When Rich found out that I was writing a blog review about this event he sent me lots of great photos to use. Rather than just publish his photos and take the glory for his great photos I thought it would be good to ask Rich if he wanted to add some text to his photos and let him take the glory. So that's what he has done. This is the first time since I started writing the blog in 2011 that I have had a guest author, but who knows it may become a regular thing. Anyway what is this event, Rub the Ring all about.?
This is the 2nd 'Run the Ring VW Charity cruise', which saw over 700 Volkswagens of all descriptions cruise the 117 miles clockwise around the London orbital motorway, the M25. The original idea to cruise around the M25 came from a guy called John Emberton. John put a post on Facebook suggesting the idea and the response was incredible so John thought if this was to happen why not raise money for a charity at the same time. In 2016 the first RTR took place where just over 400 VW's both air cooled and water cooled assembled at the 4 designated service stations around the M25 and cruised around the M25 creating an amazing sight. In 2016 RTR raised just over £10,000 for the chosen charity, The Teenage Cancer Trust. In 2017 there were around 700 Volkswagens that took part (660 actually registered, but we estimate there were about 100 that just turned up on the day) and raised an incredible £25, 758.39 for the charity 'Scotty's Little Soldiers'. You can check the VW M25 Run the Ring Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/M25VWRunTheRing/
I have taken part in both these charity cruises and although to some the thought of driving 117 miles around the M25 (known as the biggest car park in Britain) doesn't sound that appealing, they have both been really enjoyable. The atmosphere at the services both before the cruise and after is amazing, you can mingle and chat to other VW owners and take plenty of photos. As I did in 2016 I met up with friends of mine David and Angela, who are both from my hometown for the short cruise over to Hemel Hempstead where we had arranged to meet other VW owners before heading for the services on the M25. A huge well done to John and Amanda (and all the other people who helped to organise this 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 who made this memorable event happen. You can find out more about the worthwhile charity that this event was all about here: http://scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk/
To see more than 400+ photos of some of the vehicles that took part in the charity cruise, check out this awesome photo album from Ed Baylis that captured the essence of the charity cruise:
https://www.facebook.com/ebay.ebay/media_set?set=a.10155840931620396.1073741832.620175395&type=1&l=f138e62381&hc_location=ufi
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.
The following photos and text are from my good buddy Rich Coxhill who runs the Wolfsburg Bus Crew... over to you Rich!
Before I start I would just like to say a huge thank you to Dave and James who both offered me a ride round the ring in their bus, I had recently had surgery on my foot and wasn't able to drive. I was gutted about this as I had really been looking forward to running the ring again and I couldn't think of nicer buses and people to cruise round the M25 with, so thanks for the offer guy's. I will be running the ring in Margo (my late bay Westy) for sure on Sunday 23rd September this year no matter what!
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| James Thorburn cleaning the fresh road kill off of the windscreen's of 'Duke' ready for action. (Dave Clark's awesome early bay in the back- ground, I really love this bus!) |
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| The calm before the storm... everyone is stocking up on coffee and going for a last minute comfort break (including the dogs!) so they aren't caught short half way round the ring. |
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| James Thorburn and Dave Clark's buses parked top to tail. The Ducati anniversary red and the velvet green buses looked great together. |
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| I really dig Dave's bus, to me everything on it is right! The colour, deluxe trim, roof rack, stance and the wheels! It just looks awesome. |
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| Stickers that you will always see together, the Wolfsburg Bus Crew will always support 'Run the Ring' and the amazing fund raising they do for such great causes! |
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| Great view from inside the Duke. All ready to Run the Ring. |
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| Just before we set off James was informed that he was the lead vehicle.. for the WHOLE of the Run the Ring! Suddenly the pressure was on... We were all in good spirits and I really enjoyed rolling with James, Andrea, Caitlin and Archie (their well behaved puppy, who can't be seen in this photo as he was lying down in his bed) |
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| There's a familiar rear with a sparkly Wolfsburg Bus Crew sticker sparkling in the Sun! Fiona Coad and her lovely 1963 split screen named 'Yucky Doo Dah' were just ahead of us. |
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| One of my favourite shots of the day, Dave pulling off the M25 for a comfort break. This shot was taken through one of 'Dukes' rear windows and those bars you can see are are grenade bars. The Duke was formally a Swiss army radio communications bus, and the reason the bus was sprayed Ducati anniversary red and has the Ducati sign writing on the doors is because the original radio communication systems inside were made by Ducati. |
