Skip to main content

Find of the Day: 1977 EA489 Hormiga

Today’s find of the day is another delightfully strange VW that some consider to be the rarest of all VWs: the Basistransporter, or Hormiga, as the Mexicans call it.

This boxy work truck may look like the Transporter, but unlike the Type 2s of the day, this has its air-cooled flat four up front driving the front wheels.

6895987

The Hormiga was developed to compete with cheap GM and Ford trucks that were being sold in developing markets. About 2,600 of these were produced as knock-down kits in Germany between 1975 and 1979, and 3,600 were made in Mexico between 1977 and 1979.

The Hormiga is endowed with a 1600cc engine that sits on a simple ladder-frame, and it has torsion bars up front and a beam axle at the back. The beauty of the EA489 is its simplicity. The body has no curves, nor do the windows, and the mechanicals are all from the VW parts bin, so repairs are easy. And that’s why these things are still on the road in Mexico.

6895988

This example, for sale on The Samba, is in Arizona right now, and that makes it, according to the ad at least, one of only 15 Hormigas in the country.

The seller says that this Hormiga runs and stops like new and that it’s nearly all original. The pictures of the interior indicate that it’s been taken care of, too.

Unfortunately, the car currently has a Mexican title and, although the seller will ship it, he’ll only do so at the buyer’s expense. Or you could drive it home. It would be a long trip, though, since the Hormiga tops out at 58 mph.

6895990

Still, though, how cool would it be to eventually show up to Waterfest with the first front-wheel drive, air cooled VW? No less an authority than Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky would be impressed. And isn’t that why we’re really here? To impress strangers on the internet?

The seller of this Basistransporter is asking for $13,000, but it sounds like you could talk him down some.

The post Find of the Day: 1977 EA489 Hormiga appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/293B18U
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

T-Prime Makes World Premiere at Beijing

[ See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com ] The SUV segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the world and Volkswagen is showing the world how to do it. With the new T-Prime Concept GTE that was revealed today, the company is showing off all of the technology you can look for in its coming models. The T-Prime is a full-size hybrid SUV that can go up to 31 miles on a charge and gets 87 mpg. The hybrid power station is good for 375 hp and 516 lb/ft of torque and puts the power down with 4MOTION all wheel drive. It’ll get you up to 60 in six seconds. The concept’s real party piece, though, is its interior, which features exclusively touch, gesture, and voice controls. Everything from the infotainment, to the display, and even the gears are controlled by touch-screen. The T-Prime Concept GTE is bigger than the Touareg, and design elements are likely to find their way into all of their SUVs, of which there will be many. Volkswagen is also announcing that they expect to make an S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more