Saturday 12 May 2018

Volksworld Show 2018 (part 1 of 4)

The 2018 U.K. Volkswagen show season in the kicked off in style over the weekend of 24th  - 25th March with the Volksworld Show at Sandown Park Racecourse, in Esher, Surrey KT10 9AJ. This annual show is organised by the Volksworld magazine (www.volksworld.com/and it attracts entrants and visitors not only from the U.K. but also across the whole of Europe, and the U.S.A. Due to the excellent venue this show boasts two floors of top quality show cars, plus hundreds more quality vehicles on display outside in the show and shine arena and at the club stands, and you will even find plenty of quality Volkswagen's of all descriptions in the public car park. There are numerous traders selling everything Volkswagen, from curtains and cushions to wipers and wheels, and yet a another floor dedicated to an auto jumble, which is a good place to source those hard to find original items. There are numerous catering vendors where you can get some hot food and hot / cold drinks, but beware they are expensive (£5 for a bacon bap !). There is also an provision available for overnight camping for the hard core campers who want to spend all weekend at the show. Visitor numbers at the show each day run into the thousands and the day visitor car park gets full up very quickly so I decided to get an early start to ensure a good parking spot. The traffic on the Sunday based on past experience is far less busy than on the Saturday therefore easier to get into the show ground. It was the first run out this year for my 1969 microbus and a nice 100 mile round trip, and I have to say the bus ran perfectly. I heard on the grapevine that the show this year was organised by a new team.. I have no idea if this is correct or not, but one thing I did notice was that all the show cars inside the venue didn't have the normal A4 sheet of paper on display with the vehicles details / specifications / modifications etc on. This was particularly annoying for me as I use this info to add to the vehicles photos on the blog to create an interesting read (hopefully!), hence the write up on this years show cars will be a little vague.
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.


Upon entering the Volksworld Show, the first bus
that caught my eye was this gorgeous 1970 early
bay deluxe microbus adventure wagon. This bus is
the rare left hand drive sunroof model. The bus
sits nice and high thanks to Bilstien shocks and runs
on 16" steel wheels with BF Goodrich all-terrain
tyres that give this bus an awesome look.

This Californian bus was repainted by 'Paintbox',
The engine is up-rated with twin carbs and a
Vintage Speed stainless exhaust. The safari roof
tent was a neat accessory that suited the bus.
Those very retro '70's stripes make this bus stand
out and finish off the look. This bus was for sale
for £45,995 ($62,650 approx)

Parked up next to the adventure wagon was this
insane 1958 split screen single cab pick up. This
creation is 'Oklahama Willy' (as it spent most of
it's original life on a farm in Oklahama) and was
actually built in my hometown of Aylesbury. It has
a 1915cc race spec engine with a freeway flyer
gearbox with rack and pinion steering  and drilled
and vented  dual circuit disc brakes. 

In case the 1915cc race spec engine isn't your
thing, Oklahama Willy also has a working Rolls 

Royce Viper 535 gas turbine engine from a BAC 
strike master light fighter jet mounted on the 
strengthened pick up bed.

The turbine engine has been fully rebuilt and an
afterburner added which produces an extra 45 -
50%  power.  The maximum power of this mad 

motor is just under 5000 lbs. of thrust, which
converted is about 5000 BHP. The turbine burns
around 30 gallons of fuel per minute on full power.
The bus has run a 'demonstration' best time of
10 seconds with a top speed of about 150 MPH.

Even with the lack of information about each
vehicle on display, the standard of each of the
show vehicles was as high as ever. This lovely
'64 bug was built by Fubar 64 creations.

Detailing at it's best.. even the areas you don't
normally see were presented with the same high
quality as the areas you do see.

You can see just how straight and clean this
gorgeous beetle really is from this photo.

Wow! There's not much else to add. I couldn't
find out much about this awesome drag beetle
but looking this good I didn't need to.

This beetle's radical appearance can only be
described as a 'Marmite' look... (either you love
it or hate it!) and personally I love it. The apple
green flames against that purple paint looked
fantastic.

This car obviously had race intentions judging
from those huge rear wheels and that massive
rear spoiler.

This stunning Karmann Ghia was finished in
what looks like L384 Pampas green (although
I could be wrong) and the whole car, including
every nut and bolt was like new.

The interior of the Karmann was finished to the
same amazing high standard as the exterior.

Another immaculate vehicle on display was this
gorgeous stock looking early bay crew cab that
I think came over from one of the many European
exhibitors. 

This really was a lovely looking pick up. The single
colour L282 Lotus white (I think) looked great
over that super straight body. The stock ride height
with the stock wheels looked perfect.

This early oval window rag top beetle was another
vehicle on display of outstanding quality. The
perfectly straight body was finished in what looks
like L53 sealing wax red... Just look how clean
this old bug is and that amazing reflection under
the front wing.

The rag top, the fender skirts and the rear window
blind were all nice additions that helped this early
bug stand out.

