Today's Shoot and TEST DRIVE - 1975 Volkswagen T2b WESTFALIA

[cawimmer430]

Shot and drove this little sweetheart today! And she's a special car. This 1975 Volkswagen T2b WESTFALIA Camper Van has a 2.0 Volkswagen-Limbach engine with 80-horsepower. It was apparently a popular engine swap back in the day so it makes this car pretty original.






The client is a VW enthusiast and mainly travels around Germany, France, Italy and Croatia with this van. It has accumulated over 259,000 km on the original engine and transmission.

For the shoot we traveled in two vehicles - me in the VW, he on his new _______ (see the end of this post). Anyway, some driving impressions.



INTERIOR ERGONOMICS and SPACE
Seating position is decent. It's great for shorter drivers (with shorter legs) but I could manage. However on longer journeys with lots of shifting and braking my legs would get tired from the movement needed to operate the clutch and brake pedal. There are few controls aside from lights, blinkers and wiper controls plus a [broken] clock, tachometer and a display which shows you if your blinker, headlights etc. are activated.



STEERING
Steering feedback? WHAT IS THAT? This car had none. How did it feel? Imagine you're in a canoe on the stormy seas attempting to maneuver in a straight line. Yeah, GOOD LUCK!!! There was also no power steering and maneuvering this van at low speeds really required muscular power. It got better at higher speeds but the steering feedback was still awful. Driving this car on country roads or on the Autobahn really required you to be alert and focused at all times (which is the normal thing to do when driving ANY car). Respect to this client for driving to Italy and Croatia and France in this thing!



TRANSMISSION
The 4-speed manual transmission was absolutely awful. First, there was no precision in the shift patterns. Every gear change was a chore and getting into every gear was a pain in the behind. NOT FUN. Second, the gearing was very low. Shifting from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 1st was really a pain. 2nd to 3rd was ok, 3rd to second was a pain, 3rd to 4th and 4th to 3rd was ok. Engaging reverse was problematic as I had to push the gear in, pull it hard left and back - and that's where my right thigh was and had to be to operate the accelerator pedal. Totally annoying.

German cities are limited to 50 km/h in general so naturally I want to shift into 4th gear to lower engine RPM and noise. Nope, does not work here as the engine begins to stutter. You actually need to give it more gas and accelerate to 55-60 km/h, THEN shift into 4th gear. In essence if you stuck to the speed limit you'd be driving in 3rd gear, which is noisy.



ENGINE
This T2b has an air-cooled VW-Limbach engine with 2 liters cc and about 80-horsepower. I can't tell you much about refinement as it was in the back of the car and I couldn't feel it vibrate at all from that distance. However it was really loud in neutral and at speeds above 80 km/h. In fact at 80 km/h it was already pretty noisy.

Power wise I guess the engine wasn't bad. The car wasn't underpowered for what it was. In my opinion the engine had more than enough power and acceleration was pretty brisk. The problem was the low gearing of the four transmission gears.



HANDLING
As expected, handling is nothing special. It drives like a bus. That combined with the awful steering feedback means you're best taking it nice and slow. On the Autobahn you really had to watch out for side winds and attempt to keep this thing straight. I didn't drive fast, pretty much 80-90 km/h the whole time. At one point I did reach 110 km/h but backed down as the handling was just too unpredictable.



COMFORT
In terms of pure comfort, it was ok. The seats were pretty soft but didn't offer any side support. The suspension was rather hard, but the soft seats made up for that. On bad roads the comfort was bad, on good roads it was good.



VERDICT
Man, cars have come a long way! I enjoy driving these classics to get a glimpse of how cars from this era drove and I am glad that we live in times where cars are just so DAMN GOOD. The VW T2b was awful to drive, handled poorly and was noisy - but the experience was still fun for me.

A really nice thing about driving this van through Munich, the Autobahn and on country roads was that fellow cars trailing behind you will show respect. This is a slow car, it accelerates slow but nobody tailgated me or made aggressive "pissed-off" overtaking moves on me. Often I had trouble engaging the gears so after the light turned green I'd take a little while to accelerate and hit the next the gear. Some kids and older people would smile when they saw this car at a light. Any car that makes people smile must be a good thing! 




More snapshots!





















On country roads!





On the Autobahn! - The engine was screaming at 80 km/h (50 mph) thanks in part to the low gearing. You didn't want to drive the car fast. Acceleration was ok.






And here's why the client insisted that I drive his van - he wanted to cruise along with his 2018 BMW Nine-T Motorcycle!

[Eye of the Tiger]

Coooool

[NomisR]

They need to come out with a new one, it's long over due.

[Eye of the Tiger]

They need to come out with a new one, it's long over due.

Routan. 

[NomisR]

Routan. 

Reskinned Caravan is not the same

[Eye of the Tiger]

Reskinned Caravan is not the same

Eurovan?

[cawimmer430]

One thing I forgot to mention were the BRAKES.

