Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i VolksWorld

Now in its second year under new management, this grass roots event held early in the show calendar is popular with fans of the VW marque. Whilst it has continued to grow in size, attracting ever-increasing numbers of the newer Transporter crowd, the amount of older Germanic hardware in attendance ensures there is still plenty for classic VW fans, too. The forecast for the Sunday this year was a bit grim, yet it didn’t seem to have any detrimental impact on attendance, with the second highest ever number recorded. And as it turned out, the predicted rain storms seemed to skirt around the Promenade and Beach Lawns at Weston-super-Mare. With everybody parked up being entered into the show ’n’ shine, and voting forms being handed out to people at random,…

Liam Richardson, ’68 Beetle “I purchased my Beetle very much in its current condition, with all the modification work already completed, other than I’ve lowered the suspension a little bit more,” explains Liam. “I’ve only owned it for a couple of months, prior to that I had a Volksrod, but I ended up writing that off. “I inherited my Beetle with quite a few MoT failure points that all needed to be sorted, mainly involving welding, before the car was put back on the road again. “The aftermarket chrome body trim was already fitted to the car, and a few people have mistaken it for an Australian edition. “It’s powered by a standard 1300cc engine, there’s a two-inch narrowed beam on the front with 2½-inch dropped spindles and it’s been…

We’ve all heard it a hundred times – “You know you can fit a Porsche engine into one of those.” It’s never so much a question as a statement and, in my experience, it’s never said by anyone who has the slightest idea what they’re talking about. However, there is a saying that Jim Wallace on our sister magazine, VWt, recently introduced us to that says, ‘everything fits if you take a long enough run up.’ So when Jason Scotford made a tentative ’phone call to the lads at Old Skool VW in Northampton asking whether the engine from a Porsche Boxster would fit into his Karmann Ghia, he was essentially told yes – that is to say, he was told that yes, it could be made to fit… They…

This story begins over 40 years ago when Simon Hall’s passion for internal combustion engine-powered machines kicked off as a 10-year old. He has messed about with cars and motorbikes ever since and has owned many different vehicles, ranging from mild to very wild, with the most bonkers being his drag racing cars. He spent quite a few years racing an Austin A30 with a 5.4-litre V8 engine, before building a street legal 1932 Ford Model B roadster that could, and did, post 10.3-second quarters at 130mph. The list of VWs he has owned is what we’re interested in though, and he’s quick to point out the fact he was heavily into the water-cooled scene before getting hooked on air-cooleds. Simon owned a string of 8v and 16v Mk2 Golf…

USEFUL INFO WHO: www. zircotec.com WHERE: Abingdon, Oxfordshire HOW LONG: 10-15 working days COST: Primary Black £669. Performance Black £945. Both prices are plus VAT As you’ve probably gathered by now, I wanted my car to look good, but also to continue to look good with a few miles under its tyres. And with the exhaust this posed a problem, albeit a problem I created. I bought a stainless steel Abarthstyle 4-tip exhaust from Dan Simpson at www.vintagespeed.co.uk some time ago. It’s a lovely, well made bit of kit but, with my detail hat on, it needed a bit of black on it to fit with the rest of the car. Plus an original Abarth would have been finished in black with polished tips. And here…

For those who didn’t make it to the Main Event at Santa Pod in May, here’s what went down when Richie Webb rolled into stage in his Yukon Yellow Beetle Cabriolet. The fella with the 9.1-litre Chevy-powered roadster alongside thought he had it in the bag but, just 7.973 seconds later, the win light came on in Richie’s lane. Okay, so he massively broke out of the Super Comp 8.90 index he was running in but he didn’t care about that as the 7.973 / 169mph run made it officially the quickest VW in Europe and the third quickest ‘door’ VW in the world (Richie went on to back it up with an 8.02 / 169). What makes it even more impressive is the turbocharged 2.6-litre, methanol-burning, tube-chassis’d car is…

So what’s the best thing you’ve ever found in a mate’s back yard, or garden as we English prefer to call it? A rugby ball? A conker? His sister sunbathing? As good as all of those might be, the latter especially, you have to concede they don’t come close to what Frank Cesares found languishing in his mate’s yard – a ’58 ragtop Beetle. And not some rotten old pig of a thing either. “The car didn’t look like it does now, but it was a dry, solid car and a good candidate for restoration. I traded a Yamaha Raptor ATV for the car and drove it home. It was a perfect summer weekend, so me and my good friend, Julio Prado, and my son, Frank jnr, began straight away…

