suit the R moniker, though a crossover so small and Polo-based could see a slightly detuned version to leave room for a more powerful Tiguan R.
A clue could lie in the upcom-ing 2.0 TFSI quattro version of the related Audi Q2, which develops 140kW of power and 320Nm of torque – close to the 1.8-litre Polo GTI’s 141kW/320Nm (250Nm DSG) outputs.
The standard version of the T-Roc has been spied numer-ous times – more recently with just about no disguise – and was also teased in a video earlier this month.
However, Australians won’t be able to get their hands on the German company’s smallest crossover until at least 2019 due to high global demand.
For now, we’ll have to bank on an R version of the current Tiguan to arrive before then – a prototype believed to be the Tiguan R was spied last October near the Nurburgring race track, given away by the special tailpipe trims.
WAGENSVILLE NEWS JULY– 201712 13
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WAGENSVILLE
JULY 2017 13
VW 1975L 1600
SUPER BEETLERESTORE PROJECTHas strut with rack and pinion steering, 2" longer than standard, high back and front seats. This 75 Super Bug is considered very collectable being the only one ever produced with strut and rack and pinion. Car is in original restorable condition, mechanically drives well but could do with a tune.
No smoke, starts first go and gearbox, shift, clutch and brakes all very good. Car has some rust in floor (see pics) but can be removed and new floor bolted in, also has some rust at rear side panels where vents allowed water in... but good points are no rust in the sills, strut towers or engine compartment.Interior is complete but requires restoration.
Located in Hoppers Crossing and inspections are welcome.
$5,000 CONTACT KAREN 0412 797 594
For Sale
Optional spider webs not included.
VWCV CALENDAR Please don’t forget your Membership Card!
VW SWAP MEETSEAWORKS, WILLIAMSTOWNSUNDAY 30 JULY It's on again, Australia’s biggest VW only swap meet. Entry from 9am for buyers & sellers, no exceptions.
Swap sites $25, buyers $5.
Get down to find that elusive part or sell all the stuff you don't want or need so you can finish your resto. Coffee & food available. Entry via Ann St.
VWCV TECH DAY SAT 5 AUGUST 9AM – 1PMVOLKSHOME, 10-12 Commercial Drive, Thomastown
Preventative Maintenance, Scheduled Servicing and what Fuel Types for your VW.
This Tech Day will be covering Preventative Maintenance, Scheduled Servicing and what fuel you should use in your car.
We hope to put a Beetle on the hoist, change its oil and do a safety inspection so you know what to look for. This is a great tech day for anyone from a new owner of a Volkswagen to an experienced enthusiast. Hope to see you there!
Pie Day and refreshments will be supplied to club members – make sure you bring your membership card/tag.
SUN 27 AUGUST 9AM – 2PMDeaf Children Australia, 597 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne
COFFEE RUN & TECH DAYBACK TO BASICS SAT 15 JULY 10AM – 1PM
VOLKSHOME AUTOMOTIVE 10-12 Commercial Dr, Thomastown
BACK TO BASIS CAR SERVICE Coffee and food provided.
VWCV GENERAL MEETINGTHUR 20 JULY 6PM – 10PMTHE AUSTRIAN CLUB76-90 Sheehan Road, Heidelberg WestGeneral meeting time again folks.
Back to the ever popular Austrian Club in Heidelberg. Meeting starts at 8pm but come earlier for a fantastic meal and a drink.BRING YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD IF YOU WANT TO ENTER THE RAFFLE
CHRISTMAS IN JULY
FERGUSSON WINERY 82 Wills Road Yarra Glen
SUNDAY 23 JULY 1PMLimited to 40 membersAdults $30 and Children $10. Please purchase from Michael Cronin or Andrew Ermel.
Starting position of run: Leaving from Repco/Supercheap carpark at Lilydale 12pm sharp..
Special charter flights available from North Footscray.
A BRIEF BACKGROUND ON THE VOLKSWAGEN SPLIT-SCREEN KOMBITHE TERM “SPLIT-SCREEN” OR “SPLITTY” IS THE POPULAR NAME GIVEN TO THE VW TRANSPORTERS PRODUCED FROM 1950 THROUGH TO 1967 AND REFERS TO THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE TWO-PIECE “SPLIT” FRONT WINDSCREEN THAT IS ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNISABLE FEATURES OF THESE VEHICLES.
The first VW Transporters, introduced in 1950, were designated by the factory as the “Type 2”, with VW’s original Beetle passenger car being the “Type 1”.
THE TYPE 2It was designed to fill the post-war need for a cheap, practical, reliable vehicle that could be used for transporting goods; the well-proven VW Beetle drive train, large box-shaped body, double loading doors, and a payload capacity of up to 750kg of the new VW Type 2 “delivered” these requirements very well.
The Kombi van version of the Transporter provided great flexibility in its usage. Its easily removable rear and middle seats were clamped to the floor using large wing nuts meaning it could be switched from carrying up to nine passengers, with some useful boot space remaining above the engine bay, to a box van with a very useful payload volume of 4.6 cubic metres in a matter of minutes.
A MICROBUS VERSION OF THE TRANS-PORTER WAS AIMED AT THE PASSENGER CARRYING MARKET, FEATURING HIGHER LEVELS OF INTERIOR TRIM.
