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FEBRUARY 2016 VOLUME 62 ISSUE 13 FEBRU-RIFFIC!
Wagensville NewsTHE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE VOLKSWAGEN CLUB OF VICTORIA
GENERAL MEETING ALBERT PARK 18 FEB 6PM
FEBRUARY 2016Wagensville News 32
Wagensville News
VWCV Committee 2016n President Richard Graham [email protected] Vice President Andrew Ermel [email protected] Secretary Chris Scane [email protected] Treasurer Matt Reynolds [email protected] Editor Andy Ryan® [email protected] Associate Editor Josh Handicott [email protected] Web Master Julian Langlet [email protected] Club Historian Chris Scane [email protected] Technical Officer John Goodison [email protected] Membership Secretary Andrew Mengyl [email protected] Club Plate Scheme Officer Andrew Ermel [email protected] Cruise and Events Co-ordinator Chris Jeffes [email protected] Constitution & Association matters John Stevens [email protected]
Disclaimer: All material in this newsletter represents the opinions of the author(s) and does not carry any endorsement by the Editor or Committee unless otherwise stated. Any material advertised for sale does not carry any endorsement by the Club and the onus is on the purchaser to ensure the purchased goods meet their requirements. Each VWCV Member is a volunteer carrying out club duties in their own leisure time. The Club has no paid officials, only enthusiasts dedicated in furthering the interests of the Club and its members. Therefore, please bear this in mind when contacting Club Committee Members.
Wagensville is the monthly newsletter of the Volkswagen Club of Victoria Inc. Correspondence, articles and items of news or items for sale are invited and should be sent to: VWCV Editor: GPO Box 1215 Melbourne, Vic 3001 or [email protected]
VWCV MEMBERSHIP FEES
Single Annual Full membership $60Single 3 year Full Membership $155Family Membership additional $20 per mem/per yearMembership Joining Fee $10 first year only
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF OUR VOLKSWAGEN CLUB OF VICTORIA MEMBERS.
PRESIDENT | REPORT
Happy new year to everyone! We are already one month into 2016 and the year is going off with a bang. We just had our traditional Pizza night in Williamstown which is always a great event to start the year.
This year though, we incorporated an auction into the night to help a Ballarat VW family that tragi-cally lost everything except for the clothes on their back, in a fire just before Christmas. Many members from the VWCV and Ballarat Club attended the night.
There was a huge amount of generosity. From peo-ple donating great items, to the eager bidders who were happy to contribute a little bit more money for something.
Andrew Ermel will go over the night in his report. My thanks to all the people who came along and supported the night. Also a big thanks to Andrew E for being our auctioneer and keeping the pace moving.
Also to Michael C and John S for doing the money collections and keeping track on who bought what. And to Stuart Ermel who organised the 70 pizzas to keep everyone nourished whilst the heavy bidding was going! Great effort from great members.
We also had our usual Christmas party back in December at Lloyd’s Man cave. This event seems to continue to grow with over 120 people in attendance, 20 of which were kids! Lloyd, Lyn and John G did a great job of putting on a great array of food, drink and entertainment.
Peter Bruty and Marg provided old St Nick and his sack of toys for all the good children. A big thanks to Santa’s little helper, who quickly provided Santa with a fan before he melted away under that big red suit. Also to the people on the BBQ and everyone else who helped in a small way on the day.
This is now one of the best VWCV events we run and should continue to run for many years to come.
Now, onto the future. The committee hasn’t been relaxing as much as it would like over the holiday period. We have been busy planning the next 12 months so we can organise our usual events as well as trial some new ideas.
February will be a busy month with firstly the clubs attendance at the Torquay motor show on the 14th. Then we have our first general meeting to be held outside at Albert Park (see ad for details). On Satur-day the 20th we have our usual coffee meet but at a new location of Rocco and Co in Port Melbourne. And on Friday the 26th we have a Volkswagen only car show at A1 Autoparts in Niddrie.
This will be a great night of prizes for best cars, and 25% off store products on the night. So make sure you come along.
