Five wins!
03/08/2026
This week, I was able to practice a little humility and modesty and have great admiration for those who really know everything in the Volkwagen Commercial Vehicles classic car collection in Hanover. Tobias Twele is an absolute connoisseur of his subject, the project manager in the areas of heritage management, brand protection and brand building gave us a tour of the collection of around 150 vehicles in the classic car department of VW Commercial Vehicles. For Bulli fans, the place is a kind of Aladdin's cave, the place where Bulli history is preserved and nurtured. We will soon be going into more detail about the scope and nature of the services offered at Vahrenwalderstrasse in Hanover. But first things first: everything can be found there, from the original 1950 Bulli to customer vehicles in the restoration workshop. However, one white T3 in particular caught my eye, especially its type designation on the rear and a small sticker next to it with the South African flag.
Plenty of displacement for the VW Transporter
I had never heard of a VW Microbus 2.6i, the exotic nature of this type designation and even deeper considerations about a possible engine within the VW range led me to a dead end. It couldn't have been a six-cylinder engine, surely Oettinger installed it in the bus? There was also something visually wrong with this T3. Well, the wide grille for the radiator at the bottom and the twin headlights above it are obviously recognizable differences. But there was something else.
Tobias Twele then enlightened me: This 1994 Transporter from South Africa was fitted as standard with an Audi five-cylinder engine, which was installed longitudinally behind the rear axle, as with other engines in the VW T3. To compensate for the greater overall height, the floor of the load compartment in the rear was raised in South Africa. For the passengers, the side windows were also enlarged slightly lower down so that more light could flow through the vehicle. With up to 136 hp and the typical five-cylinder sound from the rear, the driving experience should be a very special one. The T3 continued to be built in southern Africa until 2002 - ten years longer than in Hanover. So the Bulli fan has learned something again.
Audi five-cylinder engine with 136 hp installed at an angle in the rear