There was also a dedicated delivery van that came without side windows or other creature
comforts (commonly typically referred to as a panel van) designed purely for commercial use. In fact, the very first Transporters to roll of the production line in 1950 were panel vans, and these were quickly adopted by a large number of German businesses. Further additions to the Transporter line-up, including single cab and dual cab pick-ups, and a wide variety of other purpose-built body configurations, and fit-outs such as ambulances and fire-fighting vehicles, were progressively introduced into the Trans-porter model range.
BARN DOORTransporters built from 1950 to 1954 are often referred to as “barn door” models, as they featured a very large or “barn-door” sized rear tailgate arrangement that provided access to the engine bay, fuel tank and spare wheel. The first major update to the original Transporter came in March 1955. The large single “barn-door” was replaced with a separate engine lid giving access to the engine bay. The engine bay was now made shallower with the fuel tank being relocated be-hind the engine (above the gearbox) and the spare wheel was moved to a recess behind the front seat. A separate tailgate that hinged just under the rear roofline, now gave convenient access to the rear load space from outside of the vehicle. This lower and therefore larger load space saw the Transporter’s payload volume increase to 4.8 cubic metres.
I CAN'T BREATHE...The front roof was extended slightly over the windscreens and was fitted with a series of vents which allowed fresh air to be ducted directly into the cabin to be distributed via a large square box mounted above the middle of the front seat. This feature addressed the lack of cabin ventila-tion that was a shortcoming of the “barn door” models – but only as long as you were moving! For even better ventilation there were factory fitted fold-out windscreens available as an option
(although at different times they were fitted as standard items on some models in certain markets). Another key interior change was the revised full-length dashboard which replaced the simple speedo pod of the standard “barn door” models. This had provision for an optional radio (although these were rarely fitted for export due to differences in radio transmission regulations in some countries) and an extremely useful full-width under dash storage shelf was provided.
Mechanically the new model shared the latest 36HP engine and gearbox from the Beetle but carried over the use of hub-mounted reduction gearboxes to provide lower gearing needed for carrying heavy payloads.
DOUBLE BONUSThe success of both the Beetle and Transporter through the early 1950’s placed capacity pres-sures on VW existing operations at Wolfsburg. March 1956 saw the commissioning a new VW
factory in Hannover dedicated to Transporter production, leaving the Wolfsburg plant to focus on the growing global demand for the Beetle.
SPLIT SCREEN TRANSPORTERS RE-MAINED IN PRODUCTION UNTIL 1967 BENEFITTING FROM NUMEROUS ME-CHANICAL IMPROVEMENTS OVER THEIR PRODUCTION LIFE.
1,800,000 TRANSPORTERSThese improvements included larger and more powerful engines, better braking and suspension, and upgraded electrical systems which saw the addition of flashing indicators mounted on the body and a change from 6 Volt to a 12 Volt electri-cals. In that time around 1.8 million split screen Transporters were produced globally, and they were eventually exported to, and built, in many markets outside of Germany.
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the mounting points on the floor.
It has front opening “safari” windscreens that were standard factory items for a very short time on these early export buses. They were otherwise an optional extra and therefore less common on later buses, making factory “safari” windows highly prized amongst bus enthusiasts.
VW made its first sales of Transporters on a commercial scale in Australia using vehicles that were imported from Germany in CKD or Complete Knock Down form. These were prepared for local delivery by the Melbourne-based firm of Martin and King Australia, who also built trains, buses and other commercial vehicles at their factory in Clayton, Victoria.
These early CKD vehicles are easy to identify via the Martin and King Australia body stamp inside the engine bay. This bus is stamped MKAK151” denoting that it is a Kombi, and that number also puts it somewhere amongst the first thousand or so Transporters deliv-ered by VW in Australia. (Microbuses and panel vans carried a slightly different prefix being MKAMB and MKADV respectively, and these were also prepared by Martin and King alongside the Kombi model).
WORKING LIFE 1955 – 1975This bus was first owned by a family-operated earthmoving business, based in the Western Victorian town of Terang. Its working life would have been very tough, as it involved transporting crews and equipment to construction and demolition sites around country Victoria from the 1950’s onwards. It
THIS GERMAN-BUILT EXPORT MODEL KOMBI WAS MANUFACTURED AT VOLKSWAGEN’S WOLFSBURG FACTORY IN JULY 1955.
This was an important year for the Transporter for a number of reasons; 1955 was the first year in which VW made significant chang-es to the Transporter that had
been introduced five years earlier in 1950; and it was the last year of transporter production at VW’s iconic Wolfsburg factory prior to the commissioning of the new dedicated Trans-porter plant at Hannover in March 1956.
This right-hand drive export model bus is a very early example of the upgraded Type 2 which first appeared in March 1955. Its July build date places its production within the first 150,000 split screen transporters ever made.
These “Wolfsburg” buses from 1955 carry over several unique barn door features including a tubular gearbox cross-member (later made from pressed steel), front wheel arches are made from three separate pieces instead of a single pressing, and the six-legged barn door-style middle seat.
These seats almost look like they were made from two separate seat frames joined and a “two-thirds” width factory middle seat was also available, so this may have in fact been the case! Unfortunately, they are not interchangeable with the later four-legged versions which have a different spacing for
must have been highly valued by its owners, as, despite the evidence of many smashes and scrapes, it also shows signs of repeated re-pairs that were needed to keep it running and serviceable over the 20 years that it was on the road. By today’s standards, this is a pretty good run for a working vehicle.
