Sunday, August 6, 2017

Volkswagen AutoMuseum, Wolfsburg

I had high expectations for the Volkswagen AutoMuseum in Wolfsburg, Germany. As readers of this blog know I am very interested in the evolution of the Volkswagen in the 1930s and the car's extraordinary post-war survival. I expected that Volkswagen's AutoMuseum would be able to showcase that critical period of the company's history. But sadly there was none of that and, for me, the museum was a great disappointment.

The museum's treatment of the early years of Volkswagen is sketchy at best. The entire period of the car's development, which of course took place as a Nazi project, is skimmed through. Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche's contribution, so fundamental to the company's history, is given very short shrift. Nor were there any of the company's early cars and reproductions on display. Instead the beetle, one of the world's most important motorcars, is introduced with a lackluster line up of a post-war split, an oval window and a Super Bug. That's it. The information sheets on each car were also spartan and uninteresting. This was the Tatra Museum over again.

The Karmann Ghia and coach-built display was also meagre and lifeless, again presented without any historical context. It was only when the display gets to the modern era of the Golf and the many interesting prototypes Volkswagen experimented with in the 1960s and 70s was there any sense of enthusiasm. Perhaps the company feels it is on safer ground here.

Finally, what does any good museum need?  A giftshop. As disappointed as I was I would still have browsed through the books and memorabilia, but no. There was only a small display window and postcard stand beside the ticket desk. http://automuseum.volkswagen.de/en/the-museum.html

But although the AutoMuseum collection was disappointing, Volkswagen has a second museum in Wolfsburg, the Zeithaus within the Autostadt complext and that is an entirely different story....

A modern Volkswagen concept car opens the collection.

Where it begins .... and it could not be more disappointing. Is this really the best that Volkswagen can do to showcase the development of one of the world's most important motor vehicles.

Volkswagen Beetle row

Karmann cabriolet. Volkswagen outsourced construction of the cabriolet model to Karmann Karosserie of Osnabruck. Karmann had pioneered the folding cabriolet top in the 1930s and went on to build cabriolet models for dozens of companies, but the Volkswagen contract came to dominate the company. They built VW cabriolet's until the beetle was withdrawn, plus the two Karmann Ghia models, Porsche 356s and 911s, and even Type 4 campervans. The company eventually went bankrupt in 2009 and was swallowed up by the Volkswagen Group.

Volkswagen cabriolets

Hebmuller four door police kubel

1953 Hebmuller four door taxi. Hebmuller was another independent karosseriewerkes that manufactured variant bodies for Volkswagen. In 1949 they were contracted to build a neat two seater roadster version of the beetle but went bankrupt after only 696 were built. Hebmuller also built a four door taxi beetle.

Volkswagen coachbuilts -Dannerhausen and Stauss, Ghia Aigle and Rometsch.

Rometsch Lawrence

1956 Volkswagen Ghia Aigle

1951 Dannenhauer und Stauss. The Dannenhauer and Stauss karosseriewerkes began fitting these neat custom roadster bodies onto Volkswagen beetle running gear. Each car was handmade; the panels being handbeaten onto the frame, consequently they were an expensive vehicle at three times the price of a standard beetle. About 100 cars were built before the arrival of the VW Karmann Ghia in 1957 put them out of business. 

Volkswagen Karmann Ghia's - and that's it. Nothing explained.

1955 Volkswagen EA 47-12 prototype

By the mid 1950s Volkswagen began to investigate modernizing and replacing the beetle. The Italian carosserie Ghia, who had just styled the beautiful Karmann Ghia for Volkswagen, developed the concept into a four seater sedan. Fifteen cars were built but Volkswagen decided to continue with the beetle. 

The military section - 1944 Schwimwagen and military kommanderwagen

1944 Kubelwagen, the ubiquitous German 'jeep' of the Second World War. It served on all fronts with distinction.

The Puma sportscar was built in Brazil on a Volkswagen beetle running gear. Puma's had originally been built on DKW-Vemag running gear until Volkswagen purchased Auto-Union in 1965.

