museum cars

Who isn’t familiar with Herbie, star of the Disney motion picture The Love Bug. Herbie was an anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle of many talents. Our particular version of Herbie was used in advertising for the film.

Karmann Ghia Coupé The Karmann Ghia is a timelessly classic vehicle which, to this day, embodies Italian chic coupled with German engineering quality. It was as coveted a dream car as it was known for its reliability in the 1950s and 60s. By the time production on this vehicle was eventually halted, 362,585 coupés and 80,881 cabriolets had been shipped to delighted motorists around the world.

Rometsch In this concept draft, Berlin designer Bert Lawrence combined American styling elements such as tail fins and a panorama windscreen with the elegance and lightness of Italian body designs. The Rometsch was particularly popular among American film stars.

Samba Bus This is the 1,000,000th Transporter. It was build on 2 October 1962. This model, commonly and endearingly known as the Samba Bus, was particularly popular among tourists in holiday regions.

Oettinger Beetle 220 cm wide, the “Oettinger” is the Beetle with the widest body anywhere in Europe. Inside this expansive body, Oettinger installed a tuned six-cylinder Porsche 911 engine. The sporty dynamics of this vehicle are emphasised by a flashy spoiler.

EA 266 Development of the EA 266 was commissioned to Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche KG in the late 1960s by the then head of Volkswagen, Dr Kurt Lotz. Volkswagen had included a number of requirements in its specifications for this vehicle, determining that it should be sporty, with comfort and driving-safety features, and that it should be both spacious and compact. Eventually, however, in 1972, Volkswagen chose not to launch production of the EA 266, since the EA 337, the Golf, had by then evolved to series maturity. The EA 266 on display – on loan from Autostadt – is one of two specimens of this model still in existence.

Pikes Peak This Twin Golf is based on the Golf GTI and the bi-engine principle: one engine at the front of the vehicle and one at the rear – each with 326 PS. The exhibited vehicle took part in the 1987 Pikes Peak Mountain Race in the USA.

Sea Golf This Golf Cabriolet, with its two hydraulically driven swim pontoons, was developed and built by Volkswagen AG Research on the occasion of the 1983 Golf GTI meeting at Lake Wörthersee in Austria. The Sea Golf was more than just an eye-catcher for visitors to the event; work on this special model revolved around research into marine engines.

Beetle Cabriolet This is the oldest preserved cabriolet from the post-WWII era. It was built by the Osnabrück-based company Karmann in October 1949. The first owner of the car drove it until 1977; its second owner sold it to the AutoMuseum in 1984. By the time production of this model was discontinued, 331,847 Beetle Cabriolets had left the assembly line.

Scirocco The Scirocco represented Volkswagen’s entrance into the field of sports cars. This Italian-design sports coupé unmistakably bears the signature of Giorgio Giugiaro. The vehicle identification number of the depicted car is 1.

Volkswagen 1500 Cabriolet The body of the Cabriolet 1500 was built by Karmann in Osnabrück and presented at the 1961 IAA motor show. It attracted a good deal of attention, especially given its design, which reflected the fashionable style of elegance of the day.

EA 272 The predecessor of the Passat, the EA 272 featured a space-saving transversely mounted engine. The EA 272 was designed by Italy’s Giorgio Giugiaro. The first standard Passat, however, was introduced as a parallel model to the Audi 80 and featured a longitudinal engine.