The roof, for example, has had an extra two re-inforcing bows added at some point – proba-bly to help restore its original shape – possibly the result of a miscue with the loading of an excavator bucket.
According to the son of the original owner, the bus was often used to carry these heavy steel buckets to and from job sites, and the method of loading them into the van involved poking the boom of the digger in through the cargo doors and then unhooking the bucket onto the floor of the bus.
At some point the cargo door sill was crudely replaced with a heavy piece of flat steel and the steel floor itself is very badly dented - probably also the result of this rough and ready loading practice.
THE REPAIR ON THE FRONT DRIVER’S SEAT WAS ANOTHER ORIGINAL FIX BY THE PREVIOUS OWNER MADE DURING ITS WORKING LIFE.
There’s a patch of worn out paint on to the driver’s door that could only have been made after many years of the same elbow sticking out of the window and resting in the same place.
The bus was last registered in 1975. After twenty years of extreme use, it was laid up in the company’s workshop with a variety of problems that would have included a broken gearbox, worn out engine, defective brakes, chronic body damage, and, not surprisingly
some rust. Still, its owner must have thought highly enough of the bus, to keep it as it was instead of just scrapping it or leaving it to rot in a paddock. Maybe just they thought it could be patched up and put back into ser-vice once more.
RETIREMENT 1975 – 2000The bus sat dormant in the back of the com-pany workshop situated in the main street of Terang, for the next 25 years.
It re-emerged in early 2000 when the proper-ty on which the old workshop building stood, was being developed by the family of the bus-es original owner, who had by then passed away. Dandy Volks in Dandenong were contacted to see if there was any interest in purchasing the old bus, and they passed on the details to us, as we were looking for early Kombi parts at that time.
After a pleasant drive to Terang, we met the son of the original owner at the workshop and were taken in to see this old bus. The building itself was an Aladdin’s Cave of old car and truck parts and other vintage items.
It was originally set up to service trucks and large earth moving equipment, and it includ-ed a long servicing pit to allow safe access to the underside of vehicles and an overhead crane for removing motors and other heavy items. Over the years it had been given over for storage, and there was junk (or treasure depending on your view!) piled everywhere.
Every last inch of wall space was adorned with old bits, and pieces and sets of old vintage car headlights hung like decorations from the rafters. Even the roof space had been used for storage with things stacked on boards threaded through the roof beams.
We were pointed towards a large pile of old timber, furniture and miscellaneous items down one corner of the workshop. Just visible in a pile was the back end of a very decrepit looking old Kombi. We could only guess at the
A 1955 VW Kombi
condition of the rest of the bus because over the years it had been completely buried. This was all that had been uncovered when the clean-up of the workshop was started.
The smashed tail and brake lights, stoved in corner panels, heavily dented roof, home-made bumper bar and flat tyres were not promising signs of its condition. After some more shifting of stuff from around the bus, we were eventually able to get to the front of it. Not surprisingly it was in a similar condition to the back. Jenny, who was at that time a relative newbie to the VW scene, did, howev-er, spot the opening Safari front windscreens! Cool!
Old split screen buses were still fairly com-mon in 2000 – and also still quite cheap – so a bus in this poor condition was not considered worth restoring and at best was worth slightly more than scrap value.
After a bit of pretending haggling, a pur-chase price of $150 was agreed, but there was one major proviso! The bus had to be gone by the following weekend as the dem-olition of the old asbestos clad building was scheduled for the following week! Anything left inside the building would be demolished along with it! Hands were shaken, and we left Terang for the long trip home.
We arrived back at the old workshop early the next Saturday as promised, and as we approached the doors of the workshop, we were greeted by a very different sight to the one we had seen only a week before.
To our horror, the workshop appeared to be empty! Stepping into the darkness inside we were relieved to see the old bus was still there, sitting alone in its corner - one of the last things left standing inside the building!
We found the owner and completed the deal before manoeuvring the old bus around to where it could be winched onto a tandem trailer ready for the homeward journey. As
for the rest of the contents of the shed – old furniture, building materials, car parts, old machinery and equipment - all collected over who knows how many decades - it had all been loaded into a large dump truck and was now buried down at the local tip!
REVIVAL 2000 – PresentOur plans to use the bus for parts were soon shelved as it seemed a pity to break up what was obviously a very early (and still reason-ably complete) bus - and the parts of it were likely to be well worn anyway! So it was just parked in our shed, and we got on with other things. It would go on to stay there for almost another ten years - adding to the previous 25 years it had already spent in retirement.
Celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the VW Transporter by the VWCV were set to kick off at the 2009 Day of the Volkswagen (DOTV) to be held that November at the Cran-bourne Racecourse. These plans included the staging of a Cavalcade of Transporters with the aim of having an example of the Transporters from every year of production on display.
There were still a few months to go before the event, and the venue at Cranbourne was not too far away, so we decided that there was time to maybe get our old bus out for the display. Our bus was the only 1955 model we were aware of locally at the time, being built only five years after the VW Transporter was first launched, and in the first year of not-barn door production, so we thought it would make a worthy entrant in the timeline. And so the mission began…
We were led to believe that the bus had been taken off the road because the brakes were shot, but bad brakes were probably just one of many problems that had put an end to the
working career of this bus.
