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eMag Sept 2011
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The Volkswagen Beetle…one of the best selling cars of all time 1
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Automobile Engineers, Panel beaters & Spray Painters
OFFICIAL DEALERS FOR NISSAN & MERCEDES BENZ
P.O. Box 72283, 00200 City Square, Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 – 20 – 555692, 557562, 550178 Fax: +254 – 20 – 530596 Email: cms-workshops@africaonline.co.ke , cms-admin@africaonline.co.ke
From Start…
To Finish
Vintage or Classic car restorations, mechanical repairs, panel beating and spray painting, we do it all!!
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In This Issue
Page 4.............................................................Committee Contacts Page 5.............................................................Chairman’s Desk Page 7..................................................................Editor’s Desk Page 8……………………………………………………………………….Forthcoming Events Page 9 & 10……………………………………………………………………….Outings Page 11 - 14………………………………………International Article – The Volkswagen Beetle Page 15………………………………...................Sokoni Page 16 & 17….....’Hapa Kwetu’ – Concours D’elegance Page 18………………………….Chill Out Corner Page 19…………………………Club Page
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Committee Contacts Chairman
Monte Singh Vice Chairman
chairman@vccck.org 020 – 555692 PO Box 72283 – 00200 Nairobi
Treasurer
vicechair@vccck.org 020 – 552854 PO Box 18381 – 00500 Nairobi
Nitin Pandit Membership
treasurer@vccck.org 020 – 4440772 PO Box 20497 – 00200 Nairobi
Secretary
Brian Nicol
membership@vccck.org 0729 – 984376 PO Box 15184 – 00509 Nairobi
Cilla Young Editor
secretary@vccck.org 0722 - 738069
Merchandise
Raju Chaggar
James Dyson
editor@vccck.org + 44 7889 125 782 4 Caxton House, Oxted Surrey, RH8 0TE
Peter Young Events
merchandise@vccck.org 0720 - 740821
Pavi Panesar
events@vccck.org 0734 – 600541 0728 - 600541
Reciprocating Clubs Vintage and Classic Club Of Matabeleland Vintage and Veteran Club
Old Auto Club Border Vintage Club
Club Sponsors Chequered Flag Ltd Nanak Car Parts Ltd Unifilters (K) Ltd Domaine Kenya Ltd Arun’s Auto Ltd
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Central Motor Service Ltd Davis and Shirtliff Ltd Westlands Secretarial Services Ltd Nimrod (A) Ltd
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Chairman’s desk: We’ve had a lot of encouraging feedback from Members regarding the new look eMagazine and two from Members who say that they prefer the “traditional type”. Please do support our initiative by sending in any news article that you feel should be included. The Annual Run that is scheduled for November 5/6 is taking shape and we have at least seven confirmed entries and another five that are not yet fully confirmed. We are starting off from the St Austin’s Service Station in Lavington and driving to Pembroke School for a picnic lunch after which a drive back to Naivasha (most probably Sopa Lodge) for an overnight stay and then back to Nairobi after Breakfast the next day. We have organised Fuel vouchers and a hefty subsidy on the Room Rate for those coming in their Vintage or Classic so please take up on this offer and lets have some old cars out! More information will follow in a Newsflash soon. With the Concours just around the corner, I’d like to wish all our Members who have entered all the best. I know how much hard work goes into the preparation of these cars right up to the last moment. I had one of our members in my Workshop the day before panicking that the Dynamo on his car was not charging. Luckily a loose connection was sorted out so hopefully his battery is fully charged! To the rest, the Club has its usual hospitality tent where Leo is serving bitings, cold Beers and soft drinks so you are most welcome. See you at the Concours,
Monte Please be aware that the contents of this magazine reflect the opinions and experiences of members of the Vintage and Classic Car Club of Kenya and are not to be used as legal advice. Whilst we attempt to ensure the enclosed information is as reliable as possible all matters relating to motoring law, or any other legal / official matters should be pursued with the relevant legal authorities. We cannot accept any liability for loss or damage based on of the following advice as it is given in good faith only.
