Tabla de contenidos para October 2019 en VolksWorld

I love facts and figures, especially when they concern my favourite hobby. Apparently, there’s 1,241,863 historic vehicles registered with the DVLA and the numbers are growing year on year. In fact, historic registrations have gone up by 19 per cent since 2016. Moreover, a recent survey found that 9.8 million people, or 19 per cent of the adult British population, were interested in older cars – be it owning, reading about them or going to car shows. Reportedly one in ten British adults wants to own a classic and, encouragingly, it’s been found that the level of interest in owning a historic vehicle is strongest among younger adults. I was particularly interested in how much we spend on our passion. The same survey suggested that we fork out £1,489 on…

Beyond patina I was pleased to read about James Peene's love of early, big windowed VWs in his August staff sagas. My first one, purchased in 1960, was Gunyah Grey car and its memory has always lingered. Years later I was able to buy a 1960 model built in September 1959 (above). It was a bit like the '72 crossover Kombi just before indicators were introduced, having a dished steering wheel but retaining the semaphores like James's. I know James likes patina cars, but this one was beyond that and I ended up restoring it. Fortunately, in Australia we are able to register our cars on historic plates and are allowed 60 days driving additional to club days for a very minimum fee. I did all the work myself and…

DRAWING A BLANK From: www.autocrafteng.co.uk Price: £29 each Auto Craft Engineering has just finished remanufacturing the dashboard speaker blanking plate for Oval Window Beetles. They've done it so they are made to the same standard as the original part and the new product has been test fitted to their own vehicles, so you know they're good. GET SOME SUN From: www.justkampers.com Price: £299 Solar technology has evolved dramatically, so now there's some serious solutions to your off-grid power needs out there. Among the many options are these two Monocrystalline Solar Panel kits from Just Kampers. One is for those looking to have a fixed solution and one for those wanting the flexibility of a mobile unit, that you can swap between vehicles. The future's looking bright……

The VolksWorld Show attracts all manner of characters. Like-minded VW folk one and all, they’re irresistibly drawn – like salmon swimming up stream to spawn – from all over the world to Sandown Park. The great and the good bring show cars, or come to support friends who’ve made the effort to build them. The vast majority simply come to soak up the weekend, catch up with friends and have a laugh and (way) too many beers in The Bear on the Saturday night. A great many venture over from Europe and when you consider how far they have to travel, few would blame them for making the journey in something faster, more comfortable, and dare we say it, more reliable than an air-cooled Volkswagen? But, not Marco de Waal.…

In August 1969, a 250-hectare farm near the city of Woodstock (a two-hour drive from New York City) hosted a music festival that marked a generation. The most famous singers/bands of the time followed one another on the stage in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators. For three days, Woodstock celebrated ‘peace and music’. Magazines and newspapers eagerly covered the event, some photos showing a Kombi dressed in a singular paint by an artist based on the east coast, Bob Hieronimus. The Kombi appeared in the pages of Rolling Stone and Life magazine; then on the cover of the Woodstock album. Fifty years later, a replica of the Bus was unveiled at the OCTO Meet, California. And get this: the same artist was involved in its design! Before we…

“Timothy Dalton kicked off his two-film tenure by partially demolishing a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle 1200 with an out-of-control Land Rover in Gibraltar at the start of The Living Daylights” Unless you’ve recently been holidaying on another planet, it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that a new Bond movie is imminent, albeit a little delayed. As we understand it, though remaining officially untitled as we went to press, the 25th instalment in the franchise is set to be released in April 2020, probably marking Daniel Craig’s final outing as the world’s least secret secret agent. The Bond films are famed for their memorable and fantastic car sequences, usually involving implausible gadgets. Surprisingly though, Mr Bond’s exotic motoring tastes seem to run more to Aston Martins and Lotus Esprits rather than air-cooled…

August Gathering off the Hill Date: 23-26 Aug 2019 Location: Astle Park, Chelford SK11 9AD Contact: @Goth 2019 on Facebook Camper Calling Date: 23-26 Aug 2019 Location: Ragley Hall, Warks Contact: @campercalling VW Fab Festival Date: 23-25 Aug 2019 Location: Strumpshaw Steam Museum, Norfolk Contact: @vwfabfestival2014 Field of Dreams Date: 30 Aug/01 Sept 2019 Location: Escrick Park Estate, York Y019 6EA Contact: www.classicvolks.com September Wolfsburg Bus Crew 4th Birthday Bash Date: 1 Sept 2019 Location: Ace Cafe, Stonebridge, London NW10 7UD Contact: wolfsburgbuscrew.uk Busfest Date: 6-8 Sept 2019 Location: Three Counties Showground, Malvern Contact: www.busfest.org Grill-n-Chill Date: 13-15 Sept 2019 Location: The Hop Farm, Kent Contact: grill-n-chill.co.uk October Brighton Breeze Date: 4-5 Oct 2019 Location: Brighton Contact: www.brightonbreeze.co.uk ONE NOT TO MISS! VW Action 30 Aug - 01 Sept 2019…

The 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed has been and sped past, but it wasn’t all new model launches, race cars and tyre smoke at this celebration of everything automotive. As part of the ‘Tea for Two’ Cartier Style-et-Luxe display, Heritage Parts Centre was invited to take along its 1956 Single Cab Split Screen Pick Up. And get this, after inspection by a panel of independent judges, the Heritage pickup truck, complete with traditional sign writing and original interior, was chosen as the favourite. Said the obviously delighted Heritage boss Barney Dines: “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a vehicle as part of this prestigious display in such esteemed company with Aston Martins, Abarths, Bugattis and De Tomasos all within a stone’s throw of our trusty shop…