The first step towards putting it back on the road involved clearing away the vast quanti-ties of brown dirt and dust from every part of the body and engine bay and cleaning off the thick crust of dried mud that had built up on the chassis and under the body. It must have spent some regular time over that workshop service pit as the suspension and steering were caked in copious amounts of old grease.
This was probably a good thing, as, after a considerable amount of scrap-ing and cleaning, the suspension and steering were found to be in good
condition and needed no major attention – quite surprising given the overall condition the bus was in.
Did we mention that the previous owner smoked? There were hundreds of cigarette butts jammed in the ashtray, and they littered the parcel shelf and the floor. We had kept a few of the empty match boxes that were in the bus from when it was last used – these proudly announce the coming of the Metric system! Who remembers 1975?
A complete brake rebuild was required, including all of the steel lines which were mostly rusted out, and all of the hydraulic hoses and components. The original brake drums were ground (quite possibly for the last time as the original brake shoes needed extra thick linings to make them work) and new front wheel bearings and a good set of used Shockers were fitted for good measure.
The larger dents in the roof and body were knocked out but not fully repaired. Missing and damaged wiring, lights and other parts were rebuilt or replaced, usually with sec-ond-hand items fitting the well-worn charac-ter of the bus. A set of NOS 6.40x15 cross-ply tyres (army-surplus complete with govern-ment arrowhead markings!) were fitted to the original crow’s foot pressing 15-inch rims.
With the electrical system roughly sorted, the brakes all working, and the bus now rolling, it was time to look at the engine.
With just a few days to go until the DOTV, the original oil (which was more like tar) was drained, and as much sludge as possible was flushed out of the crank-case before it was refilled with fresh oil. Many more hours were spent cleaning, adjusting of valves, checking points and setting timing, and a fresh set of spark plugs and leads were added for good measure. Alas, no amount of trying could coax the old 36HP motor back into to life. De-spite changes of the carburettor, distributor, coil, fuel pump, and any other components we could think of, it made zero difference.
THE ENGINE WOULD JUST NOT FIREIn desperation on the eve of the big event, the decision was made to abandon the old motor and replace it with the 36HP engine from an old oval window beetle that had also been spending its retirement in our shed.
The engine was duly removed from the Beetle and was fitted with the single pipe exhaust system from the bus, and in the wee small hours of Sunday, it was finally installed. A battery and temporary fuel supply were connected, and to our immense relief it start-ed and ran!
After grabbing a couple of hours sleep, we rolled the bus out of the shed early on Sunday morning ready for the short drive to Cranbourne via the sneaky back road route.
The bus started up and ran well, but every time the clutch was let out it bogged down and stalled, and no amount of trying was able to extract any useful forward or backwards movement. This was when the jammed gear-box was discovered.
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Feeling somewhat defeated the bus trav-elled to the 2009 Day of the Volkswagen on a trailer and was “pushed” into place as the third oldest transporter present on the day.
A few more years went by before we decided to have another go at getting the bus back into operation. The donor engine and original gearbox were removed, and the gearbox was cleaned and dismantled. This revealed a mess of collapsed bearings and broken gears, and so the search for a replacement early bus transmission began.
The original motor was stripped down and was found to be so worn that none of the major mechanical components was consid-ered worth keeping. The original fan pulley nut and associated crank-start tinware were all kept as these were a standard feature on 36HP buses. The original crank handle that came with the bus was still there under the front seat. The home-made rear bumper that came on the bus had an additional bracket to support the crank-handle so it was a feature that must have been used regularly during its previous life.
A period correct 36HP engine case was found, stripped and fully rebuilt to standard factory specifications. What the engine rebuild itself was very much a family affair with the puzzle of assembling all of the mechanical parts deemed far better than any Legokit. The old cylinder heads were carefully cleaned and checked. Although the valveseats were worn, they weren’t cracked, but the valves and valve guides did need to be replaced.
The heads were heated in the kitchen oven before new bronze valve guides were pressed in and then reamed to fit the new stock valves. The original valve seats were given a three-angle cut, and the valves were lapped in for a perfect seal. The crankshaft from this engine measured up within standard toler-ances, and the crankcase was also in good condition and on standard for size - except
for the main front bearing thrust face which was to use a technical term “flogged-out” resulting in way too much end float on the crankshaft. In all likelihood, this would re-quire machining and line boring to fit oversize bearings.
We began sorting through our assorted collec-tion of NOS bearings to find a suitable oversize set. To our great surprise found a set that was standard size diameter but with an oversize thrust face – exactly what was needed to fix this problem without additional machining – maybe not such an uncommon problem on these early engines?
The original Mahle barrels and pistons were examined and found also to be close to stan-dard size, but the oil ring grooves in a couple of the piston showed signs of shuffling that meant they were too badly worn to be able to just fit new piston rings. Another “save” of the original factory parts was made by using custom spacer rings with machining of the grooves to suit. This then allowed standard rings to be fitted and the pistons to be re-used. After honing of the original barrels, the piston and barrel sets were reassembled ready for installation.
New connecting rod bearings were sourced, and yet again we were able to use the stan-dard size for these in keeping with the rest of this motor which must have had a relatively easy life. The factory weight tolerance for connecting rods is 5g difference between the weights of the four rods, but these were closer to 15g! The rods were balanced to within 1g of each other and with the pistons also balanced we are hopeful this rebuilt engine would be a smooth runner and enjoy another long life.
