Saturday 23 June 2018

Stanford Hall Show 2018 (part 1 of 3)

This weeks blog review is the first of three reviews all the Stanford Hall VW show which this year was held on Sunday 6th May and is an annual one day event organised by the Leicestershire and Warkickshire VW owners club. The show is held in the grounds of Stanford Hall, which was built in the 1690's in the beautiful village of Stanford-on-Avon, near Lutterworth in Leicestershire, LE17 6DH. The manicured lawns of the hall also has the River Avon gently flowing through the grounds, and provides a spectacular backdrop for a VW show. As Stanford Hall is only about 60 miles from my hometown, and as the weather forecast was good I decided to drive up. I have been to this show over the past 5 years and there is always a good collection of top quality VW's of all varieties with plenty of trade stands and an auto jumble and all set in the beautiful grounds of Stanford Hall. This show is seen by many as one of those 'not to miss' shows and it always gets busy there.
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.


When you arrive at a VW show and one of the
first buses you see is a slammed patina'd bay,
you just know it's going to be a good day. This

really was one cool looking bus.

Even before paying my £10 entrance fee and
entering the show I noticed that the public car
park was like a VW show itself. This pair of early
beetles looked great in the morning sunshine.

Another vehicle in the public cat park was this
awesome early bay Doka. This velvet green ( I
think) double cab really was clean and straight
and the single colour, including the roof really
made this bus stand out.

You can see just how clean this doka really was
from this photo. Look at the tail gate and the back
of the bus, that really was a fantastic reflection from
the perfectly straight body panels and the perfectly
applied coat of paint.

From one extreme to another, but equally as nice
in it's own right was this super cool looking early
split screen 13 window. I loved how original this
bus looked.

Another stock looking split was this 1967 bus.
Again this bus had plenty of real patina and with
those stock wheels and the what looked to be
original interior this old bus got my attention.

I was certainly getting my patina fix at Stanford
Hall, as this gorgeous early split oval shows.

This lovely bug looked cool with it's slammed
stance, and those shiny Porsche wheels looked
great against the paitina'd body panels.

This type 3 fastback was up for sale, and although
it had seen better days I'm sure someone at the
show struck a deal with the owner.

Although the dreaded rust had taken its toll on
virtually all the body panels, I'm sure the £1000
($1300 approx) asking price was too good for
someone to resist.

One of the many catering vendors at the show
had this amazing converted split screen bus that
they used as a mobile bar. 

Whilst wandering around the show, I happened
to bump into John who where there promoting
his 'Run the Ring' VW M25 charity cruise. It was
originally John's idea to have a convoy of VW's
driving around the M25 London orbital motorway
to raise money for charity. Now in it's 3rd year,
this years event promises to be bigger and better
than last year. I will be taking part in this great
event for the third year running and to be honest
I can't wait. You can find out more about the Run 

the Ring' charity cruise, and sign up for this years
RTR  here:  https://run-the-ring.myshopify.com/
(you may need to copy and paste)

Amanda, John's better half was caught striking
a pose by her, sorry I mean John's Canterbury
Pitt. Both John and Amanda (and all the others
who help organise this event
) work very hard to
promote this charity event, so the least you could
do is sign up and join in, right?

Around the oval drive in front of Stanford Hall is
where all the concourse vehicles were parked.
This is where you will see some exceptional
original beetle's and of course this gorgeous
Hebmuller.

The Hebmuller convertible, or Type 14A to give it
it's official title, was only produced from 1949 -
1953 with only around 700 being produced. Out
of that number only around 100 are believed to
still exist.

The standard and quality of the beetle's in the
concourse area was incredible. Each of these
beautiful cars was 99.99% original/

A lovely badge I spotted on the 'A' panel on one
of the concourse beetle's. I'm guessing the car
took part in a rally at the Nurburgring in 1958.

Having just said that all these cars were 99.99%
original, I've just seen this bug which clearly isn't.!

Although it is very nice though...

Early bugs from all years and all models were
in the line up, it made for a fantastic display.

There is just something about the shape of an
early bug that looks just right, and when they are
this clean and straight, and of course original then
so much the better.

This stunning white split oval window 1951 deluxe 
(Type 11D) was absolutely stunning. This gorgeous 
car is a South African import and a rare right hand 
drive model.

The car was imported into the U.K. in 2008, and
the present owner purchased the car in 2009. The
car had had a partial restoration but the current
owner carried out a full restoration,

A vehicle doesn't necessarily have to be painted
and shiny to be desirable, as this early bug proves.
I did like the look of this car, the patina'd hood
with the leather strap across it and the single
yellow spot light helped this bug stand out.

But there again, if you do have a painted and
shiny vehicle, you could give off some awesome
reflections like the reflection in the side of this
early bug of Stanford Hall.

This super cool looking Jungle green (L315) 1952
standard beetle (Type 11E) was delivered on 30th
July 1952 to 151 Vehicle COY at Lippstadt for use
by the British Forces. There is anecdotal evidence
that this very car was used to extract poor unfortunates
from East Germany through 'Checkpoint Charlie'.

The car returned to the U.K. in 1962 when the
Military Chaplin, who owned the car returned
home to Lincolnshire. The car was striped down
in preparation for a restoration, which never
happened. The current owner purchased the car
as boxes of bits and spent the next 3 years putting
all those bits together into what you see here.

This stunning 1960's Porsche 356B looked great
in it's all white paint. The 356B was produced from

1960 - 1963 and differed from the previous 356A
with various body modifications.

One of the body modifications was replacing the
single engine grille to twin grilles. Other small
modifications included an external fuel filler cap
and a larger rear window.

The super shiny hub cap on the 356 gave a great
reflection.

The split screen van club were at Stanford Hall
and they came in force with hundreds upon
hundreds of split screen buses of all descriptions
and years turning up.

Ooh, yes please! I did like this high top split. A
few years ago these were the ugly ducklings

of the split screen world but now these are so 
desirable, and it's easy to see why.

The perfectly straight rear panels, and the depth
of this paint on this split screen provided a perfect
reflection of all the other buses that were parked in
close proximity.

OK, I was trying to be artistic with this photo, I
tried to get the reflection of the split identical on
both sides... it almost worked, but its still a good
photo.

Stanford Hall is one of the split screen van club's
biggest meetings. There were so many splits to
look at, and each one was different.

A fantastic variety from all years made for a great
display, and a great photo opportunity. 

The early summer sun did get quite hot, and this
lovely little fellow had the right idea, get in the back
of a splitty with the rear hatch open and have a 

snooze.

The weather at Stanford hall couldn't have been
better, glorious sunshine all day made for a very
relaxed chilled out show.

I do like a shiny bus that gives off a nice reflection
of another bus.

This T25 Syncro has to be one of my favourite
vehicles at the show. Why? well because for one
it's all original and never been butchered about,
and two the owner who I had a quick chat with
has no intention of changing anything.

This gorgeous van has very low mileage and as
original as it left the factory. How many buses do
you see that have never had any changes to them?

The owner was saying that he has no intention
of selling it, and intends to keep it just the way it
is. The inside is just as clean as the outside.

So that was part one of three about this great one
day show. Next week will be the second instalment
where you can see more quality Volkswagen's
including more buses, bugs and Karmann's,
so be sure to come back next Saturday.

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