2019 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
Words: Mike Ryan
Photos, Deremer Studios LLC and Volkswagen of America
Proving the Beetle could be had in more than one shape, ‘Bugs’ of different types graced the prestigious Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance this year.
Amongst the usual concours categories, the class for Custom Coachwork Volkswagen vehicles marked the first time the humble Beetle has been celebrated at the American concours event that’s usually devoted to high-end Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins, Duesenbergs, Mercedes, Cadillacs and more. Make no mistake, all those prestigious marques – and more – were there, along with special celebrations this year for the Jaguar XK120, Ferrari 250 GT SWB and the cars of Jacky Ickx, to name a few.
However, the Amelia Island concours organisers have included a number of special categories in recent years, like movie cars and advertising mobiles, where non-traditional concours fare can be celebrated.
Alongside the custom Volkswagens this year, there were classes for ‘Cars of the Rock Stars’, where guitars themed to the car were also presented, and ‘Heads of State’ that featured cars used by presidents, queens, popes and dictators.
The custom VWs were arguably the most intriguing amongst everything on show, though, gathering makes and models that would be unfamiliar to most Americans, and indeed most international observers, too.
Beetle Base
“We’re delighted that the Amelia Island Concours chose to host a class for the Beetle with custom coachwork,” said Klaus Bischoff, Head of Volkswagen Design. “While everyone knows the humble Beetle, it’s less well-known that the Beetle platform was used by a number of coachbuilders in Europe to produce the amazing, unique vehicles on show this weekend.”
When the call for coachbuilt Volkswagens was put out last year, organisers weren’t entirely sure what they’d get, but were hoping to flush out rarities like the one-off Wendler cabriolet and the Beetle-based ‘Sun Valley’ sedan designed by Frua.
Unfortunately, this pair of rarities didn’t surface, but the concours nevertheless attracted vehicles from Dannenhauer & Stauss, Rometsch and Hebmuller.
All of the vehicles that made up the twelve cars in the ‘Custom Coachwork Volkswagen’ class were based on the Beetle chassis and/or running gear. And most were at least fifty years old, with the oldest in the group being a two-seater cabriolet dating back to 1950.
The field was sourced mainly from American collectors and Volkswagen’s own museum collection, but one came from overseas, specifically the Grundmann Collection in Germany.
The full twelve concours entrants were as follows:
1950 Hebmueller Type 14A
1951 Rometsch Beeskow coupe
1951 Tempo Matador
1953 Rometsch Taxi
1953 Dannenhauer & Stauss cabriolet
1954 Dannenhauer & Stauss coupe
1954 Rometsch Beeskow coupe
1956 Beetle by Troutman and Barnes
1957 Rometsch Lawrence convertible
1960 Rometsch Lawrence coupe
1965 Karmann-Ghia Type 1 concept
1969 Beetle ‘Wedding Car’
According to Volkswagen of America, this gathering marked the first time such a group had been seen in one place. Organisers of the Hessisch Oldendorf show in Germany would rightly contest that, but there’s little doubt that a collection such as this hasn’t been seen in America before.
“The Volkswagen with custom coachwork is the flipside of the Bug’s original American mission and message: and thus the perfect fodder for an Amelia Concours special class,” explained Bill Warner, Founder and Chairman of the event.
The addition of the custom VW class this year marks the 70th Anniversary of the first Volkswagen Beetle sales in the USA, with 2019 also marking the final year of production for the current Beetle.
Berlin Beauties
Of the coachbuilt cars, the majority were from Rometsch, a German coachbuilder that’s all but forgotten these days, primarily because they had a fairly brief life in the industry and didn’t produce the sort of show-stopping concept and production cars that Italian coachbuilders were famous for.
Founded in 1924 and based in Berlin, one of Rometsch’s earliest projects post-War was a four-door conversion of the Beetle. Stretching the wheelbase by almost 18cm and adding a second pair of doors to make the vehicle more practical for use as a taxi, this was actually a continuation of Rometsch’s pre-war practise, but the Beetle was a much more frugal base than the Opels they’d used previously, and the resultant cost of the conversion meant few were built.
At the start of the 1950s, Johannes Beeskow was commissioned to design a sportscar body for the Beetle chassis. The resulting coupe and convertible would carry his surname, but both were better known as the ‘banana’ for their body shape.
