Table of contents for February 2020 in VolksWorld

I’ve had it with modern cars. And the latest letdown was when the timing belt pulley/engine mount on my 2008 Passat bizarrely rattled loose and almost resulted in the engine dropping out. With Paul Knight and VolksWorld Show organiser Pippa eager to meet up at Sandown Park to talk about the 2020 event, yep, you guessed it – I had to wake the Beetle up from its cosy winter slumber in order to get there. With the weather forecast not looking good, and a suitcase full of spares in the rear luggage area, I set off early on Wednesday morning to catch the ferry from St Malo. I’d got the Beetle out of its garage the night before and had it pointing the right way in preparation for the two…

Variety is the spice of VW-life Let me start by wishing you all a slightly belated very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As I sit here with a mince pie in hand, checking proofs and adding a few captions to the summery-fresh Karmann Ghia Cabriolet feature on pages 28-36 this issue, I find myself pining after those lazy summer weekends I love so much. But then, as I flick through the other features in this issue, I’m reminded just how diverse the air-cooled VW scene is. I’m very much aware that my engagement with various aspects of the scene has changed over the years and that while it was once (like 2+ decades ago!) all about winning another show trophy for the workshop, these days it’s very much…

There is something to be said about the beautiful lines of a 1940s VW Bug compared to the last of the breed 1303. With its rounded nose, panoramic windscreen and bulky taillights, the ‘03’ – what Americans call the ‘Super Beetle’ – arguably lacked in, well, subtle aesthetics. Then again, these same styling and technological changes made the car more refined and safer, while improving handling as well. I will never forget cruising as a passenger in a rather healthy red 1303 back in the ’80s in Germany, sustaining speeds of 100mph/160kmh without a hitch; it made me realise the value of these late-model Beetles. The same school of thought applies to VW Buses and the Westfalia versions in particular. Oh sure, the early campers score mega-points due to their…

Saturday’s activities started at Jim Pattison Volkswagen in Surrey, which hosted its annual Pancake Breakfast. Members of two clubs, That’s All Volks and LGK, fired up the grille in a corner of the packed parking lot and cooked for the large crowd. In the afternoon, a second dealership – OpenRoad in Burnaby – welcomed its share of VWs as well, with many of them finding a spot inside the huge facility. This year, the shindig had a Mexican theme, with a taco vendor and participants being invited to bring their best sombreros!…

When a car that's had a famous former owner comes up for sale, it always pricks interest. But when the car in question happens to be a right-hand drive 1977 VW Beetle 1303LS Cabriolet and the previous owner is none other than The Who front man Roger Daltrey, well, we felt duty-bound to find out more. Apparently, the evergreen rocker enjoyed the car for nearly 30 years – from 1977 until 2005 – and the sale includes a signed letter from Daltrey, verifying the fact. The vehicle was up for auction at Collecting Cars in Malaysia and after 23 bids, sold for £26,500. So, was it a Bargain? Well, here's a bit more info to help you make your mind up. It's had two former keepers and has covered 80,812…

IT’S HOTTING UP! We’ve been swamped with potential show car entries, and it looks like we’re going to have our work cut out whittling them down to only the very best cars to fit inside the various halls at Sandown Park in 2020. After all, following the stunning selection of cars in 2019, we’ve got high standards to  keep. However, if you have a show-standard car or Bus and are looking to unveil your project at one of the best and most prestigious VW events on the world calendar, there’s still time! Simply send a brief history and a couple photos of your vehicle to: paul.knight@kelsey.co.uk CAL LOOKIN’ GOOD By popular demand, and in association with the UK Cal Look Register, we’re getting together a super special collection of some…

“proof that you don’t need to go OTT to build a car that’s oh-so-right…” The annual Jogja VW Festival (JVWF) is held at the Jogja Expo Centre in the heart of Yogyakarta, Indonesia and is the world’s largest indoor VW gathering. Attracting more than 25k visitors, the event is housed in three huge halls, which contain practically every conceivable type of air-cooled VW. Visitors to the show are certainly faced with some pretty eye-popping stuff – paint that glows in the bright lights and rides that feature some seriously wild and crazy modifications. However, amongst the glitz and glamour you can also find some far more subtle and understated VWs that are every bit as show-worthy as the funky stuff. Proof that you don’t need to go OTT to build…

“With the US being so close to British Columbia, car activities often have that ‘American’ vibe” Canada remains a rather intriguing country to many Europeans. It covers about 40 times the surface of Great Britain, yet only 37 million folks call it home. Over 75% of them settled within 100 miles/160 kilometres from the United States border. Not a big surprise, really, considering the frigid winter temperatures experienced when travelling further North, where land does not lend itself to successful agriculture and life gets tougher overall. Within Canada’s 3,500-mile narrow strip of dense population, the West Coast offers the mildest climate, not unlike the maritime weather experienced in southern England. Motorheads have thereby plenty of options from April until October in the Vancouver region in particular. With the US being…

