Volkswagen Karmann Coachbuilts

Volkswagen Karmann Coachbuilts

Advertise on this site

Advertise your products or services here. Without our Sponsors this site would not exist. Contact

Website & Forum

We Recommend:

Club Membership entitles you to 10% Discount with

German, Swedish and French on all parts. Read More..

This Volkswagen Karmann Coachbuilt website and the Volkswagen Karmann Coachbuilt forum has been created to allow all VW Karmann owners to share information about these vehicles and with a specific aim of helping all the VW Karmann owners enjoy their VW Karmann Coachbuilt experience to the full. We hope you enjoy your visit to our site and if you own a Karmann or thinking of buying one, join the forum.

Karmann Forum

Click Here

Up to 15% discount for your Insurance

from Adrian Flux.

*NOTE* If you use our contact page, please ensure the information you put into the required

fields is correct before hitting the send button. We have had a number of messages where the

email addresses are not correct or incomplete. Thank You.

Cheetah!

The lowered Karmann Cheetah belonging to 'Magnet'. More details on the Karmann Forum

Indigo Blue Leisure Products.

Some of the worlds best camping and leisure products.

Click Here..

5% discount on services from Gasure for Karmann Coachbuilt Members

Click on logo above

Interiors, Curtains, Coolers, Silent Gliss, Easicools, 76 Gear plus lots more essential equipment and accessories for your camper.

Welcome! You are visitor number :

Latest News

(last 5 items)

All types of parts for your T1, T2, T3 and later Volkswagens.

** Lots of NOS parts **.

Fixed News Sticky	The search continues for the Stolen Karmann T4 Gipsy and your eagle eyes would be appreciated. More details of this stolen vehicle can be found by clicking here. The thieving low-lifes who stole this vehicle should never be allowed to benefit from it's theft. This news item will remain at the top of our new list until the vehicle is found. Please see below for the rest of the latest news.
24 Aug 10	Since the last update in February with regards to the Surviving VW Karmann's, it is of no surprise that the numbers have increased yet again. The number of surviving Gipsy's has reached 124 (an increase of 18), the Cheetahs have increased their count by 4 making a grand total of 23. It would be unfair if the LT population didn't increase in size and I am pleased to report that their numbers have grown to 26. See below for the statistics. We are still missing a significant number of the Karmann Production numbers from the 'Karmann Register'. The Register is a useful reference for all owners in many ways and helps us understand the Karmann production line and process. Please, if you have not provided details of your Karmann Production number for inclusion in the Register, let us know the details. Thanks.
24 Aug 10	Due to personal reasons, updates to this site have been virtually non-existent for the past couple of months for which I can only apologise. However, you will be pleased to know we are now back in the swing.
01 Feb 10	The number of surviving Karmann Gipsy's has long passed the 100 mark (the actual number is 106) and the number of Karmann Cheetah's and LT's continue to rise. It seemed that for ages the Karmann Cheetah survival count stood at just 15, but since then 4 more examples have turned up making a grand total of 19. Although there has been increase in their numbers, the statistics shown in the Karmann Survival section remains relatively unchanged. The number of T2 Gipsy's has also risen to 9. Of the T4 Gipsy's we know of 4 in the UK. The Karmann Colorado's and Karmann Missouri joint count stands at a credible 9.
15 Oct 09	Incredible as it seems, the number of Karmann's continue to rise. We are now aware of 6 T2 Gipsy's, 116 T3 Karmanns (95 Gipsy's and 17 Cheetah's) and 20 LT's making a grand total of 142 examples.
18 Aug 09	The number of known Karmanns continues to rise at a steady rate. We have now reached an incredible 109 examples. There are 243 registered users on the Karmann Forum.

The Archived News Items can be found here

T3 Karmann Gipsy and Cheetah's

In total 741 T3 Karmann Gipsy’s were manufactured on the chassis of Volkswagen T3 (T25 / Transporter / Vanagon). This number excludes 30+ 14" wheeled Syncro models made between 1986 and 1989 and 7 Syncro 16″ wheeled models made between 1990 and 1992. Parallel to the Gipsy production, 113 Karmann Cheetah’s were manufactured by Karmann between 1980 and 1992 to make a grand total of 891 T3 examples.

At present we know of 147 T3 and surviving Gipsy's (124) and Cheetahs (23), but there are many more out there we don't know about. It is understood that there are 5 of these vehicles in North America, but 4 of these need to be confirmed. To my knowledge, two examples have so far been 'written off' (road traffic accident) in the UK and one scrapped in Germany representing 2% lost. If we were to apply that 'lost' percentage to the total Karmann production figures, this means there are a maximum of 879 surviving examples. The exact number of surviving may never be known.

