Brasil Nut – Brasilia

We've made mention before of how the modified car world has wound itself into a series of ever-tightening circles over the last few years - people seemingly becoming ever more reluctant to build something truly different, instead concentrating on upping the quality of, for want of a better phrase, the same old things. But then, out of nowhere, comes a car that leaves you speechless. And for something to come along and leave Ivan, Steve and myself all speechless is a rare moment indeed. However, had someone said to us before European Bug-In that they were building an off-road Brasilia, well, how can I put it? Let's just say we wouldn't have rushed to the show a day earlier to see it. Would you?
There's just something about off-roaders that doesn't really seem to fit with the VW scene as we know and love it today. And it's not just the VW scene, for if there's one thing that unites almost all the modified car scenes in Europe these days, it's ride height. Low is most definitely in, whether you're into air- or water-cooled VWs, mini trucks, hot rods, retro cars, custom cars or modern hatchbacks, everything looks better on the floor. Yet when faced with two superbly built and detailed Brasilias in one place - one on the floor, the other very much not - we were hard pushed to decide which we preferred.
Like Fridolins, it only took one person to build a pukka Brasilia and suddenly everyone knows what they are, everyone wants one and everybody has an idea of how they would build one. But it's a pretty safe bet that few other people saw their imaginary Brasilia project looking like this. But then Xavier Adam was already well ahead of the curve when he started building this car. A member of Belgium's most active VW club, Der Autobahn Scrapers, Xavier bought his first Brasilia eight years ago from his boss and good friend Pat when most people thought they were just a misspelt South American country. That one is now gunmetal grey, lowered and on chromed Sprintstars. Cool, yes, but not exactly groundbreaking. So what to do to top that? Build another, better, lowered Brasilia with the second Brasilia body he had managed to source through his job at Pat Stock and Performance in Nivelles, Belgium, or do something completely different...

For the full story on this car make sure you pick up a copy of the March 2010 issue of VolksWorld

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