Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i VolksWorld

There are lots of people in the Volkswagen world that can claim to have been into VWs ‘for their whole life’. If you were at the early Bug Jams, or remember the first issue of VolksWorld, chances are you are in your 50s now, maybe early 60s. If you bought your first VW when you were a teenager, that’s a few decades ago now, and you’re still with us. Excellent. Gene Langdon, on the other hand, can claim to have been into VWs for a little longer than that as his family has owned a Volkswagen dealership in Glastonbury, Connecticut since 1969. Although the business has changed names through the decades, the Langdon connection with the marque has stayed strong. At one point, Gene had three dealerships on the go,…

Every air-cooled Volkswagen owner has a story to tell, and Jamie Macdonald’s is one that many of us will recognise. At the ripe old age of 30 now, this Reading-based car painter has been chasing his own VW dream since he was a kid, and this ’71 1200 Standard, crushing it in Clementine and slammed on blacked ’n’ banded Ghia steels, is just the kind of ride that’s worth chasing. Jamie is the first to admit the car isn’t a show pony, or a trailer queen. Quite the opposite. It’s a daily driver built for attending local cruises and going on the occasional European road trip, yet it has enough custom touches to stand out in any crowd. Daily duty Jamie’s Beetle is a proper example of what the air-cooled…

Bigger, better but still the inimitable VolksWorld Show After the astounding success of the 2025 event, we're delighted to say The VolksWorld Show is returning to the South of England Showground in West Sussex in 2026, and promises to be bigger and even better than last year. Set to take place on Sunday 22 March 2026, prices start at just £10 for a display pass for any air-cooled VW, together with its driver and passenger. If you prefer to make a weekend of it and camp, a pitch costs only £30, and that's for two adults and two children for two nights. As per last year, the format is still a single day event, rather than a full weekender, but we expect more people to stay over on the Saturday…

Where does this story start? Well, when Shane Lawlor from County Down, Northern Ireland decided he had wanted a Camper of his own for too long, he asked his friend, Britt Grannis in California, to keep an eye out for a nice potential project. Hey, all the best Buses come out of California, right? That may just be true as, after a short while searching, Britt found this ’72 Bay Window advertised on Craigslist, and it looked like just the ticket. It had been sitting for several decades, most likely due to an engine failure, as the motor was the only bit missing. More importantly, it was ‘rust free’ and otherwise complete. Britt called Shane with the good news and, trusting his American friend, the deal was done. As luck…

It’s no secret that the VolksWorld crew absolutely love Le Bug Show in Belgium, and there’s was certainly no way we were going to miss out on the 30th anniversary of this epic, air-cooled only event. The ‘air-cooled only’ point is important to stress here as, while there were 700 registered water-cooled VWs at Spa this year, they are restricted to the camping areas only. This means the main show space (essentially the entire inner circle of the Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 race track) is filled with nothing but classic, air-cooled VWs. This includes the trade areas, show ’n’ shine displays and, perhaps most importantly, access to the race track and the always highly anticipated parade lap on Saturday. With more than 15,000 visitors and a total of 2,720 air-cooled VWs…

“To Nordhoff, the Hannover-Stöcken site was perfect” The success of the Volkswagen Beetle was referred to by some as the economic miracle in Germany, such was the turnaround in fortunes of the company after the end of the Second World War. The rapidity of the escalation in sales was extraordinary, and a kick in the pants for the two leading automotive manufacturers that had been offered the opportunity to take over production of the unorthodox, air-cooled car, but saw no future for it. Both Ford and Rootes were basically offered the Volkswagen free of charge, but dismissed it in short order. More fool them. Instead, the British military, who took control of the VW factory at Wolfsburg at the end of the war, passed it back to Germany, but not…

Some cars never really leave you. For Dave Lawlor, this Beetle has been in his life in one way or another since he was 14 years old. It was the car that pulled him into the VW scene, the car that brought him friendships and the car that introduced him to his wife. It’s also the car he’s spent a total of three decades building, rebuilding and completely re-inventing. Today, 29 years after it first appeared within the pages of VolksWorld, it’s back, but this time round it’s a very different animal. Dave first bought the ’71 Beetle in 1991 for £750. While most teenagers were worrying about homework and acne, Dave was busy squirrelling away his paper round money and putting it into a project that would consume four…

Volkswagen fans with a penchant for oddball designs often point out the clear resemblance between the Thing/ Trekker / Type 181/182 and its wartime predecessor, the Kübelwagen. When the civilian version of the vehicle was launched in Germany in 1969, barely a quarter of a century after the end of WW2, VW (understandably) kept the historical link between the two cars somewhat hushed. Though far from the hardcore off-roader it was designed as, the boxy machine still performed well on mild trails and matched the military requirements of the era. So much so, the German army purchased many of the new Type 181s. Interested American buyers, however, had to be patient. US VW dealers only started displaying the new model in showrooms in 1973. Countless VW fans have since turned…

There’s a special kind of magic in old Volkswagens, especially when they’ve held onto their past. It’s the faded paint, the dents and dings and the ghost of a logo that tells a story. The Jaehn Panel Van is one of those vehicles; a time capsule on wheels that speaks volumes about its history. It’s become something of a legend among patina VW enthusiasts, and so when we had the chance to photograph it, we jumped at it. My first encounter with this Bus was a few years ago, buried in the digital treasure trove that is thesamba.com. As a devout fan of original paint and honest patina, I’m captivated by every colour Volkswagen ever splashed on its vehicles. However, L53 Sealing Wax Red holds a special place in my…