The worn camshaft was replaced with a NOS item, and a less worn set of cam followers was found to suit.
DID YOU KNOW THERE IS WOOD USED INSIDE A VW 36HP ENGINE? These 36HP engines use a combined cam follower- push rod to operate the valves, and the push rods are hollow to allow oil to flow through to the valve train. A thin wooden rod made from spruce was used to fill the space inside the push rod to ensure that good oil pressure was obtained as soon as the engine was started.
These wooden filler sticks have a tendency to move slightly up and down inside the push rod, and over time the ends of the stick wear to a sharp point which then perfectly blocks the tip of the push rod. No oil was getting through – that’s a bad thing, so it is critical they are checked for proper flow before use. Several of the ones we had were blocked and could not be cleaned with solvent or com-pressed air. Rather than just leave them out, and risk poor oil flow, a plastic filler rod with a “C” shaped cross-section was fitted into the pushrods in place of the wooden filler sticks.
Time will tell as to whether this modern material will work any better than the wood that was originally used, but the oil flow was good when the pushrods were rechecked for flow. The motor received some luxuries such as rebuilt heater-boxes and a freshly painted NOS factory exhaust but otherwise parts such as the carburettor, inlet manifold, fuel pump and distributor we all carefully cleaned and refurbished but without repainting or polish-ing in keeping with the character of the bus.
After many hours of careful assembly, frequently consulting between an original factory workshop manual and John Muir’s How to keep your Volkswagen alive, and lots of checking and adjusting, we were ready for a test run on the bench. Lots of jumping up and down, hugging and cheering greeted the
first successful running, and after ten minutes to allow for a good break-in we shut down, and let the inevitable clouds of smoke that come from a freshly rebuilt engine when it first heats up clear from the workshop.
A replacement gearbox, also of the correct age - but unknown condition - was obtained. It seemed to select gears without any problem and turning the input shaft on the bench pro-duced the correct results at the rear hubs, so it was given a cleanup and was fitted back into the bus followed by the newly rebuilt engine.
The old 1955 bus, now known by us as Funfy from Funfundfunfzig – German for 55 – was finally placed on Club registration in late 2014 ready for a new phase in its life.
Funfy successfully went on a couple of Club runs and ran very smoothly, but a terminal sounding clunk in first gear meant that the gearbox had to come out – again! In order to get to the gearbox in a Type 2 transporter, you first need to remove the engine and then, after the transaxle assembly is taken out, the brakes, reduction hubs and axles need to be removed so the gearbox can be disassembled. A broken tooth on first gear was discovered, and so another first gear shaft was found and fitted.
This was now the third time the engine and transaxle had been in and out of the bus in the space of a few months, so there wasn’t much mystery left around the drive-train of our Kombi.
OUR FIRST BIG TRIP IN FUNFY WAS A TWO-HOUR DRIVE TO THE DOTV AT YARRA GLEN IN 2015. This test was passed with flying colours, and Funfy was itself passed by most other vehicles! Its 85kmh top speed is not exactly
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blistering but the new engine runs smoothly, and the fuel economy is very good.
Repairs to the body, doors and hinges, and many other minor fixes have been carried out to make the bus safer and more comfortable to drive, but the bulk of what you see in terms of the paint and panel work are original – at least as far as the condition of the bus was in 1975 when it was taken off the road – and the overall condition is genuine and represents how it was treated (or mistreated) over its 20 years working career.
The interior is largely in as found condition and there are no seat belts because none were ever fitted. This is somewhat unnerving for most people who go for a ride in Funfy for the first time.
Passengers are however encouraged to practice the emergency brace position before starting any trip and, if still not comfortable, they are offered the opportunity to rub the Saint Christopher medal on the dashboard for extra protection. (Saint Christopher is the patron Saint of travellers and was popular in the era before disk brakes).
The interior door cards, handles, knobs, single visor and switch gear, are original, and the much-worn factory clover-leaf key will lock and unlock all of the doors.
The exterior handle on the driver’s door needed to be replaced and by pure coinci-dence a brand new factory door handle and keys, purchased while we were on holiday in Ireland back in 2001, turned out to be an exact match to the locks on the rest of the bus.
Unfortunately, the original ignition switch was fried (identified by plumes of acrid smoke coming from the dashboard and no actual ignition) and couldn’t be retained, so we’re on the lookout for a suitable replacement.
The recent repairs to the rear seat were made to allow it to be used more safely, as the origi-
nal seat cover was very badly torn in one par-ticular spot on the passenger side. The seat springs were poking through several layers of hessian bags that covered a large and rather ugly hole. In some ways, this latest repair mirrors the repair made in the driver’s seat some time before the bus went off the road in 1975. Did we mention that the previous owner had a dog? That last seat repair now covers the spot where he always rode.
PEOPLE OFTEN ASK IF WE INTEND FIXING UP OR PAINTING FUNFY. We never had any real plans to restore this bus and still don’t. The aim, for now, has been to preserve as much of its original character and condition as possible.
We have replaced missing or unserviceable parts with suitable original items that fit its overall condition.
Future repairs will be considered to correct some of the more serious faults, such as replacing the hinge on the tailgate where a series of hardware store bought door hinges (another repair made before it came to us) do a makeshift job of supporting the tailgate.
