My first Type34 (Part 1)

After three happy years with my Squareback I decided that I have to own a Type34. At that time (2003) there was none available around, so i took a look at Ebay. There she was: A 1969 model with electric sunroof and IRS in the back, lowered all around and whitewall tires.



The description: This is one of the finest ones in Great Britain.
Great Britain? Yes it was in Sheffield and I was in Vienna. So, what to do?
After asking the seller about the quality of the car, I decided to take it. So I made my bid and won the auction.
Yeah baby, I own a Karmann!!
But how to get it? There was only one way:
Vienna-Graz by train, Graz-Stansted with Ryan Air (That's cheap and that's good because I have paid 6000.-EUR in advance for a car I've never seen before), Stansted-Sheffield by Train and then drive it back home.
The seller told me that the car was ready for the 2000km trip, so I and two friends (yes two friends and I in a Type34) flew over to London.


(on the left you can see me, and on the right is the happy seller? No that's Bernd a good friend of me)
When we picked up that nice looking car on a dark,cold evening in december 2003 I was very happy. But that was just for the first 10 minutes before we recognized that we had some electrical problems. After a short testride it was also obvious that the car was so low, that tires made contact to the fenders in every corner. So what to do? Looking for a hotel, drink one or two beers and think about it tomorrow!
We decided to try the trip home:
Franz the other friend of me (He is only around 1,65m, so he is the man to sit behind) is a mechanic and tried to fix the electric problems:

NO CHANCE!!
Remember: It was december and we had the lights working in front or in the back (I could choose this with the highbeam switch), the wipers did not work and we had no turn signals, but we had to drive on the 'wrong side of the street'.
First step to do: legalize the car by fixing the numberplates of my squareback...

then we started our way to London. The only map we had was this little plan:

and a print of viamichelin. But we made it to London without any problems, except the ones we already knew.

To be contnued....