TheSamba.com :: View topic - Pics: VWSA museum cars destroyed in wreck

Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:17 am

:cry: :cry: :cry:

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n18_24112006.htm

VW museum loses nine historic cars as carrier overturns

By Tabelo Timse

NINE irreplaceable historic cars, including the last Beetle built on the Volkswagen SA production line in 1978, were damaged beyond repair after a car carrier transporting them overturned while travelling from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth.

The VW and Audi vehicles were on their way back to VWSA‘s refurbished auto pavilion museum in Uitenhage.

Among them was a 2002 T3 microbus, the last of it kind to be built in Uitenhage, a 1958 Beetle, the 1978 Beetle, a 1979 Passat, a 1970 Audi 90, a 1973 Audi 100S, a 1975 Audi Coupe, and a 1959 Beetle.

VWSA communications general manager Bill Stephens said the accident happened on Tuesday morning near Albertinia as the cars were coming back from Cape Town where they had been part of a display during the VWSA 55th anniversary celebration. The cars had been displayed at the Groote Schuur Manor House where a celebratory dinner was held.

Stephens said the cars could not be replaced because each was unique in the history of VWSA, representing an exact milestone.

“This is the worst that could have happened because if they were new cars they could be replaced – we can‘t replace these ones. This is a great loss for us.”

Stephens said VWSA was going to look for similar models and restore these when found.

Over the years the company had also collected other historic cars which were stored in their warehouses, and would decide which to put in the museum in place of those destroyed.

[edit to add pictures]

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Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:36 am

What, no pictures?

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:51 am

I'm sure someone will come in and say "Audi's, who cares?" but the trouble is that every time something like this happens it just makes it that much harder for museums to justify letting the cars ever leave the safety of the museum.

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:57 am

I hope that VWSA has learnt that if you do let them out more than one at a time, don't transport them all together. This would have been much less of a loss had the cars been spread over three smaller transporters.

Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:57 am

Damaged beyond repair ? VWSA should see some of the restorations being done today.

Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:03 pm

fig wrote: I hope that VWSA has learnt that if you do let them out more than one at a time, don't transport them all together. This would have been much less of a loss had the cars been spread over three smaller transporters.

Bingo.

Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:29 am

Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:43 am

thank god there weren't any Buses on that trailer!

Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:04 pm

who here has the guts to offer a nearly free restoration of the "damaged beyond repair(yeah, right, you're just too lazy to try to fix them)" to get these irreplaceable automobiles back to their rightful place in the museum? I would but i would problyjust f*** it up worse. or someone set up a donation fund for the person here who does that

Sat Nov 25, 2006 9:56 pm

Even without the pictures, I'm sure any of those cars could be re-built. Throw enough money and talent at them and they could be better than new. Seems like someone must want the insurance money instead. :wink:

Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:16 pm

once they throw them away, someone find out what junkyard they are at and steal them!or buy them.....and fix them....then offer them back to the museum @ inflated price.

Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:21 pm

crofty wrote: thank god there weren't any Buses on that trailer!

fig wrote: .....Among them was a 2002 T3 microbus, the last of it kind to be built in Uitenhage.....yada yada yada......

Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:23 pm

manxcraig wrote: Damaged beyond repair ? VWSA should see some of the restorations being done today.

They're original only once :wink: What's the museum curator going to say during the museum tour? Something like "Here is last Beetle built on the Volkswagen SA production line in 1978. But it was rebuilt in 2007?" :lol:

Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:35 pm

RareAir wrote: crofty wrote: thank god there weren't any Buses on that trailer!

fig wrote: .....Among them was a 2002 T3 microbus, the last of it kind to be built in Uitenhage.....yada yada yada......

He meant a real bus. A T3 is NOT a bus.

Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:45 pm

RareAir wrote: manxcraig wrote: Damaged beyond repair ? VWSA should see some of the restorations being done today.

They're original only once :wink: What's the museum curator going to say during the museum tour? Something like "Here is last Beetle built on the Volkswagen SA production line in 1978. But it was rebuilt in 2007?" :lol:

Very true, but its better than "Heres where the last beetle used to sit, its now a Honda".

Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:05 pm

how about "last beetle built etc." (on placard in front of car list "heritage" including....wrecked and repaired in 2007)

Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:32 am

Or they could put it back in there and say here are the remains of the last beetle ever built...... :lol:

Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:13 am

With their historical provenance, i am a little puzzled why VWSA would say that the cars in question are beyond repair, and yet go on to say that they plan to find "similar" models and restore them. The "second team' replacement cars would probably be easier to restore, but would have no historical value. Which would look better on the display placard- "the last SA built VW beetle, painstakingly restored after nearly being lost in a horrible accident." or "this car is almost exactly like the last SA built VW beetle,"

The value is in the provenance, not the appearance. a never wrecked, one owner 78 beetle is a very nice car, but it has no significance compared to the LAST 78 beetle, even if the last beetle has been wrecked and rebuilt.

Look at any world class collection of cars, and you will find that most have undergone total restorations, especially race cars. Sometimes the car on display was little more than a pile of rust with a number plate attached prior to being restored. In fact, often the word "reconstructed" is more apt than using the word "restored."

Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:26 am

bljones wrote: Look at any world class collection of cars, and you will find that most have undergone total restorations, especially race cars. Sometimes the car on display was little more than a pile of rust with a number plate attached prior to being restored. In fact, often the word "reconstructed" is more apt than using the word "restored."

Or look at what's routine in the airplane world. Tell the guys who pull crashed planes out of glaciers or up from the bottom of lakes where they've been rusting for 60 years that these cars can't be restored and they would laugh in your face.

Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:01 pm

well working at an art museum I know that if they deacession a piece of art because it is damaged and take the insurance money...the piece has to be destroyed and gotten rid of. I dont know if this is the same everywhere...but they may just take the pay out and destroy them