Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i VolksWorld

“Peter Noad fitted some of these tailpipes to his Cartune-tweaked rally Beetle, reporting that they added a few extra horsepower” By the time you read this, hopefully I’ll be rubbing my hands in glee at the fact that my ’68 Beetle successfully trundled from Brittany to Sandown Park and back for The VolksWorld Show. If it didn’t make it, I’ll have a whole load of egg on my face. That said, hopefully it won’t be down to any fault on my behalf. After all, I’d religiously done the necessary preparation, planned the longer ‘lanes’ route in advance, got the warning triangle ready and programmed the number of my French recovery service into my mobile. Being a firm believer in the old adage that if you pack it, you won’t need…

“Hi, my name’s Lee Belcher and I am from Exeter, Devon. I’m a Porsche Technician by trade. I bought my 1972 Beetle from a VW enthusiast in North London. Along with my brother-in-law, Mark, we flew to London City Airport and then took the train to pick her up one Friday towards the end of July last year. She was very low – no more than 2in off the floor – so as you can imagine it was a very long and eventful drive home to Devon along the M4 in torrential rain! The first job was to raise the suspension – she was too low to deal with Devon’s roads. It now features a Limebug 4in narrowed beam with sawtooth skid plate and a Limebug air ride kit that…

Michael Brückner hails from Freigericht in Germany and is the proud owner of this awesome ’69 Notchback, which he’s owned since 1992. Of course, it didn’t always look as cool as this, but before we dive into the build we should perhaps mention that, despite owning it for 26-years, it is not Michael’s first (or only) VW. In fact, 46 year-old Michael has owned a string of Bugs, a ’71 Ghia, a ’68 Notch and a ’69 Fasty prior to acquiring this particular ride. Michael explained: “When I sold my previous Notchback I decided I wanted another Type 3, but it had to be a nice, original car with no rust or welded patches and repairs.” He continued, “I’d been to view 16 cars prior to finding this one, which…

We first came across Tony Grant’s 1959 Split Screen Panel Van when it picked up a well-deserved trophy at Leeds VW Festival last year. Parked amongst the other trophy winners in their special display in front of Harewood House, the amount of attention it received was unthinkable. It didn’t have the usual patina’d sign writing, it wasn’t festooned with period-looking accessories and there wasn’t a monster engine out back. No, instead Tony had focused on stance, reliability and keeping things straightforward – and it’s an approach that seemed to go down a treat with the throng of people that encircled it. Best of both worlds For the previous ten years Tony had run a Mercedes camper, modified with blacked out windows and large alloys. “I started going to shows in…

April Dubs Collective Euro Party in the Park Date: 6-8 April 2018 Location: Himley Hall, Dudley DY3 4DF Contact: www.dubscollective.com Elemental VW Show Date: 7 April 2018 Location: Crouch Valley Showground, Essex Contact: www.elementalvw.org.uk Dub Shed Date: 6-8 April 2018 Location: Eikon Exhibition Centre, Lisburn, Northern Ireland Contact: www.dubshed.com Elsecar Date:15 April 2018 Location:Doncaster Racecourse Contact:www.elsecarattheraces.com Bus Types VWShow Date:13-15 April 2018 Location:Owestry Showground, Shropshire Contact:www.bus-types.co.uk World of Air Date:15 April 2018 Location:Olen, Belgium Contact:www.worldofair.be Big Bang Date:27-29 April 2018 Location:Santa Pod Raceway Contact:www.big-bang.co.uk May The Only Meet is Essex Date:4-7 May 2018 Location:Orsett Showground RM16 3JU Contact:www.vw-tomie.co.uk Stanford Hall Date:6 May 2018 Location:Lutterworth, Leicestershire Contact:www.stanfordhallvw.com Vanwest Date:11-13 May 2018 Location:Burnham on Sea, Somerset Contact:www.vanwest.co.uk All Types VWShow Date:20 May 2018 Location:Bodwelwyddan Castle, North Wales Contact:www.alltypesvwshow.co.uk InternationalBuggy Treffen Date:18-21 May…

