Catch of the week: 1949 engine...
Harald A. Møller (RIP) was a visionary man ... and having built his fortune on importing Dodge and Hanomag cars to Norway before the war, he was one of very few in the war-battered Norway that believed in German industry and warmly embraced the Volkswagen. He battled with export- and import-regulations from '46 onwards, and finally at the very end of 1949 he became the official importer of VW to Norway. Our friend Harald was an impatient and energetic man and despite the long negotitations, he managed to import one very first car in February of 1949 and through the Danish VW-importer, he managed to trade "the stuff that cheese is made of" - "kassein" - against a total of 190 brand new Volkswagen Sedans in the year 1949. So - Norway became VW-land by the means of 3 boat loads of Beetles....100 in June, 50 in July and 40 in September.
Surprisingly over 30 of 1949-models still exisit in Norway today - some of these are later imports from Sweden and Germany, but at least 15% of the original "Norway-49s" still survive. An impressive number indeed.
#2 found his September '49 car in i field in the middle of Norway about 10 years ago. The first owner was a veterenarian on an island outside of Trondheim and the car is according to papers the very first car sold by the local VW-dealer - "Grendahl Auto AS". The last portion of its life it served as some sort of baja-conversion racing the fields of Nord-Trøndelag. It aborted it's original engine many years ago.
Last week #2 picked up a perfect engine for it - a September '49 engine...not the matching number one, but one that for sure was on that very same shipload of 40 Beetles in September 1949. One more piece of the puzzle in place...really, all that remains is a lot of welding and some spare time. Re-united they stand...
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