So recently, at the encouragement of a Bahamas cruise ship bound friend TheKenMan, this olelongrooffan ventured north to check out some action at the Eurotripper European Car Show at Jet Blue Park there in the town that is home to the Henry Ford Estate. There were some pretty cool vehicles to be seen, the bulk of them of the VDub variation. There were several exceptions but this offering pretty much covers the Volkswagen based air cooled rides that showed up that day. Now, as always, this olelongrooffan will not attempt to identify every vehicle in this show, especially anything of the Porsche variety. After all, we have an esteemed Porsche guru to take care of things like that. But if my fellow Hoons are interested, please feel free to make the jump to see some of the air cooled action seen there in the fields surrounding the spring time home of the Boston Red Sox.


Now over the years, this olelongrooffan has seen several 550s and they are pretty cool, even if they are replicas. Replicas you query? Yes I am fairly certain this is a replica, although a nice one. A real 550 crossed the block at a cool $3.35 million back in 2012 and this olelongrooffan can’t imagine the owner of a real 550 making the trek out to the fields surrounding JetBlue park to show it off to me.

But I will say this about that, this 550 interior is more Spartan than that of my olestationbus. And more beautiful besides.

And know this my fellows Hoons. Rides such as this slammed black bug were everywhere to be seen that day.

Located not far from that 550 was this classic old Beetle with just about every period cliché that you could shake a stick at thrown at it. Luggage rack, coolers, hard sided suitcases, you name it, it was there.

And that would include this vintage air conditioner known, round these here parts anyway, as a Swamp Cooler. I have only seen a couple of these previously and there were on vintage 50’s era American steel up at the Turkey Rod Run.

As I was standing there taking in this cool old ride, I noticed this hippy chick standing around. As she didn’t really seem to be all that interested in this bug, I kinda wondered what she was up to.

Well as it turned out, she was a model for a photo shoot this photographer was setting up with the bug with the swamp cooler as a back drop. The coolest part was that the photog asked the owner of this bug to move it forward about 10 feet or so. As a result of this request, this olelongrooffan got to see this bagged bug get some air in its lungs and it was fired up to make that 10 foot move. Pretty sweet exhaust note. And no, I did not hang around to inquire what the images that dude was gathering up were to be used for. I seriously doubt that I am their target market anyway.

Just around the corner was this sweet Karman Ghia that I fell in love with. Yeah, I know those wide whites are generally saved for Murican steel but they just looked so in place on this ride.

And although this olelongrooffan didn’t capture an image of it, this Squareback Type 3 was sporting an automatic transmission. There was an ad under the bonnet of this blue beauty touting that automatic. .

I love where the oil fill receptacle is on this ride. This olelongrooffan remembers that my first VW, a ’66 Bug, had the fuel filter underneath the hood up front. That was fun to get at after a heavy snow or ice storm back in the day.

And after heading over to the Red Sox concession stand for that pretzel and a sodie pop, I had to capture an image or two of this Porsche GT 3 Rs race car, apparently piloted by a driver of the female persuasion. Why my fellow Hoons may ask?

Because Race Car. Porsche Race Car.

And although many races have been attended by this olelongrooffan, I don’t ever remember having seen a Porsche race car in this livery. And the lack of a round decal on its side identifying it as a GT or similar didn’t help me to determine which series it races in. Although I would suspect one of my fellow Hoons knows this without a moment’s hesitation.

Just down the row a bit from that GT3 was a gussied up blue Thing. Yeah this one sported what appeared to be nearly every bit and piece that could be put on one of these spartan vehicles. Highlighted raised channels, fancy color matching wheels and foam rubber roll bar were just a few of the goodies this Thing possessed.

And while I’m not certain this was a factory offered color, it sure was bright and either blue or green, depending on the angle of the sun was while viewing it. Yeah, I mentioned gussied up. Check out the wood racks down there on the floor boards.

And there was more chrome and metal braided hoses that a Hoon could shake a stick at underneath the hood of that Thing.

A row over was this green Thing and I love it for its understated look. This olelongrooffan did notice it had clear turn signal lenses up front. It seems there is a Federal rule about the color of these lenses but I can’t remember exactly what it is. I believe that some countries in Europe mandate clear while here in the US, amber is the chosen color. Any thoughts are welcome my fellow Hoons.

