TheSamba.com :: View topic - coach-built VW?

Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:52 pm

Does anyone know anything about the coach-built posted by Javabug in the gallery?

Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:56 pm

Looks like an old grand prix racer.

Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:50 pm

I think I saw that car race this one in a cartoon once:

Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:27 am

Is that the "Delfosse" shown in Dan R. Post's VW book "Nine Lives Later"?

That's the old German lic. plate format from post WW2 thru about 1955. "B" and "N" stand for a region in Germany, remnants of the occupational force divisions. I have a German VW book at home that describes where that would be. Guess: The "N" "might" be Nuremburg (Nuernberg).

Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:17 am

Nothing like answering your own questions. Yesterday I wrote:

"Is that the "Delfosse" shown in Dan R. Post's VW book "Nine Lives Later"?

That's the old German lic. plate format from post WW2 thru about 1955. "B" and "N" stand for a region in Germany, remnants of the occupational force divisions. I have a German VW book at home that describes where that would be. Guess: The "N" "might" be Nuremburg (Nuernberg)."

My findings:

YES IT IS THE SAME CAR as shown in the "Nine Lives..." book. License plates are the SAME and the book car shows the two windshield bubbles. The paint looks shinier in the book photo also, but since it is a head-on shot you cannot see the sides. Nothing more is mentioned in either the captions or the text about the driver/builder Delfosse.

I was not quite correct in my guess about the lic. plate yesterday. That other book I referenced is "VW Kaefer" (German) from Dr. Ulrich von Pidoll, printed 1994. The one on the car is known as an "Allied Plate". The "BR" is British Zone, Rhineland which is more to the west/southwest of West Germany than the Wolfsburg area. This style plate was first given out early 1949, lasting thru May 1956, whereby as of 1952 the first letter could have been dropped.

In contrast, you see many VW photos of that era with the lic. plate letters "BN" = Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony; the "state" in which Wolfsburg lies).

Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:28 pm

This is indeed the Curt Delfansse car. This picture is from a '49 magazine that also said this VW powered car went 80 MPH. Does anyone know if the it exists? Where?

Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:16 pm

DDub, do you have a copy of that article? If it is in German and you cannot understand it, I'd be happy to translate it for you if you PM me.

I do know that another of those old race "specials" from the "Nine Lives..." book is/was on display at the Wolfsburg VW Museum- namely the Petermax Mueller car.

So how about writing to the museum (same address as the "birth certificate") along with a copy of the above photo? Either H. Dr. Wiersch or his research staff would seem to be the best to know of the car's whereabouts.

80mph is quite plausible, given the low weight (alu body) and very streamlined shape.

Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:16 pm

Roland,

That format of German license plate was issued from immediately post-WW2 through mid-1957. The "BN" designation stood for Britische Besetzungszone Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony British Occupation Zone. See some other period 356 Porsches and you might find AS or AB.