’68 SQUAREBACK
We love to reference the 1980s as a hotbed of VW customisation – you know, the everything was Cal Look era – but it’s worth reminding ourselves that here in Europe, VolksWorld and Bug Jam didn’t exist before 1987 so, for a lot of people, their VW journeys didn’t really start until the early 1990s.
I can still recall the first VolksWorld Type 3 Special landing on the doormat, and poring over the four cars assembled at Chatham Dockyard for the shoot. That was in November 1990 and, of the four cars, it was Lee Hayne’s Squareback that sticks in my mind the most. It was the first pillarless VW I can recall seeing, and I just loved the way it looked.
Going back to remind myself of it for this feature, I don’t think I noticed – or cared – that it was a late model, I just dug the clean lines, and the way it sat down over its Riviera wheels.
That car was actually built originally by one-time NASC (National Association of Street Clubs) chairman, Nick Shanley, some time in the mid-’80s, but apparently his wife didn’t like it, so it was sold on, only to eventually
