Retro Cool VW Bus

Some people are a little mean when it comes to cars. I live in California and we do not put salt on the roads. For most of my state it isn't necessary. The lack of salt means our cars don't rust, so classic cars are still around decades later. This is, essentially, heaven for hot rods and classic car associations. Also for motorcycles since we are dry 330 days a year (it rains around 35 days a year). We are the opposite of England.

Old Mini Cooper

So when I see a modern version of the Mini Cooper, with working AC and proper sized tires and airbags and high probability of survival in a car crash? Yeah, I think that's perfectly okay, even if its mostly looks rather than performance. I feel similarly towards the Fiat 500. And the modern Porsche 911 only looks like the old ones. I drove an old one 3300 miles on a trip and it wasn't comfortable, or quiet, or terribly fast either. The new ones are. And they're safer.

New Mini Cooper

So I feel like retro cars with modern comforts and underpinnings are a good thing. When I was a kid we'd had several VW buses. Those were built to be light, with the engine in the back, rear wheel drive, and very light front, with the driver sitting above the front wheel. That made going around corners really interesting because you swung over the front. Their transmission was terrible. You hunted for a gear. Double clutching was sometimes necessary. It also tended to overheat, being air cooled and carbureted, so was a terrible car on mountain passes. As we used them for vacations, this was a common problem. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Clasic VW Camper Bus

Imagine the subaru Legacy with the body replaced by a VW bus. It would be all wheel drive, water cooled, turbo charged, more fuel efficient than the VW actually was, and still be roomy and light inside. Give it a couple airscoops to draw air across the engine, some crashbars to protect the driver's legs in a head-on, and then retro the instruments back to look like a real bus again. Oh, and make sure its got the multi-pane windows. I always liked those. And possibly the pop-top for the camper model. Use bamboo wood for the furniture rather than press-board and plastic. Its stronger and lighter. Class B campers are too small for a bathroom or shower, but you can sleep in them and heat your dinner or breakfast. With all wheel drive they'd work better than the real ones did, and use less gas than a big GM or Ford version. A little van doesn't need a V8 gas hog. Do this better than VW's Eurovan, the Westphalia, famously unreliable engines and terrible fuel economy and crap fuel injection. I spent hours stuck in a boring town when the one I was riding in broke down after 20 minutes of driving a load of boy scouts up 101. It wasn't ours, but it was annoying. I missed my chance for a fun train ride because of that.

Why Subaru? Because their engine was based on the VW and Porsche horizontally opposed (boxer engine), but they added water cooling and proper fuel injection. Those things are reliable and make best use of torque, which wins races and climbs mountains. The VW's strength is that the weight was on the wheels that were driving it. Apply similar approach to a modern remake, with a paddle shifter and smooth 6-speed transmission, and mind you keep the weight under control, and you could build a van worth having and still looks like a classic.

Wouldn't that be cool?