COBI's Volkswagen T3 Winter Adventure is a 1:35 set built from 189 blocks: the van at 13.5 cm, plus a snow-covered ski rental diorama with a fir tree and a piste signpost, and two figures β a skier in retro kit and a rental technician.
The four-wheel-drive Transporter was built in Austria
A rear-engined van is not an obvious mountain vehicle, and Volkswagen knew it. So from 1985 the T3 Syncro was assembled by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz, the Austrian firm that also built the Mercedes G-Wagen β people who understood snow.
The system used a viscous coupling rather than a locking differential: under normal conditions the rear wheels drove the van, and when they slipped, silicone fluid in the coupling thickened and fed torque forward automatically. There was no lever and nothing for the driver to remember. Decoupled and increased ground clearance made the Syncro capable enough that Alpine mountain rescue and forestry services ran them, and they are still sought after today.
Which is the real reason a Transporter belongs outside a ski rental. It was the vehicle that got up the road when the snow came.
In the COBI range
Part of the 1:35 Volkswagen collection. Set 24638 is the T3 Camper with a forest and climbing diorama.
Specifications
Pieces: 189 Β· Figures: 2 Β· Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 13.5 Γ 6 Γ 5.5 cm (5.3 Γ 2.4 Γ 2.2 in)
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