'Run the Ring' M25 VW Charity Cruise (part 2 of 2)

Welcome to the second of two reviews about the 'Run the Ring' VW charity cruise. It all started whilst I was browsing some Volkswagen groups on Facebook a while ago I spotted a post from a guy called John Emberton who for a joke posted the statement 'who wants to run my ring?'. He was referring to a photo he put up of the M25 motorway and did anyone want to drive around the full length of the motorway (the 'ring' part plays on the Nurburgring race track in Germany) These 2 posts from John generated lots of interest from other people who were all saying what a great idea. John soon realised this event, if it happened could be the longest cruise of Volkswagen Transporters ever seen in the U.K. So John started a new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/M25VWRunTheRing/. This new page generated so much interest that the page had over 1000 members in the first week!. To date there is just over 3000 members. One of these members was Vicky who has been running the Volksfest show for over 16 years and who is an active fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust, so she asked John if he would mind trying to raise some money for this worthwhile cause, and John agreed without hesitation. Another member Anita offered her help with the marketing and assistance with the branding and clothing. The aim of the event was to create the longest cruise of Volkswagen's the U.K. had ever seen and whilst doing it generate a load of cash for The Teenage Caner Trust. The event quickly came together and for a few weeks my Facebook feed was bombarded with posts from this group, all saying the same thing 'what a great idea', and 'count me in' etc. The event was arranged to take place on Sunday 25th September 2016, (which incidentally is the same weekend the M25 opened some 25 years ago!) and was open to all Volkswagen's. There will be 4 official start locations at the various service stations around the M25: (South Mimms, Lakeside / Thurrock, Clackets Lane and Cobham). How it would work is, the first group would leave the first service station in convoy at a pre designated time, then as they passed the next service station that group would leave their service station and join the back of the convoy, when the convoy passed the third services that group would also join the at the back and so on. After very positive meetings with both the Police and the Highways Agency who both allowed the event to go ahead, John reiterated on the Facebook page that the event was a 50 / 55 mph cruise and not a race. For a small entry fee we could purchase 'Run the Ring' stickers to put on our vehicle not only to let the authorities know that we were part of the cruise but also to promote the event as we cruised around the 117 miles of the London orbital motorway. From the main 'Run the Ring' Facebook page other run the ring pages appeared from all over the South of England from members who were organising their own meeting point on the day, before cruising to their respective M25 services to meet all the other groups before starting the main cruise. Myself and a few friends from Ayleabury joined the 'Hemel and Watford Ringers' page, as Hemel Hempstead is just a few miles down the road from us. I met up with Dave and Angela, and Simon and Amanda for the short 15 minute drive over to Hemel bright and early on the Sunday morning. John had a figure in his mind of possibly raising £10,000 for the Teenage Caner Trust from this event, and as I type this I have just read that John has presented the Caner Trust with a cheque £9,509 but with the gift aid included comes out at a whopping £10,017.43. A huge well done to John, Anita and Vicky (and all the other people who helped to organise the event who I don't know about) and a big special thanks and well done to the hundreds and hundreds of people who participated and donated all that money and who made this memorable event happen. Most of the photo's on my blog are from me, but if you want to see hundreds more photos (and I do mean hundreds!) you can follow this link to the 'VW M25 run the Ring' Facebook photos page. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/M25VWRunTheRing/photos/

To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of this 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.

My old mate Ben came along with his better
half Jenny, and the kids to take part in the cruise
in their lovely RAT looking 1966 split screen.

I have known Ben for a number of years and he 
has had this bus for as long as I can remember, 
and although the bus has the RAT look going on 
it does go extremely well.

It was time to join the motorway and tag onto
the back of the main convoy. As there were so
many vehicles at our service station getting out
could take a while...

Ben obviously got bored with waiting for the
queue to end so it looks like he saw a gap in
the exiting queue of Volkswagen's and sneaked
his old '66 into a gap.

Leaving the services didn't go exactly to plan
as there were some traffic lights on the exit,
and groups of us kept getting caught at the
red lights. This was my view once I got onto
the M25.

