On a recent trip to Germany we spent a fair bit of time in the VW Automuseum on Dieselstrasse in Wolfsburg.
Being a long term VW nerd it was a perfect place to indulge in a good dose of geekery and the museum didn’t disappoint! One of the cool things about the museum is that they have a lot of prototype models and design studies, not models that were ever goin to be released more of a “I wonder what this will look like” kinda affairs.
The VW T3 Syncro Magma above was produced in 1987 as a design study, the concept of the study was realised as the “TriStar”, I suppose you could call it a SUV.
To many it just may look like any other T3 double cab pick up but to the spotter there are quite a few cool little features on this truck.
- 15″ Atiwe “Pepperpot” alloy wheels, 7″ wide. This style of wheel was fitted to T3s’ but in 14″ form usually, the 15″ versions were fitted to contemporary Dehler conversions but again they are very rare.
- Body kit, this is a one off, moulded to fit, there are not the common “TriStar” arches, nor are they the Bauer made 16″ wheel arch trims, they aren’t even “Postie” arches as fitted to German post office delivery vans. the arches and bumpers are clearanced to fit, the rear bumper has a rebate big enough to open the rear flap.
- Bull bar, this seems to be very similar to that fitted to the Jagdwagen but without the connections to the roll over bars.
- Front winch, bit of a strange one this as it sports a Jagdwagen style mounting bracket designed for steel bumpers however it’s on GRP bumpers and spaced off to fit.
- SEV marchal Iode spot lamps, I believe these were a aftermarket conversion for mounting into plastic grilles usually used on Golfs and the like, the design team at VWN must have liked them as they were also fitted to the Syncro prototype known as the “Weltenbummler”
- The interior is fairly special, the van was locked and we weren’t meant to go snooping and the museum was deadly quiet and there weren’t many people in there so us slamming doors probably wouldn’t go down that well but having a nosey through the window the interior seemed to feature zip off seat covers and MKI Golf style door arm rests.
- Spare wheel carrier is a one off, not something I have seen before but what a great idea to lock it on eh, a locking fuel filler cap!
I wish I had taken a real camera instead of my phone now….