The crudely made cargo door sill is also a po-tential target for future repair, but the dilem-ma is whether to go for factory appearance or retain the ugly but serviceable forty-plus years old repair.
Still, these are nice problems to have!
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IN THIS YEAR’S ‘CORNER’ WE HAVE ANOTHER SET OF FASCINATING TALES FROM OUR CLUB NEWSLETTER, ‘WA-GENSVILLE NEWS’ AND OTHER VOLK-SWAGEN PUBLICATIONS OF THAT TIME.
This month we are looking at a recent issue of the ‘News’ and what was happening from 50 years ago to more recently to give you another window from VWCV history. I hope you enjoy these and please feel free to contact me if you can help in developing the documentation of our history.
JUNE | JULY 1967PAT WHITAKER WAS THE PRESIDENT; ROB MITCHELL WAS VICE PRESIDENT, DEREK FRY WAS SECRETARY AND L. MASON WAS TREASURER.
COMPETITION SECRETARIES WERE DAVE EVANS (PREVIOUS VWCV HISTO-RIAN AND PAST PRESIDENT) AND ROB MITCHELL WITH THE EDITOR’S POSI-TION AGAIN FILLED BY PAT WHITAKER.
The club was now on the eighth number of the new look magazine in which Pat gave an informed report on all things VWCV to fill in what was happening in the middle of 1967.
The events for April included a General meeting at Volkswagen Australasia, Clayton, Plant 2. The news looked forward to July and August where there was a Bowling Night and the regular Mo-torkhana/Trials program.
The ‘News’ was presented with another picture from Derek Fry (the 1967 VWCV Secretary) ad-journing the cover with an Oval Beetle enjoying
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the Canadian Winter covered with a thick layer of snow! There was a report on the ‘Adelaide Epitaph’ from Jasper the friendly host, about the partially successful trip to Adelaide where the Motorkhana trophy was left behind (but for a short time) but the Bowling Trophy was proudly brought back, as all the VWCV members felt was true and correct!
There was an interesting, fairly quirky piece on Bird watching of the VWCV kind which was very much a 1960s humour piece. So much for Derek Fry’s appeal for material – we now have a better chance with a magnitude higher membership. Over to you all again!
JUNE | JULY 1988MICHAEL CLARK WAS THE CLUB PRES-IDENT; MARK ZELLNER WAS VICE PRESIDENT, BILL MALKOUTZIS WAS SECRETARY, BRUCE WOODWARD WAS TREASURER, THE EDITOR WAS NEIL TATTERSALL WITH JON EDSELL AS THE INCORPORATION OFFICER.
The committee had a good plan for 1988 club year, and the magazine was full of details on the club program; including two mo-torsports events in July. Other major
events for VWCV members in that month were a Bowling Night at the Box Hill Bowl in Nelson Rd (still there!) and the General Meeting at the Light Car Club of Australia in Queens Rd (long gone!).
Featured are stories on club and local VW activ-ities in this edition of the ‘News’ with a standard blue generic cover. Main features was the cele-bration of 50 years of the VW
Beetle, the Mark 1 Golf in South Africa, Sound-proofing the Beetle, Vintage Talk on Split Window Beetles by Michael Clark and finally an interesting article on Keith Potger (ex-Seekers) and his VW Kombi called Kermit taking on the Aussie Outback (reproduced for your renewed pleasure in this issue)
JUNE | JULY 2007MICHAEL CRONIN WAS THE CLUB PRESIDENT, DEAN HOLDEN WAS VICE PRESIDENT, AND ANDREW ERMEL WAS SECRETARY, TONY ALBERS HAD JUST TAKEN OVER THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITOR.
This edition was a Deluxe version, and the highlights were the preparations for VWCV Day of the Volkswagen at Cranbourne Racecourse and arrangements for the trip to South Australia organised by John Stevens.
The ‘News’ carried articles about the Type 3, Tech Talk with Bill Malkotzis (our then resident Technical Officer) - discussing electrical systems in early model Volkswagens and a great report on a VWCV trip to Echuca-Moama in June that year. Motorsport was still alive but only just, with a
report on the Rob Roy Hillclimb in June that year from Chris Antonello.
THERE WAS ALSO AN OBITUARY FOR DAVE EVANS (OUR PREVIOUS CLUB HISTORIAN), AND THIS IS REPRODUCED AGAIN IN THIS EDITION ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS PASSING.
Finally an interesting ‘For Sale’ is 1966 VW Bee-tle Deluxe – bare metal respray, new rubber kit, 12V conversion and unleaded c/o heads/pistons/barrels. The car has been in the family since new. First registered in 1967 (rego paid to 8th June 2008). Speedo reads 148,888, rego no. JTW 657 and the engine no. is F1055654. Asking price was a very reasonable $5000!
LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL AT THE NEXT VWCV EVENT!
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MANY OF US SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH DAMON RISTAU'S "THE BUS MOVIE" - PRODUCED IN 2012 WITH A SHOESTRING BUDGET, IT WAS AN INSTANT SENSATION PROVIDING A LIGHT-ON-DETAIL, YET INSIGHTFUL LOOK AT THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE GETTING ABOUT THEIR DAILY LIVES WITH THESE EXTRAORDINARY VEHICLES. Even though I never owned one, based on my brief experience as a Beetle owner, I found myself nodding stupidly (for example) at the comments made by a Bus owner where he wanted to charge passers-by a fee every time they told him a story about their Mom and Dad’s bus or questioned his choice of paint job.
