Air Monkeys Magazine Issue 9

Issue Nine

Le Bug European Bug In Slammed Fastback Viva Skeg Vegas Fueled Society Early Mk1 Golf VW Action

Air Monkeys Magazine The Air Monkeys Crew: Joe Eynon • Editor • Feature Writer • Photographer Samantha Eynon • Deputy Editor • Feature Writer • Photographer/ Illustrator Edd Thorpe • Techincal Focus Editor • Feature Writer Scott Savage • Photographer John Hilton • Layouts Richard Thorpe • Proof Reader • Feature Writer Nikola Woodhall • Proof Reader • Layouts

T

his summer has been one of the best in my life. This may seem like an overstatement but I’ll explain why.

Firstly the weather and for once the British public could not complain. We had a good few months of sunny and warm weather. This made us all get our classic VW’s out of hiding and head to the shows and festivals across the country. Stanford Hall was boiling with sunburn a plenty.

Even once the Summer rain had passed over Viva Skeg Vegas the sunshine dazzled us all on the Sunday.

Secondly we made some great friends here at Air Monkeys from across the world. We stayed and camped with some amazing people at Viva Skeg Vegas and Fueled Society. The scene came to life this Summer with everyone having a great time.

Thirdly I went on my first Euro trip with some of the Air Monkeys Crew to le Bug at Spa. This was simply brilliant.

I already cannot wait until next year!

Fourthly when all seemed lost, (with a busted engine the day before a road trip across England for our summer holidays in our early-bay,) Martin Cox came to the rescue to build us a new engine, with it going in the van at 2am the day of our holiday, confirming the scene is alive with amazing people who just want to help one another! We had a great holiday!

Danny Bullock (Bullymeister) • Photographer

Bring on 2014!!

Martin Cox • Photographer

Contributors: Kenneth Anno, Nicolas Arias Arenas, Joss Ashley, Ash Baker, Holly Booth, Jason Cooper, Ben Freeman, Kev Gregory, Edwin Hannah, Darren Hardy, Rewth-Alicia Hyde-Lewis, Craig Johnston-White, Jonny Marriage, Spencer Mathis, Ashleiigh Morrow, Glen Newsam, Kay O’Mahony, Rothfink, Pete Salter, Andrew Seymour, Barry Sidwell, Jackie Sidwell, Lydia Stonely, Matthew Stonely, Harry Tyas,

Scott Mitchell Ed Kellas

all work subject to copyright laws

Joe Eynon Editor

What’s inside?

Regular Features Feature Vehicles Spanked!

Cool Sh*t Tasty Tees Technical Focus Earworm Shop Tour Show Reports Photo Focus

White Water - page 22

El Concreto - page 240

Gary’s Picnic - page 46

Aircooled TV - page 166

Gasolina ‘66 - page 82

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

European Bug In 5 Chimay, Belgium. 28th-30th June 2013 words: Edd Thorpe pictures: Scott Savage & Bullymeister Photography

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

I

for one cannot believe just quickly 2 years had passed since I made the maiden voyage out for EBI4!

But sure enough, the European Bug In was open again for it’s 5th incarnation, a show that promised to come back bigger and better!

Set in the beautiful small town of Chimay, Belgium, the international race circuit de Chimay plays host for the weekend, having created a solid reputation for its outstanding drag racing over the back straight.

This time EBI5 was promising to bring out the famous drag racing cars of yesteryear for an extra large dollop of nostalgia served warm, which included none other but the very special Lightning Bug 2, rebuilt by the original campaigners, the Schley Brothers Mark and Paul.

The Brothers, of California, are considered to be celebrities in the drag racing world, having laid claim to becoming the first to break the 11 second Ÿ mile ET barrier for a VW! The appearance of Lightning Bug 2 at EBI formed part of an inaugural world tour for the Schleys, having showcased the newly refurbished car at the VolksWorld Show way back in March. At EBI, the cars really are the stars, and among the spectacle were the original Underdog and the Empi Inch Pincher 3, along with the Race Shop ’67 bug, all coveted among the Gasser Garage marquee during the weekend.

