2020 Indium Grey California Beach.

[rainking]

Hi All,

Realised I hadn't posted in here despite registering a while ago.....

Collected our 'Lockdown Impulse Buy' T6 Beach at the beginning of June, it's a January 2020 150PS TDI with DSG that we collected from the dealer with just 15 miles on it.

It's got the dark interior with the 3 seat rear bench, factory Navigation and a couple of other options seemingly selected at random by the dealer when they ordered it....

We're no strangers to VW Van ownership, keeping the Beach company currently is a 1989 T3 'Whitestar' Multivan and a 1965 T1 Deluxe Microbus 'Samba'... over the years we've also had a a couple of T3 Caravelles, an ex-Wolfsburg T3 Multivan, a T3 Westfalia Club Joker and a T5 Caravelle Executive with the 3.2 V6 Petrol Motor.

This was on the way home from collection:



and we couldn't resist lining them all up for a photo....



We've already found some great tips and advice from the threads in the forum, and hope to be able to contribute from our own experiences also...



Rainking.

 

[rainking]

In case anyone is interested... here are some photos of the other vans we own / have owned:

This van was owned (we think) by a VW Exec in Wolfsburg. It was SUPER high spec (for the time):


This is the V6 Petrol Caravelle - it was ex-National Crime Agency.... We took it on our annual visit to the GTI-Treffen in Wörthersee, Austria.



This was our 2nd Caravelle - parked up by the Brandenburg gate in 2004.



Our Westy Club Joker...



The 'Whitestar' with a couple of our other VWs



...and the great great Grandparent of the T6, our 1965 T1 Samba in it's natural habitat on the dragstrip at Santa Pod.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Hi All,

Realised I hadn't posted in here despite registering a while ago.....

Collected our 'Lockdown Impulse Buy' T6 Beach at the beginning of June, it's a January 2020 150PS TDI with DSG that we collected from the dealer with just 15 miles on it.

It's got the dark interior with the 3 seat rear bench, factory Navigation and a couple of other options seemingly selected at random by the dealer when they ordered it....

We're no strangers to VW Van ownership, keeping the Beach company currently is a 1989 T3 'Whitestar' Multivan and a 1965 T1 Deluxe Microbus 'Samba'... over the years we've also had a a couple of T3 Caravelles, an ex-Wolfsburg T3 Multivan, a T3 Westfalia Club Joker and a T5 Caravelle Executive with the 3.2 V6 Petrol Motor.

This was on the way home from collection:

View attachment 64311

and we couldn't resist lining them all up for a photo....

View attachment 64309

We've already found some great tips and advice from the threads in the forum, and hope to be able to contribute from our own experiences also...



Rainking.

Nice collection.

 

[Perfectos]

Hi Rain king

Congrats on the Cali

Nice collection, love the Samba Pod photo.

 

[rainking]

Hi Rain king

Congrats on the Cali

Nice collection, love the Samba Pod photo.

Thanks....

We're part of the Volkswagen Drag Racing Club, and were fortunate enough a few years ago to be able to have a photo 'shoot' at the top end of the track after the meeting finished.

 

[kurienp]

Congratulations on the Cali ... but I am biased ... so more love to Whitestar and Samba They both look gorgeous. That V6 Caravelle would've been a hoot!

Your's seem to be a VW family. Is that a red MK1 golf that I see in the background?

We lot love pics ...so please do post.

 

[rainking]

Thanks @kurienp

We're very much a VW house... The Mk1 is a Campaign Edition GTI and the Blue Mk7 is an 'R'

This was taken at the top of the Villacher-Hochalpenstraße in Austria




We bought the Samba in 2004, we're only the 3rd owner.... it's a (pretty rare) sliding door model but it's *far* from standard...... the previous owner recomissioned it after it stood in a field in Germany for about 30 years - he replaced the running gear with late bay-window front suspension and Type 3 IRS at the back, he was running a 200bhp screamer of an engine, so he also had a rollcage fitted to the cab. The engine we have is a little tamer - it's a 2366cc Flat4 producing about 140bhp so it's about as quick as the Mk1 GTI to 60. The majority of the body is original paint (save for the bottom 10-15cm that had fresh metal welded in when it was imported in 2001)

The V6 Caravelle was a proper barrel of laughs... used to get a LOT of funny looks in petrol stations too when pulling up to the green pump

As is the case with a lot of our vehicles, they are often seen doing this....


VW T5 V6 - VWDRC - photo by Retro-Motoring

 

[Borris]

"The V6 Caravelle was a proper barrel of laughs... used to get a LOT of funny looks in petrol stations too when pulling up to the green pump"

Aren't petrol stations the natural habitat of the petrol V6?

 

[rainking]

Aren't petrol stations the natural habitat of the petrol V6?

It could get quite the thirst.....although my Brother-in-Law had the 'big' Diesel in the same spec, and there wasn't that much of a difference....

 

[Paul S]

In case anyone is interested... here are some photos of the other vans we own / have owned:

This van was owned (we think) by a VW Exec in Wolfsburg. It was SUPER high spec (for the time):
View attachment 64312

This is the V6 Petrol Caravelle - it was ex-National Crime Agency.... We took it on our annual visit to the GTI-Treffen in Wörthersee, Austria.

View attachment 64313

This was our 2nd Caravelle - parked up by the Brandenburg gate in 2004.

View attachment 64315

Our Westy Club Joker...

View attachment 64316

The 'Whitestar' with a couple of our other VWs

View attachment 64317

...and the great great Grandparent of the T6, our 1965 T1 Samba in it's natural habitat on the dragstrip at Santa Pod.

View attachment 64318

Friend of ours also had an ex-NCA 3.2 T5 Velle so they had at least 2! Excellent vehicles but perhaps not the best use of taxpayers money lol.

 

[rainking]

Haha yeah... although ours wasn't that much thirstier than the 174 Diesel my brother in law had.... but the road tax was horrific.

We sold it to a guy from Wales whose T4 had just expired....

 

[Anthony1]

How many vehicles in total do you have now? Are they all taxed, insured MOT (where necessary)? Not cheap I guess.

 

[rainking]

We've got the 3 vans, the 2 Golfs a Range Rover and a Mini Clubman.

All currently Taxed, MOT'd and Insured.

The 65 is MOT exempt... but gets an annual check anyway.

The T3 is technically for sale now that we have the Cali though...