Innehållsförteckning för October 2015 från VolksWorld

Insurance woes Anthony Tinkle, via email Hi VolksWorld, I was wondering if you could help with a massive problem I’ve been having – insurance for a young driver. My 17-year-old son is about to take his driving test, and the plan has been for him to then use the 1200 Beetle we’ve been working on for the last couple of years. The thing is, all of the insurance quotes we’ve had have been prohibitive. Over twice what the car is going to be worth, and way out of his, and my, price bracket. What do all the other young drivers do about insurance? I knew that as a first time driver his first year’s insurance would be expensive, but not this much. Please help. Hi Mr. T (great name!) you’re…

After four failed attempts at passing his driving test, 17-year-old Tom Ward ditched the prospect of four wheels in favour of two and remained content that way for 12 years. So, what happened at the age of 29 that prompted him to fly through his theory test and finally get his driving license at the first time of asking the second time around? Tom: “My sister, Cagney, has owned her ’71 Beetle for years. My dad, Gordon, helped her do it up, in between working on his own early Bay. I’ve been to loads of VW shows with her and it got to the point where I couldn’t resist it any more and so had to get one for myself, which of course meant re-taking the driving exam. I’ve always…

“You don’t build a crazy car like mine if you’re normal, do you?” Not my words, but those of the owner and builder of this unique, VW-based creation. Before I put the call in to Chris Allen, I was wondering what sort of person builds a car like this but, less than a minute into our conversation, I knew exactly how this car had come about. Let’s just say Chris is, er, enthusiastic. He’s a Yorkshireman by birth, but has lived in Hertfordshire for the past 19 years and runs a very busy pub / restaurant that he’s clearly very proud of. He speaks at 100mph, barely stops for a breath, and sounds like the kind of guy who can hold his own in most situations. It’s supposedly true of…

The MB&F M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland is currently hosting ‘X-Ray’, an exhibition of photographs by British visual artist Nick Veasey. And we quote: “In today’s world obsessed with image, superficiality and artifice, Veasey counters these insubstantial diversions by delving deep inside things to discover what they are really made of. Instead of creating or transforming objects, Veasey is exposing something that always existed: objects we think we know, but actually we do not.” Er, quite. In short, Veasey has photographed a Beetle with an x-ray machine, but not as one image, he had to dismantle the car and x-ray it in 35 x 43cm sections and then piece it all back together to make the one image. Pretty cool, huh?…

DKP cruise nights are always a big hit with the VW community, especially for the fans from out of town! That’s why it was noticed with sadness when I was recently heading to So Cal that the most famous of all Cal Look VW clubs had put their monthly meet up on hiatus. Luckily, they made an exception and held a pre-Bug-In 40 cruise night in Garden Grove. The historic main street serves as the perfect location for the meet, even if rain and low temperatures were predicted on the day. That may have stopped some VW nuts from bringing their cars out, but it was their loss as conditions turned out a lot nicer than predicted. From 4pm on, the main street was closed to public traffic and filled…

Sure, we’ve seen similar Resto Cal Beetles before, we’ve seen similar Resto Cal Splits, we’ve even seen similar Chestnut Brown Resto Cal Splits, but there was just something about this car that caused us all to stop and take a closer look when we first came across it at EB-I this year. It belongs to Frenchman Jonathan Garcia, a 41-year-old veteran of the French VW scene. Jonathan’s been into VWs since the start of the ’90s, buying his first Beetle in 1995 and working through a succession of late models prior to this car. As those of you who have been into the European VW scene as long as Jonathan will know, the French have always had a distinctive style – traditionally stock motored, but with bright colours and graphics…

Maybe it’s because EB-I only happens every other year that we love it so. In being bi-annual, it just never seems to get old for us. Or then again, maybe it’s because being a foreign show, where the Beetle is still king and the show field isn’t just row upon row of Buses as it is over here, where you see a lot of cool, ‘different’ cars you wouldn’t ordinarily see. Or maybe it’s the super strength Belgian beer that flows like water for the three days we manage to get over there for. In truth, it’s a combination of all those factors that keep us coming back to the Bug-In, year after every other year. If you’ve not made it to one yet, shame on you. You’re really missing…

“Yes! Yeeees!” Eric van Dooren throws his hands up in the Sandown Park air. Seconds before, VolksWorld Editor, James Peene, had proclaimed his ’67 Hi-Top one of the Top 20 award winners at the 2015 VolksWorld Show. What a feeling. A weight is lifted from his mind. All the hard work has paid of. Arms are hugging him, the happy faces of his friends, Andy Finch and Marco de Waal, emerge in his field of vision. It’s a wave of emotions. Eric enjoyed that moment to the last, because the story of his Bus began in a much less glamorous way in 2013. Back then, the Hi-Top was in the ownership of Kieft & Klok in The Netherlands, having been imported from Portugal, where it started its life in 1967…

We should get the formalities out of the way right at the beginning, as the owner of this ’67 Beetle made it crystal clear he wants to be referred to by his nickname, and wants no mention whatsoever of the one his parents gave him. He’s been known as ‘Rhino’ since he was about 12-years old, and this is how he got his name: “I used to get bullied at school. I was small then, I didn’t shoot up in height ’til I left school. I was a late starter. Anyway, one day this much taller, bigger bully was having a go at me so, well, I just got my head down and went for him. I got him right in the plums and he went straight down. He was…

The lure of dedicated VW-only quarter-mile action had us itching to head to Santa Pod Raceway. It was well worth the trek, that’s for sure. Jamie Palmer and the crew had grafted to host this annual weekend event over a test and tune weekend, which meant between the VW-only sessions, there was plenty of top drawer drag racing machinery to watch. It only seems like a couple of years since the first California Look Drag Day was held, but it’s actually five years ago and I have been every year since, and have seen the event flourish. Make no mistake, this isn’t your normal Santa Pod VW event. There’s no trade stands, no marquees packed with cheesy quavers stomping to repetitive beats and no side shows. All you get is…

This month we finish off the engine build by fitting all the ancillaries. Whilst this is a relatively straightforward task, care must be taken to ensure each component is fitted in order and, most importantly, that it is clean and in fully useable condition. There is nothing worse than fitting a rusty old heat exchanger full of holes as this will not only look poor, but will negate all of your previous hard work, as poor engine running will ensue and, as a by-product, you may even poison yourself with carbon monoxide whilst driving! As they say in all the best manuals, re-fitting is simply a case of putting things back on in the reverse order of disassembly. Personally, I like to start with the fuel pump and pedestal. I…