<one of the best shows in Europe for die-hard VW fans> Devastatingly, the bad weather halted play on the Friday. In fact the persistent rain was setting in so badly that the show quickly grew

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

<the only thing left to really cap off the day was to watch some rather strange band in the music tent and drink copious amounts of the beer!>

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

<At EBI, the cars really are the stars>

the nickname of the Bog-In having watched many a vehicle sink and get stuck in the mud. Annoyingly some muppets in trekkers and buggies churned up the boggy ground on access roads at the top of camping field, thinking this was great fun, it turns out the phrase F*** OFF! is understood internationallyâ&#x20AC;Ś Far from it for us Brits to be deterred by weather, the 500+ show cars starting to gather made for a sight which truly has to been seen to be appreciated, let alone the seemingly endless supply

of auto jumble proving a glimpse at the rarest of the rare (and most expensive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; eek!) parts that any cal-look pervert would go weak at the knees for!

After a long voyage to be at the show, (as many UK dubs had made it seems!), the only thing left to really cap off the day was to watch some rather strange band in the music tent and drink copious amounts of the beer from which the town give its

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

name, Chimay beer!

Saturday saw an improvement in the weather, but still only the right lane of the drag strip was open to the 1/8th mile action, so it was a great opportunity to watch these incredible cars turn a wheel in anger! The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;strip has no return road for the racers, so this makes a nice display of the long line of cars coming back

down to the fire up lane and pits every once in a while. There were some fantastic passes put down, assisted slightly by the somewhat downhill nature of the strip but hey! EBI is one of the few shows that present the opportunity to relive the cal look drag racing golden era - combined with a

Show Report | Euro Bug In 5

Show and Shine of epic proportions, a good dose of off-road action for the Baja and Buggy fans, not to forget the amazing array of auto jumble with all the rare collectable parts you could wish for alongside the modern and technical innovations, all combine to make EBI simply one of the best shows in Europe for die-hard VW fans.

Feature | Mk1 Golf

White Water

We have been trying to share Edwin Hannahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Golf with you for a while. Now you can see for yourself how special it is...

words and pictures: Joe Eynon

Feature | Mk1 Golf

somewhere along the fence that divides the Air and Water scene that we live in today.

Often seen at events and shows for both worlds Edwin Hannah chooses not to be shoe-horned into a pre-determined genre.

He’s just wanting to own and drive a nice car.

T

his car has been playing somewhat of a Mercutio over the past few years. What I mean by that is, like Shakespeare’s character is not a Montague nor or Capulet, this early Golf is sitting

With close friends of his owning an array of air-cooled VW’s this is how he came to my attention.

I first saw the car at the first DTA BBQ where we convoyed with some mutual friends. Once we got there he quietly parked the car at the bottom of the road away from everyone saying, “it’s not aircooled so I’ll just leave it there”.

Over the course of the BBQ I heard a lot of people saying, “Have you seen that Golf?” and “That Golf down the bottom of the road is amazing!”. Edwin had made quite an impression with the car and I for one was smitten with it.

Edwin bought the car from a friend of his and of Air Monkeys, PJ Gibbons from Reading. When speaking to PJ he still speaks fondly of the car. With a cluster of die hard petrolheads as friends Edwin is in a perfect position to get an amazing car but even as you look at it know he claims it is an ongoing restoration, aren’t they all?!

He was quick to thank Tom Clarke, Sam Gibbins, and Rob “RAB” Bailey for helping him out along the way.

Feature | Mk1 Golf

The car is a 1977 Golf L with a 1.1 engine. Bought back in 2010 Edwin has made his mark on it. With 4 trophies won in 3 years it shows that other people appreciate it too. He’s too modest to tell us whichs ones though!

