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October 2007
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Inside Bad Camberg Part I
Canterbury VW Enthusiast ClubThe club was formed in July 1986 to cater for owners of these German automobiles. Its aim is to provide the opportunity for people to meet others with a common interest. Families and friends are all welcome.
The club was formed with the intention of being low-cost, easy going, and of course enjoyable for all those involved. Events are held
on a regular basis, and a newsletter comes out bi-monthly.
The club caters for all Volkswagens, from early vehicles right through to the new Beetle.
For further information check out the club web site: http://cantyvw.littleb.co.nz/ [email protected]
Committee contactsRob Leppard President 327 5900 [email protected]
Mike Thomson Treasurer 354 1020 [email protected]
Simon Fraser Secretary 325-3205 [email protected]
Wendy McArthur Memebership enquiries 360 2717 [email protected] (please include VW membership in subject line)
Rob Rate Newsletter/Web Editor 358 4554 [email protected]
Phil Upritchard 355 2087 [email protected]
Shay Burgess [email protected]
Peter Vaughan 027 289 1140 [email protected]
Jo Blakemore-Jones 021 126 3369 [email protected]
Tony Hutchison 027 232 5072 [email protected]
Online VW forumhttp://www.nzveedubnuts.com
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Rob’s reportCrikey… time again to put pencil to paper for the October issue of the new look club magazine…
Well we hope you like the new front cover look of the club magazine in all its glorious technicolour.
As you would have realised, Rob R's Kombi on the August cover was the featured vehicle in that issue. This is something we are going to continue to do for future issues and we hope it will give you all the inspiration to put a few words down about your VW.
Whether it's a restoration project or a full blown on the road and running one, or an interesting journey you’ve made in it… the club magazine would love to feature your story, and as a bonus, you get to see your pride and joy on the cover.
With Christmas coming up and the new year around the corner, we have thought of producing a Club calender for 2008, perfect for remembering club nights and dates of other events for the next year, like the Nationals etc. The price is expected to be $10 each.
Now, this is where you come in… I'm sure we collectively have hundreds of pictures / photos of club vehicles and others to boot, but the idea for this calendar is that any club member that wishes, submits to us one photo that ‘does it’ for you.
It must obviously include a VW (and be suitable for hanging up in the kitchen with the mother in law around!). It can be a scenic shot or an arty one of your own VW, the choice is yours.
Email a preview of your picture to [email protected] no later than the end of November 2007 (please keep the file size to around 100kb or as a thumbnail image). We can then contact you when we have chosen the pictures for this year to get the image for printing. And for those that don’t make it to the calendar we will feature them in future issues of the magazine.
Righto, that’s enough from me for now… but just before I finish, remember—summer's almost here, club night cruises and warm weather can’t be bad, coming up is a winery run and the Christmas car rally, Das Alpentour's 5th Classic Volkswagen Weekend early next year—and already there is big talk of the Nationals at Easter and the idea of a serious convoy… bring it on!
Happy dubbing Rob
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2007
NovemberWinery trip Sunday 18th November We'll be visiting a selection of Waipara wineries, and ending up at a café. More details via email soon.
DecemberCar rally Sunday 16th December. Christmas theme to a mystery destination.
2008
JanuaryCruise Sunday 20th January—to a beach destination.
FebruaryDas Alpentour Saturday 2nd – Monday 4th February at Hanmer Springs.
Oxford to Brighton run Weekend of 16 – 17th February. Camp out at Ashley Gorge and cruise to the beach the next day.
Hair of the Dog Peter Vaughan’s place (Rakaia Island). Date to be confirmed.
MarchVW Nationals Easter 21 – 24th in Cambridge
JuneCool Air Run Orari (date to be confirmed).
Coming events
Regular eventsRegular club events are planned for the third Sunday of the each month.
Monthly club meeting and cruiseLast Wednesday of the month 7pm leaving from Tower junction carpark (outside Bunnings Warehouse).
