30 years of the VW California
IF you’ve always fancied taking an exotic road trip in a faraway location, it’s more than likely the idea of a Volkswagen camper van, the Wild West and southern California beaches has crossed your mind. Unoriginal perhaps, but maybe no vehicle quite captures the essence of lush So-cal campsites and highways stretching as far as the eye can see as the VW camper. It’s a great outdoor institution, and one celebrating an anniversary of sorts this year.
Volkswagen’s iconic Type 2 Transporter arrived in the fifties and is synonymous with sixties Californian counter-culture, but 2018 marks three decades of the sleeper van wearing its California badge. To celebrate the occasion, we took the latest version on a three-day tour around the south of its namesake state, to see if the cliché Californian road trip lives up to the hype.
Firstly, where did the California name come from? Prior to 1988 you wouldn’t find it on any VW van, and nor was it the firm’s brainchild. Westfalia-converted T3 generation vans, T25s to UK fans, take that honour, with the California name attached to an updated version of the Westfalia Joker, produced since 1979.
The California was aimed specifically at summer campers and available with a pop-up or high-top fixed roof. A sister van, the Westfalia Atlantic, was designed with year-round outdoor pursuits in mind.
At launch, the 1988 California had a 39,900 deutschmark price tag (around £17,000 in today’s money) after tax in Germany for the most basic version, with a 77bhp, 1.9-litre petrol engine. Buyers could only choose between red or white paintwork, but the van came with two beds, one in the roof, the other folding out from the rear bench, and amenities including a double-burner hob, sink and fridge combination.
Despite the name, the original California was never sold in the United States – the American-spec model was called the Vanagon. Its absence from the US market has continued through full Volkswagen ownership of the California name, too, starting in 2003 with the first full in-house effort and right up to the present day with the latest model based on the current-generation T6 Transporter.
It seems odd that a vehicle so attached to West Coast road trip culture isn’t even available to buy there. Volkswagen doesn’t sell any vans at all in the United States right now, be it of the commercial or camper variety. However, the locals know the score.
Straight off the plane at Los Angeles International and our brand new, temporarily imported Germanspec California Ocean van is causing a stir, and within minutes a potential sale for Volkswagen has slipped by. The first Californian to have a proper rummage around the California loudly declares that he’d import one permanently, if US laws allowed it or if VW built it for the country. This proved to be a recurring theme during our near-350-mile round trip; a loop taking us up and along the west coast from Los Angeles, inland into vast, desert-like plains, before heading back down into the city.
As we roll out of the airport and straight into the concrete tangle of central Los Angeles’ huge web of highways, our first port of call is Venice Beach, where our brand new California meets some of its earliest ancestors. Surf instructor Martin has brought two of his Type 2 T1 split-screen vans to the beachfront for