Throughout the course of May 8-10, the Apex Festival consumes the somewhat unloved surroundings of Lydden Hill race circuit for a festival of track time, drifting, partying, drive-through movies and show ’n’ shine shenanigans. Now in its third year, the desolate Kentish race circuit, just a short hop from Dover, hosts all manner of track-focussed machinery with a slant towards the VW stable being particularly noticable, due to head honcho, Simon Sergides’, penchant for air-cooled motoring. As a weekend event, it reminds us of car shows of old (the good ones!), with a super-chilled atmosphere, cracking weather and an eclectic mix of cool cars from a much wider stable than you’re probably expecting. From a purely selfish point of view, it was Bill Richard’s insane spaceframe Metro, ‘Bessie’, that left…

This month we finish off the engine build by adding the final components to the ‘short-block’ to create what is termed a ‘long-block’ – a complete engine minus the cooling, induction and exhaust systems. As per the rest of the series, we must stress that no corners should be cut and great care must be taken to ensure that all components are spotlessly clean prior to final assembly. This month we start off by fitting the oil pump cover to the oil pump. Here’s a little tip: before fitting the cover, pack the oil pump gears with Vaseline. This will help create a suction effect when cranking the engine over for oil pressure and will reduce the time it takes to achieve this. Moving onto the pistons and cylinders: ensure…

Off piste purchase Jim, Essex Hiya, mag came today and I was impressed with the way the broad point was made in respect of buying for yourself / in budget / realistically – a well written piece by Mike Pye. I probably agree because I too have been going through exactly that process and am yet to find the right VW project. I am limited only by what I am prepared to spend on a toy (I’m retired) and that precludes a pile of rot “just shipped from sunny California / I’ve got too many projects on”. In fact, I have grown impatient and gone off piste for while (but it is air-cooled) with an early Citroën Dyane – which are even more basic than Dubs but as cheap as…

Life has a habit of getting in the way of projects. One minute you’re happily cruising along without a care in the world, busy looking after number one, and the next and entirely out of the blue, you’ve become a grown-up with all sorts of responsibilities, like a mortgage, a wife and a family! Suddenly, your priorities have changed and you’ve joined the real world. Sound familiar? Paul Blackburn, from Marske by the Sea, near Redcar, has always been into Volkswagens, having owned a dayglow yellow Beetle in 1989. Back then the car cost him just £100 and was painted pink when he bought it. A quick de-chroming and a further £100 spent on a respray and hey presto, he had an acceptable looker on his driveway. Paul drove the…

Most people in the VW scene, and everyone in the Karmann Cabriolet Owners’ Club, will have a favourite convertible model, but whether it’s a Split Window-era Karmann Kabriolett or a 1970 1500cc semi-auto Cabriolet you would choose to spend your hard-earned work tokens on, few would deny a 1979 triple black Karmann Cabriolet in original, near as damn it unrestored condition and with its entire history file in place is right up there in terms of desirability. Without wishing to get too bogged down in VW marque history, suffice to say by the end of the 1970s VW decided that enough was enough and the Beetle simply had to go. In the UK, to celebrate the end of the line, we had the Last Edition model, which featured silver paintwork,…

400 miles over three days in late June through some of the most amazing, traffic-free countryside you could imagine in a classic Beetle. Sounds pretty good, huh? That’s what the Donau classic car rally is all about. Over the last decade it has grown from an initial field of 89 entrants to a capacity field of 250 cars, with the only criteria being the cars must have been built prior to 1991 to enter. Understandably, you have to stick to German motoring laws and speed limits, but the Rally offers the chance to stretch the legs of your vintage metal in a way you can’t easily do in the UK For us, it all kicked off when David Ward, MD of VW Heritage, suggested we collaborate and build a car…

OWNER INFO NAME: Steve Gosling CARS: ’61 ragtop, ’67 Ghia ‘69 Bay Window WORK THIS MONTH: Waiting for the dynamo to come back from being rebuilt, so I’m re-capping on the interior and exhaust detailing As I mentioned last time, on the run up to the show I held some details back. A big part of that was the interior. But, to be honest, I’ve been holding the interior back for years as my car has actually been trimmed since November 2013, and I hatched the main part of the plan with Chris Lyons at Trimming Tonic (timming-tonic on facebook) way back in September of 2010. Yep, the interior has been done in my head for five years, although I didn’t actually fit, or even test fit, the seats in…