Aircooled VW South Africa

New aircooled vw owner here.
Recently bought this beachbuggy from a good friend of our family.
Hope to have many many fun miles in it

hennels wrote:New aircooled vw owner here.
Recently bought this beachbuggy from a good friend of our family.
Hope to have many many fun miles in it

Nice looking buggy!

Welcome to the forum.

Oh, I know that buggy very well indeed. Since 1998. I know all kinds of secrets about that one, like how it won best of show, how it's original canopy is lying in a ravine in du Toit's kloof, how it had, at one stage, CCC plates, how it could never match Rumours for speed , how it drove into the back of Rumours, who built the box in the back, etc.

Hello!

I'm joining you from Bergen, Norway, I hope that's okay.

I'm 49, and I've been into aircooled VWs since my first car at 18. I now own an 11 window microbus, that I have restored "from scratch". Here is "a couple" of pictures from the restoration of my bus:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... e468257829

We have an active VW-scene here in Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. Our club, Volkswagen Auto Club Bergen (http://www.vwacb.com ) has approx. 280 members, and activities around the year. We have members of all ages, from 14-15 to 70+. The climate is nothing like yours, with 2300 mm rain per year, but we are happy to take our aircooled ones for a spin when the weather is nice. Some members use their cars all year round, too, with snow in the winter (2-4 months of snow).

I'm also member of a small bunch of VW-addicts called RZR (http://www.regenstadt.com ). Feel free to check out our websites

I'm joining this forum to find out more about VW in S.A., and get new ideas, and maybe new friends? I really love the design of the Rostyle wheels, and I'm looking forward to browsing your forum

Cheers from Norway
Svein

Welcome.

Nice part of the world. I hope to visit it one day, if I can afford it.

What is it about Rostyles that foreigners seem to be so fond of? They do nothing to compliment an acVW's styling and are akin to a national tragedy, arguably on par with genocide, ANC corruption and/or our abysmal education system.

Welcome all newbies!

Svein, don't mind Merlin, he can't help himself.

Most of the rest of us like Rostyles and are proud they come from SA.

They are not South African, only the wide fives are. The design is from the UK, used on Ford and Minis and such also Opel, I think.

Ron&Gill wrote:They are not South African, only the wide fives are. The design is from the UK, used on Ford and Minis and such also Opel, I think.

The wheels you are referring to are indeed similar to SA Rostyles, but I've never heard of a UK version of those wheels for 205x5 ACVWs. Even though Rostyles may be copied from or inspired by the wheels you talk about, they are indeed an SA design, hence all the interest from foreign ACVW fans; you can't get them anywhere else.

And "wide fives" are not South African, we just used them after German production changed to 100x4 in 1966 or so. Our buses and Beetles got exactly the same wheel design as German ACVWs, except for Beetle models that came standard with Rostyles.

I was refering to the wide five (5X205) Rostyles being South African. The style (or design), the whole steel rim, spoke design, silver star, black background thing is know as the Rubery Owen Style (ROstyle) Rubery Owen is a British engineering company from Rubery in the West-Midlands.

It is true that only South African Beetles came out with them and there were 15" and 14" available in 5X205 PCD.

Were the 14" for Fleetlines?

OK, I get you now. No, Rostyles were only fitted to Beetles. I think S and SP models got 14in.

I looked up Rostyle wheel on the Wikipedia, and Volkswagen wasn't even mentioned?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostyle_wheel

They don't seem to conclude whether the name stands for "Rover style" og "Rubery Owen style" either...?

But then again, Wikipedia...

Well, let's see. If it was indeed Ro(ver)style, then the ones used on Fords would have been Fostyles, and the ones on Midgets would have been Mistyles, or MGstyles, or Mo(rris garage)Styles. But no, they are ROstyles because they were all made by Rubery Owen.

Anyway, if they were Ro(ver)styles, they would break.

Hi Guys my name is Leon and am a BIG beetle fan. In my younger years I rebuilt beetles as a hobby but then sarted a family. I recently finished a 58 build up an am looking to selling her again to start a new project a beetle rod for my eldest son.

I would love to get more involved in the beetle scene again. where could I post photos of my yello beaut !!

Hope to meet u guys some day at a meet.

Regards

Leon ( musicman)

Welcome!

Welcome Musicman.

If you tell us where you stay , we'll tell you where we play.

With Beetles and Busses not guitars and drums.