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| My view out the back of the Duke for a lot of the way round the M25 was this awesome buggy! I always wanted one when I was younger and had always dreamed of driving one across the numerous sand dunes on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex. |
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| Oh, there's Archie! That bench seat is the perfect size for 3! James is concentrating on keeping to a regular steady slow speed (without causing an obstruction) to keep as much of the convoy as as possible together as we Run the Ring. He did an amazing job.! |
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| There he is the man himself, John Emberton (who's idea it was to run the ring) who was approaching the finish at South Mimms Services with a BIG smile on his face. |
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| James's and Susie Perrin's split screen buses just chilling next to each other after completing 'Run the Ring 2017'. |
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| A thumbs up for Scotty's Little Soldiers mascot. |
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| The Duke and Lulu, the pair look great together. I sense a romance is brewing! |
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| You've got to love a sage green Westy! |
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| Ahhh, Here is a WBC member Mark Lorentzen's awesome '69 early bay. This bus has such a great stance. |
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| All the various VW buses parked up at South Mimms Services, just cooling down and chilling out after running the ring. We were lucky and had some fantastic weather for the event. |
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| A lovely subtle shade of green on this beautiful early bay westy. |
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| Ahh, here is another WBC members bus, Richard Bell's lovely orange late bay Westfalia called Magic, named for Richard's love of the band 'The Who'. Richard was one of the Wolfsburg Bus Crew's first members. |
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| Wow! What a line up! |
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| Awesome greens and white side by side, spot on. |
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| I really digged this T25 Auto Sleeper. It had a really fresh look about it and the white wall tyres and the brown stripes really set it off. Loved it! |
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| Great rear ends! These buses were having a well deserved rest. |
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| A cool pastel white Westfalia Continental.! |
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| WBC member Stuart Rigg's lovely split screen bus parked alongside it's younger bay brothers. |
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| The South Mimms car park provided some great colour combinations! |
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| I was intrigued by this lovely straight split screen bus, I hung around hoping to meet the owner, but sadly didn't manage to meet the them to find out more about this gorgeous bus. |
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| The red piped deluxe trim really sets off the two tone colour combination perfectly. |
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| Bay window buses side by side in the sunshine. |
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| Another WBC member Chris Cavill just coming back into the services in his awesome Caravelle called 'Arturo' having just run the ring. |
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| The only way to stop your bus getting stone chips on its nose is a bus bra, and when the spare wheel comes off the front of my bus I will definitely be getting one for sure. |
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| This 'Viking' was a very straight looking bus and I was amazed when I looked back a few times on the way round the ring, to see the owners poodle sitting on the seat. I honestly thought the dog was driving on a couple of occasions. |
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| WBC members David and Kelly Britton's awesome Reimo T25. |
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| These two bugs certainly brightened things up at South Mimms Services. |
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| I really liked this late bay, it reminded me of my Westy Continental, Margo. Even the two tone colour combination was so close to mine. |
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| This lovely T25 Atlantic belongs to Mark Cooper who is a WBC member. I do love an Atlantic! If I was to own a T25 Westy it would definitely be an Atlantic. Class Bus! |
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| Sage green VW Westfalia Berlin, Lovely bus! |
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| A freshly stuck on WBC sticker onto Arturo Cavill's awesome '84 Caravelle. |
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| James (on the left) and myself at the end of long but very enjoyable day Running the Ring 2017. Same time, same place this year.. roll on 23rd September 2018, are you going to join us?? Well done Rich, fantastic photos and a great write up. I hope all my regular readers across the world have enjoyed reading Rich's personal account of this fantastic charity cruise as much as I have. Many thanks for being the first guest author of my blog, I'm impressed just how good it was, you never know I may be asking you to write another blog, possibly one that involves the WBC! Don't forget to visit the 'VW M25 Run the Ring' face- book page and sign up for this years Run the Ring when registration opens on March 1st. Next week's blog review is a three part review all about the Brighton Breeze VW show, so be sure to come back next Saturday. |
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