Don’t forget our campout weekend down at Kennett River is on again in early March. The Volkswagen crew booked out nearly 40 sites last year. Make sure you ring and book ASAP and don’t forget to mention you’re with the VW club so they put us all together.
The Bendigo Club has also invited us along to attend their ice cream run and also their Easter Extravagan-za on the Easter weekend. So there is absolutely no excuse for not dragging your VW out onto the roads at least once these next few weeks.
Regarding our events and how we promote them. Whilst we aim to have every event advertised in our Wagensville magazine, so everyone has plenty of notice to attend what they like to go to.
We would recommend that members who have access to smart phones and computers familiarise yourselves with our Facebook page and/or online event calendar.
Facebook, love it or hate it, is ultimately one of the best free pieces of computer magic out there.
It allows us to create events and advertise to a larger audience with absolutely no cost to run or to update. For those who aren’t on Facebook we also have a Google Calendar list. Both these can be synced to your personal calendars on your phone.
You will get reminders popping up when they are due to start or a few days prior. If any late changes are made, you will be notified much quicker than any paper magazine can do.
The life we live in now is very digital and we need to respond in such.
Don’t be one of these people that say “I’m too old to learn computers”. My grandfather is 87 and he emails and operates his computer just fine!
Remember we have our webmaster Julien who is happy to help you organise these things if you get stuck or hit a brick wall.
A short note I took my one year old son Lucas out for his first VW cruise the other day. My 61 beetle currently only has seat belts in the front and with three kids that all need booster seats, cruises in the beetle haven’t been as plentiful as I would like.
Anyway I was able to take Lucas out as his older two were at the grandparents that day. He had a ball sitting in his seat watching the world go by via a flat windscreen. We cruised the roads and had ice cream with some fellow dubbers.
The wonderful thing about an old dakdak is the con-stant noise tends to put tired kids off to sleep very easily so the boy was all recharged after he returned home to see mum. It’s always great fun to include your kids in your hobby and hope they develop some great memories from it. I’ll probably have to take him out again in it real soon just to ensure he’s hooked on the “bug” so to say!
Hope to see you at an event real soon!
Richard Graham
Richard GrahamPRESIDENT
February 2016Wagensville News 54
15 12 32
VICE PRESIDENT | REPORT
Seaworks on Friday 25th January was the first official VW Club meeting for this year. As usual for our starting meeting of the year the club had arranged for pizzas for the members and parking inside the Sea-works complex for our VW’s. The night was perfect and members took the opportunity to take exclusive photos of their VW’s on the jetty and around the Seaworks precinct.
This year we held a charity auction in aid of our fellow Vw club members from Ballarat the Jones Family. The arrangements for the auction were done at short notice but a lot items were donated for sale and spirited bidding on the night generated good prices for the items.
Thanks to Chris Jeffs and Richard Graeme for getting the event advertised on face book and on the web site at short notice. There were some exceptional items donated for the auction, including a limited edition Volkswagen in Australia book, by Rod and Lloyd Davies. This special edition copy was signed by both Davies Brothers and achieved the highest item price on the night of $650.
In all, the charity auction raised a total of $4,000 for the appeal and on the 2nd Of February we attended the Ballarat VW Club meeting and presented the cheque to the Ballarat club and the Jones family to assist them in getting back on their feet.
On the night, the auction began at 7.15pm and we sold about 30 items until the first lot of pizzas arrived at 8.10pm. We took a short break from the auction and returned to bidding at 8.30pm.
We completed selling all 60 donated items, when our second lot of pizza’s turned up 9.00pm.
These were enjoyed by all and moneys were paid for the wonderful items that the members purchased.
Thanks to all the people who donated items to the auction and most of all thanks to the VW club mem-bers from both Ballarat and the Melbourne clubs for their spirited bidding and participation.
Cheers
Andrew Ermel
February 2016 Wagensville News 076
Andrew ErmelVICE PRESIDENT & AUCTIONEER
February 2016 09
11Wendy Micheaux’s (Devil’s Details) donated this fabulous portrait of Stu Ermel.