Club committee meeting Third Tuesday of the month 7pm in the Higgs Builders board room, 11 Michelle Road, Sockburn.
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Club run to MethvenIt was a bright sunny Sunday and the engines were ready, and it was windy ‘a’ bro so till next time, we'll know, and now we DO know what's in ‘Windwhistle’ we won't ever have to go there… again. And what about the wind, it's like driving a brick through wobbly treacle in an oscillating tray.
Sideways drifted the Kombis as the wind swooped upon the camera and lots of photos were taken, especially of them sitting all in a row on some country road. While a flock of pink elephants flew over the convoy of VWs seen through the Kilkenny glass of beer at the end waiting for Ron and Phil told off for shopping at Methven.
Cruising on the right path and safely happy and full off pies, cake, coffee and pop having had a fabulous day we all finally headed home for a nap, before the next big adventure began.
The end.
the metric nut ltdaircooled volkswagen service & parts
workshopUnit 4, 16 Newtown StreetBromleyChristchurch, New Zealand
Mark Andersonp (03) 384 3627m 021 911 916e [email protected] www.themetricnut.co.nz
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Committee reportThe Committee meet again recently to discuss future events and the running of the club.
We are starting to feature advertisements within this newsletter from a few companies who are associated with our hobby. These organisations are paying to advertise and as such this helps the club's finances which helps to keep the costs down to members.
Please support these companies as they are supporting and sponsoring us. It would be nice to think that you looked to our sponsors first.
The Club Committee is continually looking at new and exciting events and activities for the members including the possibility of some Club merchandising, a Club calendar (featuring members cars), a night camping at Ashley Gorge (with a drive from Oxford to Brighton), just to mention a few.
Please ensure that you contribute by sending in articles to our editor (Rob Rate) for future additions of the Club newsletter.
All for now The Committee
* 100% original bus brand* bus inspired printed tee’s for ages 2yrs up* secure online shopping* visa and mastercard accepted* worldwide delivery
visit us online at...
www.pacifikkamper.com
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Passionate about vintage VolkswagensAuthorised dealer for Wolfsbürg West
Wolfsburg Classics P O Box 4422 Christchurch
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Bad Camberg ’07 Peter Vaughan
Every four years a small village in Germany with the unusual name of Bad Camberg, sees people from all over the world descend upon it.
The reason, vintage Volkswagens, the Olympic Games of vintage Volkswagens.
To the hardcore enthusiast, it is the dream event, the must attend, once in a lifetime opportunity. To the not so hardcore, it should be! You simply must put this on your list of “things to do” in this lifetime, it’s that good.
For many it is a pilgrimage of sorts, a return to where it all started. It is quite an overwhelming experience, a sensory overload. I could go on and on about how good it was and still not have you understand just how good.
The following is my experience of the road to Bad Camberg. I hope I can evoke the same emotions I felt during that journey…
I had just spent two weeks in Los Angeles doing the OCTO and VW Classic week with good friend and fellow club member Simon Fraser. Normally a trip like that would be enough to satisfy anyone for a long time. It is such an intense time, cramming so much into too short a day, Day after day. But that’s another story on it’s own!
After two weeks of sheer bliss, (unfortunately Simon had to fly home), I had my European leg to look forward to. I boarded a Lufthansa flight bound for Frankfurt and nothing could dampen how excited I was with what was about to unfold, not even a 12 hour flight. My plan was to rent a car and head for the town of Wolfsburg immediately I arrived. Everything was going well until I hit the rental car desk, my car was booked, no problem there, the upgrade to include satnav was sorted, no problem there, present my drivers license, no problem… #%$&, unbelievably I found myself staring at the expired date on my
upsidedown license. My license had just expired and I had no idea, my trip of a lifetime was looking like it was about to come crashing down around me. Unbelievably, the dude on the desk didn’t notice and I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him. For a split second I pondered the risk of driving in a foreign country on the wrong side of the road, no license, no insurance…
Those thoughts were put to
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the back of my mind, Wolfsburg was punched into the satnav and off I went. I had been up for 24 hrs by this stage and an optimistic 240 km drive (from memory), lay before me. Time was of the essence. I was about to experience the Autobahn, driving the middle lane, and all at 100 mph! I did over 2000 kms driving and never saw any dangerous driving at all.
