Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i VolksWorld

FROM THE TOP volksworld.ed@kelsey.co.uk As I type this column, there’s an air of excitement at VolksWorld HQ as we enter the final planning stage prior to the 2023 VolksWorld Show. With anticipation running high, conversation recently turned to the early days of the show, and the first year each of the team attended. If you were at the first ever VolksWorld Show in 1992, you’re part of an exclusive club of hardcore enthusiasts to have attended not only the first show, but the only one not held at Sandown Park (for the record, that one took place at the Rex Centre in Birmingham). Conversation then turned to 2023 being the 30th year of The VolksWorld Show. Well, that was until Covid forced us to postpone the ’20 and ’21 shows.…

Going through the feature on Dr. Robert’s ’44 KdF-Wagen for this issue gave the perfect excuse to sit down and put my feet up… with a good book. One of my favourite pastimes, all the more so when it’s too cold to go out into the garage and do some work on a real car. The subject of wartime VWs is a divisive one. Some people aren’t interested at all, others appreciate them as a part of VW’s history, while a fair few more I suspect would rather not be reminded of that period of time in history at all. Those that choose to collect and restore them, however, are in another league. As Mark Walker alludes to in his column this month, the chances of finding a wartime Volkswagen…

If you are after a specific vehicle, you can trawl the classified ads daily searching for the perfect project. But you’re just as likely to find the prime candidate through a different channel altogether – and this Savannah Beige 1972 Crossover is a case in point. The path that led it to the doors of Leon Spanos and its current owners is an interesting one, to say the least. Leon’s Poole-based Concept Poptops and Upholstery workshop is next door to a motorbike MoT centre. “We normally have something cool parked outside the unit, and it often attracts the motorbike guys waiting next door,” he says. “On this particular day, a chap came in and began telling me about a barn full of VWs that his dad owned. I usually take…

n the early 1960s, VW proudly announced to the world – or, more specifically, America – that “We pluck the lemons, you get the plums.” That simple slogan was part of a wider series of adverts created for the German car manufacturer by the Doyle, Dane, Bernbach agency based in New York. The ads went on to become revered as amongst the most successful advertising campaigns of all time, and helped change public opinion of a German car maker trying to sell its products into the very countries the Fatherland had been at war with only a few years previously. That one simple sentence, along with a few other similarly understated ones, paved the way for huge success in the US market that still resonates today. This ’64 Beetle, owned…

The car is owned by well-known American vintage VW collector, Dr. Robert ‘Mac’ Jones. Its 13-year restoration was undertaken by his good friend, Brian Hyerstay, and involved parts sourced from all over the world, and plenty of horse trading. But where do you start with a restoration like this? And, perhaps more importantly, where do you find a ’44 KdF-Wagen. Are you sitting comfortably? If you’ve never really paid that much attention to wartime VWs, I highly recommend a visit to the Bad Camberg vintage VW show in Germany. I never had much interest in the really early stuff until I hitched a ride to the 2011 meeting with Simon Towler in his ’67 Double Door Panel Van. I was the guy huddled in the back in a sleeping bag…

A former member of Der Kleiner Kampfwagens, and currently a member of the third generation Der Kleiner Panzers, Glenn Gaskey drives a hot Bug with a Porsche transmission today, but amongst his peers will always be associated with a pair of Karmann Ghia coupés he owned in the 1980s. One of the first cars he was involved with set the scene for his own forays into the world of hot VWs. Together with friend, Bobby Scicareos, Glenn helped build a 2276cc Beetle with SuperFlo heads, dual 48IDAs and nitrous oxide injection. With a close-ratio gearbox, it became a well-known street racer around Orange County. Glenn’s own first VW was a 1969 Karmann Ghia, already fitted with a set of Riviera wheels and a 1641cc engine when he bought it. The…

Race Shop If you’re a fan of nostalgia and the history of VW racing, you’ll be excited to learn that the legendary A/MC race car, which was built and raced by the late Darrell Vittone, will be on display at The VolksWorld Show. Dean Kirsten has restored the car, which be displayed alongside a replica of the B/MC car campaigned by Dave Andrews (part of the Gasser Garage collection). Dean will be joined by Dave Andrews, Ron Fleming and Keith Seume in a pair of seminars covering topics such as the history of EMPI, EconoMotors, the Vittone family and the Race Shop. We’ll see you there! 2023 Tickets are on sale now! For more information on The VolksWorld Show 2023 head for www.volksworld show.com Back to ’89 is back for…

Philippe has been a VW enthusiast since an early age. He even knows the exact month and year it all began as it was when his parents bought their first Beetle brand new in June 1967. That first contact with VWs turned into a passion for the brand that will never leave him. That car had great memories for Philippe as it was the one they used for the family’s annual holidays, leaving their home in the Paris region at four o’clock in the morning for the family home in the Landes. 11-hour journeys, with five people and all their luggage on board, might put some people off Beetles, even VWs, forever, but not Philippe, to him it was an experience he never wants to forget. In 1983, he bought…

The concept of what would go on to become the Volkswagen began in Germany in 1933, when Adolf Hitler announced at the Berlin Auto Show the importance of transportation for the masses in the form of a small, economical car. He stated that the living standard of a nation was judged by the total length of its autobahns. These, he said, would become avenues of mobility for a dependable, yet inexpensive car that could be owned by any, and every, German citizen. Between 1933 and 1938, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was tasked with heading up the development of the proposed new car, building and testing several pre-production series and the first run of production Type 38 vehicles. Three examples of the latter were shown to the public at the cornerstone ceremony…