13
HERBIE | RYAN MEREDITH
Wagensville News12
BA-DING! It’s 7:01am on a Thursday morning and it’s the familiar sound of my iPhone receiving yet another email to the mail app.
Although this email is far more interesting than the normal spam that comes at extremely odd hours, this email is going to wake me up and get me thinking fast, something very rare at this hour of the morning.It’s an email from the Volkswagen Club of Victoria with the subject line: “Free 1961 Beetle if you fully remove it”. From the photograph attached to the email it’s plain to see that Beetle is a “Herbie” that was used as life size play car past it’s prime.
An opportunity like this does not come along often and it’s the first time I’ve had the chance to pursue such a great experience. Being a little early to start calling the supplied mobile number no matter how keen this person is to have “Herbie” gone I choose SMS is my first point of contact and it pays off
Later that evening I am riding down the Eastern Freeway on my Vespa to the Springvale Rd exit to see Herbie and assess if I have the ability to succeed at the task at hand.
Having no experience with anything like this and no tools or vehicle to remove the Beetle on my own I needed an onsite assessment.
My attitude from the start was that I would take each development step by step and no matter what obstacles occurred it was going to be a great learning experience. If the “Herbie” was beyond repair I would be able to use a few parts here and there as spares for my quite respectably “Chopped” 1966 Beetle.
I see Herbie for the first time and ask the question that has been on my mind since the “Bading!” that awoke my slumber 11 hours prior “How did Herbie end up like this?”
“It was my son’s 5rd Birthday present he absolutely loved the “Herbie The Love Bug”, he had toys, tee shirts and everything else you could think of and it got to the point where the only thing left to get him was a real Herbie”. That was in 1989 and after growing up the last time the same lucky boy played in Herbie was in 1999, 16 years and a house extension later “Herbie” was literally trapped in the backyard. He had definitely seen better days and his only option of escape was losing a limb of two.
Upon my second visit to Herbie I had a better chance to inspect him in far better daylight than the previous evening and it became apparent that Herbie would be losing more that limb or two as the rust collected over the years had made him very brittle indeed. Upon lifting up the bonnet I was greeted with a “crack” the bonnet had completely separated from it’s hinges.
Herbie takes one last ride… The approach now being a salvage for parts, I proceeded to take the glass, chrome, badges, steering wheel and interior out and jammed in all into my
“Chopped” Beetle with the top down.
Making it home I made the necessary telephone calls and online bookings to make the recovery a reality.
I had my check list:
1. Hire a 9” Angle grinder with 7 cutting blades from Kennards
2. Hire 6 X 4 Trailer from Caltex
3. Enlist the assistance of a friend who is a welder by trade and conveniently the owner of 1980 WB Holden Ute (Desperate times produce the most unlikely of allies)
4. A free day for all three parties involved: Myself, Herbie’s current guardian and the only person I know who owns a Holden Ute and knows how to take apart a Volkswagen without giving it a second thought.
Wednesday maybe be hump day for most but it was go, go, go for us. Up at 6am and down to Kennards on Bridge Road Richmond, straight through the early morning traffic of CBD Melbourne out to Maidstone, a quick coffee then onto the Ballarat Road Caltex and straight down the road with no real turns to speak of until we were at the Springvale Road exit of the Eastern Freeway.
Leaving no room to lament we go stuck into remov-ing section by section and part by part of “Herbie”, salvaging what we could and patiently stacking piece by piece on the back tray of the Holden Ute and 6 X 4 trailer. We had completed the task by a little past midday and ensuring the lucky boy who was now a man got one last photo with “Herbie”, we were back
on the Eastern Freeway heading west and down to the final sorting of anything that could be salvaged before going to Sim’s Metal Recycling in Brooklyn for what was to be “Herbie’s” final resting place.
Everybody who was fortunate enough to get one last look at Herbie on the way there was smiling and the icing on the cake was when the man on the ground at the scrap yard greeted us with “Oh no Herbie’s dead!” He might be dead but he will always live on in my memory. Thank you Volkswa-gen Club of Victoria for sending out emails at very odd hours, it provided me with a fantastic learning experience and a day I will never forget.
