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At its 26th annual gathering of air-cooled folk wagons, the organizer used, Friends of Volkswagen de Catalunya, the occasion to celebrate Herbie. This year marks 50 years since it was first shown in Catalan cinemas. The film about the charming and self-willed bubble premiered in 1968, but did not reach Catalan cinemas until 17 September 1969. In Norway, Herbie appeared in October '69. The film "On two wheels in the swing" was a box office success for Walt Disney.

Who really was Herbie?

As in all movies, it's not about a single car. The Herbie that was used on the track, for example, had a chassis and engine from a Porsche 356. Other Herbies were used in various stunts. The model used in the quiet action was a completely stock 1963 model with California roll on the front bumper, sport wheels and sport seats. It is the we associate with Herbie. In 2015, it went to auction for a staggering 126 US dollars and set a record at auction house Hemmings.

Precision

It was the Catalan resort town Tossa de Mar which was to receive hundreds of people's wagons this autumnal Sunday. We arrived in town 10 minutes before the event was due to start. The main street was closed, but could we see any air-cooled public transports? Where were they? Had we got the time wrong?

Looking for a parking space, we were left waiting at a roundabout. Then they came - a whole column of people's wagons and buses from a campsite a couple of kilometers further south. In an instant the main street became Avinguda de Catalunya filled up by bubbles on one side and buses and pickups on the other. The upper part of the avenue was reserved for "drag races". The precision was due to the fact that the city's police only allowed the closure of the main street between 10.30 and 13.00. If the convoy had arrived earlier, there could have been traffic chaos.

cool aircooled — Impressive collection of folk wagons. Type 1 on one side of the avenue – and Type 2 on the other.

Lots of public transport in Catalonia

Catalonia is a region in Spain that includes the city of Barcelona, as well as Tarragona in the south and Girona in the north. On the French side, large parts of the French region of Occitanie are referred to as Catalan Country. Catalonia has its own flag and its own language. Last year, Spanish Catalonia made an attempt to secede from Spain. The attempt was put down by force. Madrid never supports separatists.

On the Spanish and French sides, there are around 10 million people who call themselves Catalans. As a car enthusiast, this crowd can be described by the number of cars that took part in this event. I am sure that at no time would it have been possible to collect as many air-cooled passenger cars in, for example, Norway.

PHOTOS

All images can be viewed at a larger scale by clicking on them.

The entrance to the main street, Avinguda de Catalunya, which was closed for the occasion.

See

Properly dressed after being at Aircooled Tossa de Mar. Note the logo "Tossa Aircooled" with a motif from Tossa de Mar - which is not so similar to the Disney company Buena Vista 😀

Someone told me that this was the world's largest exhibition of air-cooled public cars. I do not doubt that. It was simply enormous.

A wonderful mix of bubbles and buses from all over Europe met at this year's Volksworld. Not only in the exhibition areas, but also out in the car parks, and on the lawns where people spent the night in their buses. Only public transport buses, of course. Visitors were encouraged to arrive the evening before to avoid the queues on the opening day.

Every year many a veteran VW has problems with the clutch in the last bit before arrival.

The event was held at Sundown Park racecourse in Esher, south-west of London. I was impressed by how many Belgians, Dutch and French had crossed the channel with their bubbles, T1 and T2 buses, Type3 notchback and fastback, - as well as beautiful Karmann Ghia. I saw one Courierwagen and a couple of Brazilian VWs. A 2-door Audi 100 Mk1 was among the public cars and I also saw a K70. Otherwise, most of it was air-cooled.

It is clear that early passenger coaches are worth their weight in gold down in Europe. Several exhibitors at Volksworld had specialized in furnishing solutions. It is possible to spend a lot of thought and money on the interior. I really liked solutions based on wooden veneer sheets. It reinforced the veteran character in a nice way. Others bet on plastic-fantastic. T70 buses from the 2s are well suited for such solutions.

VolksWorld revolves a lot around Volkswagen's buses, camping and multivan solutions. The very latest T6-based news of the day was also presented. I will tell more about that in a later post. But the focus on the early VW buses indicates how valuable these cars have become. If you have a forest wreck that can be saved, you are probably sitting on a gold mine. However, I missed the pickups, both single cabs and double cabs. There were only a few of them. I suspect that the high prices, especially of the T1 buses, have meant that the pickups have been used as donor cars for bus projects.

volksworld In terms of style, there is a lot going on in the rat look and lowering with extreme wheel angles. They are tough and very nice photo subjects, but I can't imagine them driving very well. Personally, I prefer more original cars, - probably because I experienced these in my own boyhood days in the 60s. My mate had a T1 double cab, the neighbors a 53 model bubble with a split rear window, and it was great when my cousins came to visit in their lemon yellow 59 bubble.

I never get tired of looking at public carriages. Over the weekend I got to study more than a hundred pieces in detail, - many of them in the car park. The exhibition continued there. And if I were to look at all the cars, I would have to spend another day.

I took lots of pictures. Far too many to show in this post, - but promise to continue posting pictures under the "Volkswagen" link on the right.