Aircooled VW South Africa

CooP wrote:
So, nice car from the plans. Very interesting. Are there many real ones about? Don't recall seeing one at local shows. Looks like a cool thing to own, esp if you live near a dam. Any pics of a real one?

this the closest weve ever come to one!!!

http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6782

this is the closest i ever came to one.....
i bought this amficraft 6wheeldrive bugy type thingy...
sort of restored it and had loads of fun with it...only problem..every time we used it something else broke !
it had a aircooled motor and steered like a bulldozer..two levers one for left and one for right...if you pulled both back it reversed. push forward and it sped off !

great fun when it ran !

Thanks for that pic, Splitbusaholic - that is very interesting!

It reminds me a lof of a vehicle called the Argo we tested when I was in the military - 6x6 and 8x8, as in the pics below, as a possible replacement for the Jakkals air-deliverable Jeep. Basically a plastic tub (not unlike 'Tupperware' plastic) with chain-driven wheels. It also steered with levers, like a tank, and was fully amphibious - I actually drove one in the water myself.

Turned out they were way too expensive for the SANDF budget, it was quite noisy, and there were some concerns about how the chain-driven gearbox would last in our very dusty conditions. The amphibious ability was also deemed 'unneccesary'...




I believe the Gecko is a local, South African initiative that was later developed for military use?

mine was also chain driven and i think very much the same thing as the Argo six wheeler.
mine was amphibious and when i got it had similar tyres on as in your pic's and meant to go in water as well, they were sealed units and looked like the tyres were moulded onto the rim, the tyres were frot from standing and i couldn't find them anywhere so i did the mod with the bike rims and tyres and it worked well.
it had a two stroke 250cc motor in and went quite fast. the amazing thing was that over rough terrain it felt like you were in a hovercraft very smooth !

splitbusahollic wrote:this is the closest i ever came to one.....
i bought this amficraft 6wheeldrive bugy type thingy...
sort of restored it and had loads of fun with it...only problem..every time we used it something else broke !
it had a aircooled motor and steered like a bulldozer..two levers one for left and one for right...if you pulled both back it reversed. push forward and it sped off !

great fun when it ran !

no way is that you with the black T shirt !!!!

jolas wrote: no way is that you with the black T shirt !!!!

no it's Brad my eldest son taking his two younger brothers for a spin !
the little one in the blue shirt, Wesley is now just over six ft tall !