Volkswagen Syncro

Volkswagen Syncro is our Friday newsmaker. A lot of online searches points to Volkswagen Syncro. The VW Westfalia Syncro Van is an AWD camper van that can come with a pop top bed, two burner propane stove, sink, and sometimes shower. The Syncro version was sold up til 1991 and only 1500 of them in the US. Today the fifth generation Volkswagen camper van, the California, is ironically not sold in the states.

The VW Syncro’s origins go back to the late 1970’s when two Volkswagen engineers, dreaming of a vehicle they could use to camp and travel to remote places like the Sahara desert, built some prototypes. In the mid-1980’s, Steyr-Daimler-Puch, manufacturer of a legendary military off-road vehicle called the Pinzgauer, teamed up with Volkswagen to design and manufacture the Syncro.

Inside a Volkswagen Syncro

IN many ways, it was a groundbreaking ground pounder. An independently suspended four-wheel-drive system gave it excellent ground clearance and kept all four wheels planted in challenging terrain. A locking system gave it tanklike traction by preventing any one wheel from breaking free and spinning. A viscous coupler, now a common device, automatically engaged the four-wheel-drive in response to any slippage in the rear wheels. Many of the inventions found in the Syncro have since made their way into vehicles like the Subaru Outback and Volkswagen’s own new S.U.V., the Touareg.