An hour or two into the drive, I could feel the lack of sleep creeping up on me. The solution for that was to call in at one of the many gas station/rest areas dotted along the Autobahn. I stocked up on loads of Red Bull and somewhere I remember reading that driving in bare feet with the air-conditioning on cold, blasting your feet was good for keeping you alert. A combination of the two saw me arrive in Wolfsburg safe and sound.
I cruised around the town, sorted a hotel for the night, then found the fastest route to the VW Museum for the following morning.
When the following day dawned, I was up with the rabbits and rearing to go. I swear there are more rabbits than people living in Wolfsburg, they were absolutely everywhere. All over town, if there was a patch of grass, then there were rabbits to be seen, almost plague proportions. I’m wondering if that’s what inspired the naming of the VW Rabbit.
I had a little time to kill before the Museum opened, so I hit an internet cafe then went and filmed the view you get of the factory. This was the first thing that stopped me in my tracks, the first moment that made me take stock of where I was. I was ambling along in the general direction of the factory where upon I glanced up to be greeted with the sight of the famous giant chimney stacks. There I was, standing in a street in Wolfsburg staring in awe at one of the most iconic and photographed sights to do with VW. Holy shit, here I was at last. My reaction was one of amazement. All the photos you see and all the articles you read, nothing prepares you for that moment.
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I was literally knocking the door down waiting to get into the Museum, the anticipation was killing me. Finally the doors open and I am inside, the day was starting out great, they let me in free as they were moving some of the cars around to clean the floors!
There is a small reception and foyer that sold all manner of souvenirs, obviously I had to add to my collection of VW stuff, what better place to do it. From reception, you walked along the foyer leading to the Museum proper. The walls were littered with early advertising, displays and cabinets full of all sorts. There was a mind blowing display of all the bud vases that were ever made and trinkets everywhere. On the wall, immediately before you entered the main hall, was a complete Oval dash just stuck there, a real work of art.
Armed with my video camera I turned right and was confronted with a sight that I had anticipated for so long, I’m not sure if I could put into words the feelings it conjured up. Every which way you turned, there was something of huge interest. My camera rolled pretty much the whole time trying to capture what was before me. All the models of VW were there to see, from late model stuff right back to the very earliest there is. I wandered around and around and back again, looking and videoing over many, many hours. There was something very special about the place, it wasn’t just the vehicles, I had seen loads of cars and buses better than many on display. What it was I think, was the history, the anticipation and finally the realising of a dream I had harboured for so long. It was pure Volkswagen indulgence.
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The afternoon rolled around and I needed to press on. I had decided on a route that was shaped like a triangle, from Frankfurt up to Wolfsburg, then across to Belgium through the bottom of Holland then back towards Bad Camberg.
On the way to Belgium I stayed in an amazing old village that was the home of the Westfalia factory and museum. After finding a small hotel for the night I wandered around the town centre, the streets were all cobbled and very narrow. You couldn’t have widened them even if you wanted to as the houses were right there. Very narrow streets, a tiny footpath, then the houses. Many of them had the dates carved into them, most of them built in the early 1600s, I thought that amazing until I got to Bad Camberg and found they were celebrating 1000 years old, incredible.
There appeared to be as many pubs as people, they were everywhere. Outside of all the pubs were heaps and heaps of bicycles all leaning up against the pub. All the locals, (and all of them men, I never saw any women), rode to the pub. It was common to see a half a dozen old dudes riding along in a gaggle, chatting away while making their way to the pub. Drunk in charge of a bicycle, I can only imagine how they all looked on the way home.
