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| Upon entering Santa Pod and walking towards the main area and the track I noticed the lovely Chianti red early bay. The U.S. import looked liked a nice clean and straight deluxe bus. |
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This lovely early beetle was slammed on the
deck, with a very narrow front beam. Those
gorgeous wheels finished off the look of this
stunning looking bug.
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| This pre '63 looked great from this angle, the colour suits the car perfectly as does that negative camber on the rear wheels. |
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| This super bright lime green T4 caught my eye with it's super bright paint and the stainless steel bumper bars. |
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| This bronze and orange T5 looked amazing, it had had everything colour coded to match the exterior, even the engine components. |
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| Just a few variations of the split screen van that was present at the Big Bang Festival. A normal bus, a Jurgen Autovilla and an ex-army ambulance. |
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The red snow tracked vehicle is powered by an
air-cooled VW engine. These were commonly used years ago for work in the Arctic circle, because it had an air-cooled engine therefore there was no dangers of it freezing up. The only down side was, due to the weight this only had
a top speed of about 7mph.
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| There is something about a split screen that has the safari screens open that just looks right, and this white over blue patina'd bus was no different. |
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| This 1969 bay window was at Santa Pod to participate in the 'run-what-ya-brung' racing. He was in Class B for air-cooled vans and won his class with a best time of 16.5714 @ 81.23mph |
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| A very solid looking 1978 late bay painted in the Heineken colour's with the sign written sides. This really was a nice solid looking late bay. |
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| If you like your split oval beetles slammed on the floor with bags of patina then this beauty should satisfy your needs. |
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| The super narrow front end accentuates just how low this beetle sits. It must have taken the weather years to create so much cool patina, but good things come to those who wait. |
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| You can see just how narrow that front end really is in this photo and also just how low the cars sits over the rear wheels. I did like the amber indicators on the door pillars. This bug with all it's charm won 'Best Beetle' at the show. |
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| A stunning 1966 beetle in a light turquoise green colour with matching colour coded steel wheels. The chrome Porsche style head light grilles were a nice addition and matched the chrome trim and bumpers perfectly and also broke the colour up. |
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| This gorgeous Karmann Ghia was parked up behind the track and looked stunning in it's graphite grey colour. Judging by the front vent grilles and the rear light cluster this KG was produced sometime between 1955-1959. |
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| This KG had been lowered and looked as though it had a narrowed front beam and with the Fuchs style wheels and the colour, it looked awesome. |
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| This hot-rod themed bug looked great with the embossed flames on the bonnet and the twin lights. I do like fenderless beetles and this one was no exception. The gloss black paint and the red painted steel wheels with white wall tyre's is pure nostalgic hot rod. |
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| The rear end had a 'baja' look to it with the exposed engine and no rear apron. I did like those huge rear whitewall tyres on the deep dish banded steel wheels. |
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| This gloss black beetle looked amazing with it's lowered stance, custom wheels and the red detailing. The Thermadoor swamp cooler (or a similar version) looked great and is such a sought after accessory. The unit simply clips onto the door and provides a simple air conditioning system that blows cool air into the vehicle. |
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| The attention to detail and the quality of the paint finish under the hood was also immaculate. The contrasting colours worked so well. |
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| The same attention to detail and the quality of the finish carried on into the engine bay. I did like the all red rear light lenses with the blue dots. |
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| Another gloss black beetle but this 1958 was so different from the one above. It looked mostly stock with painted steel wheels. Again the finish on the car was incredible and the attention to detail was amazing. |
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| A beautifully sign written fuel tank with a gold script font on the grey paint looked fantastic. |
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| The stock look continued around the back, the only non standard thing was the painted decal on the doors, 'Chimay'. I couldn't find out much about this beetle but Chimay is the location of the European Bug-In show so maybe this was a promotional vehicle for that show? If your interested in visiting a show abroad check out the European Bug In website here: http://www.europeanbugin.com/ |
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| This 1971 chopped and channelled, fenderless oval beetle looked like something out of the film 'Mad Max' and I loved it. The big wheels looked like 1940's Ford wheels and the tall cross-ply white wall tyres suited the overall look perfectly. |
