First Beetle built outside Germany

Blue850

was assembled in Ireland, and used by VW in an ad campaign in 1960


I wonder what mileage is on the clock now?

Max_Damage

Plate doesn't show up on Cartell.

It's probably long since turned into a can of beans or something!

Blue850

ahem, its actually in the VW museum in Germany....like it says in the ad:D:D:D

carchaeologist

Blue850 wrote: »

ahem, its actually in the VW museum in Germany....like it says in the ad:D:D:D

It is,i was in Divanes VW garage,inside in the actual workshop last week and they have a picture of it up on the wall in the museum,the pic was taken in 1994. That museum looks like somewhere i would like to see...:)

carchaeologist

This is relevent to this thread;
Ballsbridge is an ancient and historic part of Dublin. It wasn’t always part of Dublin, but with the city spreading out in all directions Ballsbridge, originally called Balls’s Bridge, as can be seen from the bridge itself, became a suburb of the city and is now looked upon as one of the best residential areas in the greater Dublin area. The Americans are arguably rarely wrong when it comes to selecting a good place to do business from and they built their Embassy there.

However, long before that, the Royal Dublin Society had made Ballsbridge their home and possibly it was this that made the place internationally famous. But apart from the RDS, there someone else who helped to put the place on the map. The man who did that was Stephen O’Flaherty, the same man that brought the incredible Volkswagen Beetle to Ireland. The Ballsbridge Motors premises on Shelbourne Road began life as a motor dealership in the late 1940’s.

Until then, the buildings were used as a tram depot as part as the old Dublin tramway system. All over Dublin City and out to the suburbs there were things that strongly resembled railway lines running along both sides of the road, they were set in stone known as stone setts and along them ran buses with train wheels. They were called trams and were controlled by electricity. Some of them had open tops. It was a long time ago. The last tram to operate in Dublin was the Howth tram in July 1949.

One day Stephen O’Flaherty came along and took over the place and used it as an assembly plant for the amazing Volkswagen Beetle. At that time, he had acquired the franchise for Ireland and the UK and to anyone who has been around for awhile and knows something about the motor industry, the rest is history. In 1950, the first Volkswagen Beetle ever assembled outside of the Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg in Germany was built at Shelbourne Road, an historical fact which to this day is remembered at the Volkswagen museum in Wolfsburg where that actual Beetle is on permanent display.

There can be no doubt that Stephen O’Flaherty was a man ahead of his time. He was one of the pioneers of the Irish motor industry. He knew a good thing when he saw one, and the Volkswagen Beetle, a gigantic worldwide success is proof of that.

Assembly of the Volkswagen Beetle continued until 1956 by which time production demands had outgrown the space available and the assembly was transferred to the present motor distributors headquarters on the Naas Road. In parallel with the assembly operations of the Volkswagen Beetle during the early 1950’s. Ballsbridge Motors also functioned as a very prestigious retail dealership first with Volkswagen and then with the highly respected Mercedes-Benz and Audi range of Passenger Cars.

Ballsbridge Motors is a wholly owned outlet of the O’Flaherty Motor Group, being one of five dealerships and two state-of-the-art designated service centres managed by the group’s subsidiary, Motor Services Limited. The other dealerships and service centres in the group are Park Motors, Grange Motors, all located in Dublin and Turners Cross Motors in Cork. The two designated service centres are located on Pottery Road, Dun Laoghaire and North Circular Road, Dublin 7.

Today Ballsbridge Motors is popularly regarded as Ireland’s premier dealership for the Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen ranges of passenger cars. In keeping with the premium franchises it represents, Ballsbridge Motors is managed to the very highest standards. As a dealership, we are committed to offering our customers the highest quality of product and service.
Ref; http://www.ballsbridgemotors.ie/contentv3/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageID=13815&parentID=7865


Apparently this is the actual car. No ZL plate though.

Run_to_da_hills

My old man had both German and Irish assembled beetles and also type 3's (1964 and 1969) and reckoned the German ones were better assembled and for some reason the Irish ones were rust buckets.

Photo depicts 1964 model which he foolishly traded in against a 1969 new one. It lasted until 1978 and was then towed away for scrap because of the state of the body

carchaeologist

That isnt a Beetle,looks like an austin A40 or something?
EDIT; its indeed a type 3.. doh!

Blue850

^I think its a VW 1500 saloon

I took this photo at the VW show in Mungret, Co Limerick a few years ago, the owner thought it was the oldest Irish reg VW on the road, a 52 i think

carchaeologist

I think thats an early 1953 registration.
Martin Murray has a split screen shell in his place too thats very early.

trevorbrady

Blue850 wrote: »

ahem, its actually in the VW museum in Germany....like it says in the ad:D:D:D

my wonderful wife brought me on a trip to Wolfsburg as a wedding present to me in 2007. Heaven for a VW nerd like me!!