Bright and early the next morning I visited the Westfalia Museum, I had the place to myself for a couple of hours. Again the video camera worked overtime. It was awesome, (that word again), to see the development of the Westfalia Camping Box and the different buses they were installed in.
They had a period built Camping Box interior for the Barndoor bus laid out in the museum that was very cool to see.
Time again to move on. BBT in Belgium here I come.
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BBT for those that don’t know is a large VW business in Antwerp, Belgium. Every four years Bob Van Heyst, the owner, organises a convoy from his business to Bad Camberg. The generosity he displayed was phenomenal. His business is located in a modern business precinct with BBT occupying two of the commercial buildings. One of them holds his shop and parts warehouse, the other houses his mind-blowing collection of all things Volkswagen. It would have to rate right up there with some of the best collections anywhere in the world.
Bob is famous for his convoy, there are 250 odd registrations to be a part of the convoy. As people from all over arrive, they were required to register. This was being done out of the side of not one but two Mango green SO23’s, $%#&, what a sight, Everyone that registered received a really awesome bumper badge for their troubles.
I arrived midday on the Thursday, there was a fair amount of activity with a good mix of VWs parked up. As the afternoon wore on more and more and more turned up. Every available space saw someone parked up ready to camp the night. By evening it was almost impossible to move, not only on the BBT premises but all the neighbouring businesses as well. Nobody seemed to mind that you couldn’t move, customers couldn’t get to where they wanted to go, it was bordering on chaos. What a spectacular sight though.
Bob’s generosity extended to feeding and watering 1400 people, he laid on a fully catered meal for all those people. On site, was a truck converted to a bar from which beer flowed freely all night. The following morning breakfast was laid on as well, incredible and all free.
For the entire afternoon and evening I just walked around taking more and more video, taking in all the visitors cars and the collection in the
warehouse, stunning, amazing, unbelievable! There were people there from all over the world, all nutter enthusiasts, all eating and drinking and soaking up the atmosphere. It was difficult to comprehend, to take in so much. Everywhere you looked was some of the finest vintage machinery you are ever likely to see.
Many of you will know UK Scotty, he was out here 6 or so months ago. He is the very proud owner of a very early Barndoor that he had just got back on the road. It is slammed to hell, running a
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narrowed beam and running a big engine, oh yeah! I knew he was coming to BBT for the convoy but was quite unprepared for what I saw. Scotty led in a convoy himself, the UK barndoors had arrived, #$%&!. From memory, I think there were 14 UK Barndoors at Bad Camberg, and here were a fair number of them all rolling in together, will I ever see anything like that again!
On the Friday morning just before set off, the whole place was out of control, at the end of the road where BBT is located the road tee’d off. To the left was a bus depot and to the right was a trucking operation. It was utter chaos with huge trucks and buses trying to squeeze past almost priceless vintage Volkswagen tin. It got so bad that the whole place became grid locked. Tempers were flaring and just as it looked like it was going to go completely belly up, the local Polizei turned up, and just as well.
The road was closed to further traffic and with police assistance, the log jam was cleared. The police then waved the convoy off to a start. With video camera running, I managed to catch most of the cars leaving for Bad Camberg, some eight hours drive away.
I got into my rental car and set off to chase the convoy down and try to video the convoy while driving on the wrong side of the road, and remember, I’m doing this without insurance and no license.
Good fortune arrived though, I started to catch the convoy up just as they hit the Autobahn. This was always at least 3 lanes wide, all the VWs were rolling along at about 80 kph in the slow lane. I created an awesome roadblock in the middle lane as I drove by filming everything I could. I swear there were several kilometres where I didn’t see too much of the road. You will have to see the footage to believe it, picture vintage VW after vintage VW for as far as the eye could see, how do you describe that!
Bad Camberg here we come!
To be continued…
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HeadingThe VW cvamper was adored by hippies and holidaymaking families alike. Now, as it reaches its 60th birthday, the retro van is bringing joy to a new generation of fans.