The Gipsy and Cheetah's on these pages and represented on the forum are just a mere 16.5% of the total Karmann Gipsy/Cheetah survivors. One wonders where are the other 83.27% ?

Total Gipsy's Produced: 778 Known examples surviving: 124 Survival Rate: 15.93%

Total Cheetah's Produced: 113 Known examples surviving: 23 Survival Rate: 20.35%

Details of the Gipsy and Cheetah production figures and lots of other information can be found in the Members Area

Karmann LT's

During the years of 1978 to 1996 approximately 3,103 Karmann Coachbuilt LT's were produced. These models were named the LT "M", LT "L 1", LT "L 2", LT "L Distance Wide", LT "L Distance-Wide Gold", LT "H Distance-Wide", LT "H Distance-Wide Gold", LT "S Distance-Wide" and the ultimate Karmann of that time, the LT "Distance-Wide Autovilla" (see here).

At present we know of only 26 Karmann LT's, so the known survivor figures are (at least at present) far worse than that of the Gipsy/Cheetah's production. The LT's known represent just a mere 0.83% of the total Karmann LT production. Where are the other 99.16%?!!

Details of the Karmann LT Production figures and lots of other information can be found in the Members Area

Other Coachbuilts - Foster & Day, Tischer and Jurgens

Although this is site dedicated to Karmann Coachbuilts, we welcome among our members three other coachbuilts types, these being the Foster and Day, Tischer and Jurgens.

Not a lot is know of the Tischer Coachbuilts and we know of only one Tischer Coachbuilt on a T3 chassis. Tischer are more famously known for the demountable living units, but surely there must be more Tischer coachbuilts around? A Tischer Coachbuilt is a very rare breed indeed.

The Foster & Day Coachbuilts were British made (Foster and Day, 1050 Manchester Road, Castleton, Rochdale, Lancashire), but sadly they no longer exist. We currently know of 8 examples. Foster and Day produced a limited number of Motorhomes and the Volkswagen T3 was just one base vehicle they used. They also built some larger motorhomes which based on the GMC and Iveco chassis (all ex-Ambulances). To our knowledge, 17 Volkswagen T3 Foster and Day Coachbuilts were produced also making them also a rare Motorhome. We know of 47% of the total production, so where are the others now?

As any knowledgeable Karmann owner knows, the Karmann Coachbuilts design originated from Jurgens of South Africa back in the early 1970's. It is not known how many surviving Jurgens there are, but we do have one member who owns a T3 Jurgen. The T3 Jurgen's conversion is quite unique. We would welcome any further information on the Jurgens conversion (or indeed any of the coachbuilt types).

T3 Karmann Gipsy & Cheetah - General Information

Pictures of Gipsy's and Cheetah's More pictures in the Members Area	Gipsy and Cheetah Layouts
Colours	Karmann Productions Numbers & Details
Gipsy and Cheetah Differences	Chassis Construction
Karmann Options & M-Codes	Frequently Asked Questions
Where are they now?	Spotted!
Where can I find my Karmann Plate?	Looking for a Gipsy or Cheetah? Search www.mobile.de Search www.deine-womowelt.de Search www.truckscout24.de

T3 Karmann Gipsy & Cheetah - Restoration Projects

Karmann Gipsy rebuild by Tudor Morgan

(Pages Still Under Construction)

Karmann Cheetah Rebuild by Westy77

Another Gipsy restoration by Stan Wehrle of Caravan Supplies

(Caravan Supplies also sell some parts for the Karmann's

including roof boards - more information to be provided)

T3 Karmann Gipsy & Cheetah - Technical Articles

How to TDI your Karmann Gipsy / Cheetah by Tudor Morgan

A detailed and step by step guide on how to replace your 1.6JX TD

with a 1Z 1.9 TDI Engine. What Parts you need, Work Sequence and

a Pictorial Work Sequence containing over 100 photographs.

Gipsy TDI Turbo Intercooler Modification

Another Gipsy TDi Conversion by GrenJS

Karmann LT Information

Pictures of Karmann LT's	The LT Gold - The Ultimate Karmann?
VW LT Owners Club	Volkswagen LT Club Holland
Another Karmann LT site in Germany	German LT Site
Karmann LT Models Differences

Karmann Missouri & Colorado Information

Colorado Layouts

General Karmann Information

Goodies for your Karmann	"In The Press"
Rest in Peace	Location Map - Where are we all?
How to connect the Electrical Hook-Up	Dimensions (Weight / Sizes etc etc)
Bungalows With Attitude!!