1968 T2 Westfalia (Type 2)

1968: Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis on April 4th. Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles on June 5th. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago became a police riot in August. The Prague Spring ended under Soviet tanks. The Tet Offensive destroyed the Johnson administration's credibility on Vietnam. Apollo 8 sent back the Earthrise photograph in December, and humanity saw its home from the outside for the first time.

The 1968 Bus arrived wearing a new face. The split-window T1 generation had ended in December 1967. The T2 Bay Window replaced it with a single large curved windscreen, a rounder body, a lower hood line, and the visual impression of a vehicle that was watching the world through one wide eye rather than two cautious ones. The split-window had divided the view. The Bay Window opened it.

The 1968 T2 Westfalia was powered by the new 1584cc flat-four producing 47 horsepower — a displacement increase from the T1's 1493cc final engine, but slightly lower peak power than the T1's 50-horsepower final-year tune. The T2 engine was positioned lower in the rear engine bay, which improved weight distribution and reduced the characteristic T1 rear-heaviness. The chassis was new: larger wheelbase, wider track, revised suspension geometry, improved brakes.

The Westfalia conversion was redesigned for the T2 body. The larger interior dimensions — the T2 was notably taller and wider than the T1 — allowed a more generous cabinet layout. The sleeping platform was longer. The cooking area was expanded. Westfalia's SO 42 package for the T2 was the most capable camping conversion the company had produced, taking full advantage of the T2's increased internal volume.

The 1968 Westfalia was special for being the first — first T2, first Bay Window, first SO 42, first year of a generation that would run until 1979. The T2 was better than the T1 by most engineering measures: more room, better visibility, improved handling, more reliable electrical system. It was not as beautiful as the T1, which is the kind of tradeoff that engineering makes and aesthetics refuses to accept.

The Bay Window face is, with forty years of distance, recognizable in its own right. It is not the split-window, but it is the Bus — the same forward-control proportions, the same dominant nose badge, the same visual logic of a box that makes no apology for being a box. Westfalia's interior took advantage of the T2's increased dimensions with a thoroughness that made the T1 conversion feel retrospectively cramped.

1968 was the year the optimism that had sustained the counterculture began to crack. The assassinations of King and Kennedy removed two of the most credible voices for peaceful change. Chicago demonstrated that the state would use force to maintain order against its own citizens. The Tet Offensive proved that the Vietnam War was not being won, and that the government had been lying about its progress. The counterculture's tools — music, drugs, communal living, protest — felt insufficient against these specific facts.

The Bus, in its new T2 configuration, continued to serve the same communities in the same ways: festival attendance, protest transport, communal living, extended road travel. The vehicle's meaning had been established by 1968 and was stable regardless of what it looked like. The Bay Window was the split-window's heir, and the communities that had adopted the Bus accepted it without ceremony.

Better than the T1, though this was not obvious from the specifications. The 47-horsepower engine had slightly less peak power than the T1's final 50-horsepower unit, but the T2's improved weight distribution and revised suspension made it more manageable at the limit. The wider track reduced the T1's characteristic tendency toward corner-exit drama. The larger wheelbase improved highway stability. The Bay Window's visibility improvement was immediately apparent: the single curved windscreen gave the driver a panoramic view that the split-window's center pillar had always obscured.

The T2 introduced a synchronised gearbox across all four gears — a significant improvement over the T1's unsynchronized first gear. Double-declutching into first was no longer required. This is not a feature that excites people who have not driven a T1, but among those who have, the T2's synchromesh is celebrated with genuine enthusiasm.

The 1968 Westfalia was purchased by buyers who were divided, roughly, between those who wanted what the split-window had been and those who wanted what the Bay Window was. The former group sometimes waited for used split-windows to become available; the latter group bought the new model with enthusiasm. VW's American sales were at their peak in the late 1960s, and the Bus was part of a lineup that had captured a generation's loyalty.

The specific 1968 Westfalia buyer was typically more affluent than the standard Bus buyer — the Westfalia premium was meaningful, and the people paying it were making a considered choice about how they wanted to camp and travel. By 1968, the Westfalia had a reputation that preceded it. Buyers knew what they were getting.

The 1968 Westfalia is the first-year T2, which carries the collector's standard first-year premium alongside the Westfalia premium. Bay Window Buses (1968-1979) occupy a different market tier from split-windows — they are generally less expensive and more available, but the best examples are appreciating steadily as the supply of restorable vehicles tightens.

The 1584cc engine in the 1968 model is the engine to have: correct to the year, well-supported by the aftermarket, and historically appropriate. Later T2 Westfalias used different engines in different configurations; the 1968 is the cleanest specification. Rust is the primary concern on all Bay Windows — the lower body panels, floor pan, and wheel arches are chronic sites. A dry-state vehicle is substantially preferable to a Pacific Northwest survivor.

The 1968 Westfalia is the first of the generation that defined the Bus for a different decade. The split-window was the 1950s and 1960s. The Bay Window was the late 1960s and 1970s, with all that those years contained. It arrived in the worst year of the postwar period and continued to serve exactly the same purpose it had always served: taking people somewhere else, giving them a place to sleep, asking nothing about their politics.

The Bay Window face is not as beautiful as the split-window. It is more capable. This tradeoff appears throughout history, and the right answer depends entirely on what you need.