It is not only the rain that is reminding us of British summers of yore. A familiar sight on our roads is also evoking a forgotten past. Bug-eyed jalopies are once again hogging the inside lane of our motorways, holding up traffic. The Volkswagen Camper van is back. Sixty years after its birth the cheerfully coloured retro mini-bus, popularised by hippies 40 years ago, is enjoying a huge revival.
“VW Camper vans have always been popular in Britain but this year everybody wants to get on the road in one,” said James Peene of Volksworld Camper and Bus Magazine. “The world has gone crazy for them. They have become the funky, fashionable must-have accessory of the summer of 2007.”
He claims the revival was started two years ago when chef Jamie Oliver, in his series Jamie’s Great Escape, toured Italy in one of the vans. And Peene says his magazine’s rising circulation is proof that the iconic mobile chalet is not a nostalgic flash in the pan. It is not only Jamie who has embraced the much-loved van. Comedian Vic Reeves has bought an original model, while actor Martin Climes is so enthusiastic about them he has bought a matching pair. The VW Camper featured in last year’s Oscar-winning road movie Little Miss Sunshine and it starred in the Pixar film Cars as the hippy van called Fillmore.
It was also recently seen in the hit television series Lost, and the high-street fashion chain French Connection paid a model to drive one around London with its name plastered all over it.
“There has been an explosion in people wanting the vans,” said Ben Purcell, director of Bristol-based company Seven Degrees West, which hires out VW Campers for £650 a week or £350 for a weekend. “We
started in February with only four vans but we could have done with 10 times as many We have had to turn down more than 500 potential customers.”
Purcell believes the popularity of the old Campers is partly to do with an increase
in environmental awareness. “It stands for the opposite of a jet-set life,” he said, “partly because flying abroad is such a hassle and partly because more and more people are enjoying Britain instead.”
He added: “There has been a huge increase in alternative holidays in this country” Purcell has named each of his vans after shipping forecast areas.
‘it stands for the opposite of a
jet‑set lifestyle’
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“The Camper van is an alternative to camping or a cottage, and it does not have the connotations that come with a caravan and yet it has all the advantages,” he said. “It is an iconic and funky way to travel. Our customers are coming back with tales of how people are waving at them, giving them the thumbs-up and starting conversations simply because they are in an old VW.
“It is an experience similar to cruising Britain’s canals — the essence of both is to travel slowly and chill out gently” It was in August 1947, shortly after the end of the Second World War, when the British were temporarily running the Volkswagen works in Wolfsburg, Germany, that Dutch VW importer Ben Pon spotted a collection of motorised trolleys being used to take car parts around the vast factory floor. The makeshift work vehicles were made from stripped-down VW Beetles. Pon was inspired by these crude machines to design a van to sit on top of the Beetle chassis, a vehicle that even he later admitted looked like “a box on wheels”.
He took the idea to Heinz Nordhoff, who was shortly to become the chief executive of the company, and in November 1949 the VW Type II (Type I being the Beetle) was launched at the Geneva Motor Show. It was called the “Bulli”, meaning workhorse. It was an immediate success. It was the first commercial vehicle in which the driver was positioned above the front wheels (an idea that was later copied by the Ford Transit) and with an engine in the back. The result was that while it had the same dimensions as a VW Beetle it was Tardis-like inside. The first generation, built from 1949 to 1967, were known as split-window buses or “splitties”. They sported a split windscreen and a sweeping V-line front boasting a large VW emblem. They were pressed into service as buses, pick-ups, fire engines, ambulances, ice-cream vans, milk floats, mobile butcher’s and grocer’s shops and ordinary delivery vans. All were spacious enough to
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carry a 15-hand horse but, unfortunately, they all handled like a cart horse.