Edwin got himself a set of original Porsche Fuch wheels with them being 7j on the front and 8j on the rear people told him he would get them to fit. This made him more determined than ever. Long story cut short... they fitted with the help of some stretched on 165/45/r15 tyres. The car is lowered by 120mm on all four corners thanks to some coilovers.

One of the best things about this car is that it hasn’t undergone a full restoration. It just looks this good already. Edwin reckons there is 80% factory paint on the car after it has received a new nearside front wing at some point in its life.

Why respray it. People are far to quick to get rid of original paint.

The car is so original it even has the factory running in sticker still on the windscreen.

With the simple chromed bumpers, single mirror and rare side trim the car looks reserved and under sells its self at first glance. It’s only when you have a proper look around the car you realise how special it really is.

<he claims it is an ongoing restoration, arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t they all?!>

Feature | Mk1 Golf

The interior is all stock with just a simple radio and single speedo gauge. This enforces the simplicity of the car. With no stereo/speakers worth using for todays modern tunes a boombox suitcase is always used on the rear seats to keep Edwin entertained on his journeys.

The car only has 34,000 miles from new and the way that it’s being looked after we reckon that it’ll never reach the dizzy heights that some VWs get to.

This car is truely amazing and it’s a credit to the guy who has quietly built it over the past few years.

A break from the normal

New website coming soon www.airmonkeys.co.uk

Show Report | Gary’s Picnic

Gary’s Picnic words: Edd Thorpe pictures: Scott Savage

A

ir Monkeys magazine has always sought to bring something different the proverbial VW table, and we make no exception here in covering what is predominately a Hot Rod and Dragster weekend, namely Gary’s Picnic, held at Shakespeare County Raceway, over the 25th and 26th of May. In reading this here magazine it can be presumed that you are somewhat of a VW fan, correct? Well, it appears more and more so in our fraternity that being partial to the odd ‘Yank Tank’ hot rod, drag car or even bikes is becoming par for the course moreover, so we figures it rude not to indulge!

<Harking back to the golden era of drag racing>

Scorching hot weather greeted us at the 35th Annual Garys Picnic, part of the Yan’s Weekend, Supported

by US Automotive, and proves to be one of those traditional grass roots drag racing and hot rodding weekends!

So, first thing on the Saturday morning, and with our ear def’s on, Scott and I headed down to the starting lines straight off the bat to take in the vast array of machinery lined up to prove its worth over Shakey’s ¼ mile of tarmac. The Picnic takes in a round of the Outlaw Flat Four drag racing championship, so therefore our tenuous link to the Aircooled VW world can be maintained guilt free!

Show Report | Garyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Picnic

Harking back to the golden era of drag racing, when the humble beetle was still in showrooms, legendary battles against V8’s and the baby flat four could be repeated again in ernest! One of the main players representing the V8 camp has to be the Gasser Circus, providing such fantastic machinery such as Honky Tokin’ the Chevy Bel Air Coupe, only to be equalled by the younger sibling Honky Tonkin’ 2 a 1967 Chevy Nova, campaigned

by Jerry Denning & Lee Pike of Bristol (check out Gasser Circus on Facebook) Some firm favourites of the VW gang were out in force too, such as the road lega(!) ’68 turbo powered beetle Green Goblin, driven by Jo Joyner, and Danny Pike’s “Lil Lizzy”.

The track conditions suited the racers perfectly, with the super sticky tarmac propelling some of the guys onto personal bests over the weekend, not to mention providing plenty of wheels-up action for driver and spectators delight!

< It’s a favourite recipe of fast paced machinery, sticky tarmac and scorching sunshine – what’s not to love?> Away from the racing, a small number of stalls grazed the paddocks, offering much needed slush puppies right through to positively suicidal red hot macadamia nuts with chilli powder coatings! This simple formula of an open paddock, minimal trading and open drag strip really make Gary’s Picnic quite a special show, and having never attended before, is sure to

Show Report | Garyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Picnic

Show Report | Garyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Picnic

be one to return to. After a long day of racing, it was off to Kenny’s bar come the night time to sink a hard earned pint, and watch the band, before the DJ took us long into the night!