Horribly weak and practically ineffective. This thing had drum brakes and their stopping power was so poor. You literally had to push the brakes to the max in order to get any sort of "stopping power" out of them. Good thing I always kept a safety distance from the cars in front of me.

[SJ_GTI]

I know it isn't the same van, but it made me think of this...

[FoMoJo]

One thing I forgot to mention were the BRAKES.

Horribly weak and practically ineffective. This thing had drum brakes and their stopping power was so poor. You literally had to push the brakes to the max in order to get any sort of "stopping power" out of them. Good thing I always kept a safety distance from the cars in front of me.

Older vehicles makes for a much more exciting driving experience.

[cawimmer430]

I know it isn't the same van, but it made me think of this...

[cawimmer430]

Older vehicles makes for a much more exciting driving experience.

Except when you have to deal with all the bullshit paper work from German insurance companies... 

[Eye of the Tiger]

Except when you have to deal with all the bullshit paper work from German insurance companies... 

Really? In Merica, old cars cost about $50/year to insure.

[CaminoRacer]

One thing I forgot to mention were the BRAKES.

Horribly weak and practically ineffective. This thing had drum brakes and their stopping power was so poor. You literally had to push the brakes to the max in order to get any sort of "stopping power" out of them. Good thing I always kept a safety distance from the cars in front of me.

Sounds about right. VW Beetles had OK brakes but the vans weight twice as much.

[cawimmer430]

Really? In Merica, old cars cost about $50/year to insure.

I'm paying almost 1200,- Euros a year for insurance. 

[cawimmer430]

Sounds about right. VW Beetles had OK brakes but the vans weight twice as much.

It was a fun experience, but it makes you realize how good cars have become. You really need to be a purist and VW T2 fan to appreciate this car, which for me was a bit of a "death trap on wheels".

[Eye of the Tiger]

I'm paying almost 1200,- Euros a year for insurance. 

For your new Benz? That'd be nornal here. I'm paying about $800/year for Doge and Fiesta.

[cawimmer430]

For your new Benz? That'd be nornal here. I'm paying about $800/year for Doge and Fiesta.

Yep, and limited to measly 12,000 km a year. I already have 14,000+ km on the car so I upgraded to 20,000 km a year and am now paying 1900,- Euros!

[Eye of the Tiger]

Yep, and limited to measly 12,000 km a year. I already have 14,000+ km on the car so I upgraded to 20,000 km a year and am now paying 1900,- Euros!

Do they actuallly check the kilometers? They don't chevk mine. I just say that I drive 2000 miles/year.

[Laconian]

I'm paying almost 1200,- Euros a year for insurance. 

He was joking, 'murican insurance can get bad... though EUR 1200 might be what teenagers pay :\

[veeman]

That is so awesome you get to drive and photograph these classic cars.  Love the fact a lot of these classic cars you shoot are actually driven and not garage queens.

[Galaxy]

"This T2b has an air-cooled VW-Limbach engine with 2 liters cc and about 80-horsepower."

So compared to a T1 basically a GTI. Plus the T2 solved the overheating issues the T1 had.

[cawimmer430]

Do they actuallly check the kilometers? They don't chevk mine. I just say that I drive 2000 miles/year.

Typically they don't but they may periodically check and if you have more mileage than you claimed then there comes a hefty financial penalty.

[cawimmer430]

He was joking, 'murican insurance can get bad... though EUR 1200 might be what teenagers pay :\

My insurance rate has actually gone down from years of driving accident-free. It typically starts out here at 140% and then goes down by 5% per year. In the past I paid much more. But now I qualify as a safe driver so what I pay has gone down big time.

I believe in neighboring Austria the insurance is based on the type of car you drive and the type of person who will buy them. So hot hatches like the Volkswagen Golf GTI or my Mercedes-Benz A250 are typically bought by younger, sports-oriented drivers and the insurance they pay is out of this world. Literally.

[cawimmer430]

That is so awesome you get to drive and photograph these classic cars.  Love the fact a lot of these classic cars you shoot are actually driven and not garage queens.

It is always an honor to drive these old cars, and I have to say props to the owners for letting me drive their sweethearts. That takes a lot of courage to say the least, especially since it does take awhile to get used to driving these classic cars which drive so differently from the modern stuff that we are all used to.

My next project may be a Mercedes-Benny 280SEL 3.5 W109 S-Class with a twist - the owner had the V8 engine removed and installed a 55-horsepower naturally aspirated Diesel engine from a W115 200D! Total insanity, and why would someone do that!? But hey, it makes the car unique!

[cawimmer430]

"This T2b has an air-cooled VW-Limbach engine with 2 liters cc and about 80-horsepower."

So compared to a T1 basically a GTI. Plus the T2 solved the overheating issues the T1 had.

Indeed, it was a very quick for a vehicle of its type. The engine had enough power. The transmission was the biggest problem. Very low gearing, and as a result the car was very loud at low and especially high speeds.

[cawimmer430]

Edited and finalized natural light shot from the shoot.