'Ninove' 2014 - Freddy Files

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An Air-cooled UK cruise over to Belgium to a brewery or something like that...

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e had discussed over a beer at many UK events how we wanted to cross the channel and attend more European shows... With the tunnel crossing being so quick and there being so much on offer once on fresh soil it was only a matter of time until the first show was booked.

We love the UK scene, but it would be great to see what else is going on out there, so we joined a convoy heading out early Saturday morning to France and on to Belguim for this years ‘Ninove’ event.

With so many other shows on the cards across the boarder we have a great selection to choose from and hope to get out there again later in the year, this trip was brilliant trip! Great to have a change of scenery, see new vehicles and build on great friendships old and new.

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See you next year!

A couple of rather clean UK Beetles boarding the Euro Tunnel for the start of our adventure...

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NINOVE Words & Photos: www.aTHOMPSONsPHOTO.com

Air cooled UK cruise over to Belgium to a brewery or something...

You maybe able to tell by the intro, we didn’t know very much about this event in Belgium known as Freddy Files in Ninove. But what we did know was; there was going to be plenty of cool old Volkswagens heading out from the UK and there was going to be even more once we got there, they would be coming from all over Europe. We knew on Saturday we would arrive at the WITKAP brewery on the outskirts of Ninove and would be spending the rest of the day there!

The channel tunnel was going to cost £50 and on Sunday, a small town in Belgium called Ninove was going to have all the roads closed so the town could be taken over with air-cooled Volkswagen. We were sold on the idea, what more do you need to know!

As you can imagine that was enough info to get us signed up

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for the group buy discount for the channel tunnel. Let’s face it a road trip, a brewery and lots of air-cooled Volkswagens what more do you need...

On Friday evening we packed the car and headed for the channel tunnel, we arrived just after midnight and the crossing was at sunrise on Saturday

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morning! We were up early and the roads heading to the crossing were filled with old air-cooled VWs, it was quite surreal to see so many old Volkswagens on the road, the train for the channel tunnel was also full of them! Once we arrived in France we stopped off at the first service station to wait for a couple of other trains to hit the French soil. The local Police were there to greet us, pose for photos and have a good look around (they

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looked like they were enjoying it and nobody seemed to get any tickets).

The cruise set off at a very leisurely pace with multiple stops along the way for more vehicles to join the cruise, this also gave the stragglers a chance to catch up and time to check over engines and make sure everything was running sweet. We cruised along the smooth European roads and headed straight for the WITKAP brewery where

the rest of the day was spent tasting the local delicacies and enjoying catching up with old friends and making new ones! We turned in early on Saturday, after the lack of sleep the night before and with few of the local beers inside us that was us done.. Judging by the state of everyone else on Sunday morning we had missed out on a good night at the Roxy Party, next year we are going to book a hotel a little closer to the town center and make sure we are there for the party!

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The sun was out on Sunday and Ninove was rammed with VW’s and the streets were absolutely heaving with people, I have never seen anything like it! I can’t really compare it to anything... You will just have to go and see it for yourselves! Like I said at the start my knowledge of the event was fairly limited, VW’s, booze, Belgium, that was pretty much it. I had looked at a few friends photos from previous years but that couldn’t prepare

me for how busy the town was. I expected a handful of vehicles in the town center but how wrong was I. There were hundreds of vehicles everywhere, the center was full, the main roads were full and so was every small road and lane heading out of the center in every direction! It was remarkable, there were traders, autojumble, a really cool bay window DJ booth was providing a chilled atmosphere in the town. Bar’s, café’s waffle vans

made from bay windows and the best thing it was all free! (Well the event was, the beer wasn’t!)

This was genuinely one of the most enjoyable events I have attended for a while, a nice chilled weekend with friends. The show was brilliant, road trips are always good fun and even more so when heading out of the country in to the unknown with a group of great people!

Luckily in the convoy there were

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a few mechanical minded people with us, who were more than happy to help out with any issues anyone maybe having. I caught up with Seann Hodson after the event who actually did not one but two engine swaps on the side of the road over the weekend!

“It was a great weekend, but there were a couple of mechanical issues along the way, the engine swaps were on a yellow split bus and a ratty bug. The beetle engine seized and the bus engine had compression issues, the engine we got for the yellow split we brought at the auto jumble and we had to make a carb spacer so the carb would clear the 12v alternator. The engine for the bug came from Antwerp which was an hour or so away from Ninove. We swapped all the ancillaries over, static timed the engines, turned the keys and away they went!

The bug made it home fine even with three snapped gearbox mounts and it was held in with ratchet straps.

The yellow split made it to France but the sealer wasn’t great and was passing air, eventually it was one of the transfer boxes that gave up and forced recovery. None of our cars had left the UK before and none of them had done a trip more than 30miles, so we did pretty well!”

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In summary it was a brilliant trip to bring together UK Volkswagen enthusiasts from all over the country to hit the road and show what the UK has to offer.

A great weekend which we would strongly advise anyone to go, just remember it is an air-cooled only event so if you’re in a water pumper you will have to park up outside and walk in, see you at the WITKAP next year!

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