What I Saw Today

As those of you Counting along with me know, I like pretty much anything with at least four wheels.

Having said that, Volkswagon holds a special place. Maybe because a Bug is the first car I ever bought on my own. Maybe it is because I have fond memories of my old Westfalia Camper Bus. Maybe, subliminally, I remember the Microbus I rode in as a youngster. Maybe it is because of the ad campaign they ran when I was a kid in the sixties. Maybe I will never know the real reason but I like them.

I don't know if you know the history of the Volkswagon but a abbreviated version is this. Hitler wanted Ferdinand Porsche, yes that Porsche, to develop a "Peoples Car". It had to carry four passengers, including the driver, tool along at 100 kph, or 60 mph and be light enough for four men to lift. And Porsche did it. It was the Beetle, or Type I. The Type I was special bodied for military use during WWII, a Kubelwagon, and is very similar in design to this "Thing", one of many VW's the Bus used to own.


The Kubelwagon was the impetus for the development of the Jeep here in the US. You knew I would get thejeepjunkie in here somehow, didn't ya.

Anyway, in 1955, the one millionth VW was produced and the following two images were taken. The automotive creativity and choreography involved in getting these shots taken is almost mindboggling.


The following image is cute. This is the entire ad.


Now the following shot is not a advertisement at all. That is BBB and one of his girlfriends washing his new '67 Type I down at, I think, Lindenlure, in the Ozarks on an underwater bridge. Could have been a part of their advertising, I think.


I even have a number of VW diecast in my collection.

Including this sweet old ragtop that made the trip back from Mom's Last Bus Ride with me.


So by now I am confident you are saying to yourself, 'Alright longroof, what the hell does all of this have to do with What I Saw Today?'

I was cutting through the parking lot of that grocery store that BBB protects, checking to see if there might be a shop I could visit to sell them some Celebrate Life magnets and came across this rare '57 VW Type I.

It is sweet. Bone stock, as I like almost everything. Not a bit of rust anywhere and just drop dead gorgeous. Check out the shine on that Wolfsburg Castle emblem.


See the image below? I have to share this with you. It may appear to you that windscreen is flat. I can tell you, it is not and this is how I know. Remember a number of posts back when I related my experience with thejeepjunkie's and my Travails Along I-44? One of the things I had forgotten in relating that experience. thejeepjunkie and I were tooling along I-44, in that driving blizzard, with the wipers working overtime but they just weren't cleaning that windscreen. Upon our return home and after that blizzard had melted, thejeepjunkie and I were talking to someone, it may have been the Bus, and we related our experience with those wipers and the Bus started laughing. See, that windscreen is actually concave with the curve to be facing the front of the bug. A previous owner had replaced that windshield and installed it backwards so the wipers, while touching at the ends of the wipers, could not touch the center part of that, now convex, windscreen. A lesson learned over 30 years ago and still remembered. Maybe that is why Volkswagons have such a special place in my heart.


And not just a vanity plate but a vanity license plate frame. Well deserved though.


I am not sure but I think this was the last year of the oval window. Due to complaints about the blind spot at the 'C' pillar, VW enlarged the rear window in the Type I to diminish its blind spot. Still love the old oval window.


And just in case you don't believe me that this is an old VW, ask any current, or former, VW owner of a Type I, II, or III, and they will confirm that

it is a real VW as you can see by the "pee stain" left on the parking lot by this old Type I.

And that is What I Saw Today.