10 1967 SAMBA CAMPAwww.volkswagencamper.co.uk
1967 SAMBA CAMPAon Brown would be
the first to say that he’s
owned quite a few buses
in his time. Talking to
him you get the distinct impression
that part of his appreciation of old
VWs comes in bringing often near
rust-free vehicles back to, if not
better than, the condition they left
the showroom in many years ago. Of
course, under such circumstances,
once the job is done there’s always
the temptation to move something
along in favour of a new rarity.
But not the Samba we see before
us here ... Nineteen years Ron’s
owned this one and a bond between
man and bus has been built. The
story starts back in 2000 at the
Volksworld show where the Samba
was up for sale and Ron liked what
he saw. An enquiry revealed that
the ‘67 had just one US owner, a
paramedic based in Arizona (there’s
a sticker on one of the windowsproclaiming the fact) and one Brit- the ‘lad’ who was selling it. He’d
owned the Samba for a couple of
years - that is until a crisis on the
domestic front, a termination in a
relationship and a division of goods
and chattels intervened. The bus still
wore its original paint and although
it had been run with a bigger engine,
what Hanover had supplied it with
originally was back in place. Oh and
as for mileage, how did a mere 42k
suit. Ron took the Samba for a run
during which it ‘drove fantastic’,
returned and did a deal. As he said,
‘it was a lot of money’, but nowhere
near even the starting post for the
prices being asked today. Within
two weeks of having first seen it the
bus was safely in the North-East of
England.
Mr Brown’s first task was to bare
metal the split, as the original paint
was too tired for him. In nothing
more than naked metal it was even
R
In which we drool over a one off Samba-
Camper with just two previous owners and
no more than 80K on the clock.
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS:RICHARD COPPINGForgot to
remove the
modern shades!
Mr Brown’s
bus epitomises a
particularly glossy
version of classic
1960s Velvet
Green and Pearl
WhiteMr Brown’s Bus