pictures john lemon and vwsa
In an era where the word is all too frivolously bandied about, Volkswagen’s Kombi is truly a legend. Over 65 years, its name has become part of our language as a generic term for similar products and most South Africans have at some time travelled in a Kombi. Back in the 60s and 70s, the word “Kombi” and “boyfriend” used in the same sentence caused shudders in parents around the world, and even today hordes of middle-aged South Africans have no idea that their very existence stems from a glint in the eye of some long-haired surfer who owned a split-windscreen Kombi panel van adorned with flowers and anti-war graffiti.
The origin of the Volkswagen Kombi is fascinating. After World War II, the bombed-out VW factory at Wolfsburg was taken over by the British, who in 1945/46 recommenced producing the VW Beetle for use by the occupation forces and, later, for sale to the public. Forklifts were, at the time, in short supply in Germany so the engineers took a Beetle chassis, moved the driver’s seat and controls to above the engine at the back, and stuck a load platform up front. It worked, so they built a few more and used them around the factory. The Dutch VW importer, Ben Pot, who saw these scurrying about the plant, suggested that VW should market a light commercial vehicle built on the Beetle platform. The seed took root and the Transporter panel van was launched in 1950, but with the driver’s seat perched right at the front and the air-cooled flat-four engine at the rear. A wide range of derivatives was soon on its way, including a microbus, a flat-bed pickup, and a crew cab, as well as a very popular camper van.
Performance of the early Kombi was less than startling. The vehicle weighed over a ton, which was a heavy cross to bear for the 1 131cc engine’s paltry 18 kW output. Road & Track magazine tested a more powerful 27 kW version in 1956 and reported that it reached 60mph (96km/h) in a decidedly lethargic 75 seconds. Even that was a miracle – a sticker on the dash stated that the allowable top speed was 80km/h, but Road & Track reported that it could comfortably cruise at 112km/h on a flat road with a tailwind.
After a few years importing complete Kombis in the 50s, South Africa Motor Assemblers and Distributors – who already built the Beetle under licence in Uitenhage – started manufacturing the Kombi. The vehicles, which sold for around R1 400 in 1956 and R2 500 10 years later, were well suited to Africa, with their big wheels, great ground clearance, short overhangs, good suspension and the weight of the engine on the driving wheels making them remarkably adept at driving on rough tracks and beaches.
Kombi buses and vans were instantly popular in South Africa, but in the 1980s sales soared when VWSA contracted talented musician and songwriter David Kramer to be the face and voice of the Microbus on television and in print. David, with his trademark red veldskoen shoes, bicycle and guitar, did a sterling job, becoming a household name in South Africa and selling countless buses through his series of television ads emphasising the family values of the vehicles. Kramer’s TV ads were always short and entertaining, and his relationship with the bus continued for a mammoth 13 years. Around 280 000 VW Kombis have been sold in South Africa since the first one rolled out of the Uitenhage factory in 1955, with local production having ceased in 2002 – all new versions are imported.
The Kombi soldiered on with its charismatic rear-mounted air-cooled engine until 1983, then evolved into the modern front-engined microbus, costing between R482 000 and R849 000. The latest T6 Kombi and Caravelle range, launched in 2015, uses a two-litre turbodiesel engine tuned for between 75 and 132 kW, depending on your need for speed (and the thickness of your wallet), with differing levels of comfort and safety features.
We recently sampled the R824 500 Caravelle 2.0 TDI Highline, an impressive bus built to a very high standard with all sorts of features, like swivelling second row seats, electric sliding side doors and, if you have an additional R30 000 or so, four-wheel-drive. It’s an impressive vehicle with lots of space, a superb interior and lively performance, thanks to its 132 kW and 400 Nm of torque mated to a seven-speed auto dual-clutch transmission that never lets it go off the boil on inclines. Its claimed 0-100 time of 11,3 seconds and top speed of 191km/h mean it can keep up with most and it has park distance sensors at the rear to make things easier in the city, although the omission of a rear-view camera in a big lump like this is unforgivable. *
Alpine VW
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