Ryan MeredithMEMBER
15
TORQUAYMOTORSHOW SUNDAY 14 FEBRUARY
Well it’s sort of Volkswagen-related. This car is based on the 356. I’ll do better next month. Andy®
Wagensville News18
Since my family joined the VW club, I got all excited because I could learn the things that mum and dad did and when they talked about it, I could understand things and to make new friends. At first there were no kids so I just hung around mum and dad because I was shy. Gradually there were kids and I started to play with them. After a while I became good friends with a lot of people including a lot of adults. Some of them are Stuart, Andrew, Cheryl, Mike, Greg, Chris and Charmain and their dog Mel, Kerri, Libby, Woody, Vinnie, Andy, Mason and Min, Andy girl, Lyn and Lloyd and the grumpiest dog in the world:
BESSIE!My favourite cars are Karmann Ghias and Kombis. I even scammed mum and dad into buying a 1967 split screen Kombi that will one day:
BE MINE! I like to go on the club trips and I also helped build the beetle that got raffled off last year. I have volun-teered at DOVW in 2014 and 2015.
Tayla Handicott, age 11.
THE START TO NOW
February 2016 19
VCVW | COLLECTOR’S CORNER
February 2016 21
Maybe you collect Volkswagen Vases, tea towels or have a collection of model cars that would make a small child cry. Whatever you collect that is VW related, send us a short story and some pictures and show everyone how dedicated (or obsessed) you are. Josh Handicott
Starting a Model Collection(January 1986)This is Dave Evan’s series from 30 years ago… all good information for the potential collector and the message Dave has clarified would greatly help anyone getting their Volkswagen model collection started. Send us in some feedback on what you think.Please email Josh at: [email protected]
Wagensville News20
So you want to start a model car collection? Simple as it sounds this can be a recipe for disaster unless you plan ahead.
Two things are vital to your planning – how much storage/display space you have and how much do you want to spend.
Taken in order, space diminishes very rapidly when a few large scale models are displayed. With common model scales ranging from 1:8 (1/8 of full size) down to 1:87 (HO model railway scale, equal to 3.5 mm long for each foot length of the real thing), scale is the most important to consider.
Most modellers/collectors settle on 1:16/1:24 plastic models built from kits, 1:43 die-cast or resin models built from kits or pre-finished. The cash outlay is, of course, critical to the type and standard of the collec-tion you will accumulate.
To collect, say early tin plate ( pre-painted pressed metal models, some dating back to 1900), or 1940’s diecast such as ‘Dinky’ or ’Marklin’, is beyond the reach of most of us, with some items changing hands
for Hundreds of dollars each. A collection of current small die-cast (models) such as the 1:75 series by ‘Matchbox’ may be bought for $2-3.00 per model by contrast(remember these are 1986 prices)
For a Starter collection, I would recommend die-cast models, 1:43 scale or smaller, as these are easy to obtain, relatively cheap, durable and don’t take up too much room. Also damaged or scatched models are simple to restore, if you happen across some at a ‘trash and treasure’.
This subject may appear basic to most of you, but a little thought and planning in the initial stage can prevent later problems. It is advisable to choose a theme prior to starting a collection.
The range of collectable models is immense, as most cars built this century (20th) are represented in min-iature by some maker. Vehicles such as Henry Ford’s Model T and the Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ are modelled by the thousand!
To select a theme in collecting model cars, we could start with, say, sports cars, racing cars, emergency vehicles or the more common, but just as interesting, saloon cars. These rough categories may, of course, be further broken down to individual makes of vehicles.
Many collectors follow the on make’ theme, an exam-ple being my own collection of VW models. Makes like Ferrari and Porsche have a large and dedicated following of collectors around the world – I would say Porsche would be the most modelled make, especially the 911/930 versions, with VW a close second.
As this article is for a VW club magazine, the obvi-ous choice for many readers will be a collection of Volkswagens. Again, be warned, even the apparently simple decision like this can be fraught with danger – remembering your limitations of storage and available cash. As an example of what you couyld be in for , a fellow member of n international VW Model Club has some 1400 VWs in his collection and he only collects Type 1 ‘Beetles’.