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| The exposed rear end with the twin air filters protruding the bodywork and the custom rear lights made this rear end something special. |
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| The interior was very basic with alloy seats and door panels. The custom alloy dashboard had what looked a reliant robin instrument cluster. A very tall gear lever finished off the interior. |
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| The fuel filler has been moved into the roof, why I hear you ask...? |
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| Because the bomb shaped fuel tank, is mounted behind the seats and looked cool and it was even painted to resemble a WW2 bomb. |
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| This 1974 beetle had the RAT look with it's patina'd paint scheme. This bug was seriously lowered, it may have even been on some form of air suspension to sit this low and the super narrow front beam adds to the look. |
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| This pumped up 1972 Karmann Ghia looked great with it's body kit and it's 'Martini' paint scheme. A friend and a fellow Outcast VW Club member Sam, has informed me that this has a fiberglass body and is actually sitting on top of a Porsche 944 chassis. |
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| The rear end with the exhaust exiting out the side of the body reminds me of a TVR Tuscan rear end. I'm not sure if this ran down the 1/4 mile track at Santa Pod, but it looks as though it could have or should have done. |
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| From 1972-1985 a British customising company Beaujangle, made this buggy and called it the Beaujangle Can-Am. Extras included on this buggy were an alloy framed windshield, wire mesh engine access panel and an interior trim kit... whatever that is.! |
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| A lovely profile photo showing the beautiful classic lines of a lowered Karmann Ghia. |
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| Another vehicle that just oozed patina was this early oval beetle. The colour under the patina was such a nice blue colour. I did like the chrome wheel trims on this bug. |
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| These oval window beetles were produced from 1953 - 1957 when the larger full width window was introduced. |
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| This 1943 Type 166 Schwimmwagen (which means Floating / Swimming car) was designed for use by the German ground forces and used used extensively during the second world war. The Type 166 is the most numerous mass produced amphibious car in history. The front wheels doubled as rudders so the steering was done with the steering wheel both on land and in the water. |
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| The interior of the Type 166 is, as you would expect extremely sparse. The wooden slats on the floor helped to keep your feet dry. |
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| When crossing water a screw propeller could be lowered down from the rear deck engine cover. When in place a simple coupling provided drive straight from an extension of the engine's crankshaft. This meant that screw propulsion was only available going forward. For reversing in the water you had the choice of either using the standard issued equipment, a paddle or running the land drive in reverse, allowing the wheel rotation to slowly take the vehicle backwards and up the bank of the waterway. |
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| The paddle and shovel were standard equipment on the Schwimmagen. This amphibious car really is an amazing piece of engineering that was designed and built over 70 years ago. |
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| I have seen this beetle on numerous occasions and it seems to get better looking every time I see it. It belongs to a guy called 'Seaside Neil' a very well know figure at Volkswagen shows as he sign writes and pinstipes almost anything. His car is an early oval rear window beetle with some gorgeous patina up over the bonnet, and across the roof. I do like the big and little tyre combination which always looks good on an early beetle. |
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| The darkness of the patina (rust) was almost mahogany colour and the yellow lenses on the headlights complimented it perfectly. |
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| This bug must have been somewhere hot for a long time to produce such nice sun burnt patina. You can check out Seaside Neil's facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/17758385004/#!/seaside.neil.9?fref=ts |
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| Looking at vehicles parked up is OK, but it's not the same as seeing them drive along, as they somehow look better as this 1967 early bay proves as it cruises past me. |
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| The same applies to this white over red early split screen as it cruised around the site. |
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| Santa Pod Raceway is billed as the home of European Drag Racing, and on the Sunday they had some Outlaw Anglia (Popular's) racing and as I used to have one of these car's, I just had to go and watch for a while. This blown blue Pop does a wheelie as it powers off the line. This guy did so well he ended up winning his class. |
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| A couple more Ford Anglia's prepare to race each other down the 1/4 mile track. |
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| Santa Pod's resident jet car, Fire Force 3 came out for a run down the 1/4 mile track. This car has a body based on a Chevrolet Lumina. It has a Pratt and Witney J60 engine from a Sirorksy Skycrane Helicopter and produces 5500lbs of very explosive thrust. |
