Thanks to its simple design, the Beetle has always been a grateful object for conversions of all kinds. The frame construction, the infinite number of available accident vehicles and the worldwide unique spare parts supply, together with the proverbial Volkswagen service, promised the best conditions for giving your own body on a Beetle or bus platform a long life. It was of little use for Volkswagen to refuse to supply other manufacturers with floor assemblies without bodies.
The VW concept as the basis
Over the years, countless coupés and convertibles with special bodies were created, which found fans all over the world. In most cases, it was "only" enough to change the exterior and replace it with handcrafted metal or plastic molds. However, some of the more committed projects were also given modified technology and more or less discreetly upgraded engines - often from related Porsche models.
Over 2000 conversions
As this trend continues to this day, an almost infinite wealth of models has accumulated over the past decades, which Thomas Braun has now cataloged and chronologically processed for the first time.
With informative texts on the technology and history of the more than 2000 special conversions and with numerous, partly unpublished photos, the entire diversity of a scene can be experienced that is still active.
Hard work
Thanks to the numerous photos, it is possible to experience the full diversity of a scene that remains as active as ever. As a result, the reader receives an almost inexhaustible overview of many VW special bodies from more than 470 manufacturers.
This result is due to years of detective work by the author, Thomas Braun. He is a prehistorian and early historian by training, but has also written the standard work on the Brazilian sports car brand "Puma". In his spare time, he drives vintage VW cars and continues to document the history of special bodies based on the Beetle.
A first look
Admittedly, the book and its title had aroused my curiosity. The Beetle and VW buses are an integral part of my life. I have welded, improved, driven, cursed and admired numerous conversions. I'll never forget my 412 E Variant in moss green with a Type 4 engine and 120 hp. I was looking forward to the book and was not disappointed.
As I had suspected, the 450-page tome, divided into chapters after decades, flooded my brain with many unknown variants of special bodies and conversions. I eagerly read about the beginnings at Denzel in Vienna or the fire at Hebmüller in Wuppertal. The 1956 Verga from Switzerland or the V2 Sagitta were also exciting. The Hebmüller and Denzel histories are well known to me, the Verga was completely new to me and I had come across the V2 several times before. But for the book review, I wanted to check the substance of such an encyclopaedia a little. And to do this, I had to venture into the area I know a lot about.
Pros & cons
Of course, a book like this provides a lot of information: 2000 special bodies from almost 500 manufacturers - that's quite a lot on 450 pages. And it focuses on the VW Beetle and the bus as well as a few examples based on Porsche. For fans of air-cooled VWs in general and special conversions in particular, this book will take a lot of work off their hands. The table of contents lists the manufacturers alphabetically per chapter, making it quick and easy to navigate through the wealth of material. But quantity is one thing, content is another. Even the layout is simple, almost like something from the 1980s - only in color.
The four-column page layout makes it difficult to keep track of so much information. Red dividing lines make an effort to channel the flow of reading. Given the complexity of the book's content and the associated task of organizing it, this is at best a compromise.
It becomes more difficult when you come across the first mistakes: Martin Pfundner's standard Denzel work tells you that Denzel did not build 350 of them. The Porsche 356/1, which was slightly re-bodied in Switzerland in the 1950s following an accident, is treated as a "Porsche 356 replica". And the study of a minivan created for Volkswagen at Porsche in the mid-1950s as the Type 700 cannot be assigned to either Porsche or the model status. Admittedly, three examples from 2000, but Denzel, Porsche 356/1 and the type history of VW and Porsche in the fifties are not a secret commando matter, but can be easily and clearly researched even on the Internet. Personally, I have some doubts about the research reliability of the rest of the book.
Conclusion
The author Dr. Thomas Braun has ventured into a vast and comprehensive field and has diligently sifted and collected. His numerous references in the book suggest that he often had to rely on the Internet. A blessing and a curse at the same time. On the one hand, you can get facts and results quickly and easily. On the other hand, the quality on the Internet is often not comparable to the quality of recognized specialist publications.
The book presents a vast number of partly previously unseen and unpublished pictures, touches on many special bodies or even describes them in several pages, such as the Rometsch-based bodies. This varies according to importance and source situation. On the other hand, it is not possible to take everything from the text up to the last point. Some conclusions seem to have been researched too hastily, which may be overlooked here and there in view of the wealth of material.
But with a price of EUR 59.90 and the claim to be an encyclopaedia, one could perhaps have expected a little more. Or perhaps it would have been better to have dispensed with the details of the better-known designs and concentrated on the much rarer ones from all over the world. But perhaps there will be a second improved edition one day, until then everyone has to decide for themselves whether 2000 special bodies from 500 manufacturers that are otherwise hardly documented in book form with a few errors in content are worth almost EUR 60.00 to them.
Bibliographical information
- Title: Durchgeboxt - The big encyclopedia of small series and custom-built vehicles based on VW Beetles and buses
- Author: Thomas Braun
- Language: German
- Publisher: Schneider Media/Delius Klasing, 1st edition 2018
- Format: Hardcover, 231 x 275 mm
- Scope: 484 pages, over 1750 illustrations
- ISBN: 978-3-667-11444-0
- Price: EUR 59.90
- Buy/order: Online at amazon.de, online at Delius-Klasing Verlag or in a well-assorted bookstore
