Coach trip
Time to dig deep into your Ultra VW collection. In August 2011, we devoted an extensive article to Mark Merrill’s remarkable Volkswagen collection located near the capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose in northern California.
Like many such automotive shrines, cars come and go, with Mark recently finishing a Schwimmwagen, while other rarities await their turn for restoration. The list includes a 1949 Tatraplan (yes, it’s rear engined and air cooled) and a 1950 Barndoor Bus, found in a field years ago by Ray Schubert, his long-time friend who handles the fleet’s restoration and maintenance requirements.
Today, the collection consists of about 30 restored or original VWs, including a handful from independent coachbuilders. Mark has a strong interest in these rare, low-production vehicles, currently owning the two cars you see here, as well as a ’53 Rometsch four-door Beetle taxi and a ’57 Rometsch Beeskow. Some have been featured before, the Rometsch taxi appeared in the June 2015 issue of Ultra VW, while the Beeskow made its way into the May 2017 issue. So we thought it about time we pay the Dannenhauer & Stauss (D&S for short) and Denzel some VolksWorld attention.
But first, let’s take a look at the companies behind the two cars.
D&S history lesson
Founded in Stuttgart in 1950 by Gottfried Dannenhauer and his son-in-law, Kurt Stauss, Dannenhauer & Stauss was a (translation: bodywork). With the elder partner’s experience gained from working at Reutter Karosserie-Werke, who you will remember not only built some of the earliest Porsche