Once on the motorway this was my view, some
of the Volkswagen's taking part decided to drive
faster than the 55 MPH suggested speed. I just
stuck in the nearside lane and cruised along.

This late bay came flying  past me as if I was
standing still. I did enjoy seeing all the various
VW's on the M25 all at the same time. 

A bit of a blurry photo showing numerous VW's
ahead of me as we head clockwise around the
motorway.

Approaching the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over
the River Thames. The green top tinted wind-
screen I have in my bus gives the sky a nice
shade of blue in this photo, but it was quite
overcast by this point of the cruise.

I followed that gorgeous two tone green split
screen bus as we start to ascend the 200 feet
to the top of the bridge. The QE2 bridge is the
busiest crossing over water in the U.K. with
over 130,000 vehicles using it daily... I bet there
had never been so many VW's though!

At the top of the bridge looking East down the
River Thames and out towards the North Sea.

The M25 is well known for being the biggest
car park in the U.K. as it always seems to be
congested, and sitting stationary in a traffic jam 
is just part of driving on it. Still when you have a 
gorgeous 1964 split screen and a pair of late 
bays to sit behind it doesn't really matter.

I noticed this T5 cruising up the middle lane
taking photos of the Volkswagen's taking part
in the cruise. As they came alongside me, I took
a photo of them,  I bet they didn't expect that !!

A little while later I spotted a blue and white split
screen in my rear view mirror and thought, I know
who that is. It was Dave and Angela, friends of
mine from my hometown that I attended this
great event with. This photo actually came out
better than I hoped, if you click on the photo it
will enlarge it, then if you look in my door mirror
you'll see a perfectly framed early beetle. cool eh?

A fantastic photo posted by Andrew Thompson
looking down on one of the service area's as
the vehicles start to depart. I know John has
contacts with the local flying school and I did
see a helicopter flying around the services. I
did like the 3 T4 / T5's with 'Run' 'The' 'Ring'
decals on their roofs.

A great photo posted by Andy Parrott of 'Fiona' 
my 1969 VW microbus and as we cruised for 
charity around the M25 motorway. Thanks Andy.

A better close up photo, again posted by Andy
Parrott. It looks as though my door sticker has
a tear in it as it was flapping about in the wind.
I do like the reflection in Fiona's front panel of
what looks like a T5 and the motorway ahead.

This cool photo was posted by Anita McAloren
capturing a convoy of T4's / T5's as they made
their way around the charity cruise.

This Volkswagen traffic jam photo was posted
by Carol Dorman. This is the sort of traffic jam
you don't mind sitting in.

Another photo posted by Carol Dorman showing
the diversity of Volkswagen's that took part in
this great charity event.

This photo posted by Clare Simon Carey from
one of the service stations again shows not 
only the diversity of vehicles but also the sheer
number of vehicles.

Another photo posted by Clare Simon Carey
at the service station. This really was a nice
friendly, chilled out gathering of like minded
people, and all for a good cause.

I spotted this photo posted by Ed Bayliss
on the 'M25 VW Run the ring' Facebook
page. This is a cool photo of my bus as
I cruised the nearside lane doing 55 MPH
as most other vehicles overtook me.

Another great photo posted by Ed Bayliss
showing 2 lanes of Volkswagen's cruising
the M25 motorway..

A procession of cool Volkswagen buses leaving
a service area to join the motorway. This great 
photo was posted by Lee Kelf.

Another cool photo posted by Lee Kelf at one
of the services showing almost every parking
space full of Volkswagen's.

And on the other side of the car park, it was just 
the same. Volkswagen's of all varieties who 
were taking part in the charity cruise. Photo 
posted by Lee Kelf

This action photo posted by Neil Cooper is a
cool picture of an old RAT looking split screen
overtaking Neil.

 Neil Cooper also posted this equally cool photo
of a lilac and white split screen as seen out of
his rear window.

