Saturday 30 September 2017

Bug Jam 31 (part 3 of 3)

This weeks blog review is part 3 of 3 all about the Bug Jam VW Festival. Bug Jam which is now in it's 31st year, and has as far as I know has always been held at the world famous Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire. Bug Jam is a weekend festival for all makes of Volkswagen's and this year was held over the weekend of 21st - 23rd July. There is always plenty to do and see at Bug Jam including: 5 music arenas, drag racing, run what you brung (public track time), show and shine, comedy artists, traders, stunt displays, jet car, auto jumble, fun fair and much more. Bug Jam is billed as 'Europe's biggest and best VW festival, I haven't been to that many European VW festivals so I can't comment if it's the best show or not, but it certainly is big. There must have been tens of thousands of visitors over the weekend, many of who stayed for the whole weekend. Due to family commitments I could only go for the day on the Saturday, but there were literally thousands of Volkswagen's of all descriptions there parked up with their the camps set up for the weekends festivities, and hundreds more vehicles who like myself went for one day only. Whatever type of Volkswagen rocks you boat, I guarantee you'll find it at Bug Jam. As you enter Santa Pod Raceway the service road takes you through the camping area towards the 1/4 mile strip, fun fair, catering vendors and different display arenas. I always wander off the road and wander through the camping area as this is where you get to see plenty of quality Volkswagen's parked up. The review continues as I wander around the festival looking at all the amazing vehicles. This weeks blog features mainly Beetle's because as I wandered to the show and shine area, I arrived at the Beetle line up.
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.


To start this weeks blog we have this gorgeous
1970 lowered bug. This really was a lovely looking
car, I loved the orange / brown sides that reminded
me of a old 'Woody'. The black powder coated 

bumpers and head light rings looked just perfect.

You can see just how low this bug sits from this
photo. I'm not sure if this had air ride suspension
or not, but I'd imagine so. The all red rear light
lenses were a nice touch.

Not a very good photo due to the reflection in
the glass, but you can just make out how nice this
old bug was on the inside.

The glove box had a nice hand painted design
on it, which looked cool. I did like the orange
colour matched steering wheel/ door cards.

This orange 1971 beetle looked as though it had
suffered from some fire damage, and rather than
repaint the car the owner has left it. Although it
looks pretty cool, it is a stark warning to all air
cooled owners to check the fuel lines regularly.

Fire damaged or not this is a cool looking bug.
It has been slammed and looks as though it has
a narrowed front beam. This car really does sit
extremely low!

Another slammed beetle was this gorgeous all
black oval window. The paint on this car was
amazing, as you can see by the reflections. This
old bug has the semaphore indicators which I
hope still work! The narrowed front beam with
those Fuchs wheels help to make this oval stand
out.

How narrow is that front beam? I do like the look
of early bugs and this one was no exception.

Just one of the many rows of beetle's in the show
and shine line up at Bug Jam.

This red RAT look bug looked cool with it's sign
written doors, the red coloured body with different 

coloured front wings looked col. I did like the 
Porsche 356 style head light grilles and
 the unusual wheel choice.

This old RAT look bug had some neat marker
lights on the bumper.

This really was a cool looking car. I did like the
frenched rear lights that give the rear end a very
unique '70's hot rod look that stood out.

This lovely 1966 cherry red slammed bug looked
great with its 'Mooneyes' sign written doors. I did
like the swan neck mirrors and the 356 headlight
grilles. The black Radar wheels with low profile
tyres not only look good but also lower this old
bug even more. 

Lovely hand painted Mooneyes decals on the
doors, made this old bug something special.

The quantity, and quality of the beetles on show
was amazing. Each bug was different from the
last and the amount of time and money that the
owners must spend on them must be huge.

This immaculate cream coloured early bug was
gorgeous. I loved the style of this lowered bug,
and those red painted steel wheels with white
wall tyres gave the car an old skool look. The
single central spotlight on the bumper looked
great.

The red banded rear wheels perfectly matched
the all red light lenses and the engine tinware.
You can see just how clean this car was from this
photo.

The engine and engine bay were also immaculate
and parts were either painted or chromed.

The owner has paid the same attention to detail
inside the car as well. This really did look nice
with its matching seats and door cards.

This 1953 RHD oval window bug was one of my
favourites in the beetle line up. OK it's not a show
winner, by any standard but it had a look all of its
own and I loved it. The '53 body actually sits on a
'56 fully restored chassis.

The body had been shot blasted to remove any
filler and rust, but that has left the scars of a hard
life, but that just adds to the cars character.

More scars on show from a poor repair, but this
just added to this unique's car character.

The car still has the original split case gearbox,
and front beam. The engine is a 1966 1300cc
unit. This lovely old car was for sale for the
bargain price of £5500 ($7360 approx)

I did like the overall look of this old oval window,
OK it was showing its age, and it had repaired
in numerous places but that didn't matter one bit.

Another row of quality beetles all washed and
polished for the show and shine.

After walking along all the rows of Beetles, I came
across the split screen buses. Again there were
so many quality buses in the numerous rows.

This is one split screen that has featured a few
times on my blog reviews, and no doubt will again
in the future. It's a 1957 Californian panel van and
belongs to a Wolfsburg Bus Crew member Dave
Smith. 

The bus sits low thanks to a fully remote hydraulic
suspension system. The engine and gearbox
have both been raised to allow the chassis to sit
on the floor when the suspension is fully lowered.

Dave says the engine is a '1956cc unit with all
the goodies', It did look very clean and tidy 
and 
not sign of an oil leak anywhere!

On the inside of Dave's lovely panel van he has
installed a rock and roll bed, and enough storage
space and home comforts for a week away.

This lovely panel van has, I think, won a few trophies
so far this year.. and it's easy to see why. If you see
this gorgeous panel van at a show, I strongly
suggest to walk over and have a good look as you

will not be dissapointed.


So that was part 3 of 3 of Bug Jam 2017. I have
actually found some more photos that I took at
this event so next weeks blog review will be a
bonus review of Bug Jam 2017, where you can
see a gorgeous split screen panel that is full
of patina, the lowest Karmann Ghia I've seen
and a lovely Chevrolet step side pick up. All
this plus plenty more bugs and buses so be
sure to come back next Saturday.

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