Skip to main content

Watch: The VW Super Bugger lives on in Canada

For the past few years, a very unique VW Beetle has been the talk of the town at some Canadian classic car shows. Naturally, this isn’t just a well restored Bug, but a Super Bugger: a camper van built on a Volkswagen platform by the “Super Campers” company from California. 

The relatively unknown vehicle was featured on the cover of Mechanix Illustrated magazine back in June 1977, when it was up for sale as a conversion kit for $6000. Super Campers used fiberglass paneling to build a small living space behind the front seats, where customers could opt between a mini-bedroom or a small kitchen.

The Super Bugger uses a 1.6L dual port engine taken from a VW bus, and promises to be able to maintain 50-55 mph (80-85 km/h) on the highway. It’s based on the 1968 chassis as this was the last year for the swing axle assembly, which made for a more solid basis for the RV conversion.

Last month, the CBC made it to Rimbey, Alberta, to interview local owners of the rare Bugger – that is now up for sale. Keith Spelrem and his wife Glenna are the proud owners of this green little monster that has been a part of their small town for more than 25 years. It was bought in Arizona by Rimbey resident Don Speer and was the star of local parades and car meets for years.

Inside the cabin of this kitchenette-version, the two front seats swivel, and a table is placed above the engine. There’s also a sink and a stove, but no refrigerator. Instead, you’ll find an ice box, made of polished metal, which doubles as a mirror.

Speer kept the Super Bugger as a personal vehicle and never put it up for sale, but when he died in 1997 the car was put up for auction and bought by the Spelrems. According to the CBC interview, in the past 20 years the Bugger has gone through 400 hours of repairs and restorations, and has been used by the family for camping – although that wasn’t necessarily a relaxing experience, as many people would wander over to get a closer look and they wouldn’t get any privacy.  

Now they’re selling the Super Bugger and hope the new owner will devote the time and love it requires. We’re not sure if it hasn’t been sold yet, but this piece of motoring history and hilarity might be yours.

The post Watch: The VW Super Bugger lives on in Canada appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2tZQrZj
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more