While I’m a Type 3 guy at heart, that certainly doesn’t mean that I’m not a fan of Beetles – far from it! I’ve owned more Bugs than I can remember over the years, covering everything from early ’50s cars through late Super Beetle Cabriolets (plus the odd MexiBug, too). I have also been lucky enough to drive and experience many more through my work with various VW mags, so I have quite a good idea which Bug I’d consider to be my favourite. Chatting with some friends around a campfire recently, the topic of ‘all time favourite Bug model’ cropped up so I listened with interest to see if anyone else shared my opinion. Well, I’ll cut to the chase… nope – in fact the answers couldn’t have been…

Back in ’95, Pennsylvania-based VW enthusiast Bob Daniels purchased an ’80s-built custom VW on the East Coast and shipped it to the other side of the States. He enjoyed rollin’ in it for many years and always kept it looking fresh. However, he was keen to retain the character and overall style of the car, so while he was happy to change details like the wheels and interior, he refrained from any major alterations. This created something of a problem. While he loved the custom Bug, he also really wanted to build something different. Eventually Bob realised that the solution was to build a fresh car – yet he wasn’t prepared to part with the custom ’63 so he simply had to wait until he felt he was ready to…

A perfectly restored Karmann Cabriolet is a thing of beauty and as much as renowned Cabriolet Owners Club member, Paul Riley, loves a show quality car, he’s also aware that sometimes they can be more trouble that they’re worth. He explained, “I’ve owned enough shiny cars over the years to know that there’s not a lot of fun to be had when you’re constantly worried about leaving your car unattended or stressing out about picking up stone chips.” However, on the flipside, ratty ‘patina’ cars aren’t exactly his thing, either. Paul joked, “If you’d have explained this car to me over the phone I wouldn’t have got it but, when I spotted it for sale at The VolksWorld Show this year, the whole preservation over restoration thing was something akin…

Having been to the first European Bug-in (EBI) in 2007, I’d never managed to make the trip again; the show is held every other year and 2019 was the eighth edition. As Bad Camberg happens every four years, 2019 marked the occasion when both shows fall just one week apart. Earlier in the year, I’d decided that I’d get my ’71 Bay Window on the road in time to take in both events and holiday in the Bus during the week in between. Various circumstances meant that, as June rolled around, I still hadn’t got the Bus anywhere near to being on the road, so I’d resigned myself to sitting this year out. Two weeks before the show, though, I had a brainwave. Having confirmed that VolksWorld wanted the show…

In July, the very last Volkswagen to carry the Beetle nomenclature – albeit in very different guise to the air-cooled original – rolled off the firm's Pueblo production line. Despite its best efforts, which included giving it a more masculine appearance and dropping the name 'New' in 2012, a slide in sales meant VW had no option but to say goodbye to the Beetle. To mark the occasion, Volkswagen invited guests to a farewell event at the Museum of Modern Art in New York where a number of VIP hosts explained how the Beetle had evolved from humble people's car into a worldwide phenomenon. A highlight of the 'Bye Bye, Beetle' evening was a design talk with experts such as Klaus Bischoff (Volkswagen Head of Design), Prof. Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman (Pratt…

We’ve owned a string of Beetles over the years, as many as six or seven, so naturally when the empty ‘shell of a Karmann Cabriolet 1302S popped up for sale on eBay 15 years ago, we simply couldn’t resist the temptation to click the ‘Buy Now’ icon! We didn’t even both viewing it, we just had it transported down from the Midlands to our Hertfordshire home. “we simply couldn’t resist the temptation to click the ‘Buy Now’ icon” I guess you always take a bit of a risk purchasing something unseen, but having owned many Beetles before, we weren’t too daunted at the prospect of a full restoration. When the ‘shell turned up, it was in pretty good shape, and only needed welding to one of the chassis rails and…

June’s usually crammed with shows, kicking off with Bug-In. It’s been mixing a car show and drag racing with great success since 1968. The following weekend is the US’s largest Volkswagen get-together: El Prado VW Show & Shine. It has that certain European event atmosphere, combining a car show with a massive campground, featuring barbecuing, kids’ activities etc. Coincidentally, Bug-In falls on the same weekend as another So-Cal favourite – the DKP Cruise Night. Der Kleiner Panzers club has been hosting this annual rendezvous since the late ’90s, gaining recognition worldwide thanks to the quality of vehicles involved. This year was no exception, with about 200 rides invading a stretch of Main Street in old town Garden Grove. Many consider it the perfect venue, due to the numerous restaurants and…

Old Volkswagens often get a bad rap when it comes to finding the gears. Usually the people perpetuating the myth are not a fan of the superior German engineering, choosing to favour something much more mundane or poorly built instead. It’s true, however, that there can be problems with the gears, but It’s just the same old story of lack of maintenance and 40-plus years of wear and tear. You see, our wonderful People’s Car gained such a strong reputation for reliability in its heyday, that many owners rarely, if ever maintained them to VW standards. So, whether you are having problems finding the right gear, having a stiff lever (Ooer!) or even involuntarily selecting reverse all the time, this guide will show you how to rectify it and make…