Date: Tue, 2 Jan 96 14:48:27 gmt
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Andy Erskine <a.c.erskine@lut.ac.uk>
Subject: Back from down under
Happy new year to you all. I just got back from a couple of very enjoyable
weeks in Australia watching cricket, lounging around in the sun and sucking
stubbies. I saw plenty of nice VWs, although I was almost in tears at the
sight of so many otherwise perfect early bugs that had been butchered into
ragtops and splitties with glassfibre flares and wide wheels. I was hoping
to rent a VW camper while I was there but ended up with a <cringe> Toyota.
It was brand spanking new, but went back a week later with 3000 km on it and
looking decidedly secondhand. There might have been something in the
agreement about NOT driving it up river beds or in the sea but I never read
the small print.
Anyway, one morning I did a bit of sight-seeing at a VW-only scrapyard that
had about 20 bay windows and 3 splits (not much left of them though) with
the intention of picking up something Australian to take back home. The only
problem was it had to go on the plane, so the roo-bars and the nice '60
beetle had to be ruled out. I got two of those funky metal sun visors that
go above the windshield. Completely pointless in England, I know, but they
look good and might help keep the rain off. Had fun getting these in the
taxi to the airport and got some strange looks when they appeared on the
baggage corousel. One will be on my bus before long and the other is up for
grabs if anyone's interested. I also got a few small things that would fit
in my pockets like some bits of bay-window deluxe trim that are practically
impossible to find here and a blanking plate for the radio hole in the dash.
Not much use to me but I've only seen a couple of these before and it might
come in handy. The yard owner let me nose around and gave me a few old
licence plates as trophies. He must have thought that, being a pom, I had
been out in the sun too long the way I was getting excited about the piles
of junk that were lying everywhere but I showed him some photos of our race
buggy and we got talking for drag racing for quite a while.
I bought a few Australian VW magazines as well. It seems BIG engines (like
2.5 or 3 litres) are in favour although I'm amazed they don't have
reliability problems with these when they're fitted to campers. There is an
amazing photo in one of the ads of a bay-window kombi cornering on two
wheels. It gives the drivers name (although I can't remember it off hand)
but little other info. It seems he races it in hillclimbs, it did 14 sec 1/4
miles with the old engine and he has since fitted a 270HP turbo engine. I'll
definitely have to find out more about this bloke.
Andy E.
A.C.Erskine@lut.ac.uk
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