1966 Razoredge Karmann Ghia
Roulette
Words by Toby Walker
Photos by Dan Du Cros
Originally published by Hayburner
I find the VW circuit a strange but satisfying beast, not like any other car scene anywhere in the world, a melting pot of styles.
With a unique array of diverse groups each fighting their own corner for what is right in their eyes, yet all getting on and appreciating (most of ) the other movements’ ideas or at least trying to see things from their perspective, just a small example of some of the more prominent groups are:
The Purists. Everything must be just so, even down to wire colours, and bolts used
The Make Doers. Anything to save a VW destined for the scrapheap
The Patina Pervs. See The Purists, but just DON’T paint it
The Happy Campers. Eat, sleep and breathe everything VW-related
The Racers. If its heavy, lose it: if its light, cut holes in it… and go fast
And then there are the Custom Guys, who I have a lot of time for. As you may have read in previous articles, I’m keen to see people not conforming to conformism. Now I don’t mean going and painting the roof pink just to make it stand out. I mean spending days pulling hair out figuring out how to subtly tweak or modify VW’s original ideas to make them work in a different light.
This totally amazing 1966 Razoredge Karmann Ghia falls into this latter class, and we love it!
But before we go any further, we need to explain that this feature is a little different from most due to the fact that the owner of this car wishes to keep her identity undisclosed, so lets just call her KG, as in the car.
KG’s had a passion for classic cars of carious marques from a very young age. Her favourite eras have been predominantly the 1950s and 1960s. in her own world, ‘just the look, feel and even the smell of a classis is amazing! Modern cars just seem to be merging into the same artificial, boring design and shape. It’s getting difficult to tell one manufacturer from another these days; they are losing their curves and sexiness in such lazy design.’
KG is the fourth owner of this car, which started life with the original owner, an American serviceman stationed in Germany, who eventually brought the quirky, somewhat America looking air-cooled 1600 sports car back to this home town of Oklahoma, where his family continued to keep hold of it for many years. After the gentleman’s passing, his son took the car with him to Texas, where eventually it was sold to a chap planning to fully restore it. However, his enthusiasm waned in around 2009. Earlier in the year KG enlisted the help of Andy at Spikes Vintage Restoration to source a Type 34 for her, so when Spike got word that this car could be for sale, he jumped straight in, struck a deal, and the car soon landed on UK soil. Although a runner, the car was in need of a bit of attention to the chrome work and more. It had been repainted a metallic red at some point in its lifetime, leaving the interior in the original L544 Roulette Green, giving KG the inspiration to paint the whole car back to the original. Who better to take on this job than Spike? When we first heard about this car, the plans, and who would be undertaking the restoration, we knew it was going to be a very special build indeed. In recent times when it comes to show-winning paintwork here in the UK there has been one name on the top ten list at almost every show we attend, and there’s a good reason for this. Andy’s paint jobs are not only flawless, but God knows how, the team seem to turn them round in no time at all!
KG knew how she wanted the car to look even before she had purchased it, so with the help of Spike they set about creating one of the coolest VW Type 34s we have seen for a long time.
Call it what you like – Type 34, Razoredge or Type 3 Ghia – it’s a vehicle that up until recent times was considered one of the rarer models. Don’t get me wrong, there still aren’t that many rolling the streets now, but go back ten years and you would be lucky to see one at all of the UK shows in a year!
The Type 34 was manufactured for a short period from 1961 to 1969 and was the most expensive car VW manufactured in the 1960s. back then you could have bought two Beetles for the price of a Type 34, and it was probably this which led to only 42 or so thousand being produced over the eight-year period.
Based on the Type 3, this car had more luggage space, and how can we forget those iconic Sergio Sartorelli sculpted bodylines and the built-in twin fog and head lamps? This car has style by the bucketful.
So, with the go ahead, Spike and the team stripped the car of that metallic red paint to find a surprisingly sold and original car needing only a couple of replacement sills and a few minor rust repairs. The original floorplan was 100 per cent solid which is virtually unheard of. Needless to say, this was stripped, treated and then fully detailed in mirror finish Gloss Black. Then they turned to that stunning L544 Roulette Green paint – what a colour – and with a painters as good at his craft as Spike, dark colours on cars with complex bodylines can just mesmerise you in such a way that your eyes dart around the car taking in every little curve. Most importantly those awesome Razoredge lines, mixed with all the trim polished back to perfection, the three-piece bumpers and overriders re-chromed result in the amazing car you here.
Now here comes one of those subtle custom touches, the metal flake roof. Two-tone paint came as standard on Type 34s from ’61 to ’65. After that single-colour cars became the standard and two-tone was factory option but certainly not in flake, which again gives this car’s visuals that little bit more oomph.
Type 34s use Type 3 running gear with a stock 34 sitting notoriously nose high, so Andy and KG got their heads together about the right height and agreed on a 4-spline drop up front using a stock width front beam and air ride and Dogback air shocks with a 1-spline drop on the read with TransporterHaus spring plates and Gaz adjustables. The brakes are stock items reconditioned with NOS parts by type3headquarter. Bolted to these are the genuine 6x16” and 7x16” Fuch wheels. To accommodate the rears at such a ride height a short axle kit was used.
The matching numbers 1600 engine is largely original, just receiving a service and clean up and adding a single quiet pack exhaust. Since the photoshoot a good friend of Andy’s, Michael Moos, arranged to have set of 5.5 x 17” and 7 x 17” Fuchs which were sent off to Matthias Krenzer who split and machined them into a 3-piece split rim. The rims were then returned to Michael who delivered them to Andy to be detailed and then finally sent back to Matthias to be finished ready to be fitted for Spa. A long drawn out process, and Andy says one of the more stressful parts of the build, but one that was worth going the extra mile for.
Moving on to that stunning interior, this is where the majority of the custom stylings come in. County Coach Trimmers re-sculpted the front seats to give a more secure and comfy driving position. These along with the door cards have been trimmed in tan leather with green Alcantara centres and tan piping. This carries through to the door cards and the old vinyl door top pads were treated to a coating of flock, yes flock! A subtle yet very effective combination and an inspired choice when paired with the stock pattern carpet set and flock dash pads – all cool little custom touches. The standard Type 34 brass dial centres and bezels all polished up, along with the Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio really complement the flocked and set the dash off.
KG is currently letting the Spikes Vintage Restoration team use the car as a promotional vehicle to showcase their talents. The car was recently taken to its show debut at EBI and then Spa in Belgium a couple of weeks later, where it was a very well received and even took a top 20 award, the first of many we are sure!
Going back to the prominent groups. I noticed a while back that the Type 34 world is for the most part a very tight community with a lot of worldwide members leaning toward the Purist camp. While I’m sure they can appreciate the work that went into this restoration, I’m also pretty sure this car must have set a cat among the pigeons. However, in my eyes its sometimes good to change things up and I’m almost positive had it not been a “famous VW guy” that built it, this car might have sailed through the Type34 net with little comment from the big boys. Thank God it didn’t.
Many thanks to Hayburner Magazine