The things you see whilst heading to lunch

Was heading out for a late lunch and saw this being towed down the road. It was heading to the aircooled shop down the street so I stopped in to see. It is a Type 3 (or 34) Ghia. Never sold here and only typically brought in by servicemen from Europe on a transfer home. Not many in the states and this one doesn't get out much. One of the mechanics stated that they fix it, guy puts in back in storage, repeat. Has had a respray but overall VERY nice and the interior is way cool. Knowing that this is local to me I may have to stay in touch with these guys.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone picts.

This little gem belongs to the owner of the shop.

Cool. I've never seen one in person before.

that Karma ghia is gorgeous!

What's on the trailer in the background?

hobiercr wrote:

Cool car! What is the pointy shell in the background?

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: What's on the trailer in the background?

LOL. Just saw that you asked the same question.

My MIL was a nanny for the head of VOA. She had her choice of any VW product to drive, and that model of Ghia was her favourite.

Car in the background looks like a Fiberfab Avenger, an aircooled VW based kit car..

dculberson wrote: Car in the background looks like a Fiberfab Avenger, an aircooled VW based kit car..

Actually I think it is a Sterling. Sterling Sports Cars

I spoke with the guy building it. He plans to make it his DD and put a 2.0L turbo powerplant in it.

His shop is right next to the aircooled shop and he is just a hobbyist. I let him know about the GRM Challenge and plan to drop off the Challenge issue of the mag soon. He sounded interested to possibly build an entrant.

Every couple weeks we have to visit a job site near our office. We keep driving past a house that has an old TVR in the driveway, for a while it appeared to be missing trim and lights, but lately it looks pretty complete and its been out there with a For Sale sign in the window. Middle of suburbia, cookie cutter houses that are 6 feet apart from each other and this tiny little car is taking up half their driveway.

not actual picture, looks just like these but dark blue, no stripes or anything. Far as I can tell its a 60 something TVR Griffith. Maybe next time we are headed out there I can see if we can do a quick driveby for a closer look and a picture.

some brief googling leads me to believe the Griffith 200 and 400 series are pretty berkeleying rare in the states, so it has me wonderin why this guy stores it in his driveway, uncovered, and if there is a possibility that its really just a kit car replica.

It's probably a TVR; they are relatively rare in the states but some of the models aren't valuable. Bravenrace has had his for sale for a while at a really good price with no bites.

This morning at work I saw a woman driving through the slush in a Tesla. One of the construction workers commented about how hard it must be to charge up since so many areas have no power. Then he said he spent six hours in line for five gallons of gas the other day. I guess the gap between gas and electric power is starting to shrink.

John, what shop was that?

later, matt

xFactor wrote: John, what shop was that? later, matt

Aircooled Autohaus 4314 Louis Avenue Holiday, FL 34691 (727) 943-7180

As far as I can tell they do not have a website but I did find this about them on the Samba boards.

The T34 is the holy grail for me. I have seen only a couple in the flesh.

The first, a pristine 13,000 mile original car in a Dodge showroom in New London CT in 1975. Asking price about equal to a new Rabbit, which was what my dad bought instead.

I had a chance to buy one once, but it was two cars welded together and a deathtrap. In hindsight, maybe I should have anyway....

It's not a Maxton rollerskate or a Kelmark GT....hmmmmm I know it but I can't place it!

That ghia is sweet looking, never seen or heard of one. VW made some really neat cars back in the day and you don't see many of them. I think I saw a 4 something wagon the other day, but I don't know dubs very well. Thanks for the post!

My sister and her husband were stationed in Germany in the 60's, and brought back a Karmann Ghia. When it finally died,they had it crushed and made a coffee table out of it. Yeah, they were a bit strange. But that is where Dave Grohl came from.