Featured Articles – Page 2 – Air Cooled Wonders

BIG BANG aka OERKNAL

By Aircooled Wonders|2013-07-04T19:34:40+00:00January 19th, 2012|Featured Articles, Porsche Wonders|

There is something about a barn find that beats walking into Porsche Centre and buying a shiny car from a well dressed sales person. This however does not mean that we don’t appreciate newer Porsches and that there is anything wrong with window shopping from time to time, but I simply get more excited when the words “old rusted project” pops up. I guess one of the reasons is that it turns into a journey that has its ups and downs, rather than a turn of the key and off you go. In my opinion a lot of character and meaning gets lost when doing the latter.

Now those of you that have read the Silverado project have met my dad and have discovered his will to track down any old Porsche. The story of Oerknal is no different. All it took to kick-start this chase was a visit to Porsche Centre and the simple question of “where can I find an old Porsche?” As always the answer came back “We have a great 993 pre owned beauty going for a bargain” and then the big smile. But the real answer will only come when a bit of persistence is practiced. On this particular Saturday the sales person recalled hearing his manager talking about an early 911 in boxes. Bingo, that’s the one we’re talking about.

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My chance to buy the last of the last

By Aircooled Wonders|2013-07-04T19:34:43+00:00November 25th, 2011|Featured Articles, VW Wonders|

Article by Tyrone Morris

When the law was passed in Mexico that taxis had to have four doors back in late 2002, the final chapter of the air-cooled beetle would unfold.

VAG as we know had contracted vw mexico to produce beetles for the european market back in the late 70’s, as demand still warranted imports into Germany from latin America once the Germans had ceased european production in 1978. The ships kept on docking into Emden until European safety regulations halted the final batch of 50th anniversary beetles to Europe in 1985. This could have been the end for the beloved air-cooled icon, but luckily the Mexican government encouraged and incentivized ongoing local production as the taxi industry benefitted by the supply of these green and white “vochos”, ironically resembling the old german polizei colours. An ongoing lease of life for the air-cooled model echoes the rebranding of the golf1 legacy in South Africa. It appears that the two death-defiant models even shared some parts, i.e. the steering wheel and interior of the late mexican beetles mirrors that of the late mark 1 golfs.

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Air Cooled In Flight

By Aircooled Wonders|2013-07-04T19:35:52+00:00September 4th, 2011|Featured Articles, Other Wonders|

Passion is a disease that will drive one to perfection and it is no different for Jan Labuschagne who takes modest pride in the best radio controlled aircrafts that South Africa has to offer. In my opinion these are the best examples in the world, but Jan shyly corrects me and tells me that his Eindecker Fokker has only entered a South African event. It won 7 times in the last 8 years and when asked what happened the year he did not win, the answer is simple. He did not enter that year.

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