Anyone remember ever seeing one of these, the Volkswagen that is.

"At Hobie sanctioned reggattas"
Wow, Must be class legal then. Wonder how many they sold. I never saw one on the road. Looks pretty cool though. I had a '64 in High School with the flip out safari windows up front, for some reason it got nicknamed the "stabin wagon" (nobody got killed in it).

Jeremy will absolutely want one.

What's it rate?

;^0

I remember they were promoted in the Hobie Hotline. Probably about 1973. There was definately a Colman connection since VW did a "Coleman Special" at about the same time.

I expect that the Hobie version was simply a dealer installed "tape packge", with the roof rack and sailboard added to whatever was in stock.

I have seen these listed on E-bay several times.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/postcards/hobiecatvanagon_a.jpg

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/postcards/camper_colemanpkg_b.jpg

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/postcards/camper_colemanpkg_a.jpg

Bet you wish you still had that, they're selling for BIG Bucks. My first car was a 74 bus, had a similar name for probably the same reason.

They actually came much later - Hobie didn't start with the Alpha sailboards until the mid-late 80's.

The ad is from 1986.

As usual, Matt is correct.

The T3 generation of the Volkswagen Type 2, also known as the Vanagon in the U.S., as the Transporter or Caravelle in Europe, and also to some in the United Kingdom and Ireland as the T25, was built from 1980 until 1991. It was the last of the rear-engined Volkswagens. Compared to its predecessor, the Microbus, the Vanagon was larger and heavier, with square corners replacing the rounded edges of the older models.

Yeup, owned both of them the Kombi Bus and the Vanagon

That looks like a water-cooled bus. I didn't think they had those until 82 or so?

Either way.

Platform Volkswagen Group T3 platform
Engine(s) 2.1L (watercooled) F4
1.9L (watercooled) F4
2.0L (aircooled) F4
1.6L (aircooled) F4
1.6L (diesel) I4

How did they get under phone lines? I suppose they let mast down? :P

Easy yhey use the carbon mast to get to 2.21 gigawatts for the time-space continuum folding trick.
The Libyan terrorists from Back to the future must have ripped it off. I tell you, that's no ordinary bus!

There are plans to bring out a new version of the famous VW van,
designwise vans dont get much better than this:

If you hadn't seen the original khombi then this new baby is just ugly, if you owned an original it must be a winner, I guess like the new Fiat 500 and the VW Beetle which have both become top sellers in Europe.