Saturday 25 June 2016

VW Expo 2016 - Stonor Park (part 2 of 3)

Welcome to the second instalment about the VW Expo show organised by the Association of British VW Clubs and held in the beautiful setting of Stonor Park, which is located in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. Stonor Park has been the home of the Stonor family for over 800 years, and the magnificent house was built around 1190. The house contains many rare items of furniture and paintings and is open to the public on the Sunday afternoon of the show. The entry ticket to the show allows you to visit the spectacular house. The show, now in it's 32nd year is always very well attended and attracts thousands of visitors / entrants. The show has numerous things going on including: Concours d'Elgance, club displays, miss VW competition, trade stands and an auto jumble. This is always a very well attended show, and I know of at least 6 Volkswagen clubs that attend every year. A few of the Outcast VW club members had arranged to meet up at 09.00 to have a small cruise down to the show on the Sunday morning. The blog review continues as I wander around the show and shine field, basking in the glorious sunshine.
To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of the page. Simply click on an arrow for a particular year, then click on an arrow for a particular month, this will then give you a drop down menu for all the blog entries for that month.

There were several Porsche 356's at the VW
Expo show, including this lovely cream coloured
beauty. I think this 1600 super 2 door roadster
was a replica because the registration number
plate denotes it's a 1969, and they only made
the 356 until 1965. 

Being a replica does not in any way effect the
desirability of this stunning car. The build quality
and finish was outstanding and every detail was
'just right'. This is seriously lowered and I thought
it must have air ride suspension, but I caught
sight of this car leaving the show field and it
drove across the bumpy field at this height!

Simple and elegant interior of the Porsche 356.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, wouldn't you just
love to cruise around in this beautiful car?

This super straight and super shiny 1964 rag 
top bug caught my eye with it's perfect gloss
black paint. The paint was that good it actually 
looked as though it was still wet.  

 I instantly recognised this 1971 road / race
beetle. It belongs to Jonny, a mate of mine who
is a member of a local VW club called The
Wolfsburg Weed Huggers based in Penn, in
Bucks.

Jonny's radical bug which he built himself has 
been named 'Miss White Racing' and it even 
has it's own Facebook page.

Miss White has a 2165cc engine and with this
power Jonny normally gets down the 1/4 mile 
strip in the low 15 second mark.

This stunning Porsche 550 Spyder, was I think
another replica, but again it was so well built it
was really hard to tell. The 550 was produced
from 1953 - 1956. The Spyder's styling was
inspired by the 356, and designed specifically 
for racing. The 550 Spyder was first
introduced at the Paris motor show in 1953

This is the same car that James Dean had, and
died in after being involved in a traffic accident.
Dean called his 550 Spyder "Little Bastard". 

On the track all the racing Spyders were 
predominately painted silver with only the tail 
spears painted with splashes of colour to enable 
them to be identified from the pits.

The unusual feature, compared to other race
cars of the time was that the 550 could be driven
to the track, raced, and then driven home showing
it's flexibility of being both a road and race car.

Yet another stunning Porsche 356A speedster 
that looked fantastic in it's yellow paint. This one 
has an age related number plate so it could be a 
real one..? I did like the original Porsche nipple 
hub caps. 

These really are lovely looking cars, especially
 when they are so straight and clean as this one.

A 100% perfect reflection of gorgeous Porsche 
356A on the side of a 1965 split screen bus. 
Body work just doesn't come any straighter than 
this. The brown paint on the bus provides a 
perfect background for the yellow reflection of
 the Porsche.

The front of this old splitty wasn't too bad either!
This bus really was so straight and smooth.

Not only did this bus have a beautiful exterior, but
it also had a beautiful interior. 

This 1971 Volks rod, in satin black with hot rod
style red painted steel wheels looked really cool.
It has had a serious roof chop which makes this
bug look low and sleek.

The rear end was really nice, I did like the huge
rear tyres on those deep dish banded steel
wheels. I also liked the lack of bodywork and the
way the deck lid seems to float in mid air.

This gorgeous crew cab pick up was up for sale,
it's a 1975, with an early bay front clip, it had a
1741cc engine that has done less than 2000
miles, and it has 90% of new parts. I didn't find
out how much the owner wanted for this lovely
bus, but I guess as the saying goes, " if you
have to ask how much, you can't afford it"

This awesome T25 syncro was one of my top
5 vehicles of the show. It had a whopping 2.8
litre Audi engine bolted into the engine bay. it
also had a full roll cage through the length of the
van 

This lovely syncro has competed in various off
road rallies across the world. If I remember
correctly, the tube hanging down from the rear
door sits onto the radiator when the door is
closed and a powerful fan sucks air from
outside through the tube to cool the radiator.

The owner of this early bug had been at the show
all weekend and had a neat camping facility.
These roof tents are so cool and save towing a
trailer around.

This lovely patina'd 1963 SO33 split screen was
another vehicle up for sale. The OG engine
 runs really nice and the bus drives well. 

The patina is just as it should be, and the unusual
steel sun roof made this bus just that bit different.

A better look at the original interior which was
in really good condition considering the age of
the bus, and that really cool opening sun roof.

This 1971 buggy really stood out with its old 
skool gold metal flake paint that sparkled in the
sunshine. The Empi 5 spoke wheels finished
off the look perfectly.

These buggies really are such a simple design
that have stood the test of time since Bruce
Meyers first started to produce the buggy way
back in 1964. The design has changed very
little, if at all which is a great testament to
Bruce Meyers.

The standard air-cooled engine is enough to
power these lightweight buggies, but you can
always dress up your engine like this owner
has done to a very high standard.

The VW Expo show is located deep within the
rolling hills of deepest Oxfordshire, which is an
ideal location for a Volkswagen show.

Just some of the exhibitors in the show and shine
field. The weather was glorious and the number
of vehicles was in the thousands.

As you can see from the photos, Stonor Park
has numerous sloping fields, which when wet

can be tricky. It had rained in the days before the
show and the grass was still slippery in places. 
The owner of this lovely single cab had trouble 
reversing up the hill due to the lack of weight at 
the back and just couldn't get any traction.

But luckily his mate in an early bay was on hand
to tow him onto the gravel road that runs through
the Stonor estate. It's all about team work !

I spotted one of my facebook friends John, who
was cruising around the show in his gorgeous
1967 beetle. I'm not sure if he had just arrived 
or was leaving but it was nice to know he 
attended this great local show. It was just a
shame we didn't 'bump' into each other.

I spotted this old Notchback on the back of a
trailer. It needed a full restoration but the owner
was saying that the engine and gearbox were 
both good. It did need almost every panel 
replacing or repairing but for £1650 it could be
a good buy for someone.


The owner was right about it needing a full
restoration, but the car did have potential for
someone who wanted a 'project'. I did like the

old skool flames down the side of this notch.

So that was part 2 of 3 about the VW Expo.
The 3rd and final instalment will be next
Saturday, where you can see plenty more
quality air cooled vehicles including bugs,
buses and a cool Trekker, fast backs, notch
backs and so much more. So don't forget
to come back next week.

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