If you import a car into France (where I live) you have six months to register it with the French authorities. As I’d arranged the necessary insurance cover through my French bank before collecting my Beetle from the UK in September, I could have therefore happily let it sit out the worst of the winter in my warm garage, tinkering as would be my whim. But then worry got the better of me. You see in the 10 years I’ve lived here with my family I’ve become wary about the French and their love of red tape, rules and regulations, and having fallen foul of petty infringements in the past, I was eager to keep things absolutely above board with the Beetle. In particular, I was concerned about it not…

We’ve covered previous Volkswagen bosses in this series, but Toni Schmücker is the Wolfsburg CEO that many enthusiasts might want to forget. As the fourth head of the company – following Heinrich Nordhoff, Kurt Lotz and Rudolf Leiding – it was during his watch that the Beetle manufacture ended in Europe. But he also signed off on the air-cooled T25 Transporter, which many had expected would emerge as front-engined and water-cooled, thus giving VW’s traditional engine technology a surprise lease of life. And, when others might have closed the troubled Mexican and Brazilian plants, he tried to strengthen their stability instead, allowing them to continue building air-cooled machines for decades to come. With Schmücker, it’s swings and roundabouts. Yes, technically, he’s the boss who killed the Beetle. But he also…

Part of the problem? I own a Mexican Beetle and read with interest the piece on Leigh Stanway's Mexican in your Autumn issue. As you can see from the photo (right), my Beetle's fairly standard and I love driving it. And yes, it's still a real head turner. Recently, it has been at Francis Tuthill's workshop at Wardington near Banbury (I bought my first Beetle there in 1977), for remedial work on its body. By the time it returns it will be in pristine condition. Amongst friends and former pupils it is a popular vehicle for events, particularly weddings. My problem with the car relates to the difficulty of sourcing spare parts, most recently a replacement cable for the speedometer, and prior to that a new exhaust system. I believe…

The first thing that grabs the attention of most people when they see Glenn Parkin’s Beetle is that number plate. Yes, there’s a whole host of petrolheads who’d just love to have that reg on their cherished ride. But, as we’re about to discover, there’s a whole lot more to Glenn’s ‘64 than a few digits. Glenn’s been into his Beetles for as long as he can recall. “One of my earliest memories is sitting on my granddad’s knee at three years old in his Super Beetle practicing steering and making car noises,” he laughs. Moving on to his formative years, Glenn’s mum was often found cruising around in an Apple Green 1303, “I was the talk of the school when mum came to pick me up in her freshly-built…

BODY 1965 RHD Karmann Ghia Cabriolet, which required major reconstructive surgery to the entire rear end / reworking of the nose section (due to prior accident damage) plus rust repairs to the heater channels and lower body; body painted in a custom-mixed grey and fitted up with NOS / rechromed trim CHASSIS A Rust-free replacement chassis (balljoint front / swingaxle rear) has been overhauled and detailed to show standard throughout ENGINE 1776cc Type 1 motor with an Engle W100 camshaft, 1.25:1 rockers, dual Kadron cabs, Bosch ignition etc. SUSPENSION / BRAKES Front: balljoint beam (with adjusters) fitted with 181/Trekker disc brakes (drilled to Porsche 5x130mm PCD). Rear: swingaxle setup with a one-spline drop / fitted with Porsche-pattern brake drums INTERIOR / TRIM Blood-red seat covers and door cards with matching…

Michael Spiessens is no stranger to these pages – in fact, only a couple of months ago we featured a particularly cool Buggy and matching Split screen Van, which were built by Michael and his better half, Dorothee. And, while the duo are renowned for building everything from race cars through to show-winning restorations, this particular car is most certainly a break from the norm as it was part-restored by a previous owner hence it was more of a reassembly job than a restoration at Auto Service Spiessens this time. Michael explained, “I bought the Beetle from Bob at BBT as a part-completed project, which had already been repaired and repainted to a high standard and while I was tempted to build a Cal Looker, I decided that it was…

Every Friday night from April until October, Mission Raceway Park (established in 1965) hosts test runs which are open to all sorts of vehicles, street-driven and not. Close to 30 VWs travelled to the quarter-mile facility, as part of the Great Canadian VW Weekend festivities. In fact, track officials even gave VWs their own class – supervised by Buny’s n’ Bugs and Zundfolge Club – which united the air- and water-cooled factions.…

Depending on your keywords, an online search for ‘Seagoing Beetle’ or similar will offer answers to a number of relevant questions. One of these is ‘Do Beetles float?’ We who know our Beetles can point out a number of potential leak points which would need attention first. On Google, veteran Volkswagen dealers Arnold Clark (over 200 multi-franchise dealerships, mainly in Scotland and northern England) have more input. Their answer is yes, the original Beetle would float on water – but, warn Arnold Clark, it’s not recommended that you experiment with this! Because the original car’s design was a unibody built on a floorpan with very few openings and well sealed doors, given an intact and unrusted floorpan, the VW should at least bob along for a while. Indeed, reference to…