There were three ragtops parked almost side by side with a Notch squeezed in just for good measure. I thought my fellow Hoons would enjoy comparing the similarities and subtle differences without a bunch of chatter from this olelongrooffan. Enjoy.




That is Mig on the passenger’s side of this one.

I love the ’57 ish Belair treatment on the side of this old Bug. A better view of it can be seen in the rear end shot of it seen above.

And that aforementioned Type III Notchback. I am not certain just how many of the 1,339,124 German built Type III Notchbacks and Fastbacks built over the 12 year lifetime of this model were in fact Notchbacks. But Wiki tells me there were 24,475 of them built in Brazil.

This olelongrooffan can literally count on one hand how many of them I remember seeing in my double nickel aged lifetime. Seriously, five of them. Notch only that, I remember where I saw them. The first I remember seeing was in Dresden, Tennessee while heading up to the Ozarks for Mom’s Last Bus Ride, the second was at the VDub show in Daytona Beach in 2009, the third was out in The Mile High City when I was out there helping a buddy remodel his 1908 built home, the fourth was actually a Porsche Notch seen out at the Porsche Club of America track days while I was shleping trailers up in The Birthplace of Speed. And this one. Just to let my fellow Hoons know, this olelongrooffan has seen a whole sh*tload of Ferraris, Lambos and the like over the past few years but I don’t remember where or when I have seen any of them. Nor how many. Yeah, I love being a Hoon.

Parked over by that green Thing was the original split window. I’m pretty sure these were offered in the early years that Bugs were imported into the US, changing to a small oval in ’53. Yet another bit of automotive trivia I am fairly confident about but still won’t earn this olelongrooffan one single copper penny.

But I do dig those vents on the side of this split window.

Now please allow this olelongrooffan a moment to digress about the Westie seen in the above image. Over the course of my lifetime, I have owned several VW’s, mostly bugs. And while I did own a ’72 Daycamper Type II during the later ’70s, all three of my older brothers owned some pretty cool Type IIs over the years. Well, as I was walking from right to left as shown in the above image, the Bus seen just off to the right was a pristine example and possibly could have arrived on one of those many trailers parked in a distant field. This pale yellow one, however, was in not quite the same condition. Can my fellow Hoons guess which one this olelongrooffan migrated over to? Yeah, that yellow one. See that couple standing just to the side of this Buster in the above image? Just after this olelongrooffan was gathering this image, they directed their attention my way and sheepishly commented, “Needs some canvas.” I responded back “Yeah, but it’s a daily driver. It looks like great fun and I am jealous.” And this olelongrooffan truly is. Have fun with that Westie, kids.

I am not sure how many of my fellow Hoons chose to read my recent post thanking the Hanzels for prompting this olelongrooffan to get back in the game. But those of my fellow Hoons who did read that post will know the significance of posting of yet another VW double cab by this olelongrooffan.

With clear turn signal lenses

As this olelongrooffan was wandering around, I checked under the front hood of this patina-ed out Type I and spotted this old school jack in the spare tire storage area up in the front front. This was the first time I had seen one of these, and remembered it, in over 30 years. Yeah, it sure brought back some memories of my ole ’66.

And while the rest of this bug was purposely in tatters, the area surrounding what appears to be nitrus set up was immaculate.

Yeah, that rusty bug was a sight to see. For what it was, that bug was nice and well done but I dunno though, rat rods, even if they are bugs, just aren’t really my thing. Especially fabricated ones.

The patina was even taken inside. T-shirt seat covers, Land O Lakes signs for door panels and all. Quite creative.

Even though this is a rusty tribute, this olelongrooffan expected the engine compartment to be a bit cleaner.

I didn’t get to hear it run but I would suspect it sounded just right. This olelongrooffan especially loved the VW sticker on the rear window though.

Over yonder there were a couple rusty buses much like the ones I spot up at the Daytona International Speedway at nearly every event this olelongrooffan and Brumos attend up there.

Just down a ways was this bus with barn doors on each side. Nowadays this is a pretty rare find out in the wild. Over the years I have seen a few at VDub shows but have only ever seen one out in the wild, so to speak.

And that one was a bright yellow one this olelongrooffan spotted out in a field in Arkansas many many moons ago. To this day, I rue the fact that this then 19 year old longrooffan didn’t stop and try to buy that old barn door bus. Or at least gather a photo or two of it.
And trust me my fellow Hoons, that latter occurence is something that will never happen again.
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan