Made by WERK34 Order no. 809 311 511 809 311 512 € 191,71
Wheel Housing front, right -07/67
Wheel Housing front, right -07/67
• fit for all Type 3
• fit for all Type 3 • original part / NOS
• original part / NOS Order no. 809 311 104
trunk floor, 3-part Sedan felt combined with
€ 249,00
Carpet set, black
• fit for Type 3 08/67-07/72
• the carpet set for your Type 3 is edged with artificial leather and fitted with an artificial leather heel protector
• Top quality
Order no. 863 311 072 S2
• fit for Type 3 from 08/71
€ 449,00 €1.260,72 € 53,48
863.311.893 € 523,20
Bumpers Stainless steel (Per Pair)
(Per
• Karmann Ghia Type 14 from 08/69
• Material thickness approx. 1.4 mm
• Small parts such as screws are included Order no. 707 311 103 303
THANK THEM.
Front Cover by Simon Medlicott
With special thanks to Matty Armstrong, Will Thomas, Jack Medlicott, Phil Jarvis, Myles Yarney, Luke Theochari, Rikki James, Dan Du Cros, Seb & Penny, Barbara Faux, Neil Mabbley, Giles Marchant, all the guys at HR Autowork, James Peene, Ben & Jen Robertson, ThreeFiftySix, Kenneth Anno, Matt Balls, Raphael Meyer, Devo Chiedere Al, Pete Marshall, Indra Hernandi, Kustomfest & Rais Maulana, Robert “Rorky” O’Rourke, Chris Wilburn, Jole Coupland, Micheal Gross, Andrea Camilleri, all in RSVP, Collin Miles, Julieanne @ Tatton Park, Matt Gill, Niels Timmerman, Joshua Smith, Steve Parsons, Marrion Taggart, Paul Medhurst, Bob BBT, Terrence Jonny Marriage, Eric Deen, Tania & Russ, Michelle Samat, Iain Wickes, Etty & Amelie, Naomi Wilcox, Teresa & Georgina Iwasiuk, Trint Eastwood, Rob Amos, Alex & Lou Leiserach, Jo & Paul Archer, Mark Thurston & Wendy Clegg, Sam Lindsay, Dan Morrissey, Jen, Stevo, Brian Galpin, Bryan Moody, Lew Savage, Mim, Ben Laughton, Nick Gatt, Craig Petty, Frederic Peeters, Toby Lee, Heiko & Liv, Tish & Jack, Joni Makepeace, Bart and Alejendra @ Kombi Brazil, Rob Mullner, Brett Elesmore, PJ Gibbons, Ian and Sophie at Es Autos, Jess Medlicott, Steve Walker, Orb and Izzie, Lee Skelton, Steve Gosling, Mark Reynolds, Josh Reynolds, Trevor Sharp, Cheryl Dilley, Caroline Soons, Sally & Toby Walker, Helen & James Waller, Jasper Tattersall, Gilbert, Drummer Mat, Katy, Julietta Arden-Taylor, Danny Lord, Seaside Neil & Lyn, Jo Pro, Honor Auld, Chez Williams, Alan Scott, Gary Kennedy, Techno Hippy, Mark & Odette Watts, Rich Whitlock, Jeffrey Van Duin, Angie Simmons, Steve Parsons, Claude Schaub, 10 Foot Doug & Ewan McGregor.
And to everyone who has submitted, contributed and supported us, none of this could have been done without you. Thank you.
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ISSUE 56
SHASTA
One bus after another became stuck. “Put your fucking phones down and push; we need all hands on deck! …”.
I looked out of the window and was greeted by a massive lizard which looked like it would be more suited to Jurassic Park than wishing me good morning. It instantly made me realise that I really was a long way from home.
One year later Ralph Nader would release a book that would change the course of his life forever, a book called “Unsafe At Any Speed”.
PROJECT ‘49
I think I’d caught Barndoor fever by joining Myles, Biddy, etc. on the convoy to Spa. The buses looked so great cruising all together and it’s difficult to not get caught up in the moment.
Yet beyond the spray gun and sanding blocks lies a lifelong obsession: classic Volkswagens, Porsches, and the unmistakable silhouette of a Manx Buggy.
It’s a very good unrestored and never welded Beetle that LOOKED like an Oldspeed racer. I then decided to make it a real Oldspeed car.
FULL CIRCLE
So, how did Matty end up back in custodianship of this ’51 after it ended up 8700-odd miles (the other side of the world) from him?.
Now what manufacturers did was to make full-blown race cars and then just offer them out to the public. Technically it’s a stock car, but in reality it’s a race car.
THE LONG WAY
During what can only be described as some dangerously unsupervised downtime. Rémi broke his arm, suddenly had too much spare time and, as every car person knows, that’s how expensive projects are born.
AIRMIGHTY SHOW
The third edition of the AirMighty Show took place on the third weekend of September 2025, bringing together air-cooled Volkswagen enthusiasts from across Europe
Dozens of VW T2 Splits took over the world-famous racetrack at Goodwood Revival earlier this year, and it was every bit as cool as it sounds!
There were little signs all along the way that this car was meant for me. One of these was that the stereo fitted in my Splitscreen was in fact the exact stereo I needed for the Beetle.
Volkswagen had you covered with a great list of optional extras. Take this one, for instance. Need to load the cargo area from both sides? They had just the thing for you. Behold the Double-Door Panel Van.
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The editor or Hayburner LTD gives no warrantees, assurances or guarantees and makes no representations concerning any services or goods advertised or featured in this magazine. Hayburner Plus is Printed in the UK. We hope you enjoy Issue 56 of Hayburner Magazine.
ISSUE 56 OF HAYBURNER
MAGAZINE IS DEDICATED
TO THE LOVING MEMORY OF
JON PLANNER
It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that we’ve lost our friend, Jon Planner.
Many of you will have known Jon from the show fields of the UK and across mainland Europe. He was always there with a cheeky smile, never far from his muchloved Stratos Blue Oval on Ferrari Dino rims. Before the Oval came “Mike”, his 1967 Bay Window Panel Van which, in true Jon fashion, was early, rare, and as full of stories as he was.
Jon’s Volkswagens were part of a long line of machines he cared for, but they tell only a small part of his journey. He was a cornerstone of the PaintScrapers Volkswagen Club and one of the people who helped shape Grill-n-Chill. By day, he organised the trade stalls with calm precision. By night, he kept the party moving with a soundtrack that only Jon could have delivered.
He was a gentle presence – never the loudest voice, always the most thoughtful. A caring soul who listened more than he spoke. His love for music and the VW scene ran deep, but his love for his family ran deeper still. Jon was a devoted husband and a proud father to two wonderful daughters, a recent grandfather and a true friend to everyone who crossed his path.
He leaves a space that cannot be filled, but also a legacy of kindness, laughter, and a community of smiley faces. Those who knew him will carry him in stories, in memories, and at every air-cooled gathering where his spirit will no doubt linger.
Rest easy, Jon. You were one of the good ones.
PERFECTLY IMPERFECT
PHOTOS BY STEVE PARSONS WORDS BY MARION CLIFFORD-TAGGART
To set the scene on how I’ve come to own Beryl, which is my second Beetle and one of six aircooled vehicles I’ve owned over the years, here’s a little back history. My journey of classic VW ownership began 23 years ago when I bought my first VW bus. The internet was in its infancy and I decided to leap into the scene in my early twenties as a lady with zero knowledge, a ton of enthusiasm, and the “for sale” listings from the back of Volksworld. I’d fallen in love with classic VWs in my late teens when my schoolfriend Mack McKaig had (and still has) a Splitscreen. I thought it was the best thing ever, and my love of air-
cooled cars has endured the distance and become a habit I can’t seem to drop.
So, to tell you about this 1961 Beryl Green patina Beetle. Firstly, I need to rewind to 2016 and to a former owner of the car, Jonas Moerman from Belgium. Jonas bought the Beetle from a friend in 2016, as a project car which required quite a bit of work, with the intention of building himself a drag race car. Jonas did extensive preservation bodywork over five years while it was deregistered, to preserve as much original metal and paintwork as possible and to keep it looking as
original as he could. Thank you, Jonas! Unfortunately, he only took it to Chimay to sell, doing around 400km.
I was keen to find out more about this chapter of the car’s life from Jonas, and he has been kind enough to fill me and my partner Steve in on its history, explaining over messages everything I needed. He apologised that some of his words might be wrong as he’d learnt his English through watching “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”! However, there was no
need for an apology as we understood everything, and I knew we had “a deal, a steal, the sale of the fucking century”. I really should re-watch that film soon. Anyway, he also sent some great pictures and a video of the engine being dyno’d, reaching 160.3 bhp at the wheels before combusting into flames during testing! These pictures are great to keep with the car and show a former chapter of this fun little car’s life. Jonas went all out for his drag racing plan and had even had a roll cage fitted, so I guess
he planned on going pretty damn quick in it!
At the 2022 Chimay show, Jonas put the Beetle up for sale next to the Hayburner stand. I was unable to make this particular Chimay show but I’d seen an Instagram video posted by Vic with the Beetle in the background, and it had caught my eye way back then. Type 2 Detectives had done a deal with Jonas at the show to buy the Beetle, and later on Ned, Steve Walker and Paul Medhurst took a road trip back to collect it. I was disappointed that I’d missed out, but also unaware then that I’d come to own it a few years later when it was in better shape thanks to Matt Read who bought it from T2D.
When he initially bought the car, Matt sat down with Paul Medhurst to run through exactly what he wanted from the build. “The goal was twofold: first, to make it safe and reliable enough to take my kids to shows with me, and second, to make it look properly badass.”
Matt, like me, loved the existing patina and overall look, and as it had already had a sympathetic restoration, there wasn’t a huge amount to put right. T2D did a full brake overhaul, including a dualcircuit master cylinder and a disc brake conversion for extra safety. They also tweaked the stance and attitude further and added a 4” Eva Resto narrowed beam and rear adjustable spring plates. Matt then machinepolished the body to bring out the “looked-after patina” finish, and added detailed polished Fuchs.
In this fresh new guise, Matt used the car to attend a few shows, and when by chance he parked up next to Steve’s ’60 bus at Skeg Vegas in 2023, I was delighted meet Matt and immediately fell in love with the Beetle even more. I gently planted the seed in Matt that I’d
love first refusal when he was ready to sell. As luck would have it, by the time the summer was drawing to a close at the RSVP BBQ in September, conversations with Matt had started up and a deal was done. I was excited to be able to make my own mark.
Fellows Speed Shop, who have worked on nearly all of the Volkswagens I’ve owned, tweaked the front height slightly, because it was so low that it wasn’t really practical for long distances and undulating rough country roads. They also gave it a mini service and sorted a few other little jobs out.
Original pre-’64 popouts were sourced from Gerrit Rage and collected at Le Bug Show and kindly
brought back to the UK by Jamie Franklin for me. It’s the VW community really helping each other out that I’m very thankful for. Mark Fulton from Trim Classics did an amazing job making and fitting the carpets and incorporating the original rubber floor mats and gave exactly the result I was hoping for.
The Beetle’s original vinyl seats were damaged with some pretty ugly ancient repairs, so after some elbow grease cleaning these up, I asked the very talented Stewart Rockliffe from VHS Trimming to expertly and invisibly repair them. The results were outstanding and you cannot tell they have been fixed. Stewart also replaced the headliner, which was a tough decision for me as there was character to the staining on the
original, but it was so torn and damaged it was beyond repair. The result of the new one is fantastic and really shows off the character of the rest of the car.
I was gifted a pair of original Swedish gravel guards from Steve who sourced these from Nils Komet in Sweden. As for paint, the car retains its original oneyear-only Beryl Green hue and the natural patina was
one of the things that really attracted me to the car in the first place. One wing had been repainted many years previously and was a shade or two out for a perfect match. So it came in handy dating The Patina Blender who painted and patina’d the wing to now match perfectly. He also fitted an Auto Wares glove box pull and gave it a full protection with the Patina Protector (which I highly recommend!).
It took a while to find a replacement for the missing coat hook, but eventually I found one which Tom Clarke generously gifted to me. These are a really handy little accessory. The bud vase was also found through Tom. If you know me, you may know my Split and know that I can’t resist these little details.
There were little signs all along the way that this car
was meant for me. One of these was that the stereo fitted in my Splitscreen was in fact the exact stereo I needed for the Beetle. So that was swapped out and now it looks like it has always been in there.
It was amazing to drive the Beetle back to Skeg in August 2025, even without seatbelts or a fuel gauge and with only one mirror. I love the trade at Skeg
and found a perfect long stem Flat 4 offside mirror arm with mirror on the Volksbros stall, so had two mirrors for the return drive. The seatbelts have been purchased but not yet fitted (that’s on the to do list), as my teenage sons Oscar and Finlay are now keen to have a go. And well, who needs a fuel gauge anyway!
Beryl is my second Beetle and forms part of my
collection on the Isle of Man. These include: “Fred”, my ’61 Splitscreen bus; “Betty”, an Early Bay from September 1967; and “Elsie”, a Late Bay Westfalia Continental from 1973 which I’m preparing to hire out for holidays, giving visitors the chance to experience the Isle of Man’s rugged beauty from behind the wheel of a classic Volkswagen. If you fancy a trip around our amazing island,
you can find out more about this at Instagram @ IOMclassiccamperhire.
The Beetle lives in the UK as it’s super handy for not having to bring a vehicle over on the ferry each time I’m on the mainland for shows. It’s also probably the most fun (i.e. nippy!) to drive out of all the VWs I’ve owned, thanks to it still retaining the super diff gearbox from Jonas’ racing setup. Coupled to the
1600 SP engine, it flies off the start line!
What with starting the new camper hire company and not using the Beetle as much as I’d like, I am potentially looking at moving it on to a new custodian. So, if you are interested in a cool, original Beryl Green Beetle, please get in touch with me via Instagram @61_beryl to discuss.
The nuts listed here meet the correct specifications for the safe mounting of seat belts. Mounting bolts for seat belts must have American UNF screw threads.
SUMP PLATE GASKET KITS
This set offers a significantly better seal than the standard version. In case of slight corrosion or pitting in the crankcase, the use of liquid gasket is not necessary.
Without these specific rings, the grommets will be damaged by the tightening of the nuts, resulting in a poor seal and improper installation.
MOUNTING PLATES
The most logical place to install additional gauges is in the center console. If you prefer not to equip your car with this, or if it is not possible, these under-dash mounting plates are an excellent alternative. These black metal plates are neatly finished and have a raised edge at the front.
These blanking bolts for seat belt holes are available in black and cloud white.
The opening has a diameter of 52 mm, which is the European standard size for instruments. With the included parker
With these protective sleeves, you not only restore safety, but also the original factory design of your VW. You don’t have to worry about quality; they come directly from the Volkswagen warehouse.
On the center tunnel, the seat belt hole blanking bolts are fitted with a large plastic ring, which not only ensures a neat finish but also keeps the rubber carpet in place.
screws, you can easily mount the plate under the dashboard.
WIPER SHAFT WASHERS
SEAT BELT WELDING NUTS
SEAT BELT BLANKING BOLT WASHER
TRUNK HINGE SLEEVES
SEAT BELT HOLE BLANKING BOLTS
HOLAMBRA
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY NED
FAUX
I love long-haul flying. I love everything about it! I love not being disturbed by my phone for hours, I love to read, I love to watch films, I even love the semi-synthetic food they serve. So 15+ hours on a plane – bring it on! Well … this is under normal circumstances. As we were about to board our flight home at Campinas Airport, Brazil Ben turned to me and said, “rather than watching five movies in a row again, why not get on with writing up this trip for the magazine while it’s still new in your mind?”. He was right. Immediately is always the best time to write things up, but that’s not what happened.
Annoyingly, I was quite literally sandwiched between two rather large people with little in the way of personal spatial awareness – one with a terrible cold who insisted on gargling snot for the entire journey, and the other who decided to sleep facing me, breathing a smell I have only ever come across once before (and that was the time that Chez left seafood in the cab of his bus for over a year while it was laid up). I did try to write but I was just too irritable … irritated to the point that I actually welcomed the connecting Ryanair flight once we landed in Madrid. Imagine welcoming a Ryanair flight! So
that’s why I’ve ended up writing this up a few weeks later, looking back through the photographs for a timeline. I must say that I’ve enjoyed looking back. It really was quite an adventure.
I’ll have to go back to Le Bug Show, Spa, to begin, with myself and Ben Laughton AKA “BusBen” on theSamba or “Barndoor Ben” to his friends or “Backdoor Ben” or just “Backdoor” to me. I feel the need to explain. Over the years Ben and I have had a friendship involving healthy competition which also stretches to some of the most brutal banter I think I’ve ever shared between two
friends. This hasn’t, however, got in the way of me and my wife Vic covering thousands of miles with Ben and his wife Mo, seeing the world and making some of my alltime favourite memories. Now it’s with a tear in my eye that I have to add that earlier this year Ben lost his wife Mo to a very long battle with cancer and to make things worse he also lost his father only weeks later. You could say that 2025 has well and truly put Ben through the wringer.
As we were both walking through Spa we decided to drop into one of the trade pits and say hello to Bob from BBT. Of course Bob had a queue of people waiting to speak with him, so I joined the line. Ben, in his tongue-in-cheek arrogant style, said, “What are you doing? We don’t wait in line”, and walked behind the trade stand and helped himself to a beer. Now I do often wonder if Ben behaves in this way just because he knows how awkward it will make me feel and enjoys watching me squirm, or if he really is that cavalier. Either way I’d be lying if I said I that didn’t envy his confidence. Ben knows Bob a little better than I do, having done business with him over the years. I only knew Bob through mutual friends and a couple of brief encounters. In fact, my wife Vic knows him far better than I do. Once we got chatting with Bob, he mentioned, “You really should get over to Brazil! The VW Clássicos show in Holambra, Brazil this year.” It’s not unusual for someone well travelled like Bob to throw out a recommendation of somewhere to visit, but for some reason as we walked away this time we both said to each other, “How about it?” I’m not sure if it was because we’ve both had particularly shitty years and really needed a holiday or because the opportunity to visit an event described as Brazil’s “Bad Camberg” was just too good to pass on.
On the run up to this trip you wouldn’t believe how little it was discussed. Apart from booking flights (which Vic did for us), the only plan we had was to attend the show. On the other 11 or so days we thought we’d blag and see what Brazil threw at us. Now I don’t want to bore you guys to death writing all about our holiday, i.e. two anxiety-ridden middleagers bumbling their way through
South America, so I’ll try my best to keep this to the cars and the car people. In the days before we set off, Bob was kind enough to tell us where he’d be and that we could join him and he’d make some introductions to show us the ropes. After a vile meal at an American-style diner, a night at the strangest hotel in Stansted, a three-hour flight to Madrid, a very short (stressful) transfer and then a 12-hour flight to Campinas, Brazil, we landed that evening just in time to navigate via taxi to a cheap hotel, stuff a plate of food down, and turn in to try and recuperate with some muchneeded sleep.
I woke up feeling fresh, or as fresh as you can be after all that travelling. I looked out of the window and was greeted by a massive lizard which looked like it would be more suited to Jurassic Park than wishing me good morning. It instantly made me realise that I really was a long way from home. We had a little breakfast and grabbed an Uber (the safest way to travel) over to San Paulo which was a couple of hours away. On our way we made a quick stop off at a local VW shop called Camper_Kombi that specialises in camping conversions. It is a family business that has some pretty innovative approaches to camping interiors. They design and build everything in house, fitting their own style pop tops, space-saving spare wheel brackets and even a full wet room that fits in a Bay Window bus! They were lovely people but we couldn’t stay too long as we needed to make our way into the city. Driving into San Paulo was a real trip. It was just as I imagined, with a huge contrast of high rise blocks, modern office buildings and districts of tiny shacks all built on top of each other. The other point I couldn’t believe was the VWs – they were everywhere! Every corner had a air-cooled Beetle or as they say “Fusca” or Bay Window “Kombi”, all still being daily driven or working hard. We even saw them abandoned at the side of the road, half stripped or used as shacks serving street food (which we were warned not to eat). We managed to fumble our way to an AirB&B after much difficulty, having booked one in a nice part of the city recommended by Bob. Like any big city, San
Paulo has its good and bad parts, and if you don’t know where to go it can be a very dangerous place indeed.
A quick freshen up and Bob was at our door with his friend/ business associate Ricardo and a taxi waiting to take us out to lunch. Now I understand that this isn’t really VW-related, but I have to tell you about lunch. … Have you ever heard of a Churrascaria? Basically, you walk into a restaurant and pass a salad bar style buffet with everything you could imagine on it. I’m talking fruit, cheese, fish, cold meats … a real spread! But then you get told by the guys, “Whatever you do, don’t fill up on the buffet”. I didn’t really understand why and just helped myself to a small portion of salad rather than gorging myself and joined the table. Then I was given a coin, red on one side and green on the other. What happens is that as long as the coin is green side up, the waiters keep bringing over different cuts of meat and slicing them straight onto your plate until you’re so full you turn your coin to the red side to indicate you’ve had enough. My wife is a vegan so meat is a bit of a treat for me, and Ben has one hell of an appetite. In true Brits abroad style we made ourselves feel sick as dogs. Although this day really just revolved around one huge meal, it was so cool. Bob and Ricardo took us walking around the city streets, stopping for coffee, and allowed us to get a feel for the place. San Paulo feels like another world!
The following day we decided to stick with the same guys. Bob took us along to a couple of business meetings. He had one at HelpRodas, the factory that makes various wheels for air-cooled cars including the Fumigalli, and then to Grampola, a company that makes small plastic parts for BBT. Both factory visits were particularly interesting. It’s amazing how modern their facilities are. I’m embarrassed to say that I was expecting things to be a little more backward out there, but it’s quite the opposite. Their industry is booming! And the quality of what they are putting out is up there. It was cool seeing Fumigalli wheels being put together. I’ve owned a few sets over the years and it was good to witness the process.
It was then off for another bellybusting Churrascaria and we ended the day at an outdoor bar in town which as far as I could see was an alcohol version of the Churrascaria, meaning that they just kept bringing out beers and cocktails until you’d had enough. Being a few years sober, I didn’t participate, but I did enjoy watching the guys let loose and taking in the surroundings.
I woke up the next morning keen to get the day started. It was setup day for the show. The show was a couple of hours outside the city in a town called Holambra, which was interestingly founded by Dutch immigrants after WWII, earning it the nickname “The Little Piece of Netherlands in Brazil”. To get there we’d been added to a WhatsApp group for a convoy of air-cooled cars and Bart, a good friend of Bob’s, who runs a company called Kombi Brazil which is a VW export company sending Brazilian vehicles around the world. Bart said he’d be happy to lend us a vehicle to take part in the convoy. We arrived at the Kombi Brazil workshop where they had a very interesting collection of cars, some destined for customers and others that were Bart’s personal cars. We got shown around the place including “out the back”, where we saw rows of Brazilian Kombi projects awaiting restoration or sale. It was quite a spectacle to see so many buses just sitting waiting in various conditions, with a fantastic San Paulo backdrop. Bart introduced us to his wife Alejandra who treated us to some breakfast, and then asked which car we fancied taking along to the show. Bob was driving the VW Bianco he’d recently bought and seen for the first time that very morning. Alejandra was in a tidy MK1 Golf Cabriolet. We had the choice of a Brazil-only VW Gol (the water-cooled version) or a freshly restored Kombi which was a 15-window Bay/Split hybrid. We naturally went for the Kombi and set off with the guys to meet the rest of the convoy en route.
I was behind the wheel and the roads were busy, very busy, as we entered the San Paulo rush hour on the motorway. All was well but the bus had been fitted with a brand new motor and we’d been asked to take it easy. With this in
mind we found ourselves to the back of the convoy playing catchup. This wasn’t a real bother as both Ben and I are no strangers to driving air-cooled cars or driving in other parts of the world, and although I found Brazilian driving a bit erratic we were getting on just fine. After a while I began to hear a noise. I didn’t mention it until Ben said, “Did you just hear that?”. I said, “Yeah, and I can feel it through the steering wheel too. It sounds like a rumbling wheel bearing to me.” The obvious thing to do would be to pull over, but when I say there was nowhere to pull over I mean it. We were filtering with busy traffic on both sides of us. Ben then said, “It’s ok. The noise seems to have stopped now.” He was right, or at least right for a couple of seconds. The noise stopped completely, soon followed by an almighty bang and the sound of lorry horns as the bus became more or less uncontrollable! I found my gap and manage to swerve into the side of the road (with no hard shoulder). The horn was coming from the lorry behind us who had to do an emergency stop! As we both dived out of the cab door, I could see the entire lane was at a standstill with our driver’s side rear wheel sitting in the middle of the road. Shaking like a shitting dog, I scrambled to retrieve the wheel amongst the mayhem and brought it back to the bus. It was a pretty sketchy place to be stuck. It was hot, really hot, and we were in a rough part of town. I said joking/not joking, “at least we’re in the central reservation so we have less chance of getting our organs harvested”. We made contact with the rest of the convoy and Bart came to our rescue but had to go the long way round. After some messing around on the roadside, darting in and out of the motorway retrieving wheel bolts and borrowing a jack, we had enough bolts to limp us out of trouble. After that we swapped cars with Bart and did the rest of the journey in the Gol, but unfortunately missing the entire convoy.
Once we had arrived at the event we could soon put all the morning’s excitement behind us. Holambra was beautiful and felt safe. I couldn’t believe the quality of the cars that were arriving! It was Friday which
was the setup day so it was not officially open. From what I could gather, the show worked a little like the European town events like Hessisch or Ninove where it’s free to attend but you pay to display a vehicle. There were a lot of traders setting up too, so I made a direct line for the auto-jumble. I have to say that they had some amazing parts performance-wise and really early stuff too, like batwing steering wheels and Barndoor dash pods. Unfortunately, after calculating the Real to Pounds exchange rate, the prices worked out more expensive than Europe. The same went for the cars for sale. There was some really cool, quirky Brazilian stuff like an air-cooled Gol, but things have shifted in Brazil. Believe it or not, the Brazilian scene is growing so fast that their VW prices are sometimes stronger than over here. Another stall that caught my eye was the wheel stand. They had some great wide 5- and 4-bolt options being reproduced that we don’t get at home such as Titanio and Scorro wheels. Man, it was hot that day! But everybody we met said that rain was on its way. We went back to a hotel that Bob had kindly booked for us. It was perfect. We freshened up and then went into town with Bob, Bart and Alejandra for, yep, you guessed it, more steak! And this time it was a served in edible gold (well at least the guys told me it was edible; I’m still not completely convinced). Holambra at night is a lovely place to be. It reminds me of Southern California but even more friendly.
Next morning I woke up to Ben saying, “Happy birthday mate”, and handing me a card. I’d almost forgotten it was 8th November and it soon struck me that it was the first birthday I’d spent away from Vic in 20 years, which made me feel a little homesick. I must sound like a bit of a wimp saying this, but if missing your wife makes you a wimp I’ll gladly wear the badge. I think travelling had been a bit strange for both of us. Ten years ago we’d be out here without a care in the world, probably too drunk to care, but now after the terrible year that Ben’s suffered, me without Dutch courage and realising we’re well into our forties, I found myself doing strange things like looking around for hand sanitiser and
covering myself in bug spray because of the poster in the airport warning us of a mosquito bite that’s been hospitalising people en mass. I was being careful about not drinking the water and staying clear of street food, walking around with my hand on my passport and such. I don’t know when this nervous disposition developed but I certainly didn’t feel as carefree as I used to whilst travelling. I looked out of the hotel window to see some biblical rain. It really was throwing it down so we went for breakfast and chilled out for a while. The restaurant was full of other air-cooled enthusiasts so we had plenty to talk about. Brazilians are such kind people and go out of their way to make you feel at home.
Approaching midday the rain stopped and the sun started to break through. This brought a humidity I’d only experienced in Cuba whilst I was there in my early twenties. It didn’t put a damper on the show, though. I can only describe the event as epic (and I hate that term). I genuinely don’t know where to start. There seems to be a misconception about the Brazilian scene that it’s somewhat behind Europe. After visiting this event I have to disagree. Sure, there were the Brazilian models attending which arguably have a different standard when it comes to build quality, but they are a very important part of VW history. They’re also really interesting to look around and learn about, such as the TC Karmann Ghia or the no frills Standard model Beetle they have out there which is even more Standard than a Germanbuilt Standard. This model doesn’t even have a cut-out in the dash for a radio! There are the Brazilian VW-based sports cars, the SP2s, and Pumas that are relatively well known, but also other weird and wonderful models on display. Even with so many VWs built in Brazil, like in the UK many of the cars on show are imported. There were Split Beetles, Ovals, a rat rod built out of an early 40s Type1, Cabrios, air-cooled Porsche, stock, slammed, German look, patina cars, even a Tempo Matador. The overall atmosphere was another point – not as stuffy as Bad Camberg but not “festival” style like BugJam. It really was all about the cars – well, the cars and
the people. Everyone was so cool. Bart and Alejandra even bought me a birthday cake and much to my embarrassment Bob sang Happy Birthday to me over the microphone in front of the entire show! It was an all-round lovely day. That evening we ventured into Holambra where I think I had my first meal of the trip that wasn’t just meat.
The final day of the show came and the sun was shining plus even more vehicles arrived. It was perfect for taking photographs, relaxing with new friends and even more great food. I was really flattered to find out how many Brazilian people knew of Hayburner. Being so far away from home and meeting a total stranger that follows your work is a great feeling. As the day went on it was time for the awards. Again in the style of the European town events the winning cars all received rosettes and then lined up to drive through the show and receive their awards. With so many exceptional cars in attendance, choosing winning vehicles can’t have been easy. After the show, Bob had arranged for us to stay at the premises of a private collection he knew of. A couple of the show cars were headed back that way on a transporter so we followed, Bob in his Bianco and us in the Gol we had on loan from Bart. After a couple of hours driving through beautiful scenery we arrived at a huge industrial building. Once inside I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had seen photographs of this place from Vic’s visit a couple of years ago, but it’s not the same as seeing it for yourself.
The collection is called Garage Brazil and every car there is owned by a man called Alexandre Colecao Roque. It’s by far the most interesting private collection I’ve ever seen. In the building there are over 250 cars and they’re expanding to allow room for more! Every car in this place runs and drives so it can be taken out whenever Alexandre feels the need. The other aspect of this collection is that every car is Brazilian. Over half are air-cooled, built on VW platforms, but every car was originally built and sold in Brazil. It blew my mind. The passion behind this collection is something else. When you
consider the work and expense that’s gone into this place it could easily be filled with Porsche or Ferrari but it’s not. It’s all just the cars that Alexandre loves and to me that’s what a car collection should be. It might seem like a strange thing for the editor of this magazine to say, but if you want to read about this place in deeper detail I suggest getting hold of a copy of Hot VWs October 2025 issue. Shin has done a massive feature on this collection and it’s a great read.
As well as the 250-odd cars, there were also plush living quarters for a few people. After hours sitting around talking about cars with our new friends, it was time to turn in for the night. In the morning we spent more time with Alexandre. He is such a humble person and he was keen to show me what his favourites were. I agreed with him; his favourite was the car I would also have taken home. It was a very early original paint Bianco which really stood out from the crowd. In the afternoon he had a visit from his friend who is also a world famous BBQ chef who put on another Churrascaria for us. I can’t even begin to describe how good it was. It was then off for another factory visit to a place called IGP who press sheet metal for all sorts of cars including classic VWs. The place was massive, with full robotic machinery. I’d never seen anything like it. After this visit it was time to part ways with Bob. I don’t think I’ll ever find a way to truly thank him for his introductions and hospitality. I left that day feeling like I’d found a real friend in Bob and I look forward to our next meeting.
I’m not sure I need to go too far into the second part of our trip as the focus was more on travel than it was about cars. In short, Bart and Alejandra took us into their amazing home for a few days and even flew us around in their three private planes! I could write a book about everything that happened during the rest of this journey. Alejandra took us around downtown San Paulo which was a real eye-opener. We flew into Paraty, spending time by the beach, I was told that I was ‘so gringo’ becuse I was wearing trousers and Cristmas socks on the boat unaware that I had to
swim to the beach for lunch. Ben became known as the ‘the rude Gringo’ I think beacuse the locals didn’t quite get his sense of humor. Paraty has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited in my life. Ben went and got a flat tyre in the jungle and had to ride miles home on the flat as it got dark. This was after being warned about the dangerous animals so you can imagine the panic (I loved every moment of this). I had to do home surgery on my finger not once but twice, and if I told you that Ben landed an airplane that was built in 1958 by himself after a couple of beers, would you believe me? Well, that really happened. I still get scared thinking about it! My flying experience was sadly not so glamorous. After Ben’s success, Bart asked if I’d like to attempt a landing. Instead I got too afraid after Bart thought it would be funny to turn the engine off as soon as I had the controls. I then realised I’d left the seatbelt hanging out of my door which punctured holes in the side of his vintage plane. … Not my finest moment. I think I’ll stick to driving instead.
Again, I don’t know how to thank all these people enough. All I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this trip a truly life-changing experience.
As a wee car enthusiast, one of the first cars that truly attracted my attention was the Porsche 911. I wanted one before I could even put into words why. I had die-cast 911 toys, watched Porsche racing on the TV and had 911 posters on my wall. Then as I grew older and got more into cars I started to learn of the vast array of 911s and their variants. Working in the industry as I do has allowed me to learn more about the seemingly small changes that make a huge difference, with variations that at quick glance may even go
unnoticed. It has also led me to learn about one of my favourite 911 variants – one that is in my opinion one of the last true mechanical monsters, high horsepower and speed without all of the mod cons like traction control and abs. This model is the 930 Turbo.
Porsche had entered the Carrera 2.7 RS into racing competition in 1973 and the RSR 2.1 in ’74, but the rule that allowed these cars to race was changed by the FIA (racing’s
governing body) for the 1975/76 season. The rule change meant that Group 4 and 5 cars (the groups that Porsche raced in) had to be production cars. They had to be publicly available through the dealer network and they must produce at least 400 cars. This rule was essentially to keep stock car racing cars actual stock cars; that is, publicly available, normal cars.
Now what manufacturers did was to make full-blown race cars and then just offer them out to the public. Technically it’s a stock car, but in reality it’s a race car. This led to some of my favourite road-going cars, the Plymouth Superbird, Ford RS200, Lancia
Porsche never really intended these to be production cars; they just needed to sell 400 of them. But just like me, the people of the 1970s loved them. In the first two years of production (which is the model like Phil’s), 2800 were sold and produced, smashing the 400 aim. The actual race car, the 935, would be one of the most successful race cars of the time. So what makes the 930 different from the 911 of the day? Well essentially you take the Carrera model, and take the Turbo that you developed for your Leman entry and add it to the 3.0l Flat 6. Tweak the
Stratos, Alpha Romeo 33 Stradale, early M3s and, of course, Turbo’d Porsches.
compression, give it better suspension, better brakes and a stronger gearbox, flare the rear arches to make room for bigger wheels, and add a wing, and spice up the interior to make the 930 Turbo the highest end car Porsche offered at the time! Oh and it just so happened to be the fastest production car available at that time, earning it the nickname, “The Widowmaker”.
Anyway, let’s have a chat with Phil about himself and his particular Widowmaker.
Dan: So, who are you? What’s your name and where do you come from?
Phil: I’m Phil Jarvis and I’m Shropshire based.
Dan: What’s your day job?
Phil: I’m in the storage industry and do furniture as well.
Dan: What’s your favourite VW/Porsche, and have you owned one?
Phil: It’s got to be a 356 for me. There’s just
something about them that I really love. And I have had one, in fact I still have it. I’ve owned it for about 10 years now. I got lucky with it and bought it before the price boom.
Dan: Is owning the dream car everything you thought it would be?
Phil: Oh yeah. I still drive it all the time and still love it now. In ten years I’ve always enjoyed it.
Dan: What shows do you like attending, at home or overseas?
Phil: Do you know, I just like shows in general! I go to as many as I realistically can and I love to take a car or two. I’d say Hessisch jumps to mind straight away. I like the kind of rarity aspect but it’s almost not rare if that makes sense. If you want to see a Hebmüller then there’s a line-up of them, early Barndoors, early Porsches – you name it, you’ll see it. And of course we were only just talking about the Porsche line-up at Classics at the Clubhouse. That was cool too. But yeah, I just like shows in
Dan: So what got you into classic VW/Porsche in the first place?
Phil: I guess it was always there from an early age. I knew when I passed my test that I wanted a Beetle. In fact I bought one before I’d passed. It was a Texas Yellow 1300 Beetle. It was my first car and I loved it. It kind of sealed the deal for me that I did really like these cars in reality and not just the idea of them!
Dan: You’ve had loads of cool cars over the years, a few of which have been in Hayburner.
Phil: I have, yeah, too many to list, really. I’ve been at this a while! But the most recent I think would have been the Tempo Matador Panel Van.
Dan: What would you say is your influence on the way that you build your cars?
Phil: I don’t really have an influence, so to speak.
I’m always looking at cars and have a kind of taste and like what I like and I just build the cars to that. I build them the way that I like them. I like to be a bit different and go my own way.
Dan: What’s the most fun you’ve had in your classics?
Phil: There’s a few. I got the Firebus to do an 11.4 second quarter-mile which was an amazing rush. Taking the 356 on track days is always great fun. But just using the cars, racing them, going to shows. That kind of thing.
Dan: Do you have a worst moment?
Phil: Yeah, I’d say it was the monsoon at Santa Pod maybe 10 years ago. I think it was at Big Bang. That was pretty horrible!
Dan: So, onto this car. What are we looking at here?
Phil: This car is a 1976 Porsche 930 Turbo. It was originally delivered to San Francisco and is among the first generation of the 930 Turbos.
Dan: It’s original paint too, right? So it must have been somewhat looked after. What was it like when you got it? How did you come to own it?
Phil: I actually bought it for my 50th birthday. It was nearly six years in the making. It is original paint apart from the odd repair here and there but it actually wasn’t in good shape when I got it. I bought it from an estate sale of a collector that had somewhere in the region of 200 classic cars. So being part of a large collection, it didn’t get the attention it deserved and got a bit neglected.
Dan: Did you have to do much resto work?
Phil: Yeah. So the whole engine needed to be rebuilt, which ended up having to be done twice. The gearbox needed to be rebuilt. It had to have a full rewire. The whole interior needed to be redone. But I wanted it to be just like original, so the carpets and seats are all original colours, even down to the stitching. The carpets came from a company in Belgium and I even went as far as putting the Turbo Carrera script on it because when these cars were first sold in the US they were called Turbo Carrera not just Turbo like everywhere else, and seeing as this was originally a US car I wanted that detail to be correct.
Dan: Do you know what the paint is called?
Phil: Yeah it’s Sienna Metallic and the wheels are painted in Arizona Gold. The Sienna is original but the Gold is actually a Ford colour.
Dan: Is the suspension setup stock?
Phil: Yes and no. The US market 930s were actually slightly higher than European ones because of US laws for bumper and headlight heights. I’ve lowered it a little just to compensate for that, really.
Dan: What is the wheel and tyre setup?
Phil: Originally it would have been on 15s but tyres were an absolute nightmare for them so I chose to go with 16s – originally because it was easier, but as soon as I put them on I liked it. I then painted them and the badges to match too.
Dan: Engine and gearbox setup?
Phil: It’s the 3.0 Flat 6 Turbo but it needed to be rebuilt when I got it. In the first rebuild we replaced all the ancillaries and built it back up, but we just
could not get it to run right. It needed another rebuild and after that we still couldn’t get it timed right. We learnt then that it was a faulty dizzy causing all the problems!
Dan: Being a particularly small production numbers Porsche, were parts hard to get hold of?
Phil: You know, surprisingly not. As you say, there weren’t many made in the first place but Porsche are really good at making parts. Most parts are still available directly from Porsche.
Dan: What’s your favourite thing about the car?
Phil: I’d say the paint, being so original and little used. I love it. I love the way it looks.
Dan: Is there anything about the car the car that you’d change now that it’s done?
Phil: Nothing, nope. Actually, maybe I’d fix the aircon. Perhaps try some spacers at the back!
Thanks to Phil for taking the time to talk to us and for sharing an insight into his awesome 930. I’m sure that you will see Phil and his Porsche at an event near you soon! Phil would like to thank PRS356.com for sourcing the car, and Simon Rudge Motorsport and Jack Davey of Melon Racing for getting it all sorted for him.
We’ve all seen the photos, been told the tales, and heard someone say that they want to go “Shasta” style with their next project bus. We thought it was time to get a first-hand account from someone who’s actually participated in this legendary VW adventure, so when Connor Mitchell gave us a shout saying he’d got some photos for us to look at, we of course jumped at
the chance to hear his story.
For those of you wondering what the Shasta Snow Trip is all about, let’s start with the location. Mount Shasta is a landmark that 19th-century explorers once called “a very high hill … entirely covered with snow”. Today this potentially active stratovolcano in Northern
California is more than a geological icon – it has become the backdrop for an unlikely winter ritual. Each year, an informal convoy of vintage VW buses makes the journey to the mountain, their aging Splits tackling fire roads, icy back-country tracks, and the kind of conditions that test every bolt, nerve and driver. Known simply as the Shasta Snow Trip, this underground, communitydriven rally has gained near-mythic status among enthusiasts. Stories of river crossings, improvised roadside repairs, and the thrill of coaxing a decades-old van through sub-zero terrain
circulate through forums and fan communities, keeping the legend alive. We should probably add here that this is not an official event; it’s more an exercise in bravery, foolishness, and devotion to the machines that make it possible, with many Type2 projects being built solely for the purpose of participating.
So here we have it, Connor Mitchell’s first-hand account.
I’ve been reading the Shasta Snow Trip forums
on TheSamba since I was in elementary school and I always knew I had to be a part of it in some way, shape or form. Some years later I’m now 25 and working a freelance photo gig. I was bored out of my mind one lunchtime, watching the rest of the world having fun through social media, and Shasta made its way back into my mind. I just couldn’t shake the idea of going on this adventure. Unfortunately my bus is slammed so not suitable for the conditions and I’m also a whopping 2500 miles away and running on a shoestring budget. … But, if there’s a will there’s a way.
Through the power of social media I found myself in talks with AJ Salazar out of Mentone, California. After a little back and forth and some friends from the VW community vouching for me, my golden ticket to Shasta had been finally granted! So I bought a oneway ticket to Los Angeles, with one bag and a camera draped around my neck. The plan was simple to me, crazy to most: go with the flow, turn wrenches, and take photos.
I met up with AJ and his crew, the (Beater Bus Club) at OCTO, a community-driven VW gathering in Long Beach, California, dedicated to pre-1967 Volkswagen buses. After a few hours at the show we headed back to his place; there was a lot of work to do! Four months ago his bus was still sitting in a field in Montana. Now we’re busy covering rust holes with foil tape from the bottom
up, torching the shocks off for replacements, rigging up a snorkel for river crossings, fine tuning, and gathering spare parts for the next two days. Simultaneously prepped and packed is his partner Aurora’s Single Cab for the journey, so no room for breakdowns or excuses.
Before I knew it we were headed north on the I5. AJ and I are in the lead. Aurora and her passenger Alyssa followed behind, Shasta bound – for me, it was a long time coming.
It was smooth sailing heading up for the most part, although breakdowns are to be expected in these old rigs. Somewhere along the way we
to limp to Damon Dayton’s shop in Stockton, California. In no time the engine was out of the bus and on the lift. I went about replacing the rear main seal while AJ welded a mid-mount in preparation for some heavy thrashing on the underside of this bus. At this point Ahmad and Trey from Mentone caught up with us and we all
set up camp together at Damon’s.
Next morning came and within a couple hours we had coordinates to the “rampage spot”. This is the location where all the Shasta buses were to meet this year. Our three-bus convoy turned into a seven-bus convoy by the time we got closer
to the meeting point. The hills began to grow larger and the speed became faster and further from the driving style of any other Volkswagen event I’d ever been a part of. Deep in the hills of the Snow Mountain Wilderness, 30+ buses gathered at the camp. The Shasta Snow Trip was only hours away, with maps on the table, routes
debated, and a lot of shit talked. The ground rules for the journey were laid out and taken with a grain of salt: “If you’re going slow, stay the fuck out of my way”; “This is Shasta. If you’re gonna be a pussy stay home!”; “If you’re not awake and ready to go by 7am, you will be left behind”; “if you need gas go get it now!”, etc. …
Once again morning was upon us and it was time to get rowdy! More than 30 buses headed straight into a heavy blizzard on Mendocino Pass. As we climbed the mountain, snow fell harder and harder. Within just an hour, the dirt roads disappeared in snow. Reality set in for some, especially those with smaller engined buses. The
storm had gotten gnarly, and the realisation that we needed to get off that mountain became apparent in no time at all. One bus after another became stuck. “Put your fucking phones down and push; we need all hands on deck! …”. It was time to turn around and head for the next trail.
Day one of Shasta put many participants though the ringer and even sent a few guys home.
Freezing cold, soaking wet and exhausted, I slept on the front seat of AJ’s bus. Even though it was just a seat to call my bed, I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
The days that followed were all that were left of the Shasta Snow Trip – rough, rowdy and definitely not for the faint of heart. The nitty
gritty details are left for your imagination and for those who experienced it at first hand.
The line between life and death was navigated by most drivers who participated in this event. It’s impossible to put experiences like this into writing. There’s a euphoric feeling looking back at this journey through photographs and what’s
burned into my mind. I’ll forever be grateful to AJ and the rest of the Shasta crew who welcomed me on this trip. It was my first but will not be my last. Get it while you still can. Drive your bus. Enjoy!
After the massive, sell-out success of the previous Midland’s Air-Cooled Swap Meets, we’re excited to do all over again and as it’s our 4th event, we thought, hey, let’s go a quarter size bigger!
The date for the next Swap Meet is Sunday 1st February 2026 and will once again be hosted at the excellent British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire and we have agreed to hire more internal space so we can get even more traders in for you lucky folk.
The cash price for entry will remain at £6 per person, with 50p from each cash
purchase from the day going to the amazing Marie Curie charity.
As ever, our main focus for indoors will be on quality new and used air-cooled Volkswagen and Porsche related items. So whether it’s NOS/genuine used parts you’re after, or quality new items, we want you to come away with everything you need for your beloved vehicle.
The British Motor Museum is located in the heart of the Midlands, just a few minutes off junction 12 of the M40, so it’s within easy reach for all. This superb venue is set up for events like this and has its own dedicated
entrance and extensive parking for your air-cooled vehicles. We will still have the dedicated ‘air-cooled only’ parking section and also a cars for sale area.
Why not make a full day of it by coming along to the swap meet and then having a look around the BMM’s amazing collection of classic British made vehicles? (Separate charges apply).
We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday 1st February 2026.
YOUR SPLIT,
OR T25
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When it comes to the Volkswagen Type2 you have an absolute plethora to choose from: Split or Bay, Deluxe or Kombi, Single or Double … the list goes on. All of these offerings are equally usable, practical and fun in their own way; however, when it comes to pure aesthetics, you cannot deny the simple elegance of the humble Panel Van.
The Panel Van is the sort of genesis for the Type2. Yes, you had the Plattenwagen, but if we take those original, iconic sketches from Mr Ben Pon, along with the early clay models and prototypes, it’s clear, at least in my humble opinion, that the Panel Van was really the first practical step for the transporter.
The design was genius and ideal for small businesses. The Type2 Panel features beautiful smooth sides, perfect for sign-writing, a generous loading area, a bench seat up front and a frugal, reliable motor. Every box ticked for a commercial vehicle.
On top of this, if you needed a little more, Volkswagen had you covered with a great list of optional extras. Take this one, for instance. Need to load the cargo area from both sides? They had just the thing for you. Behold the Double-Door Panel Van.
Truly built for purpose, it’s the (Dove) blue-collar
backbone of Volkswagen: elegant and understated. The foundation for Volkswagen commercial vehicles.
Obviously, the Panel Van wasn’t the only commercial vehicle Volkswagen offered from stock. For example, there was also the highly successful Pickup, the Single Cab and the Double Cab. Equally hard-working and perfectly fit for purpose, but from a purely aesthetic standpoint, I would argue that a Panel Van is a prettier thing – dare I say, more balanced and better proportioned (and I own a Single Cab).
Enough rambling about my opinions on aesthetics
and design. Let’s get going. The Panel you see on these pages oozes cool in every regard. If I were on the hunt for a Panel Van, this would hit the spot. Heavily patinated, sign-written, double-door, Dove Blue … I could keep going.
This Panel was originally destined for the good old US of A, for a small place called New York, where it landed less than ten days after leaving the factory in Hannover. Finished in L31 Dove Blue with a grey leatherette bench seat, US-spec flashing indicators
and bumper overriders, it was a great basis for a solid commercial VW. The interior loading area was finished in grey and left absolutely empty – a blank canvas for whatever business it would end up serving.
This beautiful Double-Door is owned by Mr Matt Baker, a serial Panel Van man. Matt has been in the air-cooled community for quite some time, starting his journey in the mid-80s with a very peachy, very “of the time” project.
“I remember a local firefighter on my road in Goring-on-Thames in the early 1980s had a lovely blue and white RHD Oval Bug. I absolutely loved the shape and the sound of it. So I decided to save up and buy a Bug for myself.
In 1986 my dad and I bought a very rotten ’68 model, but I soon realised that I preferred the sloping headlight look. So we set about restoring the Bug as a Cal-look ‘pre-67’. NOS panels (still available at the time), a full peach
respray, sway-away adjusters, the lot.”
Matt has had a string of beautiful vehicles: a ’60 Splitscreen Panel Van, a ’74 Moonraker Bay Window, another ’60 Panel, a ’55 Kombi, a ’52 Camping Box, a ’53 Panel, a ’51 Split-window crotchcooler Bug, a short break into
more modern water-cooled cars including an RS6 and a 996, and some modern Transporters … then back again into a ’54 RHD Oval Ragtop and this ’61 DoubleDoor Panel.
“The first time I saw this amazing Panel was about five or six years ago. I missed out on buying it then (too slow). I came across it again at the Volksworld Show two or three years back and both Harry (my son) and I said that we really need to buy this when we get an opportunity. We bought it earlier this year from Bob at Resto Haus
in Barnstaple. We didn’t hang about.” It was clear that Matt wasn’t going to let this one slip through his fingers again. The deal was done and the Double-Door was his.
Looking at the Panel, the first thing that sticks out is that incredible patina. Under the lights of our shoot the contrasting tones really pop, with blues, greys, reds and browns all coming through the factory Dove Blue paint and primer. The roof is truly scorched to a dark brown, almost black, after years of being baked by
nature’s oven. It’s also clear that one side of the vehicle must have been facing the sun for longer, as it is significantly more scorched.
The signwriting for “Robert Monly Inc – Office Furnishing and Decorating” couldn’t be more on point for a business of the time. As we mentioned before, these vans were the perfect way to spread the word about your business. In fact, Matt is a decorator by trade, so it really couldn’t be more fitting.
The Panel glides along the
road proudly on a set of proper “made in the USA” Firestone whitewall tyres, which I think look phenomenal.
Those gorgeous whitewalls are wrapped around the original 15” Volkswagen steel wheels with commercial grey hubcaps. A timeless look.
The running gear is all stock as a rock. No dropped spindles or narrowed beams here. A well-maintained
chassis and original drums on all four corners are enough to keep the Panel in check.
Power comes from the original 1200cc Volkswagen motor, which isn’t the fastest by any stretch of the imagination, but is still going strong, a testament to the quality of the air-cooled VW engines of the time.
Matt says he’s a sucker for a bone-stock Dove Blue commercial, so he has no real desire to slam
or modify this one. Since owning it, it has been more about focusing on preservation and maintenance.
The Panel had been in the UK for around ten years before falling into Matt’s hands and had been passed from collector to collector. Although the vehicle was complete and roadworthy, it’s often the smaller service items that begin to suffer, especially if they haven’t had heaps of use. So it was important to check the vehicle over fully, which is where Matt
enlisted the help of VW Jim. Matt is comfortable doing minor mechanical jobs, oil changes and plugs, but he knows that he has limits and that sometimes it is safer to have a professional look things over with a fine-tooth comb.
Jim got to work getting the vehicle mechanically sound: a replacement starter motor, engine servicing, fuel sender and fuel gauge (not something VW equipped commercials with at this point in time), a
wiper motor conversion from 6v to 12v, brakes and lights.
Matt also re-trimmed the bench seat in the correct grey leatherette material, which looks excellent and suits the vehicle perfectly. The door cards and kick panels all remain original.
The loading area is still empty, although treated to new floors, some paint and a good clean up. The original cab divider is still with the vehicle, although Matt chooses to run it without it fitted.
For those of you worrying, Matt regularly protects the exterior from further deterioration using
Owatrol Oil, a paint conditioner and rust inhibitor.
Future plans include some belly pans, Auto Wares mirrors, a camping box interior and an old-speed motor, so that he can travel further afield to places like Hessisch Oldendorf, where the vehicle is already booked for display.
I think it’s fair to say that Volkswagen got it right with the Type2, and each variation is a truly versatile machine. The beauty of the Type2 Panel Van was that you could make it what you wanted, what you needed. All these years later this one is still doing exactly that. Its purpose now is simple enjoyment, which it delivers. Much like a retired service dog, it has done its time and now it enjoys an easier, well-
earned retirement in Matt’s capable care.
Matt loves this vehicle. He loves attending events and going for drives. It makes him happy, and I can see why. What began his air-cooled journey was a project shared between father and son, and Matt continues that tradition with his own son Harry, who has a keen interest in air-cooled vehicles. They attend events
together and share a true love for these old classics.
Matt would like to thank VW Jim, Bob at Resto Haus, John McDonald for the location, and Harry, who will one day be driving around in this ’61.
If you would like us to promote your Volkswagen event, please enter for free on www.bUGbUs.nEt’s show calendar. Also on bUGbUs.nEt you will find the latest show entries from around Europe.
3RD – 5TH | EUROPEAN BUG IN Chimay | europeanbugin.com
3RD – 5TH | KÄFER & CO TREFFEN
Grossenkneten | See bUGbUs.nEt
AUGUST
14TH – 16TH | 50 JAHRE KÄFER TEAM GÖPPINGEN
Lenglingen | vw-kaefer-team.de
15TH – 17TH | VIVA SKEG VEGAS
Lincolnshire| vivaskegvegasvw.co.uk
21ST – 23RD | IONIAN VOLKSFEST KEFALONIA
Sami | vwclubkef.wixsite.com/vwbeetle-kefalonia
21ST – 23RD | THE BRITISH MOTOR SHOW
Gaydon | thebritishmotorshow
22ND – 23RD | MURTEN VINTAGE VW MEETING
Murten | vw-vintage.ch
SCAN FOR ALL SHOWS AT A GLANCE ON BUGBUS.NET
WE WANT YOUR SHOW
If you would like us to promote your Volkswagen event, please enter for free on www.bUGbUs.nEt’s show calendar.
THE LONG WAY ROUND
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE SEILER & REMI YUNG
WORDS BY CHARLES HARDING
So you pick classic Volkswagens for your hobby, then spend the next decade swearing at them, bleeding on them, and wondering why you didn’t just learn to play golf instead. Rémi Yung, from the tiny French village of Verne, can vouch for this. At 40 years old, he’s a metalworker-locksmith, the sort of man who fixes things for a living and then comes home to …
fix more things. Not because he has to, but because he genuinely can’t stop himself. Between restoring his house and wrenching at his fleet of old Volkswagens, there’s a certain inevitability to his story: if it’s rusty, stubborn or falling apart, Rémi will take it on.
His love for all things air-cooled
started at a young age, thanks to his cousin Xavier. At sixteen, Rémi was essentially bribed when Xavier handed him the keys to a Beetle in exchange for helping out at work. Some kids get scooters. Rémi got long-term financial instability and a lifetime of smelling like gearbox oil. But that first Beetle stuck –literally and emotionally – and his collection has grown ever since. He’s hoarded everything: Ovals, Splits, Bays, and he has never sold a single one.
His main influences read like a greatest-hits list of the VW world: DBK in the US shaped part of his taste; Irv’s in the UK added another layer; and also Radikabugz in Belgium. He loves everything from purist originality to fully custom builds, and has an especially soft spot for drag cars. Spa Francorchamps was his first big event and, like anyone who has ever stood in that paddock, he fell in love instantly. Still, he’ll happily tell you that smaller French meetings are often where the real
community is.
The story of this ’54 Oval begins in 2011, during what can only be described as some dangerously unsupervised downtime. Rémi broke his arm, suddenly had too much spare time and, as every car person knows, that’s how expensive projects are born. While scrolling through the classifieds he stumbled across a January 1954 Oval Ragtop. Except calling it a “car” would have been generous. It was a pile of parts pretending
to have potential. No history, no guarantee of completeness, and absolutely no reason to buy it. Naturally, Rémi bought it that same evening.
He justified the purchase to himself by thinking that he’d restore the car ready for his wedding. Of course the car wouldn’t actually be finished for another fifteen years, and the wedding still hasn’t happened.
When the Oval arrived at his
home, it looked less like a vehicle and more like someone had shaken a Beetle vigorously until all its internals had fallen out. Boxes of mismatched parts, incorrect components, missing hardware, and bodywork that had clearly been “repaired” by someone who hated Volkswagens on a personal level. The ragtop wasn’t original to the car but was the correct type for ’54, and Rémi is pretty sure the car had been in an accident at some point many years ago.
He started strong, stripping and sanding the chassis and body, restoring mechanicals, rebuilding the engine, and tackling every missing or mangled detail one part at a time. The early handbrake mechanism nearly broke him – it doesn’t exist to buy new, rarely appears for sale used, and only surfaced thanks to a random Dutch contact who might as well have been dealing contraband the way Rémi celebrated finding it. Then life stepped in. Moving to a new region put the project on
pause for a year. Buying a house put it on pause again. And again. Years passed. The Oval became a longterm resident of the “I’ll get to it soon” corner of his workshop.
Eventually, the car was sent to friends – David and Aurélien – who worked their magic on the body and laid down its fresh coat of Iceland Green L213 paint. When it came home, Rémi got stuck into the wiring, reassembly, adjustments and, naturally, repainting a few parts because they “weren’t quite right”. The reassembly phase lasted around two years, mainly because every time he thought he had all the parts, another rare component revealed itself to be missing. The interior was rebuilt by Ace de Pique and Doe’s Upholstery, with a modified TMI headliner stitched in fabric like the original. It was slow, painful, but deeply satisfying.
Fifteen years after buying the car, Rémi finally turned the key and drove the Oval for the first time. Its first show was ACWA 2025, where his friends staged a fake wedding ceremony for him and the car. The Oval even won its first trophy! Getting there wasn’t smooth. It took eight hours to cover 190 kilometres, and the return trip took seven – a journey decorated with breakdowns, improvisation and a lot of shouting. But it’s exactly those miserable experiences that become the best memories.
Today, the ’54 sits at a very drivable ride height on a set of ERCOs – 3.5s in front, 6s out back – wrapped in 145s and 205/70 rubber. The suspension has been fully rebuilt – a narrowed beam and height adjusters front and rear via adjustable spring plates. The original split-case gearbox lives on, backed by that fully
rebuilt industrial engine. The entire electrical system has been refreshed with a new VW Looms harness. The interior, while subtly customised, keeps the ’54 style alive with periodstyle fabrics and beautifully finished upholstery.
Despite all this work, Rémi intentionally avoided loading the car with accessories. He wanted it to look as close to original as possible – just lower, cleaner, sharper. The colour combination is his favourite part, followed closely by the wheels. He likes that it’s different from the usual Oval builds without losing its purity. When asked if he would change one aspect he said that he’d add an Oldspeed engine – maybe an Okrasa kit, maybe a Judson blower – something with character and heritage. One day, he says. And we get the feeling that he means it.
For now, his focus is just on making the Oval reliable enough to actually enjoy. Mechanical issues limited seat time this year, but he drives it whenever he can, taking it to events or cruising out to see friends. And when he’s ready for the next big challenge, his ’60 semaphore Panel Van is waiting patiently in the wings.
Through it all, Rémi credits a small
army of people for helping along the way: Xavier, Charlotte, David, Aurélien, Ace de Pique, Doe’s Upholstery, Vintage Autohaus, Turmo Patch, Daniel and Evelyne, countless friends who turned spanners or offered advice, photographer Steve Seiler and, of course, Hayburner for shining a light on his longsuffering but beautiful Oval.
This isn’t just a restored Beetle. It’s fifteen years of persistence, frustration, creativity and devotion. It’s a car built not in a rush but in real time – through moves, life changes, late nights, missing parts and broken dreams that eventually got fixed anyway. It’s a rolling reminder that sometimes the long way round is the only way to get somewhere worth going.
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Dozens of VW T2 Splits took over the world-famous racetrack at Goodwood Revival earlier this year, and it was every bit as cool as it sounds! Josh from Just Kampers has sent in a write-up of the event, to go with the incredible photos taken by JK’s photographer Nick Proctor. Here’s what Josh wrote:
Earlier this year a few of us from the JK Team headed to Goodwood Revival for their celebration marking 75 years since the VW T2 Split first went into mass production, and it was an incredible event
– despite some challenges!
If you’ve not heard of it before, Goodwood Revival is a hugely popular festival which bills itself as “the world’s most spectacular historic motor racing event”. Each year tens of thousands of people from around the world get dressed up in the styles of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, and gather together to enjoy a weekend of incredible motorsport and a dizzying range of other entertainment.
Normally the classics you’d expect to see at Revival cost even more than I’d want to spend on a house, but each day of the three days is kicked off by a special parade around the Goodwood track, and this summer was dedicated to celebrating 75 years of the iconic VW Splitscreen. Definitely not a cheap vehicle, but not one you’d routinely see being sold for a price containing two commas!
A huge variety of different T2 Splits were created during the 17 years of its production run, and the team at Goodwood Revival worked hard to make sure that as many of these variations as possible were on display at the event in September.
We know some of the team at Goodwood, as we gave them some help with the parade of VW-based Beach
Buggies at Revival in 2024, and so they asked us to help point them towards any Splitscreens we knew of that fit the pretty exacting requirements for their event. Their drive to show off a variety of different years, models and styles of Splitscreen paid off in the end, as the world-renowned Goodwood racetrack was filled with Splitscreens which drew in massive crowds.
Sure, the Splits were setting some truly unimpressive lap times, but unless you’re Oklahoma Willie or WindSplit, driving a Split isn’t really about going fast, is it? It’s about enjoying the drive and looking cool while you’re doing it – and it was easy to see that all the drivers and their passengers were having a great time cruising around the Goodwood circuit! Besides, anyone who was planning on taking their Split for a fast lap around the circuit would have struggled, as the weather was pretty far from ideal racing conditions! Despite it being mid-September, the whole Goodwood
Revival weekend was battered by rain, wind and storms. Unsurprisingly most people’s Splitscreens fogged up on the inside while they were waiting for the parade to begin, and they had to open some windows while frantically wiping others clear, but it didn’t seem to keep the huge smiles from anyone’s faces.
It was incredible to see so many Splits take to the track at Goodwood Revival, and to see them get such a great reaction from the crowds who’d braved the weather to watch them.
My friend Nick from the JK Team was there all weekend, shooting the Splitscreen parade for us and then going off to do his own photography and videos of the event, and the photos he got are incredible! Nick also worked with Rae from the JK Team to interview people about their T2 Splits and how they were getting on at Goodwood Revival,
which you can find on our YouTube channel or our Instagram.
While Nick and Rae were off photographing the event, the rest of us were chatting with friends and customers at the Just Kampers stand at Goodwood Revival, as well as striking up conversations with people who’d wandered in just to get out of the rain! As well as helping the Goodwood Revival team track
down some of the Splitscreens which took part in the official parade, we also helped them fix up a T2 Split which they’d bought for the occasion. We used our on-site workshop, parts from JK HQ, and every minute of the not-very-much-time available to get the Split ready so it could be wrapped in a design created by artist Daniel Arsham. With absolutely no time to spare, the Split was fixed up, wrapped, and rolled out to take pride of place in the “Peace
and Love” display which the Goodwood Revival team assembled for the event.
The whole event was really special, and it was incredible to play a small part in helping it all come together. It felt like Goodwood Revival was a huge opportunity for us to share our passion for the T2 Split with tens of thousands of classic car fans from around the world who otherwise might not have shown much interest in the Splitscreen – strange as that might seem to us!
A huge Thank You to everyone who took part in the parade, dropped by the Just Kampers stand at the event, or shared the photos and videos that Nick captured from Revival.
You can see more of them on our Just Kampers Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, as well as on Nick’s Instagram @ nickproctorcars and website nickproctorphotography.com
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FULL CIRCLE
WORDS BY TOBY WALKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY SI MEDLICOTT
There are a couple of things about this car that I find super cool. The first is one that I can relate to, as Matty Armstrong bought this car back in 2013, subsequently sold it, and bought it back years later. This is what I did with my Fasty (which I still own but unfortunately it has sat untouched for 10 years; all that will change shortly, so watch this space. Mind you this is not about me so I’ll shut up). The second cool thing is that I remember when Matty first built this car, but I had no idea that I’d actually seen it again years later
at a few shows. It looked different back then, and now that Matty has it again it looks totally different once more and, dare I say, even better than before. The reason I say this is that when you see stock height early Beetles in the UK, they are usually in fully restored condition or heavily modified but very rarely original paint and stock. I feel the same doesn’t tend to really apply to buses, but maybe that’s just me?
So let’s get on to this super-cool stock height ’51’s super-cool
history. Many of you will know Matty Armstrong from the early noughties’ VW shows. He certainly has an eye for styling sweet-looking VWs. Every Volkswagen he’s ever owned has been heavily lowered, and was usually on a variety of interesting wheels that he had been lucky enough to get his hands on over the years. He began with a number of Beetles, the last being his amazing 1954 Ultra Maroon Oval, now more commonly known as “The Ultra Oval”, if anyone knows it. Matty’s interests shifted solely into early 911s after this, but not
before acquiring his last Volkswagen in 2014 which was the catalyst for selling the 1951 Split Bug you see here. Here is where the story of the car on these pages gets interesting … but before we get to that part, let’s figure out where it all started.
Matty first bought this early 1951 (crotch cooler) Type1 Deluxe back in 2013 from a guy called Jan in the Netherlands. Crotch cooler cars were introduced in April 1951 and ended in September 1952, so they aren’t quite as common as regular Split Window
Beetles. Interestingly, Matty was told that Jan was only the second ever owner of the car, making Matty the third owner – pretty amazing for a 75-year-old car. Matty was sitting in a lecture at university simultaneously texting his good mate Si Medlicott when they came across the car posted on pre67vw.com. Matty says: “That site was a seriously cool platform back in 2013 (and still is), because it wasn’t the biggest marketplace for car shopping but when a new vehicle got listed it was typically a gem more often than not! And that day my theory
was proven right. It’s a pretty niche place and I’ve always admired pre67 for that.”
Jan had bought the car from the original owners in Sweden. Jan told Matty that there were other early cars found at the same property, including more Split Window Beetles, but this was the one he chose and brought home in 2012. With his other projects including a recently restored Oval Convertible, Jan decided not to invest in the ’51 and instead put it up for sale. The advert was live for just two days before Si found the ad and immediately sent it over to Matty while in that lecture. As soon as he opened the link, Matty knew this would be the perfect replacement for his recently sold ’54 Oval. He messaged Jan, and by the end of the day a deposit had been sent and a date arranged for collection! When it comes to buying early cars, you have to push the button pretty quickly if you
don’t want to lose out.
The trip to collect the car couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Matty had already planned to deliver his Oval to Belgium on a trailer in a few weeks’ time. He then continued north to Holland and collected his new project.
A short time later, Matty and Si set off to deliver the Oval to Francois in the dead of night. Being a genuine enthusiast, he made the sale really easy, quickly checking over the car and not being phased by the fact it wouldn’t start for the first half hour of his new ownership! Deal done, it was onward to Holland. “I can’t get to this point and not mention our dear old friend Mr Reinoud Valk, who kindly joined us for the Dutch section of the road trip. After meeting Reinoud the year before
at Le Bug show, he quickly became a great friend of ours with our mutual enjoyment of all things air-cooled. He was an invaluable contact to have for European deal-making, being fluent in four languages.” As it turned out, the seller of the ’51 was not at all bilingual, to say the least. When they pulled up in the sleepy little Dutch village, despite the two Englishmen arriving at his door driving a UK-registered vehicle, towing an empty trailer, and at the agreed time and date, “I still believe he remained completely bewildered as to who the
hell we were until Reinoud quickly took the lead. But I didn’t care because a short time later the mystified man was paid and we were on our way home.”
Once back in Blighty, Matty and Bobby (Milk&Two) started work immediately. This was November 2013, and make no mistake it was a serious project. If you imagine your typical early Volkswagen discovered out in a Swedish forest exposed to all weathers that hasn’t been seen
for decades, yeah that’s what condition it was in. Believe it or not, the pair built the car in time to display it at the Volksworld Show in 2014. “Pretty impressive stuff, if I do say so myself, and even to this day I’m still really proud that he and I managed to do that and get this car across the line, and also to everyone else who helped us achieve that insane deadline! I genuinely cherish the memories I have of building this car all those years ago, surrounded by some incredibly driven and passionate people that helped me get this car finished in such a short
space of time (a special thank you to Bobby Wilcox, Si, Will, Joe Pro, Chez, Ned and Drummer Matt, who all gave us their time to contribute in some form or another.”
So that was that. Matty owned another supercool slammed super-early VW, and it was such a cool car. Split Beetles weren’t so common back then, especially slammed on a set of alternative wheels.
Now this is where the story gets interesting. An extremely unexpected opportunity came Matty’s way only a few months after the car’s 2014 debut. It came in the form of an Instagram message from a well-known collector in the air-cooled world based in Japan, Ryo Choya. The Instagram message loosely read, “Does this car belong to you? I’ve been looking at so many pictures of it online and I spent days trying to find out who you are! I want to offer you a deal.” So Matty was thinking, “Well, I’ve JUST finished building this thing. It’s truly my dream Beetle. It’s unlikely I’ll ever find another like it and I’ve absolutely no intention of selling it … so of course naturally my response was: ‘What’s the deal?’”
After a quick scroll through this guy’s profile, it looked like he owned some serious cars: slammed early Ovals, an air-ride Notchback, an original paint ’54 Barndoor … and then something that completely stopped Matty in his tracks. A killer original paint Palm Green Sand Green Microbus that he’d never seen before. “Back then to me an original paint PGSG of any description would’ve been a dream bus for me. This turned out to be a June 1955 Wolfsburg PGSG, built just three months after Barndoor production ended. Fully original paint, fully original interior, slammed and narrowed with a turned up 1776.
“The offer this guy put on the table was a straight
swap of my newly built ’51 Split Bug in exchange for his ’55 Palm Green Sand Green. Following a huge amount of logistics and planning, it was probably about three months later when those two little Volkswagens crossed paths somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and both Ryo and I were then driving the other’s car from halfway across the world.” I mean how cool is that – not only that someone loves what you have created, but that they were willing to swap your dream car straight for it, no cash one way or another!
So, how did Matty end up back in custodianship of this ’51 after it ended up 8700-odd miles (the other side of the world) from him? The car was eventually bought from Japan and imported back to the UK by Dave and James from RSVP before it finally found its way to Chris Hill. Chris then used the car for some time until he decided to put it up for sale. When Matty saw the advert, he just couldn’t leave it alone. “It was of course sent to me by Si Medlicott once again. I didn’t even know it was available. I sat on the idea for a few weeks knowing that I wasn’t in the position to buy it, but I couldn’t get the idea out
of my head. In the end I think my wife was sick of me trying to justify it to myself so I finally made the decision that it was coming home.”
Full circle and over a decade later, Matty owned the little black Beetle again. This time around I suppose you could say the “build” was even more impressive, because that took even less time at just over a month! The car came to Matty absolutely slammed on the ground. We’re talking flat pans, engine raise, pie cut/raised frame head on an 8” narrowed shockless beam, dropped spindles and dropped spring plates. “It was pretty cool, to be fair, and a look that I would’ve fallen head over heels for 12 years ago,” Matty tells us. “When I made the deal to buy this car back I was completely undecided what road to take it down. After weeks of discussion with friends and peers about how I was feeling about it, researching what similar styles others had created with their
Split Bugs, I had the realisation that quite often if you’re looking at a restored Split Beetle, you’re more than likely looking at a stock height one. And the more I thought about it the more I realised how rare it actually was seeing an original paint, stock height Split Bug. And that for me is actually the pinnacle of cool in my head these days. So the excitement began to build. How awesome would it be to bring it back home after all these years, maintain that killer original bodywork, repair the troubles that being a heavily slammed car causes, but give it a completely and utterly fresh look at the same time? Decision made.”
With his mind made up, Matty knew there was only one man for the job. Matty reached out to Max Edwards of Eva Resto. Many of you know that Max is more acclaimed for getting vehicles way closer to terra firma than elevating their stance, but in Matty’s eyes there was no better person to use.
He met Max around 18 years ago through his best mate Will, and even back then Max’s natural eye for a cool car and undeniable passion for VWs was totally clear. When Eva Resto opened its doors, both Will and Matty said to each other that without a shadow of a doubt, that place was going to thrive. What Max has achieved in the short time he’s been open is incredibly impressive. Not only is he the number one air-ride installation and parts guy in the UK, but his knowledge and expertise across all generations of VWs is frankly inspiring. “I can’t thank him and Jesse enough for what
they’ve done on my car.”
When Matty had bought the car from Chris at Sublime Classic Restorations earlier in the year, part of the deal was for him to repair some wing damage which he knew about from when he first owned the car. A couple of the wings were particularly gnarly, especially around the bottom, so knowing Chris did this sort of work professionally, Matty was delighted when Chris agreed to weld some of the broken metal for him pre-collection.
Finally Chris enlisted the help of the highly skilled Steve Parsons (@thepatinablender) to ensure that the repairs were not only protected but also painted in the exact same colour, and blended perfectly to look as though they were never there at all. “A personal thank you for the flawless work, Parsons. I was thrilled with the paint repairs when I collected the car.” The frame head required some repairs caused by the years of scraping the ground, but the rest of the underside was pretty much how Matty remembered it from when he fully restored the floor pan, and it is still as solid today as it was when he finished it back in 2014.
Max and the team then started to counter the slam job with the engine and box, putting them back on stock height rubber mountings. The steering column was extended back to stock length. The frame head and pie cut had to be repaired and rebuilt, with the stock-style body mounts reinstalled.