“if you want to experience what a production Cheetah might have been like, buy an old X1/9 and shoehorn a VW air-cooled engine in the back” Giorgetto Giugiaro is rightly regarded as one of the greatest vehicle stylists of all time. The Italian automotive artist, named the car designer of the century in 1999, has been responsible for hundreds of production, prototype and show models since his career began in 1955. These have included some of the most exotic and desirable machines ever created, such as the Maserati Ghibli, Lotus Esprit, DeLorean DMC-12 and, um, the original Fiat Panda. And, of course, his path intersected that of Volkswagen’s during the 1970s when he came up with one of his more applauded creations, the MkI Golf, as well as the Passat,…

It all started in 1992 when a small group of friends with a common interest in low-to-the-ground Volkswagens decided to form a club – and so was born Der Autobahn Scrapers. And it wasn’t long before the ‘Scrapers’ showed an interest in the California Look. Their rides soon saw their rear suspension get back to factory-stock height, while engines gained some gusto. Over the following years, they went on to become esteemed representatives of the style in Europe, thanks to their highly-detailed and powerful VWs. They’ve since appeared on several occasions at The VolksWorldShow, as well as dragstrips such as Santa Pod, of course. The club remains a key player on the scene, as witnessed by their annual DAS Drag Day. Due to the closure of the beloved Bitburg Motorpark,…

“I was out to buy a runner with an MoT, something I could just drive as it was” Blame it on a single rusty panel. That’s all the new owner of this Beetle was planning to replace before he used it on the road. However, as Jez Cane explained: “It just all snowballed from there.” And some £13,000 later, this is the end result… But let’s rewind the story for a minute to get some background on Jez and his love of Beetles, this being his fourth. He bought his first Bug when he was 19. “I thought Beetles looked cool,” he remembers. “Back in the ’80s the Beetle scene was just taking off, I went to Bug Jam in 1989 and that was the show that really inspired me.”…

Christophe Boutin is the proprietor of Boutin Design, a custom auto and motorcycle paint shop based in Saint-Martin-Bellevue (which is in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, south-eastern France), and is well known for his creative airbrushing on everything from crash helmets to race cars and custom bikes. So, when he decided it was time to build a fun car, it was always going to be something bright and eye-catching, that could also double up as a great rolling advertisement for the business. Now, when we say Christophe started with a blank canvas, we’re not joking! This project began as nothing more than a bare, rolling chassis, which had previously seen use beneath a long wheelbase Buggy body. Starting with practically nothing, this project could have headed in any direction, but Christophe had…

When Mark and Josh Reynolds decided to enter a Beetle in the 2017 Mille Miglia rally, they were faced with the issue of horsepower (or lack of, to be precise). The car they’d picked was a ’56 Beetle (see April ’18 issue for the full feature), which was originally fitted with a 30hp 1200cc motor. Historic rally regulations are notoriously strict, hence they couldn’t just remove the old motor and replace it with a later 1600cc unit. However, closer inspection of the rules revealed that, within reason, period-tuning parts and modifications were permitted, so the guys set about researching tuning options. This inevitably led them to the legendary Okrasa TSV (Touring Sport Veloce) engine kits, which were popular amongst performance fans back in the 1950s and ’60s. However, original Okrasa…

Most of us will have come across the oddities produced over the years in the name of Volkswagen. From the WW2 Kübelwagen to the 181 (or ‘The Thing’ in the US), they have graced the world’s roads, and still do, though in decreasing numbers. In July 1968, Safer Motoring magazine revealed another variation on the theme. Pretty it wasn’t, but practical? Well, yes, maybe. The Beetle Bush Buggy, as we dubbed it, was the Type 197 – an all-new production model dreamed up by Volkswagen Australasia Ltd at their plant in Clayton, Victoria and officially named the VW Country Buggy. Claimed to be the first VW designed solely by the Australian factory, it was tested for over three years in some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain – the Australian…