Imagine If You Will
Imagine you're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.
A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.
That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: errrccchhhh... hang on a minute!
That's a whole other story. Although, when we think about what is actually going on here, it's as if we're traveling in another dimension. For all we know we very well could be living in the Twilight Zone. That's how unreal this situation really is.
These things just simply don't happen. Like, ever. At least not to us regular folks anyway. But let's, for arguments sake, say you weren't regular folks. Let's say you've been in the classic car affliction hobby for a number of years. Like nearly your entire life number of years. That's a whole lotta years. What about then. Does this even happen then. Not likely. Situations such as this, whether you're heavily involved in the classic car hobby or not, never happen. Ever. To anybody.
This is something that happens once in a lifetime and that's if you're extremely fortunate enough to have the Universe put you in the right place, at the right time, stars all aligned, and who knows what else had to happen to make all of this come about.
Feels as if we're living in a Back To The Future - Austin Powers mashup sequel in real time. Like Shaggadelic Baby! If it weren't for all of the bruising caused by constantly pinching ourselves we likely still wouldn't believe it. No doubt we wouldn't believe it if we were hearing this from someone we didn't know. And with al the Ai stuff floating around these days it's entirely possible we wouldn't believe it then either. Let's take it back a bit. Back to the beginning of it all.
Imagine going out car shopping in 1979 and you just happen to pull in to your neighborhood Volkswagen Dealership. There it is, a brand new Beetle Convertible sitting on the Showroom floor. Simply glistening in all its simplicity. Young or old, dare I say there hasn't been a car yet that elicits more "smiles per mile" than a classic VW Bug. Especially in Convertible mode.
Yep, top down, sun up, wind in your hair, cruisin' the Coast Highway in So. Cal.. Does it get any better? We doubt it. Another thing we highly doubt is that there are very many people from all walks of life that don't have a wonderful VW related "story" to tell. Even if you weren't fortunate enough to actually own one at some point in your life, then you knew someone that did. Brothers, sisters, cousins, Uncles, Aunts, neighbors, friends of the family, you name it. Over their 30 year lifespan Volkswagen's have touched more lives than possibly any other vehicle around.
It's no wonder they were known as the "People's Car". They were built for all the people, regardless of your position in life. Old or young, rich or poor, there was a VW out there somewhere callin' your name. Which was likely the case that day you walked into that Volkswagen Dealership. You heard a voice and more than likely it was a VW Beetle Convertible calling to you, "Take Me Home! Take Me Home!!" And that's exactly what many people did.
And then it happened. By that time the rumors had begun swirling around the car community that this very well could be the end. The end of the air-cooled VW Beetles as we knew them. What! Say it ain't so. Well, my friend. Unfortunately it was true. With all of the newly restrictive safety & SMOG rules being introduced with each and every new year throughout the 1970's Volkswagen, with their air-cooloed boxer engines, were struggling to keep up.
Try as they might, after seeing the new rules & regulations that were about to be implemented for the 1980 Model year, Volkswagen was finally forced to throw in the smock as it were. Yep, it was officially the end. Done deal. Finito, and all that. And to add insult to injury, word got out early that VW was about to pull the plug and before you knew it there were no VW Convertibles to be found. Not anywhere. At least not new one's anyway.
Once the Collector's heard about the whispers actually becoming true they began to go "Rainy Day" car shopping. Where there once stood VW Dealership showrooms with air -cooled Convertibles a plenty, almost overnight it was over. Nary a Beetle in sight. All the speculators went on a shopping spree. Their motive, to nab any and all new 1979 Convertibles and put 'em away for just a bit. Just long enough for a profitable price increase. And then back on the market they would go, off to the highest bidder. And for the next decade or so you'd see the "Low to No Miler's" show up in random places.
To add insult to injury, as you stared at the original window sticker(still in place on many of these Bugs) and focus in on the original $7K selling price, only to see the "new & disapproved" sales price proudly posted right next to it somewhere in the high $20K's to low $30K's, you instantly knew that, sadly enough, your dream of owning a "new" VW Beetle Convertible had come and gone. If there ever was an opportunity, it had now vanished. Your window had closed. As a matter of fact, slammed shut and locked to boot. But wait, there's more. Much more.
What if you were able to fast-forward yourself, let's say 46 years or so. How about to right now. Right here. Today. What if there was a way for you to buy a Dealership Showroom New, last year of production, end of a 30 year era of classic Volkswagen's, 1979 VW Beetle Convertible after all. Allow me to introduce to you the Fab Five. Yes, we've all heard of the Fab Four. They were Beatles in their own right. But here we have the Fab Five, and that's no jive.
Feast your eyes on these fine specimens. These beauties are just about as close to new as you're ever likely to find. With roughly the same amount of "delivery miles" on their odometer's as one you would've purchased fresh from the Dealership if you had been one of the fortunate few able to do so at that time. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. These aren't newly restored cars. Anything but. We've all heard the ol' saying "They're only original once." Now we know what they are referring to.
