Volkswagen Bay Window Camper: the legendary van of the hippie years

An icon of freedom and Van Life, the Bay Window Camper replaced the Split in 1967 with its panoramic windscreen and rounded look. Panel van, bus, pick-up or motorhome, it conquered the roads of the whole world until it became a rolling legend, with toughness, versatility and a hippie spirit.

27/01/2026

Harald

6 minutes read

Volkswagen

What is a Bay Window Camper?

After 17 years of production and some 1.8 million units, the Camper got a new look in the summer of 1967, and it showed.

Gone were the 2 endearing flat panes that made up the windscreen of the Split-Screen Camper; phase 2 of the Transporter went widescreen (16/9) ahead of its time with a panoramic bay window that gave it its international name: the Bay Window Camper.

From its conception, the Camper proved to be a fantastic commercial vehicle and a fabulous people carrier: driving a Camper is a bit like having a Swiss army knife in your pocket (ideal for hitting the road).

Journalists of the day said it was a big car and that it drove like one while offering more versatility. Perfectly suited to professional use and to leisure, it is a very good all-terrain vehicle thanks to its ground clearance and traction. Tough and practical, it is built for adventure.

Prized by hippies in the 70s, with its friendly face, recognisable among a thousand and loaded with good vibes, it is a superb advertising vehicle, much loved by advertisers and film-makers.

The Bay Window Camper is certainly the most iconic of all, as it is the most widespread of the first two generations. In the post-covid period, everybody wanted one to escape (which pushed its price up). The feeling of freedom, the cool attitude, the zen of travelling differently, that is Van Life.

The Bay today

Van Life in a Bay Window has its realities too. In Barcelona, Nicolas turned his passion into a small business, Advantura, which rents out a restored T2 Westfalia. First obstacle: finding an insurer ready to cover a forty-year-old vehicle for rental. Second obstacle: since 2020, Barcelona's low-emission zone has closed the city, on weekdays and in the daytime, to the oldest vehicles. When he wrote to us, in 2020, his plan was to convert the van to electric.

On the other side of the Pyrenees, Mathieu and Margaux roam the Basque Country in a 1974 T2b Riviera, a camper conversion born in the United States. Their favourite playground is between the ocean and the mountains, with a weakness for the Basque corniche, which runs along the coast.

The big changes compared with the Split-Screen Camper:

Aesthetic : new front end without the so characteristic "V", round headlights (as on the Beetle), panoramic windscreen.

Practical : sliding side door, wind-up windows, more modern dashboard with a better cabin ventilation system.
Engines : more powerful, torquier, ranging from the 1600 to 2 litres.
Safety : front discs from 1971, body reinforcements, seat belts.
Gearbox : gone are the reduction boxes … long live the quieter and better-performing driveshafts

The main types of Bay Window Camper:

Volkswagen did not start from scratch, the versions put in place in the Split era had proved themselves and were therefore carried over from the launch of the Bay with the 1968 model year. It was mainly built in Germany, at Hanover and Emden.

The van, panel or glazed, with or without removable bench seats, can carry anything.
The bus and the Clipper microbus (formerly Deluxe), glazed with two bench seats, can carry 8 to 9 people.
The pick-ups, single and double cab, are real beasts of burden.
The ambulance and the many applications for the fire brigade, the Post Office, Telecoms, the army … put it on every front.
The motorhome, born in 1951 with the Westfalia Camping-Box of the Split, was better and better equipped; converted Campers or vans have more going for them than tents and caravans. WESTFALIA (Germany) types are the most sought after. Other converters took an interest in the Camper, particularly the British firms DEVON, DANBURY, DORMOBILE, CANTERBURY and MOTORHOMES. In the United States, the Riviera conversion, designed for the Volkswagen distributor in Oregon, also has its fans, as far as Europe.

Bay Window Camper T2a, T2ab and T2b: changes over the years

Here we talk in "model year" terms; Volkswagen made its model-year changes on 1 August. The first Bay therefore appeared in early August 1967 but is considered to be of model year 1968; its serial number begins with the indication of its type (e.g. 26) followed, as the third digit, by the reference to its model year (e.g. 8, for 1968). The list of changes that follows is not exhaustive, it just serves as reference points.

The T2a: 1968 to 1971, small rear lights (same as the Split) and small rounded bumpers.

1968 to 1970: as on the Split, front drum brakes, 5 x 205 wheels and domed hubcaps (nicknamed "baby moons"). The engine went from 1500 (Split) to 1600, still single-port.

1971 : front disc brakes appeared, the 5 x 112 wheels were perforated with round holes (disc cooling) and received flat hubcaps. The 1600 engine moved to dual-port cylinder heads, received a larger aluminium oil cooler, a fan shroud known as the "dog house" and a Solex 34 carburettor.

The T2ab: 1972, a pivotal year between two types.

1972 : a transition year that is very easy to recognise. The Camper kept its small rounded bumpers but adopted large, safer rear lights. The engine ventilation louvres were wider for better cooling. On the engine side, the 1600 (which would stay in the range until 1979) was joined by a powerful and torquey twin-carb 1700, commonly called "type 4", because it came from the VW 411.

The T2b: 1973 to 1979, large rear lights and big bumpers.

1973 : the year of the big restyling of the Bay Window Camper. The bumpers were bigger and squarer, the front indicators moved up around the ventilation grille, and the VW emblem shrank and was made of plastic.
1974 : the big 1700 engine became an 1800.
1976 : the 1800 engine gave way to the 2 litre.
1979 : end of production in Germany; make way for the Transporter T3.
1976 to 2013 : production of the Kombi in Brazil. Reusing several parts of the Split, this hybrid was intended for the local market and for export to South Africa and Nigeria.
1970 to 2001 : production and sale of the Kombi in Mexico.

The last South American versions were fitted with a Polo engine and water cooling with a radiator at the front. Pollution standards and then passive safety standards would finally be the end of it (its skin, or rather its sheet metal).

The Bay Window was the last of the Transporters to truly be called a Combi in France. The Bay Camper, symbol of the 70s, chubby and sausage-shaped, would hand over to a square Transporter with a shoe-box look, no doubt to match the image of its cousin, the Golf 1.