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Editor’s desk: Dear Members, Welcome to the September edition of the VCCCK Magazine. In this issue, there is the club’s January outing to Pavi’s plot, an article on the Volkswagen Beetle as well as a small write up on the Concours D’elegance which is taking place this Sunday. On the leisure page there is a chance for Members to win a club polo shirt as usual by identifying the vehicle shown. A big congratulations to last month’s winner! Answers can be emailed to my email address which is at the bottom of this page. We also have a new addition to the ‘Sokoni’ page of a Chevrolet Pick up.
Anyone
interested
can
contact
Crispin Murua whose contact details are shown on the same page. I would also like to thank all members who provided feedback and constructive criticism on the magazine. Any further comments will be greatly appreciated and please don’t hesitate to contact me in case of any problems with opening the magazine. Hope to see you on Sunday, Karann karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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Forthcoming Events Save These dates… September 25th – Concours D’elegance November 5th & 6th – Annual Run December 12th – Christmas Lunch
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Outings
On the 30th of January, a club barbecue was held at Pavi Panesar’s Plot up at Kitengela. All members were to meet at the Total Petrol Station on Mombasa Road at 11am to depart to Pavi’s plot in a convoy. We all arrived at Kitengela at around 12pm to be met by Pavi who led the rest of the way to his plot. After arriving all members relaxed under the tents already set up by Raju’s workers and waited eagerly for lunch which was served at around 1.
Above and Left: Members relaxing as they wait for lunch
Right: Smokey’s cooks preparing the lunch
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Outings Immediate Past Chairman Brian l
The Menu included various barbecued foods and was catered by the Smokey’s Restaurant. After a well awaited lunch members began to leave by around 4pm.
The event was well attended with around 25 members attending. A big thanks to Mr Colin Davidson for coming with his Peugeot 404 Convertible. The weather was good and all in all, everyone had a good day out.
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One of the best selling cars ever: The Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle and Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003. With over 21 million manufactured in an air-cooled, rearengined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured automobile of a single design platform anywhere in the world.
Development
VW Beetle Type 1
In 1933, Adolf Hitler gave the order to Ferdinand Porsche to develop a Volkswagen (literally "people's car" in German). Hitler required a basic vehicle capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph). The "People's Car" would be available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle (an average income being around 32 Reichsmark a week).
Design
Dr Ferdinand Porsche
Although designed in the 1930s, the Beetle was only produced in significant numbers from 1945 onwards, when the model was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1, and marketed simply as the
"Volkswagen". The Beetle featured a rear-located, rear-wheel drive, air-cooled four cylinder, boxer engine in a two-door bodywork featuring a flat front windscreen, accommodating four passengers and providing luggage storage under the front bonnet and behind the rear. Indicative of the car's simple, no-nonsense design, the interior featured painted metal surfaces, 1949 VW Beetle Type 1 adjustable front seats, a fold-down rear seat, interior optional swing-out rear windows, front windows with pivoting vent windows, heating via air-to-air exchange manifolds operating off
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the engine's heat, and a windshield washer system that avoided the complexity and cost of an additional electric pump and instead received its pressurization from the car's spare tire (located in the front luggage compartment) which was accordingly overinflated to accommodate the washer function. The car was designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, so that there was less to go wrong; the air-cooled 25 hp 995 cc motors proved especially effective in actions of the German Afrika Korps in Africa's desert heat. This was due to the built-in oil cooler and the superior performance of the flat-4 engine configuration. The suspension design used compact torsion bars instead of coil or leaf springs. The Beetle is nearly airtight and will float for a few minutes on water. 1953 VW Beetle Cabriolet
The Volkswagen was officially named the KdF-Wagen by Hitler when the project was officially announced in 1938. The name refers to Kraft durch Freude ('Strength Through Joy'), the official leisure organization of the Third Reich. The model village of Stadt des KdF-Wagens was created near Fallersleben in Lower Saxony in 1938 for the benefit of the workers at the newly-built factory. After World War II, it was known as the Volkswagen Type 1, but became more commonly known as the Beetle.
