The Preamble

A couple of weeks ago I went to the "11th Annual VW Classic" at 
Irvine Meadows (south Orange Co., Calif) to oogle and get my spirits 
up for a resotration project I'm anticipating. My 14 yr old son will 
be driving in about two years (now there's a frightening thought) so 
I'm using this as an excuse to convince my wife that we NEED to get 
a project vehicle now, so the kid and I can restore it together. 
See, the logic goes like this: we buy a diamond-in-the-rough, dirt 
cheap, do the knuckle busting stuff ourselves, sink a few $k into 
it, and he has a car to drive that 1- he worked hard for, so will be 
more likely to take care of, 2- knows how it works, so is able to 
(ie has to) fix himself when it needs service or breaks, 3- doesn't 
go very fast. So far, She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) is buying this, 
so we're off to the VW shows. These events can be real circuses, 
with big top tents, bikini contests, and 65 Deluxes turned into 
stretch limos, so you have to be in the right frame of mind.

I'm more than partial to the Type IIs, and there were a few dozen at 
the Irvine event, some real beauties. I just _love_ those 
Dormobiles. The kid is far more focussed on the early sunroof bugs. 
I admit, they're great little cars, and there's less there to 
restore, so we may end up doing a bug. In any event, now I'm getting 
to the sighting.

The Sighting

A guy there had a pristine, absolutely brand new (about 300mi) 
Vanagon Syncro Double Cab! I kid you not. It was beautiful. Even 
'the kid' was impressed. His response was something like, "Whoa! 
That thing is SERIOUSLY COOL! and Way Burly!"  And so it was. The 
owner was no where to be found, unfortunately, and we checked back 4 
times. The guy with the van next to it said he thought the owner had 
purcahsed the Syncro in Canada, and had it shipped down.

This raised lots of questions, so maybe some of you list members 
north of the border can shed some light. Are vanagon syncro double 
cabs common in Canada? I've never seen even one before. Is it 
possible that they are still being made somewhere, and shipped into 
Canada, or is it more likely that the owner of the one we saw has 
been storing it for at least 4 yrs? Gad, if it is still possible to 
buy these things, I want to be first on the list. I'm with the kid, 
it was one of the coolest things I've seen in quite a while.

Steve Reilly
'90 

p.s. my wife is really very sweet and quite understanding.

"How does a duck know which direction south is?
 and how to tell his wife from all the other ducks?"  
            Crash Test Dummies