In 1951 the Camper, with its tiny fittings and furnishings, was introduced. And in a Europe, where holidays were mostly limited to local resorts, where travelling was still difficult, expensive and mostly done by public transport, the VW Camper van was a revelation. “It epitomised
a home from home,” said Peene. “It was a revolutionary postwar idea that took off among ordinary folk across the UK and the Continent.” Its popularity continued into the Sixties when it was adopted by that decade’s counter-culture. Bands like the Grateful
Dead used it and when it was painted, frequently in psychedelic colours with the peace sign replacing the VW motif, it became a symbol of the hippy movement, its boxy, utilitarian shape in stark contrast to the sleek American cars of the day.
At the height of the Flower Power movement in the 1967 Summer of Love, a new model that was not dissimilar to the “splitty”, but without a split window and therefore known as the “bay window” model, was introduced. The bay window version lacked some of the personality of the original but made up for it with the luxury of winding windows and a top speed of 80mph.
After 1979, the new models were known as “wedges” and were sneered at by original enthusiasts as “bungalows on wheels”. This new model was the Camper van used by young Australians to do the grand tour of Europe in the Sixties and Seventies. The Aussies nicknamed them “Kombis” and sold and re-sold them on the streets around London’s South Bank.
In America, they were called “Vee-Dubs”. The Portuguese call them “Pão-de-Forma” (Breadloat), the Danes call them “Rugbrød” (Rye Bread), while in Peru it is called a “Combi Asesina” (Murdering Combi) due to the notorious recklessness of local bus drivers. The bay window model remains Brazil’s national car and is still made there — the last country to produce it. It is used by the civil guard, the police and ambulance services, and it is now being exported to Britain, in particular to Danbury Motorcaravans, Bristol, to be converted into Campers. “We are turning out bright new old-style Campers,” said managing director Christopher Jones, who claims his company is the last in the world still to be converting new retro-vans into Campers.
“We are selling them to all sorts of people — to surfers in their 20s, to young families for their holidays and to older people who remember how much they loved the old vans in the Sixties and Seventies.” He is
‘it was a postwar idea that took off for ordinary folk’
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also selling to the rich and famous, including to the daughter of the Duke of Westminster, one of Britain’s wealthiest men. “We are selling Campers to about a dozen major celebrities a year,” he said. “I have even had to sign confidentiality agreements with all of them. There are some very prominent people who have bought old number plates, so nobody knows who they are. It’s a chance for them to escape the celebrity life.” And the reason celebrities, like the rest of Britain, love the retro VW Campers, which can cost over £40,000, is the friendliness, reliability and practicality of them, said Christopher Jones. “They hark back to the days when things were simpler and all seemed well with the world, yet they are still one of the best camper vans around. Nothing has been invented that is better fit for purpose than a new retro VW II.”
In October, Volkswagen is hosting a celebration of the van at the Hanover Exhibition Centre in Germany. Hundreds of unusual, historic Campers are expected to make the journey to the event. “Scarcely any other vehicle evokes as many emotions as the VW Bulli,” said Stephan Schaller, a spokesman for Volkswagen. “It stood for a new departure, economic success, independence as well as fun and travel. And it has remained a real cult vehicle.” In Britain, it’s not just a cult — it is also an ideal way of camping when it’s raining. And over this summer, in particular, that has come in rather useful.
18www.upperclassics.com
Upper Classics NZ Ltd2-4 Halls PlaceChristchurchPhone 03 962-7700
October Fest Bronnie Rate
Well I guess I have a different perspective to those that go to these events— because they just love the whole VW thing—I simply go for the people you get to meet, the simple calm and down to earth atmosphere (even the sounds of the country environment) and the spontaneous ability for fun when a group of people with a common interest get together.
Of course it means a couple of late nights around a fire, in a paddock, beside a huge workshop bursting with VW paraphernalia… loads of fun with no effort.
We took the kids this time and saw a little more of the sights Oamaru can offer (penguins, limestone etc and then found more to check out for next time) we had an excellent weekend marred only by our air bed having a leak. OK it's pretty cool hanging around stylie/cute vehicles too!
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MORE FUN THAN A
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