1957 Panel Van

Friday, 14 December 2007
Jon Gilbert
1 Comments

Sandro Lichtsteiner's '57 Panel

Quite simply, they don't come any lower than Sandro Lichtsteiner's '57 Panel. Take it from us, if you wanna stop traffic, this is the way to do it

Air bags. Right, that's answered your first question. Adjustable ride height. That should answer the second one, or at least go some way to explaining to your friends/ girlfriend/mum and dad how the hell Sandro Lichtsteiner can actually drive this Bus. We're perhaps being presumptuous here, but having shown these pictures to a couple of mates of ours who are into cars, but not into cars, if you know what I mean, these were the questions they asked. Of course, you lot reading this are fully au fait with the mechanics of air-ride systems and will have already explained to anyone you've shown this feature to how they work and how they're the best thing since sliced bread, giving, as they do, the best of both worlds: the ability to look as cool as this parked up and also to be driven too.
That ability to look supremely cool was what caught our eye when we saw Sandro's Bus for real at the European Bug-In.
We'd already seen a feature on it in the French Super VW Magazine, but seeing it in the metal it hit us like a sledgehammer. There's just something about slammed Panel Vans that makes them look better than anything else. And, for Sandro, that instant attraction proved to be his undoing...
Having owned a string of VWs in the past, from stock Oval Cabriolets to chopped custom Bugs and a '62 Split Bus, Sandro, 39, thought he'd got the VW thing out of his system. Then he saw a DVD entitled California Live, which came free with a recent issue of Super VW Magazine. On this DVD was none other than this very Bus and it made Sandro realise he was far from over his VW addiction. However, '57 Panel Vans being a bit thin on the ground in his home town of Guebwiller, in the beautiful Alsace region of France, he decided to look further afield and, by a stroke of fortune, found the actual Bus that had so inspired him for sale on an internet website. But let this be a lesson to us all - don't be ruled by your heart, use your head when it comes to buying a car unseen from abroad.
Unfortunately, what turned up several months later in France was far from the perfect show Bus he'd been led to believe - the interior was a mess, the air-ride system didn't work and he soon realised he'd paid a lot of dough for little more than a pretty paint job and some shiny doo-dads. Rather than sulk, or cry like a bébé, he decided to make the best of it and he and a group of close friends started to rework the Bus to a standard that they, and Monsieur MOT, would be happy with.

For the full story on this mental Air Bagged Panel Van check out the January 2008 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 30th November to 28th December and then available through back issues.

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