NOS 1500 Ghia fog light relay

Paul Colbert brought the auction for this NOS 6-volt fog light relay to my attention. He wasn't sure about it, though, because while the box has the part number 211 953 225 — the correct part number according to his copy of the parts book — he noticed that the relay itself has number 211 953 191.



This reminded me of a relay discussion on the type34.org mailing list a few years back, so I searched and I found Larry Edson's post on the same subject:

"I discovered a curious fact today while digging out Ken's fog light
relay. The number of the part I pulled out didn't match the book part.
Here I had a 211 953 191 and the book was calling for a 211 953 225.
And, no this wasn't a 6v/12v difference. I couldn't imagine having a bag
with 3 of these 211... relays for anything but a T34 because I haven't
been a collector of Splitty parts. So I went out to the '62 and pulled
that one off discovering that it is the same as my others ...191. So now
I believe my eyes and not the compilers of the parts numbering lore at
VW/Karmann. I've known them to be flat out wrong before and utterly
confused on more than one occasion. So now its time to bring out the
early T34 French copy of the parts book. Sure enough, the early cars, up
to who knows when, use the 191 part."

So not only did 211 953 225 supersede 211 953 191 at some point, but VW boxed them indiscriminately too.

Thanks to Paul and Larry for helping to sort this out.

The Shape of Quality, Volkswagen Australasia documentary, c. 1965

Rounding out the VW 1500 Film Festival is this 26 minute promotional documentary about Australian VW production in the mid-'60s. VW 1500s appear throughout -- at the beginning where various VWs are subjected to all manner of off-road hoonery, later on the assembly line, and loaded onto a car carrier at the end. All this and a jazzy soundtrack straight out of a Russ Meyer movie. What more could you ask for?
















It's nice to see how the cars were assembled, though it's not clear how much of what's shown is representative of production methods worldwide and how much is specific to Australia. The film states that the VW Australasia's goal was to build cars with 95% Australian content within a few years, including the engines. Impressive -- I had always thought Australian VW production was mainly assembly with a limited amount of locally produced parts, but that's obviously not the case. I wonder if the 95% goal was ever met?

VW 1500 on the test track, c. 1962

The VW 1500 film festival continues with this promotional short of an early gulf blue notchback being put through all kinds of abuse on the test track.

VW Variant commercial, c. 1963

A great VW 1500 Variant commercial demonstrating cargo capacity.



Will it all fit?


Oh yeah, there's that trunk up front too. I almost forgot about that.