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| The tension is heightening, as the car prepares to run it produces plumes of smoke and flames, and a lot of noise. |
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| Almost ready to go.. the noise from this beast is deafening and I just had time to take this photo before I had to cover my ears as the car launched off the line and came whizzing past me. |
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| A mere 6.576 seconds later it's all over. The car had reached a top speed of 212.81mph in just 1/4 mile from a standing start. However this is not it's best time, back in 2005 it ran a 5.7 second pass with a top speed of 336.1mph which I believe is a world record that still stands today. Why not check out a You Tube video of The Fire Force 3 jet car, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-6wp3B24Hk |
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| This lovely early barn door split screen looked great parked up. I wanted to get more photo's but just as I took this photo, the bus pulled away. |
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| A photo of a pair of Beetle's for no other reason other than they looked good parked up next to each other.! |
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| This oval window Beetle took me back to my customising days back in the 1970's. It featured frenched indicators and a lovely coat of bright pink paint. |
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| More frenched indicators on the rear and some old skool slot mag wheels finish off this blast from the past perfectly. |
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| This 1966 Beetle was parked up in the camping area, and it looked as thought it had just driven out of the VW showroom. It was stunning and looked to be 100% original. |
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| On the Sunday afternoon we were privileged to witness a 'fly by' by one of the most recognisable aircraft in the world, the Spitfire. This WW2 air- craft is powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin engine the produces around 1000hp, and even taking a shot at it from a camera proved difficult. |
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| Some say that I have an unhealthy fetish for sign written panel vans and also buses with yellow head / spot lights, well this gorgeous satin light brown split screen panel van had both and looked awesome. |
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| This bus looks just about perfect from every angle. The full length roof rack was a nice accessory. |
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| After walking around the site for a good few hours we decided to have a look at the 'Action arena' where they had several attractions going on. One of those attractions was this guy on a quad bike performing jumps. |
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| This guy was an ex-motocross champion and to make the jump more exciting he would add some freestyle manoeuvres by lifting his legs above the handlebars. |
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| Just to make it look more difficult they placed a monster truck between the ramp and the landing ramp. The height and distance this guy got on his quad bike was very impressive. |
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| For his 'finale' they hung 2 t-shirts off a frame on the landing ramp and the idea was, as he made the jump he would grab the 2 shirts in both hands, which he did successfully. He then handed the shirts out to 2 of the children in the crowd who cheered the loudest. |
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| Terry Grant was there in his 1937 Ford sedan. This car is a lightweight version and is powered by a 1250cc Yamaha engine. To read more about Terry check out his website: http://www.terrygrant.com/ |
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Terry would perform numerous stunts with his
modified Ford, normally with Terry on the outside the car which thrilled the crowds. |
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| Terry also performed the two wheel drive but with a twist. Terry used a new shape beetle for this stunt, and instead of going solo Terry got 4 members of his crew to also get in the car with him, this included one guy in the boot.! |
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| A good shot of the new beetle driving the length of the arena on two wheels. |
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| The resident Santa Pod Raceway monster truck named 'Podzilla' was also doing it's bit in the action arena. |
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| The driver would place his front wheels against the first vehicle in the row, then give it full throttle and the beast would leap up and over (well OK onto) the row of vehicles. |
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| It was very impressive the height and distance this monster truck achieved. |
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| This lovely yellow split screen kombi cruised past me and looked just about perfect. |
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| This stunning bright red split oval window beetle looked awesome in the sunshine. The black bra was a nice accessory which is quite rare. I did like the choice of wheels. |
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| A stunning coat of paint over a super straight body, finished off with the bright chrome work of the bumpers. I did like the old skool teardrop all red rear lights. |
That was the Big Bang Camper and Bus Festival
for 2015. Although we only attended for the day
we all had a great time, and the weather was a
lot better than forecast. This is a great show and
if you want to see more of the show check out
this cool video on youtube:
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