< fantastic machinery such as Honky Tokin’ the Chevy Bel Air Coupe>

Sunday proved to be more of the same, topping up our shade of lobster tan nicely by now, with more blistering passes of the ¼ mile, as the show stomped on, with the National Association of Street Clubs [NASC] having pledged their continued support towards the weekend too, with the clubs oldest drag racing and rodding event sure to bring out the NASC cars given the perfect racing conditions.

Show Report | Garyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Picnic

Photo by Scott Savage

Show Report | Hessisch Oldendorf

HO13

words: Rewth-Alicia Hyde-Lewis photos: Barry and Jackie Sidwell

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une 21st-23rd 2013 saw the 6th International Vintage VW Show take over the small German town of Hessisch Oldendorf.

With the usual population being around 20000, the record attendance of 40000 transformed it into a mecca for classic VW fans from around the globe. Organised by the Grundmann family; owners of a truely amazing Volkswagen collection and private museum in the town, the show is embraced by the whole community. Every street and shop is decorated to reflect the vintage VW theme.

The criteria for a vehicle to be displayed was 1957 and older for Type 1’s and 1967 and older for Type 14 & 34 Ghia’s, Type 2’s and coach built cars on VW chassis.

We originally purchased our tickets for the show in 2012 and intended to drive our 1957 restocal Beetle to the show. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be. It wasn’t all bad though and my less-thancool Bora daily got to play support

vehicle to Barry & Jackie Sidwell’s stunning 1958 lowlight convertible Ghia. This proved a good move as on hitting the German border, the heavens opened and we experienced some of the worst driving conditions possible. The Ghia didn’t miss a beat but on crossply tyres and with a faulty wiper motor, visibility and handling was drastically reduced. We stuck behind them in the Bora and after a full 16 hours of traveling, arrived safely at our hotel.

The Friday was for registering, finding out where your vehicle would be displayed and getting a feel for the itinerary of the show.

As we didn’t have a car to display and were at a different hotel to Barry & Jackie, we decided over breakfast that walking the two miles to the town was our only option. Our German skills had been stretched to the limit ordering “zwei bier bitte” the previous night; ordering a taxi would be impossible! This gave

us the opportunity to discover the beautiful wooded hills and countryside we were staying in. However, the two miles of road seemed to go on forever and we were delighted when a Barndoor van stopped and two guys from London gave us a lift.

It was great to enter the show in a vintage VW, even if it wasn’t our own! We were still able to register and receive our goody bag. This contained a fantastic plaque, special edition town paper, tickets for the saturday night entertainment and even beer tokens!

By Saturday morning, the atmosphere was buzzing, the streets were full of VW’s and teaming with people. We were lucky enough to be able to visit the Grundmann Museum, which features some the rarest and most interesting VW’s and derivatives in existence. Mr Grundmann secured all the Rometsch tooling from the

Show Report | Hessisch Oldendorf factory when it closed, so numerous immaculately restored Rometsch were displayed. Other notable vehicles were a Denzel, Kubelwagen, 4 door taxi cab Beetle by Rometsch, a VW flat four engine powering a working helicopter, and copies of a Porsche 356 and split screen bus made out of wood in East Germany, where the originals couldn’t be purchased. We were shown around by a charismatic friend of the Grundmann’s, who provided a fantastic insight into the history and stories behind the cars.

The saturday night entertainment was held for the organisers and the first few hundred people to register for the event. A three course meal and beer were served in the town hall, along with speeches, films and information about the show. Footage was also shown of the numerous Schwimmwagen crossing the River Weser earlier in the day in convoy, a unique and memorable feature of the show.

Sunday gave us plenty of opportunity to enjoy the swap meet, the likes of which we’d never seen before. Instead of the usual, with parts being too

late for our Oval, most of them were too early! The selection of period correct accessories and NOS parts was vast and definitely a highlight of the show.

Another highlight was being able to see the VW38 which the Grundmannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restored.

