Is it a new bus?
Oscar might be nice and shiny, but he’s 50 years old now! We all wish we could look as good at 50, but he has had a major face lift. When we first brought him over from Florida, he had already gone through a colour change, from his factory issue Velvet Green to an emulsion blue…yes, emulsion, the type you paint your interior walls at home with!! The previous owner tried to remove the emulsion with sandpaper, which lead to great patina (which diehard Splitscreen owners will tell you to stick with) but we liked shiny.

Oscar just before he was loaded onto the boat heading to the UK

After Oscar arrived in the UK the first thing we had to do was get an MOT and get him his UK citizenship.   Then the work began, stripping him down ready for all the lumps and bumps to be removed, have a serious scrub and then a bright red coat.  We will soon be doing a full restoration story, so check back to see the ins and outs.

Why not put a Porsche engine in there?
It’s a personal decision, we like the laid back pace of Oscar’s original air-cooled engine.  Its relatively simple, it works well and it sounds beautiful – its such a lovely sound that regularly sends our children to sleep (making for peaceful journeys!).  Splitscreens were never meant for speed, come on, look at that face, its not aerodynamic at all, so we relish in the fact we can only go to 50mph and that life slows down when you are in Oscar.

How much would one of those cost you?
Its not cheap, but what classic car is?  It’s not something that you think about though, Oscar is priceless to us and we want him to be part of our family for years to come – we hope one of our boys will want to take him on, they certainly love him at the moment.

An early VW fan