Today’s film Friday is all VWs all day long. Much maligned as the people’s car or a hippy mobile, Volkswagens have always had a strong presence among car aficionados. Hit the jump for some video of a Ghia that drags pan and a great short film about the history of the Cal-Look.
What my '65 looked like when I brought it home.
What it looks like now, with a lot of work left to do.
I admit to being a big aircooled VW guy. My first car was a ’70 Westfalia (aka the camper van) and my current daily driver is a ’65 Beetle.
Being cheap and plentiful it’s easy to see why the old aircooled Ws are still popular with a wide variety of people.
In terms of form, function, and aesthetics old VWs are about as far from the typical Amerian iron as you can get. As a result, there’s been an little bit of a division between VW fans and more traditional American hot rodders.
I think the current “rat rod” (I really hate that term-Ed) scene has really started to open up vintage VWs to a different audience.
Most VWs are still quite cheap to buy and that low entry fee lets people really play with the cars and have something uniquely theirs, for much less than the price of the cheapest econobox they might normally be stuck with. The fact that mechanically the cars are quite simple (though very cleverly engineered once you peek under the skin) and, especially in the case of Beetles, parts are cheap and plentiful.
With all that being said it’s time for some video. We’ve got two extremes in this pair of videos.
This Ghia is a perfect example of the current “rat rod” (I really hate that term) or distressed trend with a dose of what passes for the stance movement in the vintage VW community.
This next video is a great look into the origins of the California Look which was the dominant style in the VW community for a couple of decades. Make sure to watch it all the way until the end for some great clips of the cars in action.