Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i VWT Lifestyle

As weird as this may sound, some people don’t get the whole, aged, original and faded paint thing. They think vehicles left in their raw state are simply a restoration project waiting to happen, or the sign of a lazy owner… To be fair to them most people thought along the same lines a decade or so ago and most other car scenes still do. If you found a solid original Bus with tired looking paint and a few whiskey dents, you’d have thought great, a quick paint job and I’ll be laughing. An easy resto. Fortunately things have moved on a bit, and there are a great many enlightened souls (in the Volkswagen world at least) who appreciate the beauty of a vehicle that looks like this right-hand drive…

Ican’t lay claim to having always been an avid fan of VWs, although over the years I have owned a variety of air-cooled microcars. Being a busy classic car journalist and photographer, my job involves attending a huge number of classic car shows, sometimes up to a 100 a year, both in the UK and Europe and it was absolutely impossible to ignore the increasing popularity of Type 2s. Running several classic vehicles at a time and not wishing to sell any to buy a Camper, my budget would just about stretch to a Pick-Up, but only a Split Screen would suffice. I still have a copy of the October 2007 issue of VolksWorld, where I spotted my ’59 in the classified ads. There was a really good low down,…

Special: there can be no more fitting a word to sum up the essence of the Goodwood Revival. Although actually, I’d go as far as to append ‘unique’ onto that too, for as far as I’m aware there’s simply nothing else quite like it anywhere in the world. The scene is set before you’ve even managed to leave the car park, as you wander amongst a sea of gorgeous classics, from the obvious (E-types and 911s are too numerous to count) to the curious (when did you last see an Isetta, a Citroen DS and a ’52 Beetle parked next to each other?). Much like the dress code, which politely asks that you wear something befitting the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s era which it evokes, it seems folks make an…

10 March Ultimate Dubs Telford International Centre, Telford www.ultimate-dubs.co.uk 21 March Spring 2019 issue of C&B on sale! 16 – 17 March Ninove / The Freddy Files Ninove, Belgium www.facebook.com/ukcruisetoninove/ 23 – 24 March VolksWorld Show Sandown Park, Surrey www.volksworldshows.com 5 – 7 April Dubs at the Mill Haselbury Mill, Somerset www.scrumpydubbers.co.uk 12 – 14 April Vee Dub Family Birthday Weekender Brean, Somerset www.veedubfamily.org 19 – 21 April Bus Types Oswestry Showground, Shropshire www.bus-types.co.uk 19 – 22 April Dubs Collective – Dubs in Wonderland Himley Hall, Dudley www.dubscollective.com 26 – 28 April Techenders Victoria Farm, Lutterworth www.techenders.co.uk…

Handcrafted. It’s a term that gets bandied about a great deal in our robot-driven, AI destined society, but it’s rare to find it in its purest form, by which we mean, the traditional non-mass production of something entirely by hand and without the aid of modern machinery. Okay, so there’s a table saw here and an edge bander there, but where do we draw the line these days? In 2019, light machinery that still requires 90% human input should be fully acceptable in the world of handcraftery. Man and boy Darren Shorter, is the man behind Vantastic Campers in Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, Kent and is the kind of bloke most dream of finding to build them a camping interior; and yes, it is all handcrafted. He’s been Volkswagen to the…

The Glas company started out repairing agricultural equipment in 1895 and later moved onto producing scooters and microcars, as well as some very svelte coupes, which actually became BMW models when they took over Glas in the early 1970s. Goggomobils were built at Dingolfing in Bavaria, between 1955-1969 and the range included a coupe, convertible, saloon, Pick-Up truck and Van, the latter being very popular with German utility companies. My TS300 Coupe left the factory in late 1967 powered by a 250cc twin-cylinder two-stroke engine, but was upgraded to 300cc, by its last owner Dirk Wurm, where the work was undertaken at the family tool company in Germany. Dirk worked in the UK for many years and decided to bring the Goggomobil with him. It was air freighted aboard a…