There's simply no way to replicate the single stage paintwork of an original, even with today's modern tools. Matter of fact, it's more "because" of today's modern tools. That fact, combined with all of the new "rules" to accompany those new tools makes an original impossible to replicate. While some may claim their restoration is better, for us Purist's there's simply no replacement for a truly original car. Especially an air-cooled VW Beetle Convertible.
There comes a point where things surpass the money threshold. A point where mere money simply won't cut it. You still need the other two key ingredients. Yes, money is extremely important but without the availability of such a car, combined with a willing Seller, someone who realizes it's time to let go and allow someone else to be the Caretaker, then nothing will happen. Not even the fattest bank account can overcome the Trifecta of Truth.
When it comes to the meaning of "new", you're lookin' at it. These Beetle's, with the exception of the beautiful Mars Red example, have never spent a night outside. Nor a day for that matter. Never been abused, scrubbed, polished, buffed, none of that. Original tops have never even been opened.
What you're looking at are five rare VW Convertibles that were transported from the Dealership Showroom floor in 1979, whisked off to their comfy 75 degree 24/7 climate controlled cocoon's for the next 46 years and are only just now seeing the light of day. Having been stored with aviation fuel and run on occasion just to keep the batteries up. No E85 goin' on here, no Sir. However, for the sake of safety (due to the extremely high pressure of the Fuel Injection system), we've taken it upon ourselves to replace the fuel lines as well as the fuel injectors to insure these beauties run at their optimal 53hp best.
As mentioned there is only one exception, that being the Mars Red Convertible. It was driven to a local Car Show and back in 1993, hence the "double miles" (66 original miles as compared to the low 30's of the others). All of them are still wearing their "as born with" Michelin & Continental "skinny" whitewalls. Unfortunately even thought these tires are in essence new (and look every bit of it), we have to say that due to their age they must not be relied upon for safe driving and should be replaced. However, they are perfect for "display" purposes. No way we'll be changing them any time soon. That will be entirely up to the new owner(s). They can not be duplicated as they are not available in today's market. Not to mention they add so much to the originality of these beauties.
So far the Silver one has been the only one of the five to see the sun again. Only because it was closest to the front of the hangar and we were able to extricate it without having to go through the laborious task of moving anything and everything imaginable to get a straight shot at the door. With a scant 34 original miles, stunning to say the least.
Next up will likely be one of the Triple Black "Epilogues". Having traveled some 32 miles since it left the VW Factory in Germany some 46 years ago it's highly unlikely you'll find a nicer example. A similar Epilogue with 841 miles sold a couple years back for $92K. That will give you some kind of an idea of the "numbers" 1979 Epilogue's at this level command.
Speaking of rare, there were only 900 of the Triple Black's built. Rare to see two of them in one spot. Not to mention one of them being a September 1979 build (see photo below) it has the updated 85mph speedometer. The folks at the VW Factory did this in anticipation of meeting the new laws. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Again, having only traveled a deliciously low 31 miles since new, you're not likely to see too many of these at your local Cars & Coffee any time soon.
Not gonna lie, even taking into account the rarity of the Epilogue's, it's the Triple White that has our attention. Can you imagine how nice that all white interior is having never seen the sun. Not to mention barely even driven. With only 31 "delivery" miles on the odometer it simply doesn't get much "newer" than this.
And with the original top having never even been opened since day one it's difficult to imagine a better example even exists. If one does we'd certainly love to see it. Yes, we've seen the so called "low miler's" before but they were measured in the hundred's of miles, had been driven, tops down and all of that. None of that going on here.
And not to be left off the Dream List we have the exquisite Mars Red example. We doubt there's anyone out there that doesn't like a Red car. In fact they even hold Car Shows specifically for classic Red cars only. That's how deep the love for Red cars runs. Likely the most popular color of all the colors, just not the rarest of the bunch in this circle of friends. Having traveled just a short 66 miles in the past 46 years. And since it was indeed driven to a local Car Show in 1993 we have no way of verifying if the top was ever opened or not. We'll leave that to the new owner to ascertain.
So there you have it. That pretty much spells out what's going on in this world. Where do we go from here? That still remains to be seen. They will without a doubt be going to new homes and new Caretakers but at what level still remains to be determined. On a side note, we have all of the Titles to accompany each car as well as the Top Boots, Tool Kits, Jacks, assorted original paperwork. As they say, the whole kit 'n kaboodle. Whatever that means.
In conclusion, we're not entirely sure which direction we'll be going with these five classics. The only thing we are certain of is that they will be sold. That much we do know. Whether it be at a high end auction(which we're hoping to avoid so as to not add any unnecessary miles) or perhaps an online auction site. Again, not all that fond of that option either as we are fairly confident that a Dealer (or Dealer's) will more than likely scoop them up only to resell them again.
We're hoping they go to a private party in some way, whether it be to add to a Collection or to be driven. Someone that understands what's being offered here and how amazing this opportunity actually is. It's not often cars at this level ever see the public. Let alone many that have received such climate controlled care over the past near half century as these five amazing examples obviously have. More often than not they go from Collection to Collection behind the scenes. Secret handshake type stuff. Either way we want to see them go on to live their best lives. That is our No.1 goal.
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