"Speedmonkey" (Speedmonkey)
09/30/2013 at 10:06 • Filed to: VW Camper vans
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"Speedmonkey" (Speedmonkey)
09/30/2013 at 10:06 • Filed to: VW Camper vans | 0
| 10 |
VW has finally put its T2 Camper out to pasture, officially ending production of the final old school microbus. Surprisingly, this has !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! all warm and nostalgic.
The press release from Wolfsburg read simple as a bumper sticker:
The Camper Van is dead. Long live the Camper Van.
Yes, the T2-gen Type 2 – the last classically styled Volkswagen live-in trim microbus – has finally bitten the dust, set to cease production in Brazil later this year. The axing of an old car rarely tugs at my heartstrings, and the Camper Van should lend little exception; it was introduced by VW in 1951, far before my time, and the last thing a sports car enthusiast should care about is a 29hp split-window panel van. But, while never a dream car, the Camper Van was the car of my dreams.
For years, my father tried lulling me to sleep with tales of insatiable teenage wanderlust and his travels in far-off lands – a hopelessly ineffective method, given the thrilling nature of his exploits. He hiked unperturbed South American mountain passes and explored rural Sri Lanka with an outlaw journalist. He crossed Vietnam on a ’59 BMW R60, was detained on suspicion of espionage at the Cambodian boarder, then moved to Zhujiajiao and lived with a local family, all simply for adventure’s sake. Of his many stories, though, I most enjoyed hearing of his journeys throughout Mexico in a liberty blue and ivory-paneled 1961 Volkswagen T1 Camper.
For Baby Boomers, the Camper was oft-used as a tool for running away – be it from social breakdown, an unjustifiable war, or merely the pangs of adulthood – but my father’s VW was always running towards something, an important distinction to recognize. He filled its windows with the world, vast and strange from the Newark slum of his youth, two best friends in tow. My father chose the Bus as much for its ubiquity as its utility; in Mexico, he told me, regardless of direction, you were never more than a stone’s throw from replacement parts for the 1.2-liter air-cooled boxer or four-speed manual transmission. Volkswagens had been assembled in Mexico since June of 1962 and, beginning in 1970, Type 2 vans rolled out of a 2-million-square-meter plant in suburban Puebla, 80 miles southeast of the capital. Any mechanic worth his salt (and most that weren’t) could tune-up a Volkswagen Bus while blindfolded, drunk, and distracted.
Following several days of quarter-tuning and fender-kicking in Morelos during the summer of 1972, my father finally relented and limped his Camper towards Cuernavaca’s outskirts to have it looked over. The town’s blacksmith – who was also its "vulcanizadora" (fixer of flats) – agreed to do the work. Once he’d finished, the engine idled flatly and revved without hesitation; my father laid down a few Pesos, shook the vulcanizadora’s hand, and trundled off into the mountains. No more than ten miles later, it became clear that, despite running smoothly, the VW was suffering from a decisive loss of horsepower – with only 29 to account for, you notice when a few stray from the stable. Whereas the van protested hills before, it would now simply quit on inclines. Prodding around the engine compartment, it quickly became apparent to my father that his uprated carb (a $100 option) was missing, and had been tidily replaced with a standard junkyard unit.
“I think you owe me a carburetor,” he said, once back at the garage.
“I do not know what you are speaking of, señor,” the mechanic replied, grinning, “I just made it run better.”
In the end, they negotiated a trade: the vulcanizadora could keep my father’s carburetor in exchange for a tune-up, seven gallons of Mexican gasoline, and a tin of sandwiches, crusts cut off.
He drove on, engine churning confidently, along red dirt roads since paved, through beach villages now resorts, accompanied by friends he seldom sees but speaks of often, with little to his name but the pink slip to a ‘61 Volkswagen Type 2 Camper.
Article by Max Prince
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pdx107
> Speedmonkey
09/30/2013 at 12:01 |
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This makes me happy I have one, a 1972 bay window in my driveway
BiffMagnetude
> Speedmonkey
10/01/2013 at 12:31 |
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I have owned a few of these and have never heard them referred to universally as "camper vans." By the look of the rear seat, the one in the pic is a Kombi (side windows/removable rear seats). If by "camper van" you mean Westfalia, this is not that. A Westy has a pop up roof/tent. To my knowledge, not all VW buses are campers. There's many variants.
Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
> pdx107
10/01/2013 at 14:47 |
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You have a bay window samba!?!?! Lucky you, enjoy it.
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pdx107
> Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
10/01/2013 at 15:25 |
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I do, it doesn't particularly want to start (batter drain, needs new cables among other things) but I love it dearly
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Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
> pdx107
10/01/2013 at 17:57 |
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I get it, if you love something enough you'll keep it regardless if it works or regardless if you intend to fix it. It's an intrinsic desire.
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pdx107
> Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
10/01/2013 at 18:10 |
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I do intend to fix it, it is just finding the time and the $. It also doesn't help that it is 2 inches too tall to fit in my garage.
Matthew Henry
> Speedmonkey
10/01/2013 at 20:51 |
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Excellent post. Your father sounds like he lived life the way I want to. When I get out of school, I'm going somewhere. Not sure where, yet, but I'm going.
Pk50ae
> BiffMagnetude
10/02/2013 at 00:44 |
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Not all Westies had pop tops. Some just had the interior package.
DavidHH
> Speedmonkey
10/02/2013 at 04:36 |
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The best type II sold in the US was the 1971, which I owned until a drunk driver hit it and sent us all to he hospital. While they are awesome on dirt roads, they crash badly like anything designed in the late sixties. I have since graduated to a vanagon westy having the very last one sold in North America. If you like vintage get a type II with 1600 cc type one engine. If you like to travel, the vanagon with a water boxer is great. They also are semi amphibious.
ruquik
> Speedmonkey
11/13/2013 at 07:59 |
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Can you repost this PLEAZE. I'm don't have Oppo rights and this is time sensitive. Its a Kombi only book that needs some love on kickstarter.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18479…