Aircooled VW South Africa

One of the earliest buggies moulded in South Africa was the Glitterbug. I scanned the ads below from magazines dated 1969.





By strange coincidence, a lady called Collette Burgoyne contact me a few months ago. Turned out that her father owned 'Paddy Manufacturing Co.' in Cape Town who built the Glitterbug. She was actually the girl sitting in the buggy in the ad above, although she is slightly 'older' these days.

Collette sent me these pics from their family album this weekend, which I'd like to share with you. They were all taken in East London in the early 70's. I've got a good idea that the blue one below is the same buggy from the ad?





Glitterbug nose emblem



This pic is slightly confusing, as the pink buggy is a different shape (EMPI Imp lookalike), and the green one is either a Kestrel or Sand Shark, with the blue one at the back probably a real Glitterbug.

The Imp was EMPI's answer to the American Manx. Instead of just copying the looks of the Manx, EMPI completely re-designed the IMP into this design, which is quite attractive:



I have never seen an IMP in South Africa before though, but in 2007 I snapped these cell phone pics of an EMPI Imp clone in Pretoria



Note the bulge on the nose in front of the driver, it is meant for an external rev counter, a typical feature of the IMP, as well as the portruding oval on the side pod, for the EMPI logo:



It seems like these Imp copies were also built by Glitterbug, although I always thought that the nose badge was just put on it by the owner?

I`m a proud owner of a Glitter Buggy with a all-weather hard top never new they were that old.
Just glad not running a 1200CC

headworks#1 wrote:I`m a proud owner of a Glitter Buggy with a all-weather hard top never new they were that old.
Just glad not running a 1200CC

Please post a pic of your buggy?

Thanks! Buggy looks awesome! Do you still have the nose emblem?

Unfortunately not.

Does it have any other placque or something to ID it as a Glitterbug?

Hi Pine,

The Reverent from who I bought the Buggy from told me its a Glitter bug him and his dad build they where from Belville Cape Town

Wonder what is the story with the rope/string on the fender in the first beach pic?

beetlepower wrote:Wonder what is the story with the rope/string on the fender in the first beach pic?

I assume it was used to tie a surf board to the roof of the buggy?

Instant clothes line to dry them wet swimming trunks