Volkswagen also brought the V3 from 1935, and a VW30 in red from 1937 - one of 50 prototypes built between 19351937, which covered 2.4 million kilometers between them in test. The Berlin-Rom-Wagen, known as the VW Type 60 or Porsche Type 64 was also displayed in the town square.

Later on the Sunday afternoon, everyone congregated in the square for the prize giving.

Barry and Jackie Sidwell were awarded Best Karmann Ghia for their 1958 lowlight convertible in L431 Bernina Blue - the only UK-based car to win a trophy.

Prizes were also awarded for most travelled and we found out around 35 different countries were represented at the show.

We left Hessisch Oldendorf on the monday morning, extending our European trip with a night in Bruges on the way home to sunny Derby. Without doubt, this is the best Volkswagen show we have ever been to, my only criticism is making us wait until 2017 for the next one - but we will be there!

Fueled society 2013 Words: Joe Eynon Pictures: Holly Booth and Joe Eynon

Show Report | Fueled Society

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ow in its second year we headed up north for one of our favourite events on the calender. Ran by a small bunch of guys from Yorkshire, Fueled Society is a true petrolhead show

with no snobbery, eliteism or bad feelings towards anyones choice of wheels. Aimed to be a truely easy going car show with an ethos of making people feel

included the event certainly lives up to its aims and ideals.

This year included camping

which we felt we had to sample. Plus our trip was made extra special as we were introducing some mates of ours to the world of car shows!

(Brainwashing!)

The show was yet again held in the beautiful location of Nostal Priory near Wakefield, Yorkshire. The National Trust owned property is a Palladian house set in 300 acres of green parkland with lakeside and woodland walks throughout the grounds. All of this would have been brilliant to see but we were there for a different reason altogether!

Finding the show was easy. Too many show organisers forget to layout signs and directions to their events but with Fueled Society being held in a very popular tourist destination we had no issues finding it. The field used for the show is a natural bowl with the house looking down on the

visitors and their cars. This provides a perfect setting. We were greeted at the gate by Jim and Roger who are the main guys behind the show and pointed in the direction of the camping fields. The camping was separated into quiet and err, not so quiet camping. We pitched up and opened a beer. The sun was shinning, beer was flowing and some amazing cars were flooding into the field. Every time I sat down I found myself standing up to look at the next slammed, stanced ride making its way towards a weekend of fun.

Camping facilities were basic, (just a couple of porta-loos), but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all we needed.

Most people obeyed the noise

curfew and it seemed as if everyone had a great time. The only issue we had was trying to keep the beers cold! It was just too warm in the sunshine!

We woke up to the sound of cars entering the show ground as early as 7am with a vast array of motors piling in. There were a lot of VAG vehicles making their way into the field with some excellent examples turning up.

Once we had woken up we made our way from the camping field to the show ground and parked our camper van with The Lower Class boys towards to front of the field.

Their cars look stunning as always

Show Report | Fueled Society

models from all eras and all classifications you get inspiration from the most unlikely places.

and

looking at them always spurs me on to get more done to my own bus.

That is what shows and meets are all about- meeting with friends and getting inspiration.

Fueled Society really is somewhere you can get inspiration from. Due to the show being open to all makes and

< The only issue we had was trying to keep the beers cold > If, like me you are mainly spending your time spannering away on air-cooled VWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s you manage to get inspiration from the Water-cooled scene, J Cars, Hot Rods, Fast Fords, German Lookers, Rat Rods and the stock classics that turned up.

When a stock

unmodified car did pull into the show field it was almost a shock. All the cars there had been modified in some way, shape or form so to see one that was unmolested was great.

The layout of the show was brilliant too. The cars were not just in lines across the field like some kind of expensive car park but were staggered across the arena at different angles and positions.

This made the show

look like it was more relaxed and happenstance although I am aware that there was a lot of organising to make it appear like this.