Debuting at Geneva in 1951, the ‘Beeskow Coupe’ would continue to be produced in small numbers until 1957. By this time, the Karmann Ghia had arrived and Beeskow himself had moved to Karmann as their technical manager. Bert Lawrence took his place and his replacement for the Beeskow coupe was equally distinctive, but perhaps influenced more by American designs; a fact reflected in the German designer’s Anglicised name.
Rometsch continued to rebody Beetles until 1961 when the erection of the Berlin Wall effectively separated the factory from most of its workforce, leading to closure soon after.
At Amelia Island, two Beeskow coupes, both fully restored, were joined by one of the Rometsch Beetle taxis, a restored Lawrence convertible and a Lawrence coupe awaiting restoration.
Fire Sale
Hebmuller was one of the first companies to modify the Beetle, tasked with producing convertible versions so Volkswagen could concentrate on manufacturing the sedan version at Wolfsburg.
Karmann were also contracted by VW to build convertibles, with the difference between the two being that the Hebmuller design made the car a two-seater, while the Karmann version retained the four-seat capacity of the sedan.
Both soft tops were similar – and identifiably “Beetle” - from the doors forward, but at the rear, the Hebmuller’s two-seat capacity allowed for a much more curvaceous engine cover that was almost as long and deep as the front boot lid. For the same reason, the convertible top could be stowed more neatly than the Karmann cabriolet, giving the Hebmuller a cleaner, more attractive profile with the roof down.
Hebmuller had previously built a more rudimentary Beetle convertible for police use, but the civilian version was finished to a much higher standard, with additional chassis bracing and body strengthening.
Contracted by VW in early 1949 to build 2,000 vehicles, Hebmuller had barely started when a fire destroyed their Wuppertal factory in July of 1949. While production resumed a month later, the company declared bankruptcy in 1952 while still well short of fulfilling VW’s order.
A little less than 700 Hebmuller convertibles are thought to have been built, with the last dozen or so actually assembled by Karmann. Of that total, around 150 are thought to survive today. The restored example on show at Amelia Island was finished in the typical Hebmuller colour scheme of black with a contrast colour between the wheelarches. While this finish was common, there were also Hebmuller Beetles finished in solid colours as well as more gregarious two-tone shades.
Porsche Lite
When you know that coachbuilder Dannenhauer & Stauss was based in Stuttgart, it makes sense that the cars they produced bore some resemblance to Porsches.
Producing their first Beetle-based convertible in 1951, Dannenhauer & Stauss continued to build their attractive soft tops until 1957, but overall totals were meagre, even by post-war standards. Over the seven years of production, it’s believed that less than 150 were built, almost all 2+2 convertibles, but with a handful of coupes, too.
Of that total, only 19 are said to be in existence today, according to the owner of one of the cars displayed: a 1954 model that’s believed to be the sole surviving coupe.
Originally purchased by a German tobacco merchant, the ’54 D&S coupe was imported to the US in 1962, serving as family transport for more than a decade after which it remained in storage until the current owner purchased it in 2011.
Best described as preserved, rather than restored, the coupe featured a Porsche 356 engine, fitted in period, along with 16-inch Porsche wheels instead of the Beetle 15-inch rims that had been introduced in 1952.
Alongside the coupe, the other Dannenhauer & Stauss car at Amelia Island was a 1953 cabriolet. Well known in entusiast circles, this car was purchased in 1991 for a mere US$50, then restored to concours standard over a 15-year period.
A Concept, a Worker and a Wedding
If nothing else, the Amelia Island display proved Beetles could be reimagined in just about any form. Evidence of this was the 1965 Karmann Ghia ‘Type 1’ concept from the VW Museum.
The Karmann Ghia had been in production for a decade when this concept was revealed, and was Karmann’s push to not only extend the life of the vehicle they were producing for Volkswagen, but also push it in a more modern direction. Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ghia, the concept used a modified Beetle chassis and running gear like the original, but the styling was perhaps a little too futuristic for Volkswagen management, who rejected the concept, leaving the original Karmann Ghia to soldier on until 1974.
