Sunday, December 9, 2007

Motor Tourist road test, December 1962



Motor Tourist, the magazine of the Deutscher Touring Club, published a glowing review of the new 1500 Ghia in its December 1962 issue. The 2000km extended road test, which included a trip to Paris, left the writer, Carl Otto Windecker, very impressed with the Ghia.






Windecker notes the significant improvements made to the carburetor and brakes, which were definitely weak spots on the earliest VW 1500s. He describes the seating position as perfect and says its performance on the road is comparable to earlier Porsches, though he strongly agrees with Auto Motor und Sport's recommendation of radial tires for spirited driving.

The review also states that production of the 1500 Ghia Cabriolet had finally just begun, and it praises VW and Karmann for delaying the introduction to make sure everything was up to the highest standard of quality before the Cabriolet was made available to the public. He may have spoken a little too soon.

In conclusion Windecker predicts great success for the 1500 Ghia. It's such a positive review that if it wasn't for a few telling details (such as his recommendation of radial tires) I would suspect it was just a recycled press release. He really liked it.

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