The show also had a vintage pop-up village there this year with a number of stalls selling everything from clothing to cameras and coolers to cakes. This gave the show something that other shows just don’t have. The trade stalls appeared to be carefully chosen as all of them sold excellent wares with none of the dealers selling “festival attire”. The catering was also the same. All of the food was freshly produced with Pan Thai Noodles and fresh Jerk Chicken some of the choices.

We were spoilt for choice for our Sunday lunch! The VW Bay Window cocktail bar went down a storm also!

<We were spoilt for choice for our Sunday lunch! > With live music on a big stage, vintage stalls, great food, amazing cars, friendly people, relaxed camping and wall to wall sunshine Fueled Society was a fantastic weekend. An event that everybody should sample in 2014.

Show Report | Fueled Society

Show Report | Fueled Society

Technical Focus

A round up of the best products for your VW

Regular | Tech Focus

Technical Focus

Regular | Tech Focus

Gasolina â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;66

Words and pictures: Samantha Eynon

Feature | Slammed Fastback

Feature | Slammed Fastback

E

d Kellas’ car is a good reflection on the man himself- genuine, honest, and low to the ground!

This vehicle has got it spot on. It’s not trying too hard to be anything, it just oozes effortlessness cool, and we’re not the only ones who think so. The RSVP guys awarded Ed with “Raddest Ride” in 2012, a prize he is particularly proud of. Knowing that a bunch of guys who are well known for having some of the best VWs on the scene are lusting after your car is a big thumbs up!

It was Ed’s brother James who

pointed him in the direction of the 1966 Fasty, when he spotted it on a forum in 2002.

He went to Roehampton to pick it up from Rob Grainger.

His first thoughts when driving it for the first time, were that it was “...perfect, original, and very, very high, suspension wise. It was like driving a sofa, I’d get seasick because of the bouncy shocks.” This is something that certainly isn’t true any more. It is lowered by 2 splines at the rear, and is “on the floor at the front” A Type 1 beam from Slamwerks has been fitted, and when asked what shocks have been used, Ed tells us “Short ones!” Ed’s

better half, Elaine, would tell you that the fasty is already low enough, but Ed doesn’t agree, and wants to modify it over the winter to make it lower!

As winter begins to creep up on us, we all begin to make plans for our VWs on how to get it in shape for next sesson. Ed plans to give the Type 3 a thorough update of transmission, engine cooling, hubs and bearings, floorpan adaptations, new window rubbers and a polish and wax.

Sounds like he’ll be a busy man!

< This vehicle has just got it spot on. It’s not trying too hard to be anything, it just oozes effortlessness cool >

Feature | Slammed Fastback He wants to get all this done ready for the Volksworld show in March 2014, for a Type 3 Contingent line up he is organising.

In December 2012 he met the Type 3 Contingent guys in Melbourne. They gave him some awesome gifts.

Christopher Eccles gave him a one off T3C bomber jacket, RAC Victoria bumperbadge and headlamp grills from a 1960s Holden. Rick at Volksrecycle and Adam Fiander gave him some Oz number plates. Ed says he was ‘spoilt rotten with hospitality’ while he was there, and he plans to return in 2014. His visit emphasied one of his main loves for the VW scene. The fact it is “...such a socially open scene and can lead onto great weekends of hanging out, drinking, chewing the fat and putting the world to rights”

In the past Ed has owned some baywindows, a 1963 resto cal bug, some MK2 golfs, 16v and VR6 Corrado, MK2 Scirocco and a MK2 Passat. He first became interested in Volkswagens when he was looking for something that he could Go Mountain Biking in, so he bought a baywindow and “slammed the hell out of it!” Type 3s are his favourites though.

Currently under the bonnet is a meaty 1911 type 4 engine, with a single 40 Solex carb. So as well as style this car has substance!

< No need to cut into anything, or shift things about in order to house big speakers. Why mess with perfection? > The paint is VW Blue. It the 0riginal 1960s paint from the front screen to the rear. The bonnet and front wings are 1970s paint. It gets polished

by Jay Dyer every year in a 3 stage process, for the last 2 years. This means that the paint slowly changes, which Ed likes. He describes it as a

â&#x20AC;&#x153;moving piece of artâ&#x20AC;?.