Wartime production The factory had only produced a handful of cars by the start of the war in 1939; the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis were military vehicles, the Type 82 Kübelwagen (approximately 52,000 built) and the amphibious Type 166 Schwimmwagen (about 14,000 built). A handful of Beetles were produced specifically for civilians, primarily for the Nazi elite, in the years 1940–1945, but production figures were small. In addition to the Kübelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and a handful of others, the factory managed another wartime vehicle: the Kommandeurwagen; a Beetle body mounted on the Kübelwagen chassis. 669 Kommandeurwagens were produced up to 1940 VW Kübelwagen 1945, when all production was halted because of heavy damage to the factory by Allied air raids. Much of the essential equipment
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had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, which let production resume quickly after hostilities ended.
Post-war production and boom Mass production of civilian VW automobiles did not start until post-war occupation. The Volkswagen factory was handed over by the Americans to British control in 1945; it was to be dismantled and shipped to Britain. Thankfully for Volkswagen, no British car manufacturer was interested in the factory. The factory survived by producing cars for the British Army instead. The re-opening of the factory is largely accredited to British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916–2000). Hirst was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory, which the Americans Major Ivan had captured. His first task was to remove an unexploded bomb Hirst that had fallen through the roof and lodged itself between some pieces of irreplaceable production equipment; if the bomb had exploded, the Beetle's fate would have been sealed. Hirst persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of the cars, and by March 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month, which Hirst said "was the limit set by the availability of materials". During this period, the car reverted to its original name of Volkswagen and the town was Heinz Nordhoff
renamed Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Volkswagen Type 1's or "Beetles" were made in 1945.
Following the British Army-led restart of production, former Opel manager Heinz Nordhoff was appointed director of the Volkswagen factory. Under Nordhoff, production increased dramatically over the following decade, with the onemillionth car coming off the assembly line by 1955. During this post-war period, the Beetle had superior performance in its category with a top speed of The jeweled one115 km/h or 71 mph and 0–100 km/h (0–60 mph) in millionth VW Beetle 27.5 seconds for the standard 34 hp engine. This was far superior to the Citroën 2CV which was aimed at a low speed/poor road rural peasant market and Morris Minor that was designed for a market that had no motorways.
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Beetle sales boomed in the 1960s, thanks to clever advertising campaigns, and the Beetle's reputation for reliability and sturdiness. On 17 February 1972, when Beetle No. 15,007,034 was produced, Beetle production surpassed that of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T. By 1973, total production was over 16 million, and by 23 June 1992, over 21 million had been produced. As of 2009, the Beetle is arguably the world's best-selling car design. More units of the Toyota Corolla brand have been sold, but there have been 10 total redesigns of the Corolla, each amounting to a new car design with the same name.
Worldwide end of production As of 2002 over 21 million Type 1s had been produced, but by 2003, annual production had fallen to 30,000 from a peak of 1.3 million in 1971. VW announced the end of production in June 2003, due to decreasing demand, and the final original Type 1 VW Beetle (No. 21,529,464) rolled off the production line at Puebla, Mexico, on 30 July 2003 – 65 years after its original launch and unprecedented 58-year production run. This last Beetle, nicknamed El Rey (Spanish for "The King" after a legendary Mexican song by José Alfredo Jiménez) was delivered to the company's museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The final original Beetle (No. 21,529,464)
To celebrate the occasion, Volkswagen marketed a final special series of 3,000 Beetles marketed as "Última Edición" (Final Edition) in light blue (Aquarius Blue) or beige (Harvest Moon Beige). Each car included the 1.6 engine, whitewall tires, a CD player with four speakers, chrome bumpers, trim, hub caps and exterior mirrors, a Wolfsburg emblem above the front trunk's handle, chrome glove box badge, body coloured wheels, tinted glass, a rear parcel shelf, and VW Ultima Edicion plaque. At 84,000 pesos, the model cost approximately $1,300 more than the typical model.
