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The oldest VW Kombi just turned 70!

Matt Campbell
Managing Editor - Head of Video
6 Aug 2020
2 min read
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The oldest known VW Kombi has just celebrated seven decades on planet Earth - and it did so in style, with a birthday cake with seven sparkplugs as candles to mark the milestone.

The T1 Bulli from 1950 - which VW's commercial arm, Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge, describes as the company's oldest "street-legal" bus - is finished in 'dove blue', is configured in panel van spec, and has chassis number 20-1880, which was stamped on at the Wolfsburg plant all those years ago.

It was put to work as a delivery van in Hildesheim for decades, before being passed through a few sets of hands as part of private collections - now, it's part of VW's commercial vehicles classics collection.

This particular vehicle is known as Miss Sofie, and it was lovingly restored from the tyres to the turret in 2000 - and it took until 2003 for the job to be completed. To that point, it had covered less than 100,000km, and had spent more than a third of its life in storage. 

Then its owner, Tonny, took Miss Sofie out on the road to enjoy the European countryside, and 20,000km later, the van was once again in the possession of the VW Group, where the company aims to keep it for at least the next 70 years. 

If you've heard of these vans referred to as tin cans, here's why. This 1950 T1 Kombi had a 1131cc four-cylinder air-cooled engine producing just 18kW, a top speed of 80km/h, and it weighed just 990kg. Astoundingly the payload was 760kg, though you had no fear of reaching the claimed maximum velocity with that much mass on board. 

Matt Campbell
Managing Editor - Head of Video
Matt Campbell has been at the forefront of automotive media for more than a decade, working not only on car reviews and news, but also helping manage automotive outputs across print, online, video and audio. After completing his media degree at Macquarie University, Matt was an intern at a major news organisation as part of the motoring team, where he honed his skills in the online automotive reviews and news space. He did such a good job there they put him on full time, and since then he has worked across different automotive media outlets, before starting with CarsGuide in October 2017. At CarsGuide Matt has helped shape the video output of the business, while also playing a key role in management behind the scenes, and helping in-market new car buyers make the right choice by continually evolving CarsGuide's comparison reviews. Driving more than 100 cars a year seemed like a dream to Matt when he first started out, but now it's all just part of the job - a job he loves and plans to stay in for a long time to come. Matt is also an expert in used car values, as he's always on the hunt for a bargain - be it a project beater or a prime example of the breed. He currently owns a 2001 Audi TT quattro and a 2007 Suzuki Jimny JLX.
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