Red Baron Ramblings

New Years Greetings to all and welcome to the Red Baron’s Ramblings. This is something new for 2009 and over the next few months I will share with you a potporri of Westfalia items including stories about our ‘87 Westfalia and useful and some not so useful modifications to increase the creature comforts of your Westfalia.

Intermixed with these, I will share some of my favorite photos from my collection of unique and beautiful VW Buses and you just might see your own Westy and some “photo shopped” ones if you look closely.

I will also show you photos of Bus and Camper Models including toys not only from my collection but from others. These will range from the smallest ( and I mean really small ) to some that are almost full size.

Now, as for just who is the Red Baron? Some may know me by my given name and others by a series of other unspeakable names. As you know, the real Red Baron was a famed German aviator who flew a unique tri-plane fighter plane in WW I designed by Anthony Fokker, the Dutch designer and known as the Fokker Dr.1. I don’t know why I picked that moniker when I bought our 1987 Vanagon Westfalia in 1991, but this Westy seemed to have some similar features.

IE: It was of German origin, it was almost the same color as the Baron’s Dr.1 ( Titian Red ) and the power plant, a 110HP Le Rhone rotary engine ( not radial ) seemed almost equal to the 90HP Volkswagen 2.1L Boxer engine. The leading German pilots of that era doped their Dr.1’s in a variety of colors and design with a dazzling vista of reds, blues, yellows and greens in a bewildering conglomeration, almost like the colors you see today on classic VW Westfalias.