“It was November 2014 when I went to pick up the lathe I had bought from Viljakkala,” recalls Finn, Timo Viitanen. “There was this ’65 Beetle sitting there too, which the seller said I could have cheap. I wasn’t looking for a new project, but when he said I could have it for just a couple of hundred euros, I couldn’t resist.
“I use to build model cars as a child, and I always modified every one. I would take tips from Swedish hot rod magazines, until one day in the early ’80s I saw a Finnish mag called V8-Magazine. That instantly became my main source of inspiration, and really made me fall in love with old American cars.”
Timo began building full-size cars at the age of 16, starting with a ’68 Ford Zodiac, which he had ready to go back on the streets by the time he got his driver’s licence at the age of 18. After that, he stuck with Fords for a while, before later owning a string of American cars. So a Beetle is a bit out of character.
Stock car
“It wasn’t in good shape, but I’d had plenty of