This photo again posted by Neil Cooper shows
the charity cruise in full flow. In it's 25 years of
being open, the M25 had never seen so many
Volkswagen's on it in one day.

Another action photo posted by Neil Cooper,
showing the RAT look splitty that just overtook
him,  quickly closing in on a lime green and
white late bay.

One of processions of Volkswagen's either
entering or leaving one of the service area's.
This cool photo posted by Neil Cooper shows
the diversity of vehicles that took part.

The last photo posted by Neil Cooper is
this view of the procession from his door 
as the convoy makes it way around
the London orbital motorway.

We now have a trio of photo's posted by Pete 
Shells, that were taken at one of the service
stations showing the huge turnout of Volkswagen's
that took part in the great event.  

The car park is crammed full of Volkswagen's of
all varieties, both air cooled and water cooled.
(Photo posted by Pete Shells)

A great variety of bay window buses parked up
at the services. (Photo posted by Pete Shells)

Another photo of my 1969 microbus in a cool
procession of other VW's whilst cruising the
M25 motorway. This fantastic photo was posted
 by Rik Wildman.

This photo posted by Sadie Ann Woods shows
nose to tail Volkswagen's as far as the eye can
see on the M25. I wonder what the public thought
of all these Volkswagen's cruising the motorway?

Another photo posted by Sadie Ann Woods. If
your in a Volkswagen driving around the M25
whilst taking part in the VW M25 charity cruise, 
you just have to wave.!

This cool two tone bug looked super low as it
cruised along. 
(Photo posted by Sadie Ann Woods)

The final photo in my 2 part blog review on this 
great event was posted by Steph Hills, again
showing the vast diversity of Volkswagen's that
took part in the cruise. If you missed part one on
this review you can find it in 'My blog archive' at
the top left hand side of this page.

So that was my 2 part review of the M25 VW 
Charity Cruise. Overall a tremendous day out, even 
though driving 117 miles on a motorway doesn't
sound that interesting. The sheer number of
people that attended this event from all over the
south of England was very impressive. The
atmosphere at the services that I joined was great
with everyone chatting and taking photos. It was a
shame the convoy got split up due to the difficulty
of leaving the service area's, but that didn't really
matter as I for one still saw plenty of other VW's
en-route around the 'ring'. I believe this event
will be happening again next year, so I strongly
suggest you join the facebook page here:
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/M25VWRunTheRing/
(You may need to copy and paste the link.)
to keep up to date with any announcements on
next years 'Run the Ring'. You can also see
hundreds of photos from other members on this 
event from this page. Finally a huge well done
to everyone who got involved in this amazing
event, and who helped to raise over £10,000
($12.400). I for one will be joining the cruise
for 2017.

'Run The Ring' M25 VW Charity Cruise. (part 1 of 2)