Max beautifully restored a period front beam for the car. Then it essentially had a complete running-gear restoration, including new bushes, rubbers, links, brakes, hardware, bearings and more. It honestly drives like a brand new (75-year-old) car. The car is still running the original set up of drum brakes all round. Everything has been completely reconditioned and overhauled. Matty managed to acquire a set of original Split Beetle 16” wheels for the car, which was no mean feat, but in a stroke of pure luck the set he found were all in fact date-stamped ’51. Tyres are 16” Pirelli “Stella Bianca” cross-plies 500/525-16 with wide valve inner tubes from longstonetyres.co.uk. “They did all of this in little over a month! So please do have a look through
his website and get in touch with whatever vintage Volkswagen requirements you have. I cannot recommend them enough.”
EvaResto.co.uk
The engine is a 1200cc 30hp Oval engine with a Vintage Speed twin-carb set up with Mann mushroom air filters, etc. “I’m really pleased with the motor in this car and I’m pretty sure it’s the same rebuilt one I put in it the first time around, but it’s been completely overhauled by Chris Hill with some nice components to give it just a little bit more than standard. I’ve never driven one but I’m not sure how I would get on with a stock 25hp. My current motor zips along nicely so things are definitely staying as they are for now.”
This car now has a 100% original and fully retrimmed interior. Matt says: “That was one major flaw with the car when I first owned it. The interior was seriously rough. All the seat cloth was torn, door cards hanging off, etc., but in a way it almost suited the car at the time.” Towards the end, one of the front seats got particularly bad to a point where you were sitting on the bare springs in places. So the previous owner Chris enlisted the help of Sam Trigg from Aircooled Upholstery to completely restore the interior back to brand new. Chris imported the genuine Split Beetle cloth from Germany, maintaining as much originality as possible. It still maintains the original steering wheel, gear shifter, and all handles and switches, making the inside now one of the standout features of the car.
The final word comes from Matty: “So that’s the
story of this little Split Window Beetle. It feels so right that it’s back sitting in my garage again after all those years, but I can’t decide if that feeling comes from the pure joy of owning a rare little vintage car again, or if it’s the full-circle moment of knowing it’s been on a voyage half way around the world.”
We are so stoked that Matty (1) has his original car back, and (2) is back in the air-cooled VW fold once again. If you don’t know Matty, no doubt you’ll catch him at a VW show near you soon, and you can check out this awesome original car in person.
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‘49 TIME
PHOTOGRAPHY AND WORDS BY NED FAUX
If you’re reading this, we made it! Well, we made it to print, that is. After beginning the last three instalments of this article with apologies for the magazine being late, I’m hoping as we approach 2026 that it should be back to business as usual at Hayburner. For this issue we really had to pull out all the stops, considering that Issue 55 went to print at the end of October. Since then we’ve had strict instructions from the print house that if we didn’t get this issue to press for 10th December we wouldn’t be getting the magazine back in 2025 at all. So we’ve quite literally not slept. I did speak to people about the consequences if only three magazines went out this year and those I spoke to were surprisingly understanding. However, it isn’t our subscribers’ problem that my house burned down or the other hurdles 2025 has thrown at us, so extending this year’s subs into 2026 just wasn’t an option. Even in the most disorganised and irresponsible period of my career I still managed to get four magazines out per year. So this should explain why you’ve received Hayburner so late in the year, which should be the week between Christmas and New Year if my calculations are correct. I’m glad we’ve managed to do this, and there are people that have worked very hard to make it happen. I’m eternally grateful to them. Getting back up to speed with a clean slate for the new year feels like a load off, and 2026 is looking to be quite an exciting year.
Being such a short period of time since I last spoke about the ’49, it’s not surprising that there’s not a great deal to report. I posted out my window runners for felting (which reminds me, I really need to get in touch with Dylan Cheasley; I completely forgot he’d messaged saying that he’d received the parts but there was some sort of issue). I also sourced a manifold and rear
shock mounts. I wanted to get the original lever shocks reconditioned, but when I found out the expense involved I opted for a telescopic conversion mount which should get me on the road. Hopefully I can consider getting the lever shocks sorted in the future when/ if the sun is shining on my finances. I’m still waiting for the green light to drop the interior off for trimming, and I just received a customs invoice from KaeferNostalgie and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I can’t remember what it was that I ordered. So much has been going on over the past couple of months that I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
I’m still sticking to my original plan of using Stanford Hall for the first outing for the car. It’s only half an hour from my front door and hopefully it will be the beginning of the shakedown to make sure the car is good for a 1000-mileplus journey to Hessisch Oldendorf, Germany, at the end of June. I think that’s doable. With this mag out, it should give me a little breathing space for the beginning of the year.
I have got one other little VW-shaped time sapper in the mix. Remember that last issue I had sold Shuvarda? It went to a lovely couple. Believe it or not, she had actually bought the bus as a surprise for her fiancé! Take note, girls: the gift bar has been well and truly raised. I believe I wrote something along the lines of, “I seem to have become very choosy when it comes to a Shuvarda replacement. It’s a strange market for these vehicles and I guess only fools rush in. I think I’m going to try my best to not be that fool, bide my time, and wait for the right bus for me.” Only weeks after writing this, the right bus did come along.
I’d been thinking for a long time about what I really wanted in a bus and what needed to be considered. It had to be a Split, the only reason being that I love the aesthetic. I think the Split bus is in the top ten most iconic vehicles of all time and I don’t think I’ll ever be without one. It had to be a Camper or Microbus. How early the bus was meant less to me than it did in the past. I did at one time have my heart set on a Barndoor, but it didn’t necessarily have to be. I think I’d caught Barndoor fever by joining Myles, Biddy, etc. on the convoy to Spa. The buses looked so great cruising all together and it’s difficult to not get caught up in the moment. If not a Barndoor, it had to be something special – maybe a sub hatch Westy or an interesting spec like a Deluxe. It also had to be LHD. I dislike driving RHD Split buses as I find them uncomfortable. The bus had to be unrestored, but not
a project as I didn’t have time, also not modified. After finding cars for competitions I’ll be happy if I never have to fix another VW due to someone else’s idea of a “performance upgrade”. Finally, it had to be original paint without too much patina. With every year that goes by I become a bit more introverted. I’m not sure why, but I try to keep a lower profile these days and I find when you pull up in a patina ride – especially if it’s slammed – it puts you at the centre of attention. Of course I still love modified cars and I’m sure I’ll have another, but right now I think I need life to be as simple as I can make it.
I know that’s quite a checklist for a bus. I was told by my friends that I might be dreaming and that I would have to compromise somewhere. Every night both Vic and I kept an eye on every VW “for sale” page, and I put the word out with a few of the “under the radar” people that I was in the market. My requirements put Barndoors out of the window straight away. My budget would only stretch to a Panel van, and as for originality at that price you can forget it. Also, I was intent on having a stock bus and Barndoors are far more basic than later buses. As the ’49 is going to be a slow original vintage car, I wanted this bus to be a little more drivable, so I started looking into 1960s models. I found it amazing just how many buses there are there are around the world for sale. I was also astonished by the difference in value. I found buses of the same spec in similar condition with price differences of over £20,000. After shopping for a bus in 2025 it’s become very apparent that the market
is all over the place and value really does boil down to whatever someone is willing to pay. Every time I found something interesting it was always the same – either I liked it or Vic liked it but never both of us. Then one day Vic showed me a Turkis 15-window Deluxe in the US. It was cool but it had been lowered and fitted with a big engine. Still, we just loved it and it was for sale from a man I have bought from in the past. This is a big deal when importing, as the list of people I know that have fallen to scams keeps getting longer. Unfortunately, in the 25 minutes it took us to say “let’s enquire”, the bus had sold. This did, however, narrow our search down because it made us set our hearts on a 15-window.
When we actually found the bus for us it wasn’t a matter of knowing the right people. It was simply advertised on the Rest-Haus, which is a VW buy/sell business run by Bob Burrows. The bus was in Devon at their showroom, for sale on behalf of a customer. Bob was particularly helpful with our enquiry, taking video upon video and even opening up especially on a Sunday because I didn’t want to waste any time. I was in love with this bus but still I felt the need to send photos to a few friends to get their opinions. They came back 95% positive, which was good enough for me to clarify that I wasn’t making a big mistake in once again putting every penny I had into another vehicle.
Devon is a six-hour drive from us, but that’s definitely not the longest journey I’ve done to see a bus. We had an agreement. Even though it was a long way to go, if the bus wasn’t exactly as described and felt absolutely right for us, we would cut our losses and walk away. We arrived at Bob’s place at lunch time and there it was. I walked over, and opened and shut the cargo door. As soon as I felt/heard the door softly click into place I looked at Vic and said “sold”.
The vehicle we were standing in front of was a September 1962-built ’63 year model 15-window Deluxe Microbus with 42,000 genuine km on the clock (26,000 miles), and I have to say it’s the best unmolested Deluxe I’ve ever set my eyes on. The only change ever made was to replace the original motor with another stock unit (it came with the original also). It has got its little dents and scratches. The cloth headliner really shows its age as this is always the first part of a VW to deteriorate, and it has had paint on the roof from where it was left for decades with junk stacked on top, but I still don’t think I’ve ever seen another Deluxe like it. It’s never been welded, and every knob, switch and dial is in full working order but with just the slightest signs of use. It’s a real time capsule.
From what I have found out, the bus spent its early days in Nice, France, taking tourists on short journeys in the early ’60s. It was then parked up and dry stored after dropping a valve until 2017, when it was found by
Florian from AirMapp. The bus was sold to a Frenchman who used it very little and then to a collector in the UK who stored it away, never actually taking it to an event. He then put it and a couple of other exceptional buses up for sale with Resto-Haus. I can genuinely say that driving this bus home was the most pleasurable air-cooled experience I’ve ever had. It didn’t skip a beat. Now I do understand that it’s not got exciting modifications. It’s not got a far out paint job or heavy patina. It’s not slammed or sitting on rare wheels. This isn’t a particularly exciting bus at all. It’s even a bus that you could walk past at a show without giving it a second glance, but it is exceptional in its own right. I think you have to smell that interior to really understand what I’m talking about. Those who know will know.
Our plans for the bus are to do as little as possible. It could do with a gear linkage rebuild and a nose cone seal. I’d also like to get the heating working as it’s not currently connected. Also I would like to see what I can do to preserve the headliner. It’s all there and not ripped, but it’s very brittle and I fear the first person to catch it on their way in or out of the bus will tear it. Last but not least, we are currently designing a camping interior that can be fitted without drilling or damaging the original fixtures. I’d like to remove the microbus seats and store them, and maybe have a simple interior that’s easily removed in case I’d like to use it as a microbus again. I have to say I’m very proud to own this bus. I never thought I’d be in a position to own a Deluxe,
all our hard work over the years has been worthwhile.
Before I leave you, I just want to say thank you to everyone. I find it astonishing that after 56 issues the magazine is still growing, and I owe it all to you guys.
who has ever subscribed, advertised, supported, contributed, put a sticker on their car or represented us with a T-shirt.
