Von Dutch Monday V

I thought you'd enjoy how Von Dutch built his XAVW in his own words. This article comes out of a Modern Cycle, and I'm not sure what issue it was in. I bought these two pages off of Ebay about 5 years ago, and I'm guessing it was an issue from '67. I say that because Dutch did the peliminary sketch for it over coffee with Dick Betts one morning in early '66, at Dutch's place in Tarzana.

Von Dutch bet Betts that he could build the XAVW in a year's time, and Betts bet Dutch he could build an Indy car in the same time period. They both completed their projects in a year, and they both threw a joint party to celebrate their accomplishments, and that party lasted for a complete non-stop weekend.

You'll notice in the text that Von Dutch says that his sidecar for the XAVW is under construction. This is the sidecar that he built when he was in Calabasas. This sidecar was the one he built with the idea of having his horse ride around in it. Well, it didn't work, and that's when Dutch got so pissed off that he took the XAVW and completely disassembled it, and piled it in a corner of his shop.

Ed Roth wound up with the XAVW - Blackwell says Roth gave Dutch $1,500.00 for it, but Randy Smith told me that Roth's deal was a couple antique outboard motors for it. I tend to believe Randy, because he told me he got the XAVW from Roth for 15 sets of his finned aluminum Panhead covers. The whole story Randy related to me I recounted in GK # 2. (BTW-the GK # 2's are almost sold out, better grab one while you can!)