The Magazine

From a sketch to a classic

This year it's 65 years ago that Dutch businessman Ben Pon visited Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. In 1947 he was there to discuss the import of the Beetle in Holland and during the talks he drew a sketch of what he thought a van should look like. VW liked the idea and two years later the first Transporter rolled of the production line. Based on the passenger car it was basically a shoebox on wheels that, like Ford's Model T, was only available in one color: blue. This changed soon. Today the first models are affectionately known as the split-window or 'splittie' and they, with all the models that came after, have a huge following. No wonder that VW-Nutzfahrzeuge in Hannover, Germany has opened its own restoration workshop. Their restoration-department existed since 2007, supplying parts and service, but was officially opened last week.

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

A photo not always tells the whole story

No doubt you have seen the 'New Reader's Photo' on the left with the two original Porsches, sent to us by Jerry Schulte. Despite the sparse text we suspected these Porsches could hide a story, so we contacted Jerry. He then told us that the 1964 Convertible comes from California and that it's its first owner was a Mr. Edward Grens, an airline captain who documented every mile, every warranty repair, every complaint he had with Porsche and every time he changed oil or polished the car. He even wrote down who helped him and what brand of polish he used. It is interesting to see what problems the 356 had in the beginning. including later repairs documented in detail. All in all there's a thirty-page history file of the 356 car his trip destinations and who accompanied mr. Grens.
A fine story for which we would like to present Jerry with a PostWarClassic T-shirt. Do you have a similar tale or other anecdote about you post-war classic? Then send it to us and you too could earn the PostWarClassic T-shirt!

Monday, 30 April 2012

The Main Ingredient of WD-40

Before you read to the end, does anybody know what the main ingredient of WD-40 is?
WD-40 who knew? We had a neighbor who bought a new pickup. We got up very early one Sunday morning and saw that someone had spray painted red all around the sides of this beige truck (for some unknown reason). We went over, woke him up, and told him the bad news. He was very upset and was trying to figure out what to do... probably nothing until Monday morning, since nothing was open. Another neighbor came out and told him to get his WD-40 and clean it off. It removed the unwanted paint beautifully and did not harm his paint job that was on the truck. We were impressed! (continue at Read More)

Sunday, 29 April 2012

Puzzle 34, too tough to crack: 1961 Santee

We probably have to do a step back with these postwar puzzles. Only one sender was correct in naming the marque of this very well proportioned US made  1961 Santee Sports Car. A car that was meant to bring in American technique and to level with the best of Europe.   It was only jury member Kaspar Dortans produced the correct answer and nobody else even dared to give it a try! All the more reason to give some extra attention to the brainchild of Fred Puhn, who was also involved in the development of the Quasar Chassis. He may be known to you as the author of 'How to make your car Handle'. We understand "2,5" Santees were built. We think that's too bad. Especially in roadtrim the car is awesome. Even without the girl.

(special thanks to Tam's Old Racecar Site)

Saturday, 28 April 2012