Time to Roam Magazine Issue 3 - June/July 2013 | Page 16

VW Kombi timeline
1947 Dutch VW importer Ben
Pon comes up with the idea
for a workhorse van after
visiting the Beetle factory.
He completes some sketches,
convincing management to go
ahead with production.

1949 Testing begins on the
prototype, shown publicly for
the first time at the Geneva
Motor Show.

1950 Volkswagen releases
the ‘Type 2’ from its factory
in Wolfsburg Germany. It’s
unique because it places
the driver directly above
the front wheels and is
rear-engined.

1951 Kombi goes RV –
The Westfalia camper is
introduced, taking its name
from the German town where
the a coach building company
does the camper conversion.

own a Kombi, thus reliving their childhood.
Many Kombi children have their first
experiences of driving in a Kombi. Without
power steering, ABS, electric windows,
modern suspension, air conditioning and air
bags, the driving experience is certainly more
holistic. Kombi drivers tend to be careful
drivers, partly due to the forward positioning
of the driver, the vehicle’s inability to corner
at anything more than a sensible speed and
to some extent, the ever increasing value of
their asset.
Kombis have undergone some
manufacturers’ modifications over the
decades. The basic ‘splitty’, ‘bay’ and ‘wedge’
varieties, referring to the windscreens,
have been further altered by owners to
form customised Kombis that are extreme
adaptations, guaranteed to turn heads. They
have been shortened to resemble ‘Smart’
cars, lengthened to stretch-limousine luxury,
lowered to within an inch of the tarmac and
heightened to resemble a double-decker bus.
Some Kombis have even had the body of a
VW Beetle grafted permanently to their roof
resulting in headroom with extra windows.
The surfing culture has long since adopted
the Kombi as its vehicle of choice, making
imagery of waxed long boards, sand, surf and
sunsets synonymous with the VW. This came

16

www.timetoroam.com.au

1952 The utility
flat top tray model
is introduced.

1963 The rear door is widened and an option
for a sliding door for the passenger/cargo
section of the Kombi is created.

1953 Kombis are
imported to Australia
for the first time and
the following year
they are assembled at
VW’s Clayton factory in
Melbourne.

about due to surfers’ nomadic lifestyle and
the capacity of the Kombi to easily transport a
longboard and accommodate the rider in the
most remote and enticing of wave locations.
What began as the utilisation of a practical
vehicle has become a social cult, meshed by
a mutual love, where drivers wave at each
other -despite their only connection being the
Kombi they are both driving. Buying a Kombi
is like being adopted into a family. Other
owners will go out of their way to compare
and contrast their vehicles and have the ability
to talk endlessly about both their Kombi
adventures and the arcane details of the
mechanics and cosmetics of their pride and
joy. Friendships are forged despite little other
common ground, facilitated by nationwide
and state clubs dedicated to the mutual
passion.
The Kombi has undergone a transformation
of ownership over the years, but it can’t shake
the hippie connection. A mere three days of
Woodstock in the ‘Summer of Love’ of 1969
connected the Kombi with the young and free
in the minds of the pedestrian mainstream,
boosting its image to an iconic status that is
firmly interwoven in popular culture. It’s
been there ever since, and will be for many
generations to come.

1968 The T2 Kombi is released with
a larger 1.6 litre engine. This model
swaps the split-front window for
a bay window, for this reason the
much sought after pre-1968 Kombis
with their push out windows are
known as “splitties”.