Readers' Photos # 69: '74 VW Karmann Ghia

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't open a photo sequence with a car's badging. However, it's not often that bright work is as evocative as the example of art deco capitals and sexy cursive script shown above. To me, the stern upper case KARMANN is a metaphor for the car's Teutonic manufacturers while the curvaceous nature of the lettering used for Ghia suggests its freer, more liberated Italian design origins. Or I could just be being a bigger w⚓than I am normally.

Either way, I am totally enchanted by this car! The Karmann Ghia is easily Volkswagen's most beautiful creation, a collaboration also involving German coach builders Karmann - who made the bodies - and Italian carrozzeria Ghia. Its style, elegance and presence easily eclipses anything from fellow German brands Porsche, Mercedes or BMW.

Not only is the Karmann Ghia the jewel in VW's crown, this particular example is as lovely as you could hope to see. Its paint, panels and chrome are immaculate and it's set of by some magnificent, yet understated, alloy wheels.

The rego plates are a dead giveaway, pretty much confirming that this car is a last-of-the-line 1974 edition. The larger bumpers - whilst not actually the US-mandated energy-absorbing style - also suggest that it's a later version, as do the bigger tail lights / indicators that appear to be the same as were fitted to mid-70s' Type 3 Volksies.

It's not often that subsequent models improve on their predecessors but, in this case, the '74 Karman Ghia was evolved to prefection. There was also another iteration of the car - the Type 34 or "Razor Edge Ghia" (from 1961, according to Wikipedia) - but I've never seen one and, by all accounts, they were never commercially available in Australia. They were ugly by comparison, too.

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

Photos by CACT.

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