The second technology of the Volkswagen Transporter (offered in the US from the 1968 via 1979 mannequin years) have been too helpful for genuinely broke hippies to personal for at the very least the final quarter-century, which implies that not-so-broke Transporter lovers have pushed up their costs sufficient to maintain almost all tough examples from ending up in automobile graveyards. Over the past 16 years of documenting fascinating discarded automobiles, I would photographed only a well-stripped ’71 and a battered ’78 previous to at this time’s bus, which met its junkyardy destiny in the identical approach that far too many air-cooled VWs have over the many years: hearth.
Earlier than we get to the unhappy a part of this story, let’s speak about this Transporter’s day job throughout happier occasions. It was owned by the Boulder Conference & Guests Bureau, presumably as a result of Boulder is named a haven for VW Bus-loving hippies (or at the very least it was identified for that, again when real hippies—wealthy in ideas and poor in {dollars}—might afford to dwell there).
The BC&VB has a beloved orange second-gen Transporter named Delilah, which is supplied with a photograph sales space and may be rented out for occasions. I can not discover a lot on-line proof for Delilah’s blue sibling; there is a 2018 Instagram put up exhibiting this bus on the College of Colorado campus and a put up from the identical 12 months on the BC&VB’s Fb web page soliciting options for a reputation. Violet, Blueberry, Moonbeam, Indigo and Pearl have been listed as prospects. Possibly this van burned quickly after that after which spent 5 years awaiting repairs that by no means got here.
I considered calling up the BC&VB and asking about this VW, however I did not need to traumatize anybody by mentioning the painful topic of the deceased companion of Delilah. Certain, I cheered the destruction (by Caterpillar D9) of an orange second-gen Transporter as a 24 Hours of Lemons official again in 2009, however I perceive how somebody might need turn out to be hooked up to a T2 Transporter that wasn’t a clattering, disintegrating rusty-ass hooptie.
I’ve owned a few air-cooled Beetles and I’ve identified of a number of owned by pals that burned to the bottom. Again when air-cooled VWs have been frequent sights on American roads—say, the center Fifties via the early Nineties—there have been a lot of fires involving these vehicles. The rationale for that’s the results of Ferdinand Porsche’s reasonably priced Nineteen Thirties expertise: the cylinders and particularly cylinder heads of those engines get highly regarded, after which the engine’s fixed vibration jiggles the gas strains and filter on the similar time the versatile gas hoses deteriorate within the stifling engine-compartment warmth.
Gasoline finally ends up pouring onto scorching engine components and a fireplace begins. Typically the warmth causes the oil cooler to burst, which provides a recent supply of gas to the inferno. By the point the motive force realizes what’s taking place, it is normally too late; all you are able to do is pull over, get out, and watch helplessly because the flames eat your entire automobile.
Imagine it or not, it was attainable to purchase a brand new 1978 Volkswagen Transporter with a three-speed computerized transmission, and that is what this van has. With simply 67 horsepower and 101 pound-feet from its 2.0-liter boxer-four engine, most consumers took the four-speed guide.
The MSRP for this van would have been $7,420 with the automated, or about $36,223 in 2023 {dollars}. Minivans have been nonetheless a half-dozen years off when this van was new, so there actually weren’t another mainstream decisions for American automobile buyers who needed a small, fuel-efficient van in 1978.
Beginning with the 1980 mannequin 12 months, the Volkswagen Vanagon turned out there in the US. The Vanagon had an air-cooled engine till a water-cooled model arrived right here in 1983. US-market gross sales of the Vanagon continued via 1991, with the Eurovan taking on in 1993.
With regards to station wagons, it is extra enjoyable to take the bus!