VW Type III: 1997 Type III Treffen Amsterdam

About 60-70 cars turned up at the meeting and they came from all over Europe, the majority from The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the UK. As you can see from the pictures, many were late model cars, most cars were stock though some were lowered or modified otherwise. In general the quality of the cars was very good.

In the frontal view, the white notch at the left is my car. In the rear view picture, the red square back belongs to Richard.

Front view:

We took this picture on a demo chassis that belongs to the Dutch air cooled club (LVWCN). It's a cutout chassis that shows you how VW put these cars together and how everything works. The engine and transmission are also cutout to show how things (should) be. It's really neat. Next time I'll take some more detailed shots of it. Sitting in front are me (Theo Thepen) and Richard Visser (the naked guy!, he was actually wearing shorts :-). In the back: left on top of the tire, Hanno Spoelstra and right Aaron Britcher. Next to the chassis is John Kowalski.

In the picture taken from the back, the person at the left with all the camera's round his neck is not a lost japanese tourist, but Frank, Richards neightbour.

Cheers,
Theo

Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 19:10:39 +0200
From: Richard Visser
Subject: TYPE 3 TREFFEN AMSTERDAM

Last weekend a type 3 meeting was held on a campsite near Amsterdam. Five people from this list showed up and here's a small report from one of them. Especially for Patrick Joel Morton from Finland who couldn't be there because of an injury. The listers; Australia: Aaron Britcher, Poland: John Kowalski, from Holland: Theo Thepen, Hanno Spoelstra and your's truly Richard Visser.

The meeting was from thursday till sunday but I arrived friday with my neighbour and fellow Squarbackowner Frank. We put out tent up next to John's car who was visiting Amsterdam at that time. Just before he left from Poland he promised other listers who would show up beer and doritos and that's what we got when he returned with his wife. They actually turned out to be nice people so I didn't have to move my tent elswhere. ;-) Whe had a lot of fun with them and were glad the following morning that John didn't forget to bring coffee as we did. So far my first encounter with a lister who once was only a virtual person to me.

The larger part of the people came from Type 3's homeland. The number of dutch people was a bit disappointing considered they didn't had to drive that far. Also english participants came with a bunch of cars. Then there were some people from France, Belgium, Norway and the listers from Poland and Australia. So it was quite an international meeting which ment talking dutch, german and english. Nicht so einfach when you are not used to speak drie verschillende talen door elkaar.

Apart from other vehicles like type 1, 2 and 4 in total about 60 variants, notchbacks, fastbacks and only one Kharmann Ghia T34 attended this astonishing sight of the largest amount of 1500's and 1600's I have ever seen in one place.

From what I saw the trade in parts or cars (only one for sale) was not the main reason for people to come to amsterdam. Although everyone nosed around the supply of new and old parts not much changed owners. I myself bought used but good windowrubbers that according to what I've heard are scarce but only cost me 10$. My old ones are cracked and need to be replaced. My neighbour Frank wanted to sell two new rear fenders for a notch but didn't found somebody who wanted to give a reasonable price for them which should be near 200$ each. The car also wasn't sold. I think a lot of people have there own ways of getting the necessary parts to keep there car's in good shape and don't have to rely on meetings like this.

So what was this happening about then? For me it's to be with people who appreciate the type 3 and can share there experiences with this seldom seen car. How did they fix a problem or where did they find there low milage, one previous (old) owner, always garaged, stainless and bought for almost nothing type 3. Of course this list has the same function. But no computer can compete with seeing somebody in the eyes when listening to him/her speaking enthousiastic about his/her car, to hear the wellknown enginesound of another 1600 arriving at the campsite, enjoy the wonderfull weather which we had and of course it's very educating to study other cars; What's missing in mine? Compared to this ones mine doesn't look so bad.

Saturday a trip was organised. That's fun. Cars are about driving and not about showing in my opinion so I joined up in the long line of T3's who were competing in this rally. Every two minutes a car started which ensured us to see a lot of cars driving. To see another (or your own) T3 driving in your rearview mirror or just in front of you is always enjoyable. And for all the spectators seeing us passing by it was most entertaining given all the turned heads and pointing fingers. At one point a ferryboat took the cars to the other side of a river. This is still common in Holland when you stick to the rural roads. One of the questions in the competetion was to name 5 parts that were in a bag and had to be recognized by only feeling...... I didn't win.

When we returned to the campsite new people and cars had arrived so there was a lot to be seen and talk about. Especially with Hanno and Theo and we took a good look at the beautifull notchback of the last. Boy he must have put some painstaking hours into this car.

The five people from the list joined for a photo which was taken while we were sitting on a T3's chassis. This openwork chassis once belonged to a technical school and was a gift for the Dutch Aircooled Volkswagen Club. If a can get my pictures scanned I'll send them to Greg along with some pics of long rows of T3's in all sorts of models and color's.

I'll finish with what was for me the surprise of the meeting. Another dutch granadared squareback showed up. Just like mine only to years older (1965). From the memberlist of the club and previous meetings I know a good deal of the squarebacks that are around in the Netherlands. This one I had never seen or heard of. Also people with an encyclopedic memory for the few T3's in Holland were surprised to see this unknown, wonderfull car which was a bit like the above (1 P.O.) mentioned. A few weeks ago a colleague claimed she saw me driving somewhere. I replied that it wasn't me because I hadn't been driving that day. It must have been a Volvo Amazon estate or something like that. No, she was sure that it was a car just like mine. Well I'm the only one in Holland with an granadared Variant so you must have been mistaken. She wasn't .......

Richard Visser
The Hague Holland
the only '67 granadared SB in Holland