West Coast Saab-ish

Since viewing Wolfsburg’s impressive display of vintage air-cooled Volkswagens during our recent European vacation it occurred to me that it’s getting more and more difficult these days to create a modified custom that really stands apart from the crowd. In my opinion, the most recent one to stir the pot was Heb Rod, creatively imagined and masterfully constructed by Geoff Peterson a few years ago in Langley, BC. It’s truly in a class by itself.

Within the last couple of years during one of my frequent perusals of Gallery images on The Samba website I came across what I consider to be the perfect combination of vintage air-cooled Volkswagen essence with street rod ingenuity. Why not mount a similar vintage European compact car body onto the floor pan and mechanicals of a Beetle? More specifically, the body of a late 50’s Renault Dauphine. I’ve seen it done a couple of time now and with each viewing I’m more drawn to it. In some ways it’s kind of a dorky-looking Saabish design, but I kinda like the implied Swedish-ness. It also reminds me of a Studebaker or a Kaiser, although at smaller scale.

1950s Saab 93F

Volkswagen had a few coach-built cars constructed in the early to mid-50s, and there were a handful on display in the Wolfsburg museum. These were cars featuring limited edition, hand-built bodies mounted to stock VW running gear. On websites I’ve even seen the odd one customized, but the rarity and corresponding value of one of these cars puts them far from reach. By the means attainable to most mere mortals it would be almost impossible to acquire one now. I would venture to guess that aside from the ones in the Wolfsburg museum, the ones on display recently at Hessisch Oldendorf 2013 (which will also be the same ones displayed at Bad Camberg in 2015), there aren’t too many more existing in the world.

Being of modest means I propose to construct a new “coach-built”. Admittedly such a project involves a lot of metal fabrication work; it’s not for the faint-of-heart. Fortunately Renaults of this model line twinned Beetles in utilizing a rear engine layout with transaxle.

I’ve come across a candidate that seems perfect for my mechanical aptitude and financial status. This one’s had all the hard work done already. It’s a reasonably sound 1959 Renault Dauphine body mounted on a shortened and sectioned VW pan, including VW front and rear suspension and an air-cooled engine. Plus, it’s lowered just right with super-cool Rader rims which happen to be among my favourites, tied with BRMs.

It's always good to have a plan, I say. Not that this car would cost a fortune, but if I won the Lotto tomorrow I'd have the money to clear all the more pressing projects off my plate immedately, and I'd start making arrangements the next day to have Renny delivered to my door.