Sommaire pour Issue 124 de VWt

GET CONNECTED... Hello and welcome to issue 124 of VWt magazine. As I write this it’s the day after Bufest, Europe’s biggest Transporter event and the Monday of deadline week. Which let me tell you is not a good combination, as it was quite the weekend. There were great vans, lots of laughs, hands in the air moments, pints a plenty and not a lot of sleeping. It was truly one of those weekends that made me feel so lucky to be part of this amazing scene. I had the chance to catch up with ex, current and future feature van owners, with sponsors, advertisers, meet old chums and make even more new ones. That’s what I love most, is the connections. Due to VWs I am friends with people…

HOT VANS The funny thing is, if you’d told me about an Iridium Grey T6 with brown leather upholstery, I may have wrinkled my nose at it. Yet, in reality, it works perfectly and gives an immediate air of luxury and sumptuousness. I guess that part of my nose wrinkling would be the subconscious assumption on my part that the brown leather was paired with grey cabinets and flooring, but my subconscious couldn’t be further off the mark. You see, at Three Bridge Campers, they do things a bit differently; they specialise in the luxury end of the market and supply both new and used converted vans, as well as carrying out conversions on customer vehicles too. According to the company website, they have: “A passion for creativity, innovation and…

A few issues back I introduced a new project vehicle on to the VWt fleet, this 2010 twin-slider Caddy Maxi panel van. A van that is technically owned by my better-half Jenny, but one I borrow when the T5 is off the road, which is quite often these days, sometimes through choice – when I am doing modifications – sometimes not through choice when things go kaput. Well, things haven’t started off great with the Caddy… Looking at the history of the Caddy it had a fair bit of work done to it, so we had hoped that it meant the previous owners had all the big bills taken care of for us. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case and an injector that the previous owner had replaced decided to…

Some people come to the VW party because ‘they always fancied one.’ Some, like Josh Brooker, are simply born for it. Even before the stars aligned for his creation, his mum and dad were cruising around in a T25. After a tragic fire totalled his own, very tastefully modified T25 Josh was in the market for a replacement, except this time it would be bigger, better and with even more perfectly executed modifications. “I didn’t want the T25 fire to become a kind of sob story,” he says, quite philosophically. “I’d built a really cool van and I knew I could do it again.” The van of choice is, this year 2000 T4. “My mum has had a T4 as a daily driver for about 11 years, so I know…

HOT VANS It’s incredibly difficult to use the word unique when it comes to modern day Transporters. As sophisticated and brilliant as many of them maybe, few of them manage to stand out from the crowd when it comes to deft touches of fabrication, time and hard graft quite like Gavin Buckingham’s T5. The overall accessibility of aftermarket styling parts and exceptional support from excellent craftsmen (and women! - Glenn) means that the Transporter scene is more alive than ever before, but few of them manage to create something totally unique and leftfield when it comes to standing out from the increasingly vibrant crowd. For 45-year-old bricklayer, Gavin, from Mansfield, his journey to creating a total one-off showstopper has been a long haul of late nights, quality parts and patience…

Curt McKenna has wanted to get behind the wheel of a Volkswagen Transporter since before he could even drive. It wasn’t until he was 25-years-old that the dream became reality thanks to this slick 2016 T6. “I’ve always had VWs,” he says. “But they were all cars. I was big into downhill mountain biking and the vans are massive in the sport. I finally managed to get one after selling my Mk3 Scirocco.” It wasn’t clear at the time just how important the Transporter would become in Curt’s life. A serious injury curtailed his passion for downhill biking but his newfound love for all things Transporter smoothed the transition for him. “I snapped the ACL and meniscus in my knee,” he reveals. “I also broke my wrist and still can’t…

One of four coastal fortresses built during the reign of Edward I (AKA Edward Longshanks) to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site – along with Beaumaris, Caernarfon and Conwy – Harlech Castle sits atop a vast rocky crag in north west Wales and has been described as one of “the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe.” Dunes now separate the castle from the sea, while the rugged peaks of Snowdonia provide a stunning backdrop, ensuring visitors can easily imagine how its commanding position would have dominated the medieval landscape. Luckily these days Harlech is much easier to conquer thanks to the amazing floating footbridge. Architect Master James of St George built Harlech – with some help obviously - from the ground…

