According to the official certificate issued by the AutoMuseum, she rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg on February 25, 1954, before heading straight to Munich and the VW dealer MAHAG.
53 years later, I found her in Štrigova, in Croatia’s Međimurje region. And where else would she be but in a barn?
She was in pieces, but complete — something that would prove rather useful later on.
We signed the purchase agreement on September 7, 2007. By pure coincidence, on that very same date, “just” 16 years later, the Beetle passed its roadworthiness inspection, received new licence plates and got a fresh stamp in its registration papers.
Over those 16 years, she changed temporary homes five times, costing me so much that I could easily have bought an already-restored car for the same money.
But then I would have missed out on all the other things that, to me personally, mattered much more: eagerly waiting for delivery drivers to show up with little boxes from Paruzzi or Hoffmann Speedster; weekends spent with the guys in the garage, turning wrenches, drinking beer, listening to music and debating what should be done and how; the road trip with the crew to the Bad Camberg meeting in 2011, where we ended up withdrawing money from ATMs on the last day because our cash reserves had disappeared surprisingly quickly; and so on, and so on…
The Beetle wears her original L227 Strato Silver colour.
Although the finish is a little different from how it left the factory, she certainly shines beautifully.
Thanks to the guys at Gringo’s Garage, the engine now runs like clockwork, there’s not a knock to be heard, and the semaphore indicators pop out of the door pillars like crazy, without the slightest hesitation.
Now, if only she had a Faltdach…