Brazilian Volkswagen SP2

Volkswagen SP2

Volkswagen Type Variant

Late model 1966 Type 3 411 variant from South America

1973 Volkswagen 412 Variant

Volkswagen Type 2 transporters. The iconic Type 2 bus was put to so many different uses but it is colloquially known everywhere as the 'kombi.'

A Volkswagen utility and Samba bus



Fridolen van

1973 four door K 70 L sedan prototype (likely based on an Audi or NSU design)

1973 Volkswagen Scirocco I

1972 Volkswagen Passat

2003 Volkswagen W12 Coupe

Volkswagen XL1 electric concept vehicle and the Volkswagen 1 Litre trial vehicle

1963 Volkswagen EA 128 prototype. This large four door sedan was intended for the US market, hence its substantial proportions. The car was powered by a six cylinder Porsche boxer engine from the 911.

Volkswagen Golf, the car that saved Volkswagen.

This 1976 concept vehicle is built over a very early beetle running gear. Seems a bit of a waste to me....

Some more links: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2016/10/11/a-tour-of-vws-other-museum-in-wolfsburg-the-stiftung-automuseum-volkswagen/

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Bay to Birdwood 2017 - Preparations and Plans


Bay to Birdwood claims to be the largest and longest running classic vehicle event in the world. It involves a week of classic motoring events as part of Motorfest, culminating in a 70 kilometre drive from the Adelaide seafront to Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills. Birdwood is the home of the National Motor Museum. The event is now so large that it is split into two bi-annual events; the original event for vehicles built prior to 1954 and the Classic, for vehicles built from 1954 to 1981. For more information see the website: http://baytobirdwood.com.au/

The Bay to Birdwood route.

This year (2017) I'm going to attend the Bay to Birdwood along with 5 other members of the Special Interest Vehicle Association. We are going to ship the cars to Adelaide, which is 2700 kilometres east of Perth across the Nullabour  Plain. Some are driving back. It takes about 5 days to drive at the leisurely pace of a classic car. I am not sure I'll be driving the return but we'll see.

In the meantime it's time to tackle all those little maintenance tasks to ensure she's fit for the journey. For safety reasons I've just had seatbelts fitted. They look pretty good. Thanks to Seatbelt Solutions of Welshpool. www.seatbeltsolutions.com.au/



The results look good

About a year ago I had my original exhaust replaced. The exhaust was in terrible shape with rot holes beginning to appear in the metal. The only thing holding it together was the 300 kilograms of oil and carbon trapped inside it.

So I had to find a new exhaust. The first one I tried was a sports exhaust sourced from South Africa. It was recommended to me by some fellow DKW owners who said it provided an increase in speed and performance.

Well, it certainly did increase the car's speed. On the freeway it performed really well and I'm sure it gave about an extra 5 miles and hour, but... unfortunately most of my driving is done on suburban streets at around 40 to 50 miles an hour and it really wasn't suited to that power band. The engine ran really rough at a lower speeds and, most importantly, the undampened exhaust note was quite deafening!
 Even at idle the sports exhaust was really noisy.

After a few weeks of driving I had the sports exhaust removed and replaced with something a little quieter, but this modern exhaust, although generally okay, did not work particularly well either. The engine and exhaust continued to vibrate alot and performance at speed dropped from a comfortable maximum speed of 75 miles per hour to around 65 miles per hour. It was time to go back to an original style exhaust.

I eventually obtained a NOS exhaust from Germany from Ralf Muller (info.ralf.mueller@t-online.de), who has a great stock of original spare parts for most DKW models. Gary from Custom Exhaust Specialists in Osborne Park  (http://customexhaustspecialists.weebly.com/) installed the exhaust for me and the difference in performance has been amazing. The exhaust note is extremely quiet again, top maximum speed has been returned and the vibration and rattling in the exhaust system has stopped. Magnificent!


Travels with a DKW part one - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/travels-with-dkw.html
Travels with a DKW part two - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/more-travels-with-dkw.html
Bay to Birdwood 2017 - https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2017/11/bay-to-birdwood-2017.html