SEND US YOURS: Ever dreamed about seeing your van appear in the pages of VWt? Make that dream a reality! Simply e-mail a selection of good quality high-res images of your van to glenn.rowswell@kelsey.co.uk along with a full spec list and add the subject title ‘Your Vans’. But please remember, if you didn’t take the photos, you MUST have permission from the photographer to use the images in the magazine, and all images should be free from watermarks, by submitting an image you assume responsibility for any copyright infringement. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s see those project builds! MIROSLAV FOLK’S 2014 T5.1, CZECH REPUBLIC Hey VWt, I’ve always owned VW cars and I’ve liked the Transporter all along. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford one when I was young, so…

CALIFORNIA CLEANING Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has cleaned up California beach in Norfolk in partnership with The 2 Minute Foundation. The foundation is urging holidaymakers to look after the UK’s beaches, by taking litter with them and picking up other rubbish they find to protect wildlife and improve the health of the nation’s beauty spots. During the beach clean, which covered a stretch of coastline near California, Norfolk, the team collected almost 900 bits of litter including broken glass, a car aerial, plastic wrappers, and microplastics from the ocean, with the haul sent off to be recycled. To encourage visitors to keep the California dunes tidy of rubbish, a Beach Clean station made from marine waste, complete with litter pickers and bags, has been donated. The 2 Minute Foundation, a national…

WEST FORGED WHEELS When it comes to standing out in the already crowded Transporter scene, nothing raises you above the competition like a set of show winning wheels. Want to elevate yourself even further still? It’s time to enter the big league of custom rims. The choice in the UK can be a bit limited, hence the reliance on many of the US brands who have for a long time offered a ‘you dream it we’ll build it’ kind of approach. However, what with shipping, import tax, the rise of the dollar against the pound and numerous other things prices are not always that favourable. Luckily there’s a new kid on the block, well we say new, they’ve been around a little while now and long enough to prove they…

VW Festival has long been dubbed ‘the UK’s largest family-friendly VW show’, and after spending a whole weekend at the scenic Harewood House in Leeds to soak up the 2022 instalment, we think it’s a phrase that’s well and truly justified. Aside from a cracking venue, though, what sets this event apart from the countless other VW-specific shows on the calendar, exactly? Well, for a start, it runs over a whole three days, giving it that true festival vibe that most one-day affairs could only dream of. Because most show-goers tend to stay overnight, it’s probably unsurprising to hear that there’s always more than a fair share of Transporter-based camper vans present at any given VW Festival, with entertainment continuing long into the night making it a truly unmissable camping…

When some people think about converting VW vans for a living, they may have a tendency to try to run before they can walk. It’s human nature to think ‘more is better’ and I know that I’ve often been guilty in the past of letting an idea run away with me. What starts out as a small business working on a hobby can become a monster if you look at some of the big boys in the game and scale it accordingly. If you ask most people what’s missing in their lives, more money would be the answer, but what people really want money for is to buy them more quality time and a sense of freedom. The old model of working hard for 50 years and then, hopefully, having…

OCTOBER 2022 2nd GTI FESTIVAL Santa Pod Raceway, Wellingborough, Northants, NN29 7XAwww.vwaction.co.uk 7th – 9th OKTOBERFEST River Dart Country Park, Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7NP www.oktoberfestuk.com 14th – 16th NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUBZ Hayfield Lakes, Doncaster, DN9 3NP www.facebook.com/nightofthelivingdubz/ 18th – 23rd NATIONAL MOTORHOME & CARAVAN SHOW NEC, North Avenue, Birmingham, B40 1NTwww.mcshow.co.uk 21st – 23rd VAN JAM 13 Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA www.vanjamboree.co.uk NOVEMBER 2022 6th ULTIMATE STANCE The Telford International Centre, Telford, TF3 4JH www.ultimate-stance.co.uk DECEMBER 2022 2nd – 4th DUBS CHRISTMAS CAMPOUT Croft Farm Water Park, Nr. Tewkesbury, GL20 7EEwww.dubsinthemiddle.co.uk 10th THE VEE DUB CHRISTMAS CRUZ - SAT Tower House Car Park, Nailsea, BS48 2XXwww.veedubfamily.org 11th THE VEE DUB CHRISTMAS CRUZ - SUN Marine Parade, Weston Super Mare www.veedubfamily.org FEBRUARY 2023 5th CAMPER MART The Telford…