Damon has produced another gem based on the same montage-of-people-with-VW stories formula and how their lives were uniquely affected by the iconic Beetle.
This review cannot begin though, without first tell-ing the story of its troubled development. In June 2014, riding the tide of goodwill from "Bus", Damon announced he would be making another movie based this time on the Beetle. Not surprisingly, fans went into a frenzy, and the movie received 466 backers via Kickstarter pledging $44,074 to help bring (as he describes) “... the greatest automotive story ever told” to life.
There were promises of exclusive updates to contributors, a release date and early releases and screenings, T-shirts for VIP donations, box sets with the “Bus” thrown in for free. Well "Shut up and take my money already!"
I COULD ALMOST HEAR FANS SCREAMING WITH A CREDIT CARD IN ONE HAND AND THE AIR BEING PUNCHED WITH THE OTH-ER IN THE DIRECTION OF THEIR LAPTOPS.
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Once the fanfare died down, Damon appeared to have "gone dark" according to many of the backer’s comments on Kickstarter. The release date of Sum-mer 2015 came and went, and more than a year after people had pledged their money, there were queries and growlings about no updates or progress.
This is despite Damon promoting the heck out of his upcoming movie via Facebook, so even though he seemed to be providing a human link to his fans, by responding
to the ever increasing urgency of the queries with useless news of Herbie memorabilia auctions, weird 60’s photos and old Beetle advertisements, it was only fueling more frustration. Six months later, frustration built to a fever pitch after announce-ments of the movie release, not on DVD but at pri-vate screenings across the USA and the UK! With movie trailers now also rolling in, it was clear that Damon had travelled to many overseas countries to film the movie and long after it was wrapped, was still overseas promoting his film.
With Backers having seemingly paid for this lavish production, not receiving a DVD before all the post release fanfare was, in my view, a low blow. Finally, after another year of waiting, the movie was finally released on DVD in late 2016 to the general public, with many backers not receiving their preview kits
VW related movies
or memorabilia (and as of the writing of this article six months on, some are still waiting!).
SO AFTER FINALLY RECEIVING MY COPY, I CAN PUBLISH MY REVIEW OF IT BELOW.
The movie follows Jason Willenbrock, a VW enthu-siast who may have got in a bit over his head when he commits to another fellow enthusiast’s Widow that he will restore her former husband’s Bug and bring it back to show her some day.
Interspersed through this story arc, are testimo-nials of the Beetle’s coolness from VW magazine editors, enthusiast website owners, collectors and historians along with a tonne of archival footage and period documentaries.
Damon knows his fan audience well and creates a beautifully shot film, but he tries hard to give it a credible documentary feel as well. Herein lies the problem. There’s too much time spent on gushing and lavishing praise to be a documentary, indeed, after spending an hour and twenty minutes, all I feel that I’ve learned is that these people have a lot of “one on one” time with cars and not much else.
It's even worse if you’ve already seen “Bus”, as the design, production and spectacular explosion in popularity of both vehicles closely mirror each other, and even though there are specific differ-ences, you feel like you are watching a remake of “Bus” rather than a new movie. It is not a waste of time by a long shot though. There is a very welcome diversion in the form of an interview with no less than Hollywood star, Ewan McGregor, about his
first car (a 1970’s Bug) and how he grew up around a Beetle family.
There is also a proliferation of 50’s and 60’s doc-umentaries and ads telling of the Bug’s humble beginnings in the USA from only two cars being sold in 1949 to 3.5 million twenty years later.
In fact, the most interesting part is a short history of the design of the Beetle dating back to Nazi times and the introduction of Joseph Ganz, a Jewish Mo-tor Journalist and now credited to be the real father of the VW (not Ferdinand Porsche, or Hitler!).
It is not long, though, before there is more psy-cho-babble about the human pursuit of freedom vs. control and the automobile’s role in that.
There is also a beautiful epitaph of the end of the Beetle’s production and where Volkswagen is going, given the current diesel emissions scandal.
THE BUG MOVIE IS NOT A BAD MOVIE. As a Beetle owner, I loved seeing my favourite car in a romantic light. However, it is far from an objective documentary about “the greatest automotive story ever told.” Rather a love letter comprising one third historical trivia, one-third interview with people wanting to show you their car collection, and lastly a man on a journey to finish his resto.
OVERALL, I WOULD RATE THIS MOVIE VERY WELL AS A FAN, BUT AS A DOCU-MOVIE THAT STANDS ON ITS OWN ABOUT THE BEETLE, THERE MAY STILL BE WORK TO BE DONE.
7/10 OVERALL HHHHHHH
MY CURRENT VW IS A 2016 MK7 GOLF R. THIS IS THE 6TH VW MY WIFE AND I HAVE OWNED, AND IT IS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE.
I started my love for Volkswagen’s with my first car which was a 1970 Beetle 1500.
I found the car on the Trading Post and bought it from a family in Ivanhoe. I'm not sure how long they had it for, but it was in complete stock condition. A little tired around the edges though (perfect for a P plater). I bought it in 2003, and I think I paid $3500 for it. My Mum and Dad had given us some money as teenagers to save and for us to add to. I had saved up enough for this car. Just.
