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billy739
11 years ago
turns out its a uk car . September 53 deliverd to vw London!

was hoping it was a uk car so now have a happy face!


:thumbup:
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PRE57VW
10 years ago
My Oval was delivered to VW Motors London ,It was built 27th October 1953 and arrived in the UK in November. Would be great to know how many of these1953 RHD imports are still around,I think there was 743 cars imported that year.
vintagebug
10 years ago
I was told by a well-known (& well-respected) committee member of the Historic VW Club that there are around 15 ish original UK RHD 1953 Ovals still surviving, although this is only for the period between July & December 1953. I don't think he'd done any research on the March to July period.



Dave
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading"
Sunroof53
10 years ago
My own 53 is a July 9 car .i thought the figure of Uk cars for that first year was around 900 .Most books I have read quote that figure unless the 743 was just ovals and the rest zwitters .Also seems odd that there are no pre July ovals and yet there appears to be pre march 10th zwitters.A gap maybe on the imports?

Mike


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Rich Oakley
10 years ago
3 known pre-March 10th UK cars,

1 or 2 known March-July UK cars.

Official imports started on July 10th.

945 VWs imported in '53.
47 Beetle, 56 UK Karmann Cabriolet, 56 UK Beetle, 57 UK Type 2, 59 UK Beetle, 66 UK Fastback.
vintagebug
10 years ago
Thanks Rich. I knew I could rely on you to produce the numbers! :thumbup:

Dave
Dave
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading"
PRE57VW
10 years ago
Sorry for the inaccurate 743 , 945 is the number of cars imported. (THANKS RICH)
I have found eight RHD 1953 cars from my records/photo's that I think are UK cars.

RTC 296
ORT 927
PSK 756
625 XUA
LSF 396
KRY 724
NBT 249
HRD 809 ANY MORE ??
RoRoVw
10 years ago
At this year's Classic Motor Show at the NEC the Historic VW Club will be celebrating 60 years of VW imports into the UK by gathering together a few of these first ovals on our display. So far out of PRE57VW's list we'll have:

RTC 296
ORT 927
HRD 809

We've room for a couple more if any members want to join in the display.
Thanks.

Rob.
Mike Peckham
10 years ago
I used to own OGX 777, it was registered in September '53 (I think) but I'm not sure of its build date. It is a black car with a sunroof and a tan interior. It still exists although I'm not sure what condition it's in at the moment.

I think I have some pictures of it somewhere from when we dragged it out of a barn in 1984, it had been there for about 10 years and was in surprisingly solid and original condition. It had lived in the South of England for most of its life, mostly in Burgess Hill.

Sean Geddes and I bought it as a joint restoration project, but it ended up sitting in a lock up for another 20 years. Sean still has it and I think has plans to restore it.

Mike  OGX 777 1.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.  OGX 777 2.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.  OGX 777 3.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.
July 1957 UK supplied RHD Oval. 1972 World Champion Beetle. 1978 UK supplied RHD 1303LS Cabriolet. 1973 UK supplied RHD 1303s.
PRE57VW
10 years ago
Thanks Mike that's another one for the list . OGX 777 was first registered with the DVLA on 12/11/1953 as far as the records show.
Would be great to see a pic .
JULIANROBINSON
10 years ago
LOW514 - Standard Model RHD Built 17th Sept 1953

629XUM - Irish - RHD - Built 7th July 1953
www.vwoval.co.uk
Mike Peckham
10 years ago
Just found these pictures from the day we picked up OGX 777. I think it was in about 1984, the '70 June Beetle was my faithful 1500.

I hired the trailer for a weekend and collected OGX 777 from Fulking in Sussex and then collected another 1953 Beetle from a scrap yard in Bedfordshire. It was complete and I bought it for parts to help with the restoration of OGX 777.

Having stripped it down, the bodyshell and chassis was buried in a very large hole on Worthing Golf Club which the club were using for landfill...

Mike

 OGX 777 1.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.  OGX 777 2.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.  OGX 777 3.jpg You have insufficient rights to see the content.
July 1957 UK supplied RHD Oval. 1972 World Champion Beetle. 1978 UK supplied RHD 1303LS Cabriolet. 1973 UK supplied RHD 1303s.
JULIANROBINSON
10 years ago
Great pix. Any photos of the one you killed? Any memorys of the Bedfordshire Scrap yard?

www.vwoval.co.uk
Mike Peckham
10 years ago

Great pix. Any photos of the one you killed? Any memorys of the Bedfordshire Scrap yard?

