Lucky Strike

When Richard Soffe went looking for his first Bus he had intended to buy a 13-window, but came away with this much rarer and far cooler 15-window instead

- James Peene

It’s a story we hear a great deal of at Camper&Bus, you know, someone went to look at a particular Bus but they ended up buying a much better one instead. It’s a bit like the universe has steered them in the right direction or something. Only this time the direction was towards Biagio Chrzanowski at World Wild Wagens (www. worldwildwagens.com) and the person being steered was Richard Soffe, the owner of this super-lovely OG paint 15-window.

Show stealer

We first met up with Richard and his wife, Gale at last years Stanford Hall Show. They were parked a few rows back in the SSVC line up, but their OG paint Split jumped out at us. Closer inspection revealed it to be a German-built 15-window and that Richard and Gale were both really into it.

Walking around the Bus, which incidentally happens to be a January ’61, Richard gave us the inside story. He says: “I used to have a 1600 Cortina. I did lots of work to it, ran it for a while and then I got married and had kids. That stopped me from playing with cars for a while but I always kept looking at them. To be honest, I was never really into VWs, but as soon as I sat in a Bus, I just thought, “Yes,” I totally got it.

“I didn’t know anything about them, and I still reckon you could put all of my knowledge on a postage stamp, but I decided I had to have a Split Screen.

“I went to The VolksWorld Show at Sandown Park and saw a few really low ones that I really liked. They just had the look, and I really liked a red 15-window that was on display.

“After that, I looked around and came to the conclusion that a ’67 would be the one to go for as they came with 12volt electrics from the factory.”