The message I’m trying to convey is this: THINK SMALL. I advise a budding VW Model collector to start with a single body style, e.g. ‘beetle’, Type 2 or perhaps the Golf if you are inclined toward the ‘water-pumpers’.
Dave Evans (1986)
For SaleLOCATED IN BAYSWATER
1967 Beetle 1600cc motor, Total Reco/Rebuild 2000 – All documentation available. Porsche seats and velour interior, stereo/cd player. Vin SSE-AD-469341 $10,000 ONO.
Contact Robyn 0418 376 792 or Maggie 0419 137 167
VCVW | CHRIS SCANE
February 2016Wagensville News 2322
February 1996
Cameron Stewart was the Club President, Dave Evans was Vice President, Fran Oliver was Secretary, Debbie Farrelly was Treasurer, Rob Busselmann was Mem-bership Secretary, Group 5 Rep was vacant, Editor was vacant and Point Score/Public Officers were Louise Hosie and Jason Stone.
The committee had a good club program planned up to the end of March; including 6 motorsports events, a Country Drive #2 run by Jon Edsell and an General Meetings at Café Hotel, in Victoria St Nth Melbourne. Motorsport was again big on the agenda with a Group 5 Speed event at the Morwell Hillclimb facility in the second week of February that year.
This was followed by a Group 5 Motorkhana at Calder organised by Michael Clark and Round 1 of the Vic-torian Motorkhana series in Deniliquin, NSW on the 25th of that month.
Featured are great stories on club and local VW activities; A two page presidential report on the state of the VW nation and news that the club had lost its editor to other commitments and Hamilton’s warehouse had ceased to supply Volkswagen parts (an important outlet at that time) for economic reasons.
Other stories included the Audi TT, the New Beetle set to arrive in Australia soon,an Audi A4 achieves 1000km on one tank in an Australian Economy Run and details of the 1996 Bug In held in the Barrossa Valley, South Australia.
Look forward to seeing you all at the next VWCV event! Yours deep in VWCV history,
CornerHistor
ian’s
In this year’s ‘Corner’ we have some more interesting tales from our club newsletter, ‘Wagensville News’ and Volkswagen history.
This year marks 70 years since the Wolfsburg factory achieved a full year of production(for then) in 1946. That year is also the oldest Volkswagen in Austra-lia. How this achievement affects the potential for Volkswagens in Australia is worth exploring. I hope you enjoy these stories and please feel to contact me if you can help in developing the documentation our rich history.
February 1946The British running the Wolfsburg factory appointed the lawyer Hermann Münch as the chief trustee of the Volkswagen plant on February 26; he was primarily responsible for the financial sector and initiated measures to reduce costs. He sat down, inter alia, for co-determination rights of the works council, the appointment of a labor director and solving the
housing problems of employees, he also becomes General Director on June 17.
The British, who after 1946 saw a substantial increase in production Volkswagen sought a more experienced automotive manager. The choice fell on Heinrich Nor-dhoff, who succeeded Hermann Münch on 1 January 1948 as general manager. Dr. Hermann Münch ended his time at Volkswagen in April 1948 and withdrew into private life to Bad Homburg (not Bad Camberg), where he died in 1951, 3 days before his 66 birthday.
February 1986Tony Barton was the Club President, Rob Busselmann was Vice President, Mark Zellner was Secretary, Michael Clark was Treasurer, John Doering was Point Score Officer, Group 5 Rep was Michael Clark, Editors were Mark Holyoak & Baden Clissold, Jon Edsell was
Public Officer/Bug In – DOTVW Liaison Officer. The committee had a good plan for 1986 club year and the magazine was full of details on the club program full year; including 25 motorsports events to November. Other major events for VWCV members in
February were a Beach Run on the West Coast, the General Meeting at the Light Car Club of Australia in Queens Rd and the first Bowling Night at the Golden Bowl, Camberwell (great venue but long since gone! – CS) Featured are stories on club and local VW activi-ties; main features were on VW Sketching, Modeller’s Corner & Skoda News (see in this issue), Group 5 Gossip and the precursor of Historian’s Corner – This Month back when! (more in later issues this year).
