Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, Classic Italian Style

Classic Cars Italian Style

As a classic car lover, one warm, sunny afternoon while walking through a rural town in Essex, I was greeted briefly with a beautiful sight. Turning at a junction up ahead across the road, was a postbox red soft top car with the roof down. Inside were 4 blonde girls, their hair glistening and flowing in the breeze. Shades on and smiling, their laughter could just about be heard above the deep rumble of the air-cooled engine. I had just been introduced to the Karmann Ghia Cabriolet.

Find cheap classic car insurance at Performance Direct and feel inspired to add a vintage Karmann to your classic car stable, be mindful that despite sharing the same engine as the Type 1, you will pay more for a Karmann and the relevant non-engine parts as well. But if you want to capture the romance and some vintage Italian style, reassured that there are plenty of restorers and parts suppliers out there, then you should look no further than the Karmann Ghia.

Classic Air-Cooled Volkswagens

Of all the air cooled vehicles that have a connection to either classic or vintage Porsche or Volkswagen, the Karmann is perhaps the most unique in looks. Styled by Italian Luigi Segre and built by the famous German company, Karmann Coach Works, I'm not sure that a better car exists to be riding in during a fine summer's day.

Much as the VW Beetle is a Type 1 and a VW Camper is a Type 2, the VW Karmann Ghia was originally given the less than glamorous title of the Type 14 with a variant called the Type 34 appearing in 1961. The Karmann Ghia convertible was first introduced in the summer of 1957.

Despite it's sporty looks, the Type 14 was basically a Beetle with added class. Because of the less than sporty engine the vehicle came fitted with, VW marketed the Ghia as a 2+2 coupe rather than a sports car, for sports cars tend to get compared with one another, and the Ghia would quite simply, not be able to compete. Marketing it as a stylish and fun car gave this automobile immunity.

The Type 34 was a rather curious beast, foregoing many of the smooth lines of the original Segre design, this car had harder lines and was nicknamed the Razor Edge in Britain. Although in my opinion the romance has gone along with the smooth lines by this point, the Razor Edge Ghia did boast an electric sliding roof as an option from 1962 onwards.

Top speed in this classic was a - relatively sedate compared to modern vehicles - 85mph with the 1584cc engine sitting in the rear. But with often less than sportscar-like handling, this may have been a bonus rather than a hindrance. Having the same engine as the Beetle had it's benefits – while the Karmann sold far less than the Beetle, parts were abundant, which in turn could keep running and repair costs down. The downside of course, was that performance was limited to that of The People's Car.