Whilst browsing some Volkswagen groups on Facebook a while ago I spotted a post from a guy called John Emberton who for a joke posted the statement 'who wants to run my ring?'. He was referring to a photo he put up of the M25 motorway and did anyone want to drive around the full length of the motorway (the 'ring' part plays on the Nurburgring race track in Germany) These 2 posts from John generated lots of interest from other people who were all saying what a great idea. John soon realised this event, if it happened could be the longest cruise of Volkswagen Transporters ever seen in the U.K. So John started a new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/M25VWRunTheRing/. This new page generated so much interest that the page had over 1000 members in the first week!. To date there is just over 3000 members. One of these members was Vicky who has been running the Volksfest show for over 16 years and who is an active fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust, so she asked John if he would mind trying to raise some money for this worthwhile cause, and John agreed without hesitation. Another member Anita offered her help with the marketing and assistance with the branding and clothing. The aim of the event was to create the longest cruise of Volkswagen's the U.K. had ever seen and whilst doing it generate a load of cash for The Teenage Caner Trust. The event quickly came together and for a few weeks my Facebook feed was bombarded with posts from this group, all saying the same thing 'what a great idea', and 'count me in' etc. The event was arranged to take place on Sunday 25th September 2016, (which incidentally is the same weekend the M25 opened some 25 years ago!) and was open to all Volkswagen's. There will be 4 official start locations at the various service stations around the M25: (South Mimms, Lakeside / Thurrock, Clackets Lane and Cobham). How it would work is, the first group would leave the first service station in convoy at a pre designated time, then as they passed the next service station that group would leave their service station and join the back of the convoy, when the convoy passed the third services that group would also join the at the back and so on. After very positive meetings with both the Police and the Highways Agency who both allowed the event to go ahead, John reiterated on the Facebook page that the event was a 50 / 55 mph cruise and not a race. For a small entry fee we could purchase 'Run the Ring' stickers to put on our vehicle not only to let the authorities know that we were part of the cruise but also to promote the event as we cruised around the 117 miles of the London orbital motorway. From the main 'Run the Ring' Facebook page other run the ring pages appeared from all over the South of England from members who were organising their own meeting point on the day, before cruising to their respective M25 services to meet all the other groups before starting the main cruise. Myself and a few friends from Aylesbury joined the 'Hemel and Watford Ringers' page, as Hemel Hempstead is just a few miles down the road from us. I met up with Dave and Angela, and Simon and Amanda for the short 15 minute drive over to Hemel bright and early on the Sunday morning. John had a figure in his mind of possibly raising £10,000 for the Teenage Caner Trust from this event, and as I type this I have just read that John has presented the Caner Trust with a cheque £9,509 but with the gift aid included comes out at a whopping £10,017.43. A huge well done to John, Anita and Vicky (and all the other people who helped to organise the event who I don't know about) and a big special thanks and well done to the hundreds and hundreds of people who participated and donated all that money and who made this memorable event happen. 
To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of this 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.

My 1969 bay as I pull into the South Mimms
services which was the closest services to us.
I had placed the 'Run the Ring' low tack
stickers on the cab doors which are now on my
workshop windows. We arrived quite early at
South Mimms and already the car park had
numerous Volkswagen's of all descriptions
parked up.

But before we got to South Mimms we met all
the 'Hemel and Watford ringers' in the car park
of the local Halfords store in Hemel Hempstead.
Luckily there was a McDonald's close by, so
that breakfast sorted. I've just noticed my poor
attempt at parking.. Well it was early on a
Sunday morning and on an empty stomach!.

The Halfords car park had a nice variety of
Volkswagen's all parked up. The Hemel and
Watford ringers were a nice bunch of guy's
who made us feel welcome.

A good side view of my microbus and how
badly I'm parked.! It does look overcast in this
photo but the forecast was good with little
chance of rain.

My microbus and Dave and Angela's blue and
white spilt screen bus at the Halfords meeting
point. We had about 15 minutes before the convoy
left Hemel, so just enough time for a breakfast.
After a while we started our engines and headed
in convoy for South Mimms services on the M25.

After a short drive from Hemel we arrived at
South Mimms. My bay and a gorgeous split
screen owned by one of the Hemel ringers.
I must have woken up now because I'm
actually parked inside the parking bay.!!

We had about an hour to kill before the convoy
passed our services so I took the opportunity
to have a wander around and take some photos.

This stunning Caddy looked amazing with it's
gold paint and lowered stance. This really was
a nice clean car that was parked next to an
equally nice sierra yellow (I think) early bay
that looks like a Westfalia.

This lovely Red 1980 T25 looked pretty cool. I
did like the overall look of this bus.

This stunning restored 1958 LHD Swiss army
radio communications split screen bus belongs
to a Facebook friend of mine, James. The bus
had a bare metal respray 4 years ago and this
year has had a full overhaul of the brakes and
suspension. This bus has never been welded
and is totally solid throughout.  

The paint is Ducati red with hand painted sign
writing. This bus has a new 1776cc engine with
electronic ignition, external oil filter with a deep
sump and running genuine Webber 44 idf's.
This bus retains many features from it's army
radio van days including internal signage,
grenade bars, map table and map pocket.
James has many plans for this bus, and I'm sure
I'll see it at various shows throughout next years
season so as and when these plans take shape
I'll photograph it and let you all know.