Anyway, that Irish bug is in the Autostadt:



but the main event for any classic VW enthusiast is the smaller but much better stocked VW Museum about a mile down the road from the Autostadt. It was closed on the day we got there (should really have checked in advance! ) but she blagged our way in for free, we had the place to ourselves!! God bless her!




bore yourselves with my holiday snaps here:

http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/trevorbrady/Germany-trip/?start=all

G Luxel

Sheehy Brothers in Carlow had a black Irish regd Split Screen in the mid 80s. At least I think it was a split screen....

trevorbrady

Blue850 wrote: »

^I think its a VW 1500 saloon

I took this photo at the VW show in Mungret, Co Limerick a few years ago, the owner thought it was the oldest Irish reg VW on the road, a 52 i think

ah there are older out there, this 1950 bug, a convertible no less has been owned and restored by the owner for decades now.

carchaeologist

Great pics there Trevor!
Is the ZL bug in Wolfsberg largely original or restored at great expense?
Looks like the latter? I cant imagine it was in great shape when they bought it back.

trevorbrady

yeah, restored alright and showing signs of wear from being in a museum. Some "part number nerds" will tell you that the VW commissioned restos aren't 110%, despite the corporation's resources but it looked pretty good to me.

G Luxel

This is my favourite beetle, the 1938. I wonder how many of them survive?

Blue850

trevorbrady wrote: »

ah there are older out there, this 1950 bug, a convertible no less has been owned and restored by the owner for decades now.

LHD ? Was it sold new in this country?

trevorbrady

dunno but I know it's been in Ireland for an awful long time, not a recent import, not even in the last three-four decades recent.

Randyleprechaun

good article about a VW in Galway in this monthe Irish Vintage Scene, mentions the Irish Assembled Beetles...very interesting

galwaytt

useless trivia about the Irish beetle in the VW museum: well, ironic that it's green, for a start, but it was also unique iirc in that upholstery is all fabric, as distinct from vinyl/leatherette iirc.

carchaeologist

trevorbrady wrote: »

dunno but I know it's been in Ireland for an awful long time, not a recent import, not even in the last three-four decades recent.

Got a reg for it?

245

galwaytt wrote: »

useless trivia about the Irish beetle in the VW museum: well, ironic that it's green, for a start, but it was also unique iirc in that upholstery is all fabric, as distinct from vinyl/leatherette iirc.

The earlier ones had fabric seat covering - vinyl/leatherette came later - '60s or so.

You're not old enough to recall correctly:p

Blue850

carchaeologist wrote: »

Got a reg for it?

:D:D

carchaeologist

Blue850 wrote: »

:D:D

Thats a Chelmsford reg dating from...ah..yes... :cool:

Abelloid

carchaeologist

Thats a 1962 Kildare issue.

Abelloid

Imported in '62 then. ?

carchaeologist

JustinOval wrote: »

Imported in '62 then. ?

Twould seem so alright. Nice motor. Wonder where it came from,somewhere in europe being LHD is guess.

245

Some car isn't it?

Personally, to me the car itself is far more interesting than the plate that hangs off it. The plate can be a bonus but only that.

carchaeologist

245 wrote: »

Personally, to me the car itself is far more interesting than the plate that hangs off it. The plate can be a bonus but only that.

Yes,this is true,though the plate can tell alot about the car fairly quickly if you know what to look for.

245

carchaeologist wrote: »

Yes,this is true,though the plate can tell alot about the car fairly quickly if you know what to look for.

No doubt about it - the most interesting ones are the contradictions - eg when the plate is older than the model varient that it sits on :rolleyes: Only works with an uninformed younger audience though....

Blue850

245

Where to start :P

We'll start with the four stud wheels and avoid the obvious

In fairness though, the plate is younger than the car which is justifiable and as far as I know, the owner never claimed that the car was anything other than a mix n match.

Wouldn't do it personally...

carchaeologist

Its not really a big deal to do that to a late bug i suppose. I see the PIK reg Ponton looking on too...

galwaytt

245 wrote: »

The earlier ones had fabric seat covering - vinyl/leatherette came later - '60s or so.

You're not old enough to recall correctly:p

...I certainly hope so !

The fabric though is mentioned on the placard on the car at the museum, so I'm assuming it has some significance........?

245

galwaytt wrote: »

...I certainly hope so !

The fabric though is mentioned on the placard on the car at the museum, so I'm assuming it has some significance........?

Apparently cloth was cheaper than vinyl/leatherette and so was fitted to basic 'standard' models with vinyl becoming more popular by the '60s. It was still possible to order cloth front/vinyl backed seats up to 1967.

Most if not all of the early Beetles that I saw in the Wolfsburg museums had cloth upholstery but export models tended to have vinyl - even the Standard exports. Some export markets had cloth so maybe they were drawing attention to the market variations?

I don't know for sure though :P

carmad

Blue850 wrote: »

LHD ? Was it sold new in this country?

I may be wrong, but I think it is an Irish car even though its LHD.
It was built by Karmann under licence by Volkswagen.