Karmann Ghia T34s

The lesser known razoredge Karmann Ghia T34 – and we have two of them!

CM: Perhaps you could start by telling us how you first become involved with Karmann Ghias?

Mark Poulton: I had grown up with VWs from my father's side, and so naturally enough I started out in 1976 driving a 6v Beetle. After nearly 10 years and a couple of Beetles, I thought it would be nice to have something a little bit different, and a Karmann Ghia seemed the logical progression. This would have been around 1985 and I actually looked at both types of Karmann Ghia, including two Type 14s that were close to me but both of which were horrendously rusty despite being only 13 years old at the time. The sellers wanted around £1000, and didn't agree with my assessment that the cars were probably only worth around £500.

Then a Type 34 came up for sale, also reasonably local. I wasn't particularly looking for one of these, but I did want something that was a little more modern than my Beetle and could be had with practical upgrades like disc brakes (from 1966) and 12-volt electrics (from 1967). It probably didn't hurt that at the time a Type 34 would have been cheaper than a later Type 14 too – a good Type 14 would have cost something like £3000, whereas a good Type 34 could be found for around the £2000-£2500 mark. Not that mine cost anything like that – it had been stolen and recovered, but was still driveable with a current MoT though it had been run into something like a low bank and the nearside front wing was bent out of shape. The seller was still asking £1200, but I ended up paying just £625.

CM: That is some impressive haggling! How bad was it?

MP: To be fair, despite the accident damage it wasn't too bad. Aside from that crumpled wing, there was just a little bit of rust starting around the headlights, the sills and the rear arches. The rust was nowhere near as bad as it could have

Mention the words 'VW Karmann Ghia' and most enthusiasts will picture the curvaceous Type 14 cars. However, the company also produced the more sharply chiselled Type 34, and we have a bonus for you today with two examples of the breed to feast your eyes upon, both of which belong to the Chair of the Karmann Ghia Owners Club (GB), Mark Poulton.

been though, and when I took the sills off, I only had to carry out limited repairs to the inner stiffening sections and the floorpan edge. If the rust is extensive on one of these then you really have to split the body from the chassis, but this car has never been separated.

CM: You are talking as though you still own that car. Is it one of these two?

MP: Yes, the car I bought in August 1985 is the beige car you are photographing today,

though the colour is officially Gobi Beige (as in the Gobi desert). I was in my mid-20s when I bought it, and at that age you don't look 30 years into the future so I had no idea I would still own the same car all these years later. I did like it though, and I held onto it after getting married and having children. It was still reasonably practical for a while, as we could strap our first child's carry- cot to the back seat. In 1991 we even took it on a 3000-mile round trip to the former East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia when he was 16 months old, this time sitting up and strapped in the centre of the back seat.

We went on to have two more children, and of course it became a bit of a squeeze. I think the last time we all went out in the Karmann Ghia would have been around 2003 or 2004 when the children were 12, 9 and 7 years old. We could still just about fit them onto the back seat for short distances, so we tended to take two cars to rallies and shows, then all squeeze into the one car if there was a short classic run.

CM: So where does the blue car come into the story?

MP: That one I bought in 1987, and it was in a real state. In fact, it was bought originally as a parts car. Back then (as now!) I was the T34 Spares Officer in the club, so I was always on the lookout for spare parts. This car came up for sale, again crash- damaged but this time crumpled on the offside

after meeting another car on a narrow bridge. It was LHD and quite rotten too, but did have some desirable options/ accessories, so I reckoned that if I bought it cheaply enough, I could make my money back by breaking it for spares. In the end I paid just £100 for it and got a friend with a Scimitar GTE to tow it home on a trailer, but then I put on the rose-tinted spectacles and thought: 'You know what? I can do this...!'

The first thing I did was send it away to have the front pulled back out. To do this, they had to cut half the front panel and half the offside front wing off just to get access, but at least the car I got back had the correct shape at the front and the bonnet now fitted squarely in its opening. The car was rusty though – you could move the bottom of the A-post on the offside away from the sill, the sills themselves had been repaired badly by welding them onto the floorpan, and most

It had been stolen and recovered, but was still driveable with a current MoT

of the spare wheel carrier was missing too. But breaking a car is an ugly process and I just decided to save this one.

It wasn't a quick process though, and it was 2011 before I had the blue car back on the road. I did do other things in that time of course, such as a Beetle convertible project and two Type 4s – a 411LE two- door and a 412LS Variant, both great for the expanded family. But I'd come so far on the Karmann Ghia that I just stuck with it. I'd carried out a RHD conversion and repaired the damaged side of the car by about 2000. It was then really a case of ploughing on, tackling one issue at a time and not looking too far ahead. When a particular job was not going well, I would walk away for a while, cool off and think about how to tackle the problem. Some parts that I had replaced early on, like the nearside sill and rear wheelarches, I decided to cut off again and do a better job second time as superior repro parts became available.

CM: Once both cars were on the road, did you find that they had different characters, or are they two peas from the same pod?

MP: The Gobi car (with black roof) is from October 1967 while the blue one was built in March 1968, so both are 1967 models as the model year ran from August to July. The later car was originally Regatta Blue with a white roof, but I painted it Marathon Blue Metallic with an Alaska Blue Metallic roof. Metallic paint was never an

option on the Type 34, but Marathon Blue Metallic was a reasonably common option across the VW range later, being available from the early 1970s on the Type 14 Karmann Ghia and the Beetle, plus the Type 3 and Type 4 ranges. That car has also had a leather interior done in the style of the original, but the beige interior is original, even down to the carpets. That does make it unusual, as so many these days have been restored.