A great variety of air-cooled buses took part
in this great event. The sheer number of
both air-cooled and water cooled Volkswagen's
at the South Mimms services was amazing.

This gorgeous lowered bug looked fantastic.
I do like the 'swan neck' mirrors and the painted
steel wheels on this lovely old bug.

I do have a liking for panel vans and this 1978
pastel blue and white late bay was really nice.
This van was so clean and straight, and that 3
bow roof rack suited the sleek look perfectly. 

More air-cooled vehicles at South Mimms. The
majority of Volkswagen's that took part were
water cooled T4's & T5's , which is fine, but 
maybe next year hopefully the number of 
air-cooled vehicles will increase.

The South Mimms services didn't know what
had hit them when all the participating VW's
started to arrive, we literally took over the car
park. There must have been hundreds of VW's
of all descriptions parked up waiting for the
convoy to reach us. 

John and the team had the foresight to have
a support vehicle running the ring with us. I'm
not sure if anyone required the services of this
van, but I hope not.

This lovely 1964 two tone green split screen
slowly entered the services looking for a spot 
to park up. This really was a nice old splitty.

The old split slowly cruised past looking for a
spare parking place. This bus is proudly
displaying the 'Run the Ring' stickers as most of
the participating vehicles did. 

The variety of Volkswagen's was amazing and 
1981 green and white T25 with a pop top looked
great. 

The car park at the services was just like a
club meet with everyone walking around and
chatting whilst taking photos. Volkswagen's
are far as the eye can see...

Whichever direction you turned all you could
see were Volkswagen's belonging to the people
now know as 'Ringers'.

The car park was crammed with all types of
Volkswagen, both new and old and both water
and air cooled. 

The procession of Volkswagen's entering the
services just went on and on for over an hour. 

The procession of Volkswagen's entering the
services just went on and on.

I did like this 1979 late bay simply because the
paint scheme was so different and it really stood
out from the others.

This 1986 T25 looked really cool in it's purple
paint and tinted windows. I do like these T25's
and looking at this bus it's easy to see why.

'Ruby' the 1971 high top early bay also joined
the mass of Volkswagen's at South Mimms.
This really was a nice looking bus and that
high top must provide so much more room and
comfort than the tin top bays.

The procession of Volkswagen's entering the
services just went on and on. 

The majority of vehicles were T4's / T5's and
they came in all colours, all years and all styles.
I did think about going along in my T4, but
decided I just had to go in my early bay.

This lovely T5 had been wrapped in this super
cool design.

The 'Ringers' are still entering the services in
a steady constant flow, it was an amazing
sight to see so many Volkswagen's turn out
for this worthwhile cause... and this was just
at the South Mimms services!

This 1971 early bay looked like a nice honest
bus. I did like the ride height this bus had and
the colour scheme.

I don't want to repeat myself, but they are still
entering the services! T4's, T5's, T25's the
response to this Facebook charity event was
amazing.

This T5 was the 'Mystery Machine' and even
had Scooby Doo waving from the side window.

Will the steady flow of Volkswagen's ever end?

The more I look at this lovely T4, the more I
like it. That really is a nice paint scheme.

This white over black early bay looked cool, I
do like high riding early bays, and this was no
exception. The custom nerf bars at the front
looked cool.

It was great to see so many styles of T4's, as
 it gave me some ideas for my T4. I don't know
if there was a count of just how many vehicles
were at South Mimms, but I think it has to be
around the 200 hundred mark, easily.

The last bus to finish part 1 of this blog review
is this lovely 1971 silver blue and white early
bay. The colour was unusual but it looked really
nice and suited the bus.

So that was the first of a two part review on this
excellent charity VW cruise. Next Saturday will
be the second instalment where you can see
plenty more top quality Volkswagen's cruising
 the M25 motorway, photos from myself and
some of the other participants that took part,
 so be sure to come back next week.