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The original VW T1 bus was one of the most practical vehicles ever produced, but Volkswagen’s classic arm has put the finishing touches on a restored example that takes that can-do mantra to another level.

Called the Half-track Fox, this 1962 bus is one of just two converted by an Austrian mechanic into something that could tackle the country’s Alpine terrain, whatever the weather, without sacrificing the interior practicality of a regular T1.

A keen skier, Kurt Kretzner claimed there were few vans available in the early 1960s with the kind of off-road ability demanded by hunters, doctors, ski-lift engineers, and other professionals with the need to get to remote places. So he built his own, giving the Bulli, as German speakers call the bus, four axles. The front two axles are fitted with double-row wheels and steer the T1, and the rear two are fitted with tracks running on 13-inch wheels for maximum traction in the toughest conditions.

The Fox features a brake on each wheel, a limited-slip differential, and an impressively small 33-ft (10 m) turning circle, meaning it’s perfect for carving between pine trees on snow-covered hillsides. But with a standard 34 hp (34 PS) 1,192 cc flat-four providing the muscle and a top speed restricted to just 22 mph (35 km/h), it certainly can’t have been much fun on flat, paved roads.

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Volkswagen says the Alps bus was rarely seen after its build, but turned up in Vienna in 1985, and was bought the following decade by the Porsche museum in Gmünd, a small Austrian town where the Porsche company started life. A restoration was attempted in the early 2000s but failed due to logistical reasons. The T1’s fortunes changed when it was acquired by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ (VWCV) Classic Vehicles division in 2018.

VW’s team stripped and repaired the 60-year-old body before repainting it in its original matt orange, a color originally chosen so that the Half-track Fox would stand out against the Alpine countryside backdrop. The mechanics and interior were also fully restored to as-new condition, finishing off a proper museum-grade restoration. But it’s great to see in the supplied images that VW isn’t too precious about its very special T1 to show that it still has the moves. Even if they are slow ones.