Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i VWT Lifestyle

SHOW AND TELL Hello Camper&Bus, what a cracking issue the last one was. I don’t always buy the mag anymore as I feel it’s the same ol’ same ol’ on repeat, so it was nice to see you doing something different with the show reports. I went to last years Goodwood Revival and absolutely loved it. I think a big problem with the VW scene is the shows are the same year in, year out. You go to the same places and see the same vehicles, people and traders until you’re sick to the back teeth of it. Well, I did anyway. Which is why I started exploring further afield and began taking in shows like the Revival, Festival of Speed and a lot of custom and American car shows.…

Do you ever think it’s a shame that most of the air-cooled Commercial Vans and trucks left in the world are no longer used in anger? The reality is, the majority of air-cooled Volkswagens are cosseted away these days. Sure, they may be used on weekends, or driven to VW shows and camping and perhaps if [you’re lucky - ED] you’re like our editor, then you may even use yours to collect DIY materials or for trips to the local dump, but it’s still pretty rare to see Panel Vans and Pick-Ups loaded to the hilt as they once were. The Single Cab you see on these pages is an exception to the rule. If you’ve ever heard anyone utter the line: “Lowered trucks are useless” then read on; Rusty…

The Type 25 is an unfortunate beast. For the last decade and then some, we’ve been banging the drum for them and saying how their time has finally come, but in actual fact it would appear to have been and gone. If you blinked you probably missed it. The problem is they’re still just too darn modern for those who want to keep their camping old-school but still too quirky (and often rusty) for those who want the ease and performance of a reliable go anywhere, anytime water-cooled Bus. So if it’s a case horses for courses and Splits and Bays for one camp and T5s and T6s for the other, when does this donkey get to fly? Where exactly does that leave the third generation Transporter? We’d argue it’s…

Settling in to a new venue is never easy for an established show, but Bristol Volksfest’s move across Bristol to it’s new home at Birches Farm was pretty much seamless. With the vibe of the show - that everyone who regularly attends has grown to love - remaining, it’s a show that continues to grow, and go from strength-to-strength year-on-year. From its early days as a one-day event at the Rugby club in Filton, just north of Bristol it has seen a number of venues, from the Scout Camp at Almondsbury, Bath Race-Course and the North Somerset Showground before moving to Easter Compton. The most recent move was due to the venue being redeveloped with a man-made surf lake but it already feels like ‘home’ for BVF. With increasing visitor…

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 14-14 April Vee Dub Family Birthday Weekender Brean, Somerset www.veedubfamily.org 19 – 21 April Bus Types Oswestry Showground, Shropshire www.bus-types.co.uk 18 April May 2019 issue of C&B on sale! 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…

1990 Type 25 Multivan, Robert Mitcham Robert Mitcham bought his factory specification T3 Multivan from Eastfalia back in 2006, which was run by Steve Walker at the time. It had only had one German owner from new when acquired by Robert. “The T3 was pretty standard when I got it, but since then I’ve personalised it a little,” he points out. “In fact I’ve changed practically everything on it! Apart from the basic vehicle, it was fitted with steel bumpers and Project 2 wheels and was powered by a 2.1 litre engine with a five-speed ‘box.” So what modifications has Robert incorporated? “Well, let’s start from the beginning,” he grins. “The T3 is now powered by an Audi 2.8 litre 12 valve V6 engine, coupled to a six-speed Porsche 997…

I’m going to kick this feature off with a quote from Lord of the Rings. Why? Because I can as it’s my mag, so I can write what I like, and it was dear old Bilbo Baggins himself who once said: “It’s no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.” The reason I’ve opened with that is because A) I’m a Tolkien nerd, and B) what you’re reading here is a basic story about a basic van, built by a basic man… Those aren’t our words, they belong to Paul Irving, or Irv as he’s known to all and sundry. He’s the man, and name obvs behind Irv’s Restos (www.irvsvwrestoration.co.uk) and although we added the last part, we’re almost pretty sure he won’t mind the basic man jibe. Although, to…

Cast your minds back to our March issue and you’ll no-doubt remember the feature we ran on Drew Pritchard’s Samba. Our Jimbo had shot the pictures, but when it came to getting the inside story we wanted to speak to Drew himself. When we heard he was filming a segment of Salvage Hunters: Classic Cars at Caffeine and Machine, it seemed like the perfect time to pop along, chew the fat and check out the hot new car venue everyone is talking about. Two birds with one stone so to speak. It helped that the producers wanted a few classic cars in the background, so we gamely popped along and waited for filming to start. If you’ve ever seen any telebobs being filmed you’ll know there’s a lot of standing…

Sentiment is a funny thing. There’s no rhyme nor reason to it and it can tear your wallet a new one if you don’t keep a lid on it. Then it’s not so funny… Air-cooled VWs are a classic example. If you just wanted an affordable and reliable means of getting from A to B they’d be way down the pecking order, wouldn’t they? And, once you’ve bought one and it breaks down so much that every journey home is completed on the back of a low loader, well the smart thing to do would be to cut your losses and buy something a little more sensible. But you don’t do you? Because it’s an old Volkswagen and you love it too much to cast it aside, even when you…

This expedition to various European gatherings and sight seeing over the course of two weeks in June 2017 was by no means unique to our group; many other UK folk were on similar journeys and our paths crossed numerous times in various places. Their stories may contain more high jinks than ours; tales of dodging authorities and sleeping on the hard shoulder of autobahns are par of the course when you are care-free and enjoying yourselves. As you will see, ours was the story of laughs, exhaustion, ingenuity and a lot of generosity from friends old and new. Rewind to December 2016 and Gareth Baylis-Smith and his wife Tess were over in Oz visiting family and had arranged to meet up with some like-minded VW folk whilst over there. An…

Don’t you hate buying a VW and being handed a handful of keys by the previous owner. It could be worse: not being able to either lock or unlock your new toy because the keys don’t work properly, or because there’s something wrong with the latches themselves. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve bought Buses or had a customer bring a one to me with a similar scenario going on. This how to has been designed to show you that getting your locks sorted out and onto one key really isn’t brain surgery, in fact, it can be a surprisingly therapeutic thing to carry out yourself and one that means more time sitting at the table drinking tea than laying under your Bus on a cold, damp, floor. 01…