Saturday 28 October 2017

BeachBuggin VW Show 2017 (part 3 of 4)

This weeks blog review is part three of four all about the 'Beach Buggin' VW show which this year was held on Sunday 6th August and which is now in its 17th year, and is the ultimate VDUB show by the beach due to the amazing location on Southsea Common in the heart of the Portsmouth seafront, on the South coast of England. You can walk on and off the site all day and make the most of all the local attractions including the beach, (which is only about 100 feet from the show ground) amusement arcades and of course the award winning pier. This show always attracts plenty of enthusiasts, clubs, and general public, and of course plenty of quality Volkswagen's of all descriptions. The show is unique as it's free to the walk on public who come on mass attracted by the amazing displays. The show originated with a group of beach buggy owners displaying their vehicles way back in 1998 and is run with 3/4 of all the money generated from the show going to nominated charities. This show since 1998 has so far raised well over £80.000 ($104,558 approx) and although the show is called BeachBuggin, you get an incredibly diverse display of Volkswagen's as well as Hot Rods and American cars / trucks, bikes and scooters. This is one of my favourite shows of the year mainly due to it's location but also for the sheer diversity of quality VW's.  This fantastic show always has a impressive turn out with about 2,500 / 3000+  vehicles that all ascend onto Southsea common for a show that to be one of the best one day shows on the VW calendar. The review continues as I wander around this huge show looking at all the fantastic Volkswagens.
To see all my other blog entries, simply go to 'My Blog Archive' at the top left of this page, click on a year, and then click on a particular month, this will then give you a drop down menu of all my blog entries for that month.

There is something about a panel van that looks
just right, and when they are as clean and straight
as this gorgeous 1971 panel van you can see why.
Just look how straight that body is. (if you click on
the photo it will enlarge it)

This old panel has been slightly lowered, just
enough it give it a cool look. This super clean
van really did stand out.

You can see just how clean and straight this old
'71 really was from this photo. I did like the fact
that the owner has used the original wheels rather
than get some aftermarket alloy wheels.

Another vehicle of 1971 vintage was this great
looking Volksrod. This slammed, chopped and
 fenderless rod stood out in the row of classic
standard looking Volkswagens.

The exposed engine and those big chunky tyres
helped give this old Volksrod an aggressive look.

How tough does this old rod look? it reminds me
of an old hot rod... which I suppose is the idea!
This rod was up for sale for £4,500 ($5,944 approx)

This lovely 1959 single cab pick up was imported
from the U.S.A 3 years ago and is still in the U.S
specification.

The yellow paint is actually Bundespost yellow
which was a special order from the factory. I
did like the look of this SC with it's tall wall tyres.
Those rear arches look unusual...?

Another imported bus from the U.S was this cool
1966 Westfalia split screen. This bus came over
from Texas in 2012 and still has the original paint.

This 1973 bug was made to look older than it
really is, and it looked really good. The chrome
towel rail bumpers and the rusty look to the body
both helped this old bug look completely different.

Another Volksrod was this 'work in progress'
orange creation. I saw this back at the start of
the show season at Volksworld, and although
it does look more complete now there is still a
long way to go.

Although it wasn't quite finished, I did like the
look of it so far. The metal fabrication on the
rear was cool, as were the hot rod style wire
wheels and the insane roof chop.

This is how the show started 17 years ago, a
field of beach buggies, hence the name of the
show. Although the buggies are now outnumbered
by other VW's, there is still a huge display of this
classic vehicle. I do like the buggy, and if we lived
in a sunnier location I would defiantly have one.

The classic look for these buggies, and the only
look as far as I'm concerned, is to have metal
flake paint. This gold buggy have the most
gorgeous paint ever, pure 1970's metal flake.

The show is open to other vehicles as well as
Volkswagens. This show always attracts the
scooter crew. There were scooters from all different
years and some of them had been customised
so well.

There were numerous makes and models of
scooter on display and they all looked fantastic.

This scooter had chromed engine covers which
provided a perfect reflection photo opportunity.

