It’s called Dolly Mixture, and it’s been grabbing attention at Volkswagen shows since the late 1980s.
Paul ‘Frosty’ Frost first set eyes on the shortened ‘66 split screen van at Santa Pod in 1989, and bought it about 10 years later.
“I was into the show scene, and I remember this little pink and blue van rocked up and I thought ‘that is amazing’,” he says, chatting in the sunshine at the Alive & V-Dubbin’ show at Haughley Park in Suffolk.
“Of course, it created quite a stir because – even in those days – people modified stuff but not quite to that extent.
“People were drawn” to shortened ’66 split screen van
“Incredibly, it was done by a chap who was a copper at the time, a bloke called Derek Day – he shortened three vehicles and would bring them to shows. He had that one, a little Trekker, and a little Bay window pick up, and they were all dead cute like little Hot Wheels cars. People were drawn to them because they were so unusual.”
About 10 years later, Frosty (even his mum calls him Frosty) was flicking through a VW magazine and saw a yellow and white shorty van for sale in the classifieds.
“I thought ‘there can’t be another one’, so I roared up to the Midlands, Birmingham way, and I bought it, just on spec,” he says, paying about £1,800. “I knew then it must have been the same one with a different paint job, because I recognised the registration. I drove it back home, and that was the start of the love affair.”
It was on that first “quite scary” journey back to Tiptree in Essex that Frosty discovered the van’s potential for wheelies.
“It started and ran, but it hadn’t been used for a while on the road and it was quite scary because the brakes were not great,” he says. “It was at a service station that I realised its wheelie potential. I remember accidentally on purpose dumping the clutch just to find out.
“At the time it was rocking a Type 4 2-litre engine, so it was quite powerful even then, and it wasn’t any problem getting it on the back wheels at all – grinding the first of many damaged exhausts…”
’66 VW split screen van is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
These days, Dolly Mixture is very much a wolf in sheep’s clothing, powered by a CB Performance turbo-charged 1776cc engine fed by modified twin Dell’Orto carbs.
“The only time I’ve run it on the strip with the turbo I got a 16.8 for the quarter mile, which is a personal best,” he says. “It was like driving an automatic though. I put it into first, took off down the strip and it was just slipping the clutch, so I could have got a much better time. I was still well chuffed with it but now I’ve got a competition clutch in there I’m sure I could do a lot better.”
Frosty’s fascination with Volkswagens began when he was about 21 – he’s now 55 – when he owned a “nice little Fiesta 1.3”.
“Randomly, on the way home from work one day I saw a Beetle for sale, and I bought it,” he says. “It really confused my father, who couldn’t understand why I’d want an old Beetle. He was probably right, because I blew it up about six months later.
“That’s when the addiction started.”
When he bought it, the Bug was sporting a standard 1200cc engine, and Frosty wondered if he could get it to go a bit faster.
“I tinkered with the engine and ended up joining the VWDRC (Volkswagen Drag Racing Club), did a couple of runs, and got addicted,” he says. “Since then I’ve had loads of Beetles, campers, a Karmann Ghia and a buggy.
Always been into the alternative VW scene
“I’ve always been into the alternative side of the scene, so I’ve never had a bog standard Beetle. I liked the custom stuff, and in our little club – the Spooky Vee Dub Club over in Maldon – a lot of the cars are quite heavily modified, although as some people are getting older a lot are moving over to the T4s and T5s, just for comfort.”
At the moment, Dolly Mixture – a former delivery van that’s never been a camper – is Frosty’s only classic VW, and he can’t be accused of sacrificing style for comfort.
Is there room for a bed?
“No, and only on two occasions have I actually slept in it – and never again,” he laughs. “Once was when I rocked up early in Newquay at a layby overlooking the beach and I just thought ‘I might just sleep in it for the night’, and then regretted it.
“I’m 6ft, and I spent the night in the foetal position. The other time, I rocked up at Bug Jam first thing in the morning, it was chucking it down with rain and the ground was sodden, and I just didn’t fancy putting a tent up. So I stayed in the van, and again it was another bad idea.”
Frosty has been attending shows and festivals for years and, despite its diminutive dimensions, Dolly Mixture has made the long trip to Cornwall several times.
“It’s been loads of times, twice a year before the fuel was so expensive,” he says. “We used to go in quite big convoys to all the British stuff, including Run to the Sun in Cornwall. I still like Bug Jam, even though I’m a bit too old for it!”
Involved in the Back to ’89 scene
As a veteran of the ‘80s scene, Frosty has played a part in the Back to ‘89 movement, the brainchild of Stu Betty, from Southend.
“I’m really big into the nostalgia scene, and that’s another reason why I’ve gone back to pink and blue,” he says. “I had it green and white for about 20 odd years and, because this nostalgia movement’s really gathering pace all over the world, I decided to go back to the original ‘80s colours.
“Stu instigated a lot of this. He tries to get everyone together – a lot of the show and race cars from those days – and some of them are still in amazing condition or have been restored back to period condition.
“Ever since I’ve had this one it’s been involved in the scene, and people are now bringing American ‘89 cars over, so we get to see some of the cars that they had back in the ‘80s.”
The van has recently gained a mini-me, a bespoke, unique Hot Wheels version created by a friend and presented to Frosty at March’s Volksworld show.
“It was a complete surprise,” he says. “I was at the show and a friend of mine came up with this little bag, and said ‘I’ve got this for you’.