As I mentioned earlier, the blue car was LHD, a German market car that came to the UK in 1980. It had been specified from new with an electric sunroof, and with the fully-automatic gearbox which changes the character of the car, making it very easy to drive for cruising around the countryside. It is only a three-speed unit though, so it does blunt the top speed, with a lower rear axle ratio that probably adds around 500rpm

I bought it in 1987, and it was in a real state. In fact, it was bought originally as a parts car.

in top gear when compared to the manual Gobi car. Mind you, having a torque converter does make it pretty quick off the mark, and up to around 30mph it can surprise a few people if you put your foot down.

In the manual car, I think how fast you want to push it depends on the age of the driver more than anything else! When I first got mine, I had no trouble travelling at 70mph on the motorway, maybe 75mph on occasions, and the fastest I've seen on the clock is an indicated 95mph going flat out down a modest hill. At 70mph it is pulling about 3500rpm, and only 2800rpm at around 6065mph when it is just getting to the top of its torque curve. It does get treated slightly more gently these days, but we used to pull a small camping trailer in the 1980s and 1990s, so despite the pretty looks it was always a willing work horse.

CM: We said in the introduction that most people associate the Karmann Ghia name with the Type 14 cars rather than these Type 34s. Is that fair?

MP: I think so, but that is not really surprising when you look at the production numbers, because Karmann built about ten Type 14 coupés and convertibles for every Type 34.

That was over a longer period of course, from 1955 to 1974 instead of only 1961-1969, but the Type 14 was also sold in the USA in huge numbers, and was positioned rather differently there which helped to vastly increase it’s market visibility.

I don't think anybody knows for sure why the Type 34 was never exported to the USA because they did send them to Canada, but it may be that it was simply regarded as too expensive for that market as they were certainly expensive to build. In 1972, for example, a Type 14 would have cost around US$1400 in the States, while a coupé was considerably more expensive in the UK at £1600 and a convertible would have set you back £1800. The Type 34 when it was last available in 1969 was over £1600, even more if you opted for the automatic gearbox and electric sunroof. To put this into context, that was more than a Mk2 Jaguar, while a VW Beetle was available for around £600-£800 depending on specification.

CM: How easy is it to keep a relatively rare car such as the Type 34 on the road today?

MP: Mechanical parts have always been easy to get as they are shared across so many VW platforms. Like so many classics, body panels are the Achilles heel, but the skills and expertise are out there to repair them. Other bits that are bespoke to the model have had fluctuating availability over the years. For example, from 1990 until the early 2000s it was difficult to get the rubber seals that are unique to the car (which is most of them!) so you had to make do with the nearest you could get. The club then started to have some remade, and this has grown significantly in the last five years working closely with Simon Kelley who is able to remanufacture Type 3 and Karmann rubber and metal parts in Asia. Now we can probably source a good 80% of the seals. I have test-fitted many of the repro parts on my cars and they are good, although we can only sell to club members.

The only key seals we are still missing are the door sponge rubbers and the rear deck seal. That rear deck seal is particularly tricky because it was moulded with very tight radii. For the doors, however, we can use Type 14 lower door seals, although T34 doors are longer, so you do need to stretch them a bit. You also have to put different cut- outs and drain holes into the door seals, but this kind of information is one of the reasons why joining the club is so important. I do think that this is not always appreciated by everyone, particularly as many people are so used to getting information for free on the internet and view club membership as somehow uncool or a waste of money. As with anything though, knowledge can be free, but free knowledge isn't always the most accurate in all circumstances, whereas the depth of genuine knowledge within a club like ours is really quite amazing and well worth tapping into. Plus, of course, you get to meet a lot of great people through the club.

We used to pull a small camping trailer in the 1980s and 1990s, so despite the pretty looks it was always a willing work horse.

The Gobi Beige car is on standard steel wheels, with 155/15 tyres, chrome hub caps and polished wheel trim rings.

Seats, door panels, and carpet with coco mats are original. Additions are the VDM steering wheel, bamboo parcel shelf, Kamei tunnel tray and wooden gear knob, plus a rev counter where the clock used to be.

This car still has its original tool kit, and (left) the original Owner's Handbook too.

The standard twin- carb 1584cc 'suitcase' engine is still the original unit for this car and has recorded just over 50,000 miles. New valves and clutch were fitted in 2008. Note the shallow luggage space above it.

Accessories on this car include the Oris towbar, reversing lights, mudflaps and Australian made rear sun blind. As an early 1968 model, it was delivered with 61- 67 rear light assemblies.

Lemmerz Marathon steel wheels with 165/15 tyres and centre caps. Stainless steel bumpers fitted. Inset – original electric sunroof and accessory wind deflector.

Replacement blue leather seats and door panels. Standard three dial display, with rev counter replacing clock which moves to speaker position to left of radio cassette. Selector labelling unique to 1968 models – PR0321.

The front luggage compartment houses a dealer-fitted Eberspacher B2 petrol heater.

This car has the standard twin carb, 1584cc, period-correct engine with kickdown switch on the central throttle quadrant. The engine case, carbs and distributor are subtly different in automatic specification.

The slimline rear light units were fitted in 1968/69. Upper case AUTOMATIC script was used in 1968 only. The reversing lights, mudflaps and sunblind are accessories.