This had to the oldest scooter at the show, well
it looked like it anyway! I'm not sure what make
the scooter was but just by looking at the seats,
handlebars and the headlight I knew it was old.

Twin seats with rear grab handle are a give-a-way
to it's age, as was the spare wheel holder.

The handlebars, and the speedo just looked so
old. Like I said, I don't know how old this beauty
is, but I'm guessing late 1950's?

Attached to this old scooter was an original
Steib sidecar. These sidecars were produced
in Germany in the 1050's and this looked to be
an original, although there are companies that
still make reproduction copies. I did like the
'knock offs' on the wheels.

Looking across the show site to give you an idea
just how big this show really is. Set in a fantastic
location, right next to the beach this has to be my
favourite show of the season.

Sun, sea and hundreds upon hundreds of show
Vehicles of all kinds.

Using a lot of zoom on my digital camera I took
a photo of this lovely Karmann Cabriolet. I hope
to get a better look at this lovely car later on.

This gorgeous 1967 split screen panel van in
beige looked stunning. This old van was so clean
and straight and those polished rims looked
good and matched the body trim.

This really was a lovely old panel van. It sat just
right and the single colour (including the roof)
looked great.

This customised 1969 early bay caught my eye
as it had some subtle body mods, these included
those 1960's Ford Cortina tail lights. The lights
have been turned upside down as the indicator
lens would have been at the top on the Cortina.

The light blue paint looked amazing and the twin
roof racks were neat accessories. The front clip
had also been modified by losing the normal front
indicators had having turn bulbs inside the head-
light. The fresh air intake has also been smoothed
over creating a clean crisp look.

This cool looking 1972 Adventurewagon stood
out as they're not as common as normal T2's.
The high top provides so much space inside and
are more practical fro camping in.

This lovely bus was in such good condition as you
can see. I had a brief chat to the owner who I think

said this was a U.S. import which would explain
why it was so solid. I really did like this bus.

This immaculate 1977 sky blue late bay looked
to be 100% original. This really was a lovely
looking bus.

Talking on immaculate vehicles how about this
late 50's early 60's bug. This really was a clean

car, all the chrome work that adorned this car was
like new and those polished 'centre line' style
wheels were the perfect choice to suit the car.

I told you this old bug was immaculate..look how
clean the inside edge of the rear bumper is and
just how straight this car was.

As I wandered around I found the American car
section of the show, this section always gets my
attention as there is always lots of rods and muscle
cars on show. This bright orange 1936 (D2 I think)
Dodge sedan looked great. It's not your typical
car to rod, but it worked so well.

The sheer size of this car was amazing, I didn't
find out what motor it had, but I'm guessing some-
thing big. I did like the chrome smoothie wheels
that looked amazing against the bright orange paint.

Another American muscle car was this 1964 Ford 
Falcon 2 door hardtop, this particular model had
the sprint package. It came with a 260 cubic inch 
V8 motor and also had stiffer suspension and a 
louder exhaust than non sprint models.

This really is a pretty looking car. I love those long
rear fenders and the circular tail lights. The choice
of American Racing 5 spoke wheels was a good
choice and suited the overall look. 

This really cool looking 1966 Chevrolet C10
pick up truck caught my eye as I do like an old
American truck. This short wheel base version
looked great in its brown paint.

On the bed the owner has a neat looking trunk,
that looked as though it could have been a gun
cabinet. 

This pro street Ford Capri was insane. The more
I looked at this car the more I was impressed.
This really was an awesome car.

Although I have no idea what size engine this is,
I do know it had massive twin turbo's. You don't
need to know how big the engine was as you can
see just by looking its going to produce massive
amounts of horsepower and be fast!

Those massive (15" x 15" I think they were) rear
wheels were tucked under the standard body.
The rear axle must have been shortened so much
to allow this. I wish I could have found out more
about this insane car.

So that was part three of four about the BeachBuggin
show. Next week will be the final instalment were
you will be able to see more American vehicles,
more beach buggies, a lovely oval window bug,
and a very, very rare T2 bus plus so much more
so be sure to come back next Saturday.

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