Sunday 31 March 2013

10,000 views of my blog. !

10,000 views of my blog about my 1969 Microbus. A massive thank you to everyone who has visited my blog in the past, I hope you liked what you saw and read, and I hope you come back soon to see my new entries. I do know that on some PC's the page may take 15-20 seconds to load, I'm not sure why this this, but I'm working on finding out why, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Many thanks to all of you. Dave.
 
 
 
 

Friday 29 March 2013

Volksworld show 2013, part 2

Part 2 of the Volksworld show write up starts in the main hall with the quality show cars and some of the show winners. To see photos of all the 'top 20' show winners, and of course the 'best of show' winner, check out the Volksworld website at:
 

This gorgeous early beetle was the first car
to be seen as you entered one of the halls,
and the attention to detail was superb. This
could be why it won the 'Best in show' award.

Such a lovely looking car, I do like fender
skirts on early bugs. This really was like brand
new, everthing including every nut and bolt
was immaculate.

The variety of cars on show was diverse and
this 1966 Karmann Ghia type 34 is as diverse
as it gets.

Pure race orientated with a 2165cc type 1
magnesium engine, it also had a tube chassis,
 and was even FIA approved. The driver of
this beauty was Ron Lummus.

Hubba, hubba... There were plenty
of pretty Volksworld girls on hand 
to give out show brochures through
out the weeknd.This stunner caught
my eye and I just couldn't resist
asking her if I could take her photo,
she seemed to like the attention!

A friend of mine, Tom Dunkley who is a member
of the 'Wolfsberg Weed Huggers', a VW
club about 10 miles away from my hometown
 was luckily enough to have his 1966, 1300
deluxe beetle accepted to display in the main
hall.


Tom had spent about 2 years creating this
beauty, and it features a 4" narrowed beam
with dropped spindles, with disc bakes up front.
It has a 1776 motor with an engle 110 cam
and twin 40 dellorto's and a Gene Berg dual
quiet pack exhaust.

As you would expect Tom paid attention to
detail even under the hood. Well done Tom,
great looking bug.

In one of the halls they had erected a replica
of a VW showroom from the 1950's with
some stunning examples. This beetle was
100% original.

Another stunning example was this 1956
Denzel S 1300, it has an aluminium body that
was hand made in Vienna. The number of
these cars left in the world you could count
on one hand.

Simply stunning rear end. How did they create
such beautiful curves by hand back in '56?

Another beautiful looking car,
with a aluminium and
steel body, again hand made.

Really early convertible beetle in stunning
mid yellow and deep gloss black.

How nice does this look, can't even imagine
what this could be worth.

This 1963 1500cc Beutler really stood out with
it's bold paint job and unusual pick up body
conversion.

The hand crafted pick up bed really is a work
of art.


No prize's for guessing what year this is..
Unfortunately that's all I remember about this.


This was a 'top 20' winner at the show but for
me, it was the car of the show. It's a 1959 
Rometsch Lawerence coupe, with a hand
built aluminium body, over a steel and
wooden frame which would have taken
approimately 1000 man hours to create.



Apparently the Berlin based workshop only
created about 250 of these coupe's, and to buy
one new would have cost  8000 Deutchmarks,
which was twice the price of it's rival at the time,
the Karmann Ghia. This Rometsch in this
condition is probably now worth well over
US $40,000.


It was designed by Bert Lawerence, and the
body sits on modified beetle chassis, the
radical design won the Golden Rose Award
of Geneva in 1957. I didn't find out much about
this particular Rometsch, but I didn't need to, I
just needed to stand admire it.


Interior looked a bit ratty but it looked
original and that just adds to it's charm, and
value.

Another top 20 winner was 'Evil Bens' the 
Devils Milk Float. Its was built by Keller
Karosserie in Lampertheim,Germany in
1973.The body has been chanelled 3"
over the chassis with the cab floor raised
4.5". It has a 4" dropped beam and
flipped spindles.

The interior is called 'the smoking room'
It's interior has modified 1965 split screen
bus seats, original OG carpet and the steering
wheel is from a 1956 Masey Ferguson Tractor.

The flatbed has been tubed to make room for
the 5.5" Fuchs rear rims. The whole body and
flatbed sits on a 1965 split screen chassis.
Handmade oak panelling compliment the body.

It's running a 1600cc type 3 engine with
dellorto carbs and a four into one exhaust

A 'Moon' fuel tank keeps the flatbed looking
nice and neat. A custom made canvas cover
keeps everything under wraps.

The 'Cool flo' guys had this on show... loving it.

Very straight split screen. Just look down the
side panels, how straight?

A somewhat modern version of the classic
split screen.

Keep it simple, it'll get noticed. Less is more
as the saying goes.
 

Very unusual way to keep the doors open..
with a VW script stay bar.

Very early split pick up with canvas cover. I
would love one of these, not sure what I'd do
with it, but I'd love one anyway.

Back outside in the cold I spotted this oval
bug in the public car park. The car park was
full of really nice vehicles.

Talking of which, how about this '68 Karmann
Ghia finished in turquoise.

Again just parked up in the car park, this was
not far off being show standard. 

Bargain.!

Rat looking beetle just inside the venue.

Alongside the rat looking bug was this even
rattier looking spilt.

Now this I did like, I do like the Alpine Rally
looking bugs and buses. It must something
about me wanting to be back in the Swiss
alps... happy days.

One day we'll all have something similar to this
and we'll all meet up at the beach. 

Talking of the beach... the beach buggy stand.
I do like metal flake paint, reminds me of my
childhood, and it suits buggies perfectly.

This turquoise metal flake was gorgeous when
the light caught it.

The simplicity of a beach buggy is so desirable.

Moving on, this lime green baja was loud, and
that was just the paint!

This split screen was lovely. From the two
tone paint, to the colour coded bumpers to the
deluxe trim and the safari screens.



Karmann Ghia. Very low, very clean.

How about this for a clean razor edge. Nothing
flash or fancy, just very clean and straight,
lowered and a nice set of wheels.

Karmann Ghia was very similar, very clean
very straight and very low. Just about perfect.

Wheel choice can make or break a car, and
these wheels on the Karmann definitely make
the car.

The engine bay on the Karmann was as you
expect just as clean and tidy as the rest
of the car.