At the other end of the scale, the Tempo Matador was a truck that used a Beetle engine and transmission, hence its inclusion in the concours. Built by Vidal und Sohn in Hamburg, what made the Matador unusual is that it essentially reversed the Beetle’s drivetrain layout, placing the air-cooled flat-four engine at the front, directly under the driver’s seat, with a forward-mounted gearbox driving the front wheels.
With a swingaxle-style rear suspension, this configuration allowed for a low tray area and a claimed payload of almost 2,200kg.
Introduced in 1949, these unusual trucks found an immediate market in Europe, with several sold in Australia, too, but when Volkswagen sought to grow the market share of their own Transporter van (and with a pickup version just around the corner), they cut off engine supply to Vidal und Sohn in late 1951. Forced to look elsewhere for engines, the company selected German-made two- and four-stroke engines for some markets and the BMC inline four-cylinder unit for others. Despite being water-cooled and an upright design, the BMC engine was made to work with the Matador’s front wheel drive configuration, albeit with some changes to the body and chassis.
Of the original, Beetle-engined Matadors, it’s speculated that fewer than ten remain in running condition worldwide. The unit at Amelia Island was displayed by Kevin Jeanette, who also had the unrestored Rometsch Lawrence coupe on show. Sourced from Sweden, Jeanette’s Matador had been rebuilt only a few months prior to the concours.
A ’69 Beetle with a ‘lacework’ body in place of the original steel panels has been seen numerous times, but still attracted plenty of attention at the concours.
Known as the “Wedding Beetle”, around 20 examples of this open-bodied car have been produced, but the first was built for display atop a VW parts supply store in the mid-1960s. Handcrafted from wrought iron by Mexican metalworker Raphael Esparza Prieto, the car attracted the attention of Volkswagen, who commissioned two more as promotional vehicles for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
Subsequent copies proved popular as bridal cars, hence the ‘’wedding” nickname applied to these cars. The unit on show was from Volkswagen of America’s collection, and its popularity across the weekend saw it invited to drive the concours grounds, alongside multi-million-dollar machines, in the ‘Parade of Significant Automobiles’.
Beetle with Bite
Finally, there was one Beetle on show at Amelia Island that looked like it hadn’t been modified at all… but looks were deceiving.
Known as the “Troutman & Barnes” Beetle, this car was the brainchild of Miles Collier of the Collier Collection in Florida.
Speculating how Porsche would have prepared a VW vehicle for racing at an event like the Mille Miglia, Collier stared with a 1956 Beetle, which had its factory running gear gutted, replaced with a 1.7-litre racing engine from the ‘Elva-Porsche’ and the transmission from a 911. Brakes and suspension were similarly upgraded with a mix of C1950s and 60s Porsche parts, but the more significant changes were on the body.
While they looked like factory steel panels, the wings, bootlid, engine cover and door skins on the Beetle were all replicas, handcrafted by Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes from aluminium. The running boards and bumpers were also remade in aluminium, to offset the weight of the larger engine and other upgraded running gear.
For civility on the road, Collier retained the carpeting and other interior comforts, but replaced the front seats with buckets from a Porsche 356 Carrera GT.
Described as having performance comparable to a 356, the finished Beetle was certainly a ‘sleeper’ in its conventional-looking skin and probably escaped closer scrutiny at Amelia Island for that reason.
Beeskow Double
With a field that covered original survivors, restored beauties and untouched barn finds, picking a winner in the Custom Coachwork Volkswagen class was always going to be tough.
After much deliberation, the judges selected the 1954 Rometsch Beeskow coupe from Californian couple, F. Scott Boses and Celesta Pappas-Boses, for the Best in Class award. Runner-up was the 1950 Hebmuller convertible, with third going to the 1957 Rometsch Lawrence convertible.
A separate award, presented by Volkswagen of America for the ‘Most Elegant Coachwork on a Volkswagen’, went to the 1951 Rometsch Beeskow coupe from the Grundmann Collection.
“It is a car that Beeskow designed for his wife and it’s as elegant as you can be on a Beetle chassis,” said VW’s Bischoff. “It has very nice details and fluent lines that is somewhere close to European design philosophy that is clean and puristic.”
2020 Vision
The dates for the 2020 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance are already locked in 12 to 15 March, 2020 – with concours special categories, invited guests and other attractions to be announced closer to the event. For further details and updates, go to: ameliaislandconcours.org