JULIANROBINSON wrote:



Sorry, no pictures of the one we killed. Just to save face a bit here and help to justify scrapping it, I should mention that the roof was damaged where it had been picked up by a chain through the door openings 😞 . It was complete though and had a factory reconditioned engine in it that was date stamped 1947.

I’ve just been trying to find the scrap yard on Google Earth, but there’s no sign of it. Not sure if it’s not there anymore or if I’m just looking in the wrong place. It was on the West side of the railway somewhere near Biggleswade or Arlesy. There was a b road that ran East – West through a tunnel under the railway and the scrap yard was just South of the road about ¼ mile West of the railway. It’s probably long gone.

There weren’t many VWs in the yard, but the ones that were, like all the cars in there, were quite ancient as I don’t’ think the owner had been actively buying cars for some time. The chap who ran it was a miserable old bugger who lived in a Bungalow on the site with the mandatory big, vicious dogs.

Mike
July 1957 UK supplied RHD Oval. 1972 World Champion Beetle. 1978 UK supplied RHD 1303LS Cabriolet. 1973 UK supplied RHD 1303s.
PRE57VW
10 years ago
Love the shots of OGX777 being towed by your 1970 1500. Hopefully with the car being talked about on here it may inspire Sean Geddes to restart the restoration.

I have been on the DVLA records again and looks like the 1953 oval reg number LOW514 was first registered in 1/11/1953 but there is also a date of liability 17/12/1985 that I'm not sure about, maybe that is the date it was reregistered ? Anyway thanks for the info Julian Robinson I'll put it on my list.
JULIANROBINSON
10 years ago

Love the shots of OGX777 being towed by your 1970 1500. Hopefully with the car being talked about on here it may inspire Sean Geddes to restart the restoration.

I have been on the DVLA records again and looks like the 1953 oval reg number LOW514 was first registered in 1/11/1953 but there is also a date of liability 17/12/1985 that I'm not sure about, maybe that is the date it was reregistered ? Anyway thanks for the info Julian Robinson I'll put it on my list.

PRE57VW wrote:




The date of Liability is when the tax ran out... its still alive (just)
www.vwoval.co.uk
JULIANROBINSON
10 years ago

Sorry, no pictures of the one we killed. Just to save face a bit here and help to justify scrapping it, I should mention that the roof was damaged where it had been picked up by a chain through the door openings 😞 . It was complete though and had a factory reconditioned engine in it that was date stamped 1947.

I’ve just been trying to find the scrap yard on Google Earth, but there’s no sign of it. Not sure if it’s not there anymore or if I’m just looking in the wrong place. It was on the West side of the railway somewhere near Biggleswade or Arlesy. There was a b road that ran East – West through a tunnel under the railway and the scrap yard was just South of the road about ¼ mile West of the railway. It’s probably long gone.

There weren’t many VWs in the yard, but the ones that were, like all the cars in there, were quite ancient as I don’t’ think the owner had been actively buying cars for some time. The chap who ran it was a miserable old bugger who lived in a Bungalow on the site with the mandatory big, vicious dogs.

Mike

Mike Peckham wrote:



That is so interesting... right on my "patch" where I am now.. I'd love to know what came of it.. or where it was..
www.vwoval.co.uk
Sunroof53
10 years ago
I wouldn't take the registration date as any indication of the age.The car could be some months earlier .My own car wasn't registered until 1954 .not sure why as the birth certificate says it arrived in the uk on the 13 July. 1953.
PRE57VW
10 years ago

I wouldn't take the registration date as any indication of the age.The car could be some months earlier .My own car wasn't registered until 1954 .not sure why as the birth certificate says it arrived in the uk on the 13 July. 1953.

Sunroof53 wrote:



I was aware that the oval LOW514 was built on 17th Sep 1953 from Julian Robinson but was just trying to confirm weather it was one of the original 945 cars officially imported into the UK in 1953. I would guess that as it was registered on 1st Nov 1953 with the DVLA that it
most likely is .

It could be that the cars were only registered once they had been sold ?
Sunroof53
10 years ago

I was aware that the oval LOW514 was built on 17th Sep 1953 from Julian Robinson but was just trying to confirm weather it was one of the original 945 cars officially imported into the UK in 1953. I would guess that as it was registered on 1st Nov 1953 with the DVLA that it
most likely is .

It could be that the cars were only registered once they had been sold ?

PRE57VW wrote:




I had always thought all cars were registered when they were sold as the document has the buyers name on it .Maybe it was different back then .i have a record from the Cheshire records offiice showing the name of owner and date of the first registration but I wonder if this is the same as a dvla document or even if Dvla was even formed in 53 .How did you register a car back then?

Sorry if I have gone of topic

Mike
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