Do it once, do it right

There was a time when the February issue of VolksWorld meant just one thing – California Look cars (a tradition we aim to resurrect, by the way) and, in the year 2001, we ran a feature on a very nice pale blue ’66 Bug belonging to Philip Steenackers. Philip explains: “Having finished the Beetle, I was keen to start a new project and, after seeing a picture in an old copy of [Dune Buggies &] Hot VWs of a guy cruising the highway with his arm hanging out of the window of an early Ghia, I wanted to be that guy.”

What followed was a 1,200km round trip from his home in Merchtem, Belgium to visit the late Axel Stauber in Germany, who at the time had a couple of Lowlight project cars for sale. Sadly, the cars needed more