Chris [email protected]
Send us your ideas!
I hope you enjoyed the cruises and events of last year. It’s time for the committee to map out this years’ activ-ities. What we would like is to hear from you what you liked, disliked and your ideas for the future.
This can include events to participate in, sights to see and cruises to little towns in the countryside.
Send through your ideas to [email protected]
I look forward to your ideas.
Regards,
Chris Jeffes
Contributions
THINGS | 2016
Are you a good writer? Have something to say? Are you an extremely bad writer? Do you know
what writing is? Have something to say? You could win a $50 JB Hi Fi voucher.
CALENDAR
Contributions Get your articles in for your chance to win $50!
Wagensville News24
New Coffee Run!Head on down to Rocco & Coe at 1 Fennel Street Port Melbourne on Saturday morning February 20.
February 2016 25
General MeetingAlbert Park 18 Feb 6pmIn keeping with the outdoor theme for Summer General Meetings we have enlisted the fabulous Kombi Burger mobile kitchen to provide food at the Swan Picnic Area Albert Lake.
Enter Albert Park from the Clarendon St/Augthie Dve white gates, then turn left in to Albert Road Dve. You will see us set up at the Swan Picnic Area.
Kombi Burger will be providing a delicious burger & salad to club members for $10, the VWCV will subsidise the rest. There will also be soft drinks & water available.
So head down after work in your VW and enjoy an evening in the park with food, VW’s and club members.
February 201618 Feb General Meeting
20 Feb Coffee Meet
26 Friday Night Car Show
Wagensville News26 February 2016 27
Skoda Newsfrom Wagensville News February 1986
Dateline Czechoslovakia (as it was then). Last month we let you in on a small secret regarding the new model, well its’ release has come and gone. With much success I might add.
The expected changes came and went with a lot of pomp and ceremony – Fellow Czechoslovakians are driving with increased comfort thanks to pneumatic tyres, Radials? Settle down!
Other changes which we can now pass on to you, the avid reader, were – in-dicators that actually op-erate from within the car (instead of getting your passenger to put his hand out to indicate turns).
The introduction of flow through ventilation (in-troduced at the same time as the deletion of fixed windows) and sealed front luggage compartment (doubles as a bathtub!).
Executives at Skoda were elated just recently when sales figures were compiled and it was evident that Skoda was outselling Hudson Terraplanes on interna-tional sales charts.
Plans to establish a Skoda register were cancelled recently when it was discovered that people who bought Skodas didn’t want their identities known!
Your roving reporter, NYETT
Interestingly the 1.3 Skoda Estelle was an unlikely hero of the Rallying world in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
It has be reported that the Skoda Motorsport works team won their class a staggering 17 years in a row on the RAC (Around Britain) Rally. John Haugland was the inspirational Norwegian rally driver respon-sible for Skoda’s success. Haugland is educated as a car technician and has gained much experience and skill in developing racing cars.
Chris Scane
[ SKODA 1986 ]BY CHRIS SCANE
Wagensville News28 February 2016 29
[ FASTBACK FIESTA ]
50 YEARS OF THE FASTBACK IN AUSTRALIATYPE 3
Calling all Type 3 Fastbacks, to celebrate.
Your VW club is holding a gathering of as many Fastbacks as possible in Melbourne (50 would be great – one for each year!), on Sunday 17th April.
We will be holding a cruise around Melbourne (their hometown) followed by a late lunch in a cho-sen location. More details in the next Club magazine (March Edition). More Details please email Chris Scane at [email protected] or message him on 0417 593 573 and he will send you further details when they are available.
February 2016 31
MEMBERSHIP | APPLICATION
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FEBRUARY 2016 VOLUME 62 ISSUE 13 FEBRU-RIFFIC!
Wagensville NewsTHE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE VOLKSWAGEN CLUB OF VICTORIA