This stunning 1954 ragtop beetle was totally
immaculate. The engine is the original 30hp unit
with a 356 oil filter and lightened flywheel. The
car was painted in that gorgeous L276 ultra
maroon metallic paint.

The ragtop has a 2" narrowed front beam, with
CB drop spindles with Koni shocks on all four
corners. Those lovely wheels are original Empi
radar wheels with Excelsior tyres.

Another rag top beetle was this awesome split
oval window bug. This really was a gorgeous car
that looked just about perfect. I believe this oval
won a 'Top 20 winner' award at the show.

It's easy to see why this beetle won the award, it
really is finished to an incredible standard.

This lovely 1961 Karmann Ghia convertible was
stunning. That Pacific blue (L398) paint suited
the car so much and was applied flawlessly. 

Power for this gorgeous slammed convertible
is from a street / strip 2110cc engine and turbo.
The engine is mated to a Rancho pro street
gearbox so it not only looks good, it'll go pretty
good too !

The diversity of the show vehicles was immense,
and the overall standard of the vehicles was so
high as you can see in this photo.

This stunning barn door bus finished in mid grey
and maroon was gorgeous. The deep red roof
and bumper detailing looked great against the
main grey body. This slammed bus looked as
though it had a narrow front beam as those Porsche
wheels are tucked right under the cab.

The interior was pure class and very well finished.

This old bus was so straight as you can clearly
see from this photo.

This gorgeous 1967 beach buggy finished in
Serpia brown with the hard top finished in
Alpaca brown looked amazing. The original
Porsche Fuchs wheels with the Dunlop vintage
racing tyres looked fantastic.

The dressed 1915cc engine with the twin Webber
48 ida carbs and the homemade 4 into 1 exhaust
looked really trick.

A fantastic diversity of air cooled vehicles were
present at this years Volksworld Show.  And as
normal with this show, all the show vehicles were
built to the highest possible standard.

This late 1950's / early 1960's Porsche 356B
coupé finished in orange with it's black stripe
looked great. I did like the yellow head light lenses
that made the front end stand out. 

This 356B is an early model as it only has one
single grille on the engine lid. Porsche changed
the design to twin grilles in 1962. The slammed
stance, the lack of front and rear bumpers and
the paint job made this Porsche look super tough. 

I did like this split screen crew cab pick up, the
lowered stance with the narrow front beam gave
the pick up that 'just right' look. The light blue
paint was an unusual choice, but worked so well. 

We know that the Type 14A Hubmuller is a pretty
rare car, with only about 100 still known to be in
existence, so to have 4 Hebmuller's at the show
was quite a treat.

Production of the Hebmuller started in June 1945
and ended in 1953 with only around 700 cars being
produced. The type 14A is based on the beetle
as you can clearly see.

These type 14A's certainly drew attention from
the thousands of visitors on both days over the
weekend, and it's easy to see why.

The Type 14A is considered by many as the most
desirable and rarest air cooled Volkwagens. This
reflects in the price and with a good example you
would be easily looking to pay £200,000+.

There is something about a panel van that rocks
my boat, and this velvet green split screen panel
van did just that. It was super straight and low, and
finished to the highest standard possible.

This split oval window beetle in what I'd describe
as a chrome yellow caught my eye for obvious
reasons.. and I loved it. The paint was so much
'in your face' that you just had to stop and look
at it. Of course it helped that it was a split oval,
that was lowered and had a super narrow front
beam.

Under the show hall lights, and against the chrome
blade bumpers this bug looked fantastic. The Fuchs
wheels were the perfect choice for the car.

This pair caught my eye, the modified body and
chassis on the 1959 buggy looked great and the
velvet green body with mesh grey interior looked
fantastic.

Although there didn't appear to be as many show
vehicles as previous years, the standard was still
to the same high quality as this row of beetle's
proves.

As I walked around the show looking at the show
vehicles I was thinking 'that's nice' to almost every
vehicle I saw.. then I spotted this amazing drag
beetle which stopped me in my tracks. The candy
apple red metal flake paint which sparkled under
the bright show hall lights brought back memories
of the drag cars back in the seventies.

The hand painted sign writing on the doors and
 pin striping were very reminiscent of the early
race cars back in the day. The one piece alloy
wheels were also very similar to the 'centreline'
wheels the old race cars used.

A humorous caption on the 'A' post panel which
was beautifully hand painted.

The overall look of this oval window bug was just
about perfect and looked so tough. The huge
stinger exhaust sticking out the back must let
the burnt exhaust gasses out pretty quickly!

Candy metal flake paint, pin striping and hand
painted sign writing on a oval window.. it really
doesn't get much better than this.

So that was the first of 4 instalments all about
the 2018 Volksworld show. Next week will be
part two where you will be able to see: More
bugs and buses, a Trekker or two and a hearse
split screen bus, so be sure to come back next
Saturday for the 2nd instalment.

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