My parents had two Beetles when they were young-er. Although I think they bought them brand new. I had always loved the idea of a Beetle. An engine in the back looked pretty cool. I also liked the idea that it was something different from what my friends were getting.
Over the two years I had the car, I made some upgrades to it. I had all the seats reupholstered in white vinyl with black piping, new door inserts in black, new wooden steering wheel, white vinyl parcel shelf, Porsche replica wheels. And of course a banging stereo (every 18-year-olds requirement in a car).
Jacob WalterT H E VO L K S WAG E N S TAT E
newMEMBER
MEMBER NUMBER B709-HG4527XX-9837-A2VT
I sadly sold this car because as a typical teenager I wanted a car with more things in it (power steering, aircon, airbags, etc…). I wish I had kept it as it was in such good condition and now that I have kids of my own, it would have been a perfect project car to work on with them.
After a couple of second-hand cars, I purchased my next VW. It was my first new car, and it was a 2008 MK5 Golf GTI manual.
This was a fantastic car, that great that my brother bought it off me after four years. He still has it, and he loves it as much as I did. When I bought the MK5 GTI, I wanted an R32. But I couldn’t afford one at the time. So when I needed to buy my next car recently, I made sure that I got the current Golf R. It drives like it is on rails, and it will give most German and local fast cars a run for their money.
Member profile
As a new initiative this year, the committee has asked all new members to tell us a short story
about their Volkswagen and why it means so much to them. Here is one of the two stories for this month we have but we need more to get into future editions of the club Magazine. This piece from Jacob tells how an early experience from a Beetle lead to a current Golf R! So if you have an email in your in tray from the Secretary (or you don’t), bounce back your story to us and we will do our best to present it in the magazine for everyone to enjoy! We have seen some great stories so far so get on to it now. It will give you a great feeling when you hit the send button! – Thanks, CSTHERE COMES A TIME WHEN WE
HAVE TO PUT OUR LAST REPORT WHEN WE FINISH IN A PARTICULAR
ROLE, AND THAT IS GOING TO BE THE CASE FOR YOUR CURRENT SECRETARY.
The next club year will see a new Secretary with a fresh approach, and the committee will be supporting the new Secretary to the max. My focus in the new club year is to complete a review of the Club History – 10 years in 2018 since the first edition and produce some more work for the club magazine to keep everyone glued to their publica-tion each month!
The current committee has worked very hard to keep the wheels of this great club rolling along and I have been very impressed with leader-ship shown in my two year term, from Richard Graham
(President 2015-16) and Andrew Ermel (VP 2015-16) followed by Andrew Ermel (President 2016-17) and Mike Cronin (VP 2016-17). These guys have worked so hard and effectively kept this great club on the rails! Supported by the strong crew of Matt Reynolds, Chris Jeffes, Charmain Green, Julien Langlet, Andy Ryan, Mandy Turner, John Stevens, Lloyd Davies and John Goodison, we can proudly boast to other clubs how fortunate we are.
Next month the club is championing the 6-volt Beetle as it is 50 years since the last small bumper air-cooled Beetle was produced at our Clayton Plant in Melbourne. Ironically the local factory did not have the necessary finances to re-tool for the
new big bumper 12-volt Beetle, so consequently, Australia missed out. But this was rectified the following year with some full imports and a slow winding down of the whole operation in Australia.
Things have been happening fast in your Volk-swagen club and it great to see so many events and happy members. We are always looking for fresh ideas, so if you can help us that would be great! Only some of the top events coming include the Xmas in July at Fergusson’s Winery on 23rd July, the Swap Meet at Seaworks on July 30th, The German Auto Show at the Deaf Children’s Centre on August 28th and of course the big daddy of the year – Day of the Volkswagen on November 19th.
The strength and interest in our club is very strong and what a wonderful new member card system we have developed this year with again great leadership from Charmain to formulate, test and roll out this impressive system for all members to enjoy!
Finally, the club permit scheme is vital to what we are as a Volkswagen Club and without the enormous input from Andrew Ermel, supported by Mike Cronin, we would not have the strength of our CH plate cars to support the club in so many ways!
This journey is not over, and I look forward to meeting new members of the committee team, there is a place for you now, join in and have a great time, as I have.
Cheers,
Chris Scane VWCV Secretary (2015-2017)
2017 VWCV
SECRETARYREPORT
Chris Scane's
ENTRY FROM 9AMFOR BUYERS & SELLERS, NO EXCEPTIONS.
SWAP SITES $25 | BUYERS $5Get down to find that elusive part or sell all the stuffyou don't want or need so you can finish your resto.
SEAWORKS82 Nelson Place, Williamstown. Coffee & food availableEntry via Ann St. (just past the Police Station) .
2017 VWCV ANNUAL
SUNDAY 30TH JULYAUSTRALIAS BIGGEST VW ONLY SWAP MEET!
A vehicle service centre specialising in Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Since 1987 we have been offering only the highest level of care. Our passion is unsurpassed and it shows in the quality of our workmanship. [email protected] Ph: (03) 9840 6449
SURFACE MAILPOSTAGE
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If not received, please return to:Volkswagen Club of victoria Inc.GPO Box 1215Melbourne Vic 3001
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JULY 2017 VOLUME 62 ISSUE 27 ?
WAGENSVILLE NEWS
