After a year off in 2017, the lads at the Herbie Hospital were in charge of this year’s charity raffle car again and they had done a cracking job of bringing a 90s show car, Peppermint Dream, back to life after it had been languishing in a garage for a couple of decades. Sadly none of us won, but it was great to see it finished and presented in fantastic fashion as a giant Matchbox car. Evidently Rich was having a lovely time selling raffle tickets and had even managed to come up with his own theme song!

Video: VW Festival Facebook Page

As in previous years, there did appear to be more watercooled stuff there than aircooled. That may have been down to us being there on the Saturday rather than the Sunday as in previous years.  Whilst not as plentiful, the quality of the aircooled stuff that was on show was very high, in particular some of the buses. I’m also hankering after a beach buggy – although now the weather has changed of late perhaps that’s not such a good call! As Bradley keeps pointing out, I have nowhere to put another one. Damn him and his facts!

We had a great day, but at £18 apiece for a day ticket, it does seem a little steep. The same issue had put me off going to Tatton Park the previous weekend and I’m just not sure how such high entry fees can be justified when compared to either Stanford Hall or even the Volksworld Show.

The post VW Festival 2018 appeared first on 72bug.com.

Previous years have seen the water cooled stuff feature more prominently but this year there definitely seemed to be a greater number of aircooled cars on show. One thing that doesn’t change is the ridiculously high standard of some of the cars. The top 3 aircooled cars – in particular the gorgeous black oval that took top spot – were stunning.

This year the lads at the Herbie Hospital took a year off from building the raffle prize beetle but that didn’t stop over 20 grand’s worth of tickets being sold for the Herbie-alike that the chaps at Slambassador had put together. Obviously I didn’t win – not that I’m exactly short of old Volkswagens……..

Talking of the Herbie Hospital, the flame bug at the top of the post belongs to Johnnie and up until earlier this year hadn’t seen the light of day since 1996. If I’m not mistaken it won the People’s Choice award on the Saturday!

The post VW Festival 2017 appeared first on 72bug.com.

September saw Betty’s 44th birthday – sadly I was in Dublin for work at the time – but not long beforehand she was treated to a new exhaust for the bug (thanks GSF for the lovely 35% off deal!). She sounds much less like a Spitfire now. And the more I see of the guys at the Herbie Hospital, the happier I am. Both the bug and the bus will be heading there soon to have the electric windscreen washer kits (thanks again GSF!) fitted, and Clarence will eventually get the rest of those seals fitted.

I did also find out that a pair of K2 Public Enemies will comfortably fit in the front of the bug on my way over to see my old pal Karen in Manchester a few weeks back, so that’s good to know. Fortunately I can still ski too, because it’s only 15 weeks until we’re back (home) in La Plagne.

I was just about to write that I didn’t manage to get to any shows, but that’s an utter nonsense because I did get along to Harewood House for this year’s VW Festival! I didn’t seem to get too many photos so, rather than do a separate post, you’ll find them below.

The post How did that happen? appeared first on 72bug.com.

I might be wrong, but there didn’t appear to be anywhere near as many aircooled cars on display as their watercooled cousins……….

The post VW Festival 2013 appeared first on 72bug.com.