Russell Ritchie's show winning Type 3 Squareback
- Tuesday, 3 June 2008
- 1 Comments
Scotsman Russell Ritchie has been making a bit of a name for himself recently, not just with his own cars but in his support of the European Bug In under the guise of his Gasser Garage. I'm sure Russell won't mind us saying it's really just an excuse for him to indulge his fantasies rather than a sensible business proposition, but when that fantasy involves collecting and preserving old VW racecars from around the world, then we can't think of a better way of spending one's money. And unlike your usual car collector, Russell isn't afraid to bring them out to play either, as evinced by him transporting no fewer than eight cars across to Belgium for the European Bug In last year and merrily handing out the keys so others had the opportunity to race them. How cool is that? As well as the old racecars, Russell has also been slowly amassing an enviable collection of 'other' VWs as well, but the one car he didn't have was a Squareback. And when Paul Medhurst of Type 3 Detectives (T3D) debuted his 'Squareblack' at last year's VolksWorld Show, that got Russell thinking.
While he loved the look and style of Paul's car, with its slammed stance and narrowed beam, Russell felt it was a bit too custom for his tastes, so decided to commission Paul instead to build him a car that was more in keeping with his love of traditional California Look cars.
"I already had the perfect engine in stock for the project, and it was always going to be a Gasser Garage car, so I knew how I wanted it to look right from the start. The only problem with T3D was that everything they do is on the ground scraping the floor. This had to be higher, more in line with my way of thinking." From where we're standing it sounded like it turned into an episode of Play Your Cards Right, with Paul shouting 'lower, lower!' and Russell shouting 'higher, higher!' but in the end it was Russell that won, and rightly so, for it's his car after all. "It pained me to build a car at this height," laughed Paul, "but the customer is always right, and once it started to come together I liked it more and more."
For the full story check out the July 2008 issue of VolksWorld magazine. On sale on 16 May and then available through back issues.
SUBSCRIBE
Never miss an issue again by setting up a subscription to VolksWorld magazine!
VW Wallpaper
You can download a wallpaper from this feature for your computers desktop in our VW Wallpaper section.
July 02 05:45
Dong Tumuran
Nice Squareback right there!