“I looked in this bag and there was this model of the van. He’d commissioned somebody to build a replica of Dolly Mixture and they’d made the card and everything. It’s incredible really – they’ve even made the wheels colour coded to match mine, an unbelievable amount of work.
“Hot Wheels have made a tiny little shortened drag racing van called a Kool Kombi for a long time, and over in the States there’s quite a big movement of people collecting and modifying them.
“People do all sorts of paint jobs, like Budweiser and Batman versions. There’s a dedicated group on Facebook, and they’re absolutely fanatical about them and pay hundreds of pounds for them.”
Back to Run to the Sun car event?
Just like the Hot Wheels version, the van itself is not for sale, especially with the organisers of legendary Newquay show Run to the Sun planning a comeback, further boosting the Back to ‘89 movement.
“I’ve always been tempted with other stuff – I’ve had loads of Volkswagens come and go – but with this one, how do you replace it?” says Frosty. “How do you follow it? What would you have to drive with that amount of character? So even if I did sell it I don’t know what I’d replace it with. Whatever it was would be quite dull in comparison.”
There’s certainly nothing dull about the ‘66 shorty, which has gone through numerous engines and upgrades in its 23 years in Frosty’s hands.
“I’ve got a garage full of engines – I get through them like there’s no tomorrow,” he laughs. “I went through some fairly standard(ish) 1641cc stuff, and then found that it was not really man enough for the job.
“It’s fine around Essex because it’s flat, but you go down to Cornwall and you really start thinking you want a bigger engine.
Adding turbo power to the shortened ’66 VW split screen van
“So I experimented with loads of different engines, and then this one came along, which came out of a friend of mine’s customised Beetle. Then I saw a secondhand CB Performance turbo kit on eBay, and bought it on spec – I didn’t know much about the old turbos.
“Because it’s a CB dedicated kit, I knew it would bolt on relatively easily. With a bit of chopping about of the tinwear, I managed to get it in and running, and had a guy called Turbo Thomas build a stainless exhaust for it.”
The 1776cc unit has big valve heads and a hotter cam, while the force-fed carbs have been modified to cope with the increased pressure from the turbo.
“I had to take the spindles out and have little tiny O-ring grooves put in, so now it doesn’t leak even under high pressure,” says Frosty. “All in all, it’s proper old school, and there is a bit of turbo lag.
“If I’m on the A12 and I decide I want to overtake something, I keep my foot in and you can feel it building and building and, all of a sudden, you’re away, you’re past whatever it is.
“Unfortunately, you then see the fuel gauge shooting down and the engine temperature shooting up, so you have to back off to let it cool down.
“In a way, a nice standard engine would be lovely. Obviously you can’t go very fast, but it would run cool and be fairly economical. You start modifying to go a bit faster, and then you find you’ve got to drive it slow because it’s so expensive with the fuel and it overheats!”
There’s not much old school about what’s underneath the van, with a Red 9 front suspension set up and modern ventilated disc brakes.
“It’s not an old VW Splittie underneath – it’s relatively hi-tech – although the rear end and the gearbox is pretty standard, and it’s still got reduction boxes, which allows me to accelerate really fast but also means that at high speeds it’s revving a little bit too high.
“It suits me though, because I do like to accelerate, and for drag racing purposes you want to accelerate fast and you don’t overly worry about top end speed.”
Shortened split screen van “a little bit twitchy”
So what is something with such a short wheelbase, and so much power, like to drive on the roads?
“It’s quite manageable,” says Frosty. “Only when it gets to about 70 or 80mph does it start becoming a little bit twitchy, so you basically just hold on tight to the steering wheel.
“It’s the same as all other drag vehicles when you get to the top end – whatever you do, don’t take your foot off. If you take your foot off, the whole thing becomes unstable, so you have to just gradually slow down. It’s the same on the road.
“It really doesn’t like some of the dual carriageways, where years of trucks have made grooves in the surface. Because of its short wheelbase, you try and correct and you end up over-correcting and driving like you’re drunk, which never looks good, especially if there’s a copper about.
“I prefer driving on back roads – it’s never really a vehicle that’s liked motorway cruising, it’s not that type of vehicle. It’s more of a fun thing and I do tend to drive it fairly carefully.”
Attention grabber
Talking of coppers, the van’s unconventional looks do tend to attract plenty of attention – both good and bad.
“It does draw a lot of attention from the boys in blue, and I have been stopped on several occasions,” says Frosty “But now that I’ve had it for so long, I guess I’m relatively well-known. “Even then when they do pull me over they see this poor grey-haired old man and they sort of think ‘well, he’s clearly not a boy racer, and he surely wouldn’t be driving it if it wasn’t road legal’.
“Overall the comments are mostly positive, but sometimes negative. Some of the guys in the Split Screen Van Club, those that have been around the scene a long time, know it well and they know it was shortened back in the ‘80s and I didn’t shorten it – I’m innocent! But a lot of people would think I’ve ruined it and all this kind of stuff.
“Kids love it because it does look like a toy. Girls think it’s really cute, especially now it’s pink. I must admit, it’s the type of vehicle that when you get up in the morning, you do have to feel quite confident in yourself – it is pink, and there’s no two ways about it, it’s quite a camp looking vehicle.
“I do sometimes get groups of lads in boy racer cars at traffic lights having a laugh, but I do try to behave and not make them swallow their pride and suddenly boot it, because I don’t really want to lose my licence.
“It’s all the fun of the fair really, and I just enjoy the cruise…”
