For those who don’t know, the Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) factory is situated in Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth. What you also might not know, is that members of the public are welcome to take a factory tour of the facility, as well as visit the AutoPavilion, which houses some VWSA’s classic production, concept and racing cars.
The VWSA facility is vast and has recently been extended with the addition of a 11 500 m2, R564-million, Press Shop in January 2013. Even so, news of a new ‘tour bus’ might not sound all that exciting, however, we like the fact that VW has made it a proudly South African story.
The new ‘FactoryTour’ vehicle was custom built by two Volkswagen Motorsport employees using recycled and unused car parts from the factory. The novelty and ingenuity of their approach in manufacturing the vehicle has resulted in a comfortable, practical and stylish vehicle.
“We were initially planning to outsource the project, but we changed our minds after realising we have vast amount of experience in the company which we can tap on for our ambitious project. The decision to use internal expertise saved the company money and delivered world-class, quality work that we are very proud of,” said Matt Gennrich, General Manager of Communications at Volkswagen Group South Africa.
It took Johnny Allen and Cobus Barnard from Volkswagen Motorsport over three months to complete the three cars. “Each car took nearly 30 days to complete. We spent most of the time designing, sourcing parts and manufacturing the cars,” explained Barnard, who has been with Volkswagen for nearly 10 years. “We used left over paint from the rally cars, spare nuts and bolts as well trim off-cuts to deck out the cars. We built the chassis out of old tyre racks, which we cut in required lengths. The side panels and doors were moulded from scrapped parts from the factory,” added Barnard.
The FactoryTour vehicle can comfortably sit 21 people and will be pulled by an electric tow motor. In the past five years, nearly 43 000 people have visited the Volkswagen manufacturing factory. “We hope the vehicle will give our visitors a comfortable and memorable tour of our facility where we build world-class cars,” added Gennrich.
The FactoryTours take place from Monday to Thursday at 09h00 and 12h00, and on Friday at 09h00. Bookings can be made through the Volkswagen AutoPavilion on (041) 994 5941/3.
