A Short History Of The VW Type 2 'Bay Window' (cont.)

Following on from VW’s first incarnation of a commercial vehicle, the Bay Window Bus was introduced in late 1967. Quite different to its predecessor, many felt that it had lost some of the character of the previous model. However, many refinements were added and its top speed was increased to 80 mph.

This second-generation Type 2 lost its distinctive split front windshield, and was designed to be a easier to produce using the advances in mechanised production, and was slightly larger and considerably heavier than its predecessor. Commonly known as the Bay-window, or Bread Loaf in other countries.

The 36bhp engine was also slightly larger, having grown to 1600cc, but was a still a single port design at this time. The new bus had done away with the swing axle rear suspension of the Split and Beetle and reduction boxes previously used to raise ride height, and act as an extra gearbox. Instead, half-shaft axles fitted with constant velocity joints raised ride height without the wild changes in camber of the Beetle-based swing axle suspension. The updated Bus transaxle is usually sought after by off-road racers using air-cooled Volkswagen components, as well as being commonly used by Split bus owners when converting their bus to “straight-axles”.