Riviera Motors war der Volkswagen Vertragshändler für den Staat Oregon, mit Sitz in Beaverton, eine Nachbarstadt von Portland im Washington County. Da die Camping Umbauten von Westalia nicht ausreichten um die Nachfrage an VW Campern zu decken, beauftragre Rivera Motors im Jahr 1965 das Unternehmen ASI (Automotive Service,Inc.) für Typ 2 Umbauten.
Automotive Service, Inc. aus Vancouver, Washington, baute ihre Camping Möbel in kleinbusse und Transporter. Die ersten Umbauten finden sich in T1 Personenwagen. ASI wandelte eine Menge T2 um. Die Produktion wurde bis Mitte der 80iger Jahre fortgesetzt. So finden sich auch noch einige frühe T3s mit Riviera Umbauten.
Riviera Umbau 1975 ohne Poptop!!! ... der ERNIBUS
Zeitungsartikel aus den 60iger über Riviera Motors Inc. , Beaverton
Prospekt um 1975: The Riviera Line by Automotive Service
Prospekt 1980/81: The Elegant Escape
Prospekt 1982/83: The Camper with the Heart of a Vanagon
Vorzelt: Whitestag
Riviera Motors: THE SKI BUM
Riviera/ ASI Ausstattungsvariantenvielfalt / Bildersammlung_1
Subject: RE:
ASI Campers
Fred:
The story as
I understand it goes like this...
Riviera
Motors was the Beaverton, Oregon based regional distributor of Volkswagens. At
some point they decided to contract with ASI (Automotive
Services,
Inc.), based in the Vancouver, Washington area, for Type 2 camper conversions
modeled after Westfalia Campmobiles.
Why Riviera
decided to do this is a puzzle, because Campmobiles sold like hotcakes in the
Pacific Northwest.
Luke:
True - they
sold so well that Riviera Motors could not keep their downstream dealers supplied. VW offered the following take-it-or-leave-it
deal: You get X number of Westfalia
campers when you buy Y number of pickups and panel vans.
This posed a
problem to Knute Qvale, owner of Riviera Motors. VW pickups and panels were slow movers, prone
to "lot rot." Knute knew a
cabinet maker named Lasko and assigned him to design and build a camper
conversion that would work with the VW panel.
He then imposed a new regime on his downstream dealers: You get X number
of Westfalia campers when you buy Y number of my "Riviera" campers.
The dealers
were hesitant at first, but once they'd seen the workmanship of the conversion,
they got on board. This was in 1965.
Fred:
Wherever
there was a car show or fairgrounds display of new vehicles, one of the top 2
or 3 "people-magnets" would be a Campmobile all set up with a side tent,
poptop, lounge chairs, picnic table, etc. on an expanse of artificial grass and
surrounded by potted palms. You had to stand in line just to get a peek inside!
The first
ASI campers I recall were 1973 Type 2 conversions. There may have been earlier models, but
starting with the '73s it became impossible to find a Westfalia for sale new in
the region. A good friend bought Pete
Lovely VW's (Fife/Tacoma, WA) 1972 demonstrator Campmobile in early 1973,
because they didn't have any '73 Campmobiles available (but plenty of ASIs).
Over the
years the ASI conversions became (in my opinion) more and more like mini-motorhomes,
and less like campers. ASI used their
own poptop that is similar in appearance to Westfalia's, but actually quite
different in execution. The cabinets,
etc., were initially clones of Westfalia's designs, but diverged over the
years. All of the fittings, hardware,
etc. in ASI rigs are pretty standard mobile home/RV stuff.
Luke:
Mostly
true. Every year the sales reps from
Westfaliawerk would arrive in Portland to see what new things Knute was adding
to his campers. Many of those ideas
appeared in next year's Westfalia. They
exchanged ideas on what hardware held up and what layout seemed to be popular.
Westfalia also used off the shelf RV parts, some still available in European RV
shops.
Fred:
I believe
they converted Type 2s that were delivered to Riviera Motors by VW as Station
Wagons. Two of my friends drive late-'70s ASI conversions.
Theirs, and
others I've looked over, show all the signs of having been built and fitted out
as Station Wagons, then stripped by ASI and reincarnated as campers. I've never seen
an ASI
conversion with a reinforced chassis, for instance, but I have seen ones that clearly
had originally been built with a sunroof.
Luke:
ASI campers,
being much lighter than their German counterparts, usually did not require a
belly pan. I've seen one that did, but as a double door panel, it would've had one
anyway.
Fred:
If ASI
continued converting VWs after the 1979 model year, I'm not aware of having seen
one. That may be because I haven't really paid much attention to Vanagons.
Luke:
They
continued on to the mid-80's. Al Lasko,
son of the original cabinet maker, is still in business in Vancouver. He's been doing van conversions since demand
for Vanagons petered out a few years ago.
I've got him on video, looking
over the interior of my Riviera and commenting on the originality of it.