Sorry for the poor cropping, but it required some contortion and folding my mirror to get even this much of this Vanagon into the frame at a stoplight this afternoon. But since we’ve featured a few Vanagon Westfalias recently, I though this one too deserved its moment of fame. In fact, it’s a special-special edition as the front fender bore a Wolfsburg Edition badge. It’s a later version, with plastic covered bumpers, and like another recent post, it had a quad round headlight front end (South African?). And, since I’m an obsessive tire sidewall reader, I notice it features “enTyre” tires … or is that tyres?
Unfortunately the photo resolution doesn’t quite make the sign in the rear window readable, but it lists the plants and creatures depicted on the van’s sides and rear, all found in the tide pools of Monterey Bay, whose northern shore is just about a mile from where the photo was taken.
Doc Ricketts would love to drive this! In real life he drove a 1940 Packard business coupe with a huge trunk that he filled with specimens.
In fact, Ricketts was driving that Packard when he died in a collision with an express passenger train not far from Cannery Row.
I salute the artist’s effort. I wonder how the process works that allows someone to come up with the idea one random day to paint aquatic and plant life on the sides of a Vanagon. And was the art chosen to enhance the Vanagon the artist already owned? Or was the Vanagon chosen and located as the perfect canvas for the artist’s concept? And were mood-altering substances part of those decisions? I have so many questions!
The EnTyre is a Nokian all-season offering. A very good one, in my experience.
(And yes, big + little round headlamp on each side = South African grille)
With those technical bits out the way: wow, I love this paintwork!
Thanks, I didn’t even bother checking because I assumed it was a Chinese economy tire. That’ll teach me to stereotype.