When it comes to classic cars, there’s a common belief that the earlier you go, the better. Pretty much every enthusiast always aspires to own the first generation of anything. Maybe it’s because that’s the design in its purest form, before things were added to meet the demands of the market or halt a decline in sales. The Bay Window changed a great deal over the course of its 14 years of (German) production, but it was the first few that saw the most significant and obvious changes. US crash regulations were to play the most significant part in the visual changes, and even the most ardent late model lover would have to admit (if you put a loaded gun to their head) that the first generation Bay is the…

If you were American - or from Canada, Australia or New Zealand for that matter - during the 1950s to the 1970s, what could be better than a European vacation where you could bring back a Volkswagen as a souvenir? Okay, it was all a little more complicated than simply turning up at Frankfurt Airport and trying to sneak a Type 2 on your Boeing back to Boston as hand luggage. But using VW’s Tourist Delivery programme made it somewhat simpler to fly from the new world to the old, pick-up a brand new vehicle, tour around Europe in, then drop it off, fly home and… voilà, have it follow you across the sea a month or so later. Although the scheme operated in a few countries outside of Europe,…

HERETICS AT HERITAGE The Heretics nights were started in 2009 by a couple of Heritage team members keen to bring local enthusiasts together, and this monthly meet in West Sussex has grown somewhat over the years and now typically sees over 200 vehicles in attendance each month. Regardless of whether you are a regular at Heritage Parts Centre - or have never been before - these are the dates for your diary to enjoy one of the friendliest and most diverse VW and Porsche events on offer - Thursday 18th April, Thursday 16th May, Thursday 20th June, Thursday 18th July, Thursday 15th August and Thursday 12th September. Things get busy from 6pm and run through until 9pm. Food and drink are available on site, a resident DJ provides background music…

’73 Bay Window, Kevan Allcock Kevan Allcock bought his Bay Window for the princely sum of just £100 in 2008, which gives you some idea of the poor state it was in! “I didn’t really know what I’d let myself in for,” he jokes! “It took me 5 ½ years to restore and in some aspects it was a pleasurable restoration project, as all the nuts and bolts undid and weren’t totally rusted up. It was up in the air for around 2 ½ years, while I was working on the underneath and I had the body placed on a jig, so I was able to flip it around for excellent access. I reckon I probably spent more time working on the underside, than the rest of it put together,…

Darren Shorter started Vantastic Campers shortly after the credit crunch / recession of 2008. Having spent a great many years displaying various Campers at Van/Busfest (and winning plenty of awards in the process we might add) and constantly turning down requests from owners to build them something like his, he finally caved and at the ripe young age of 43 set off down a new path. Of this momentous decision Darren says: “Life’s a bit like a corridor and you just go along and open doors until you eventually arrive at where you’re supposed to be.”So, not only a super skilled craftsman, but also a deep thinker, as well. As a carpenter and joiner by trade, as well as a VW man at heart, you really get the best of…

It all began at Darren’s 40th birthday party (a mini VW festival held in his back garden) a couple of years ago when Darren introduced Chris to his longtime buddy, Anto, who had travelled from Ireland to join the fun. Anto just happens to be one of the organisers of the Vantastival VW and music festival in Ireland, hence conversation turned to the possibility of Chris and Darren driving over in an old VW to check out the event. Darren owns a very nice ’61 Split Bus and a ’51 Split Beetle while Chris drives the superb 1958 single Cab Pick-Up in this feature. The road trip plan was set for 2018, which just happened to coincide not only with Chris’ 50th birthday, but also his truck’s 60th (oh, and…

Manufactures of modern cars don’t want Herberts like you or I poking around under the bonnet, so when they need things like their yearly service, you have to return them to the dealership. Other than that, plus the odd drop of oil and some air in the tyres, there’s not a lot else that needs doing to modern machinery. It ain’t like that with an old VW though. Leave them to their own devices and components seize up, dry out, spring a leak or simply wave a fond farewell. Drive them and bits wear out, fail or even fall off. Routine maintenance is the key to owning a happy Camper, so you’ll need to arm yourself with the appropriate tools to look after them. As you can see from these…