The first VW Beetle Factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. The foundation stone was laid by Adolf Hitler on May 26th 1938
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sokoni For sale
Chevrolet Pickup Year of Manufacture: 1938 Registration Number: Q 98 Price: 1,000,000 Negotiable The car is currently undergoing bodywork repairs Contact Crispin Murua for more details: 0723-323189 Please note: The car pictured above is not the one for sale.
Wanted
To advertise for any parts or cars for sale or wanted, please email the product as well as a picture to karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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‘Hapa Kwetu’ – 2011 Concours D’elegance
The 2011 Concours D’elegance took place on Sunday the 26th at the Ngong Racecourse. Sponsored by Access kenya, this event gives everyone a chance to showcase their prized motor vehicles to the public as well as be examined by a panel of judges on various criteria such as external finish, engine, road worthiness etc. The VCCCK returned with its club stand this year after a 1 year absence due to a conflict of interests between the club and the organisers. The stand provided information to any non-members about the club as well as a hospitality tent serving bitings and drinks to all members. Many thanks to Mr Johnny Wroe who kindly lent 5 Vintage and Classic cars to display at the club’s stand.
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2011 Concours D’elegance Results Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Entrant Diccon Wilcock Phoenix Aviation Matthias Koehler Julia Wilcock Sati Gata Aura Gayling May Vitafoam Products Limited Karl Pleitz Phoenix Aviation Michael Tilley
Car Make and Year Of Manufacture 1934 Railton 1928 Ford Tudor 1972 Jaguar E-Type 1952 MG TD 1977 Nissan 160J 1967 Alfa Romeo Sprint 1972 Austin Mini 1973 MGB GT 1958 Volkswagen Beetle 1972 Alfa Romeo 2000 Spider
Total Points 274 271 268 267 267 264 263 263 262 255
The results of the top ten positions are shown above of which those highlighted are members of the VCCCK. A big congratulations to Mr Diccon Wilcock and Phoenix Aviation who came first and second respectively. Photos of the VCCCK Stand at the Concours D’elegance will be included in next month’s magazine.
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Chill out Corner
5 Germans in an Audi Quattro arrive at the Italian border. The Italian Customs Officer stops them and tells them “It’sa illegala to putta 5 people in a Quattro.” “Vot do you mean it’s illegal?” asks the German driver “Quattro meansa four” replies the Italian official. “Quattro is just ze name of ze ferdampt automobile” the German says unbelievingly. “Look at ze dam papers: ze car is designed to karry 5 persons”. “You canta pulla thata one on me!” replies the Italian customs officer. “Quattro means four. You have five-a people ina your car and your are therforea breaking tha law.” The German driver replies angrily, “You idiot! Call your zupervizor over. I vant to speak to someone viz more intelligents!” “Sorry” responds the Italian officer. “He can’ta come. He’sa busy witha 2 guys in a Fiat Uno”. Courtesy of Robert Poole
Identify this car and stand a chance to win a VCCCK Polo shirt! Answers can be emailed to karann_kalsey@yahoo.co.uk
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Club Page
Item
Kshs
Tee – Shirts Lapel Badges Polo Shirts – White (Small) Polo Shirts – White (Medium) Polo Shirts – Green (Medium) Polo Shirts – Green (Large) Polo Shirts – Green (X Large) Polo Shirts – Green (XX Large) Polo Shirts – Green (XXXL) Shirts – (Green Medium) Baseball Caps Key Rings Pens Engraved Plates Engraved Mugs
200/50/300/300/300/300/800/800/800/750/700/100/100/700/700/-
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New Caps & Shirts arrived!
Ad Size
Price
¼ 1/4 Page
4500/-
½ 1/2 Page
9000/-
Full Page
15000/-
*per annum rates
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Please support our club and your business by advertising in the VCCCK magazine.
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