As well as giving credit to Jay for helping with the Fasty, Ed also thanks Trigger at Thingamies and Larry Stockford at Retrocustom for helping to keep it alive.

We

love that Ed lets the vehicle really speak for itself, keeping most of it quite simple. For example his sound system is a USB speaker that looks like a Rubiks Cube, and sits happily on the parcel shelf. No need

Feature | Slammed Fastback to cut into anything, or shift things about in order to house big speakers.

Why mess with perfection!?

Ed’s favourite bit of the Variant is the “...mint dashboard, the mix of chrome against the shiny blue paint. Then at night the dials lighting up...”

He loves going on road trips in the fasty, and says that any drive in it is a roadtrip.

Last year he took it to

Cornwall, having lots of stops along the way, and having an awesome time just being able to enjoy driving it. He hopes to make a Europe road trip in it soon. He had planned a trip to

EBI in it this year, but the VW gods conspired against him, as they do from time to time.

There’s always next year!

Edition 38 Our man, Danny Bullock, of Bullymeister Photography, headed to Edition 38 to find out what our water-cooled cousins are doing at the moment.

Photo Report | Edition 38

Photo Report | Edition 38

Photo Report | Edition 38

Photo Report | Edition 38

Show Report | le Bug Show

le Bug

Show

Spa

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words : pictur Joe Eynon es: Jo e Eyn on, Sa m Eyn on an d Sco tt Sav age

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Show Report | le Bug Show

T

he first weekend in August 2013 was a very special one for me. It was my first European adventure in my VW. The Air Monkeys Crew consisting of Sam, Martin, Scott, Edd and myself had been planning this trip for months and it began on Thursday afternoon.

We cruised down to Kent for our overnight stay. With an early-bay and 2 pre-67 beetles we made a pretty sweet convoy as we flowed down southwards through the UK towards Maidstone. The dubs were full of camping gear and excitement plus one or two beers!

The journey down to Maidstone was supposed to be the easiest part of the journey but we met a few challenges on the way.

We lost exhaust parts, a stereo decided to commit Hara Kiri, (but without the stomach stabbing), and we even had random pieces of rubber bouncing off the road and making a lasting impression on one of the beetles bonnets.

This was all the more fun with the running commentary from each other with our vintage Midland CB radios fitted by Martin. We were having a great

time and loved the slow cruise down to the Garden of England.

Once we had found our overnight haunts we quickly got to bed as it was an early start for the short trip to the port to board the ferry. We had pre-booked our ferry some months ago so we simply rocked up and gave the friendly staff our boarding passes and queued up.

At this point I had drank far to much coffee, Monster Energy and eaten way too much Haribo to even be considered normal! The prospect of cruising through the Flanders in our aircooled VWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with my mates in a few hours time was too much to take.

Once we had parked up on the ferry we headed to the lounge to get some well earned rest before

the long journey across France and Belgium was to begin.

The crossing from Dover to Dunquirke took a little over 90 minutes and was fairly smooth.

Now the fun began. The more experienced Euro drivers lead the convoy off the ferry, through the

port and onto the E40 Euro route motorway. Once I had done the first few roundabouts and slip roads I felt right at home in my left hand drive bus.

No longer did I have a Westfalia wardrobe for a blind spot!

The weather could not have been better if you were sitting on a beach but for driving through Belgium in old non-A/C cars we would have preferred it a little cooler. We made plenty of stops on the way. Some of the services on the European roads have very effective air-conditioning so we tended to just sit in them for a while eating ice cream.

We touched mainland Europe at approx 10am and were heading towards Brussels by 2pm. The roads were great on the whole.

The drivers not so great. Plus we coped OK with the potholes as none of us has superslammed rides but we did feel for some of the people who did.

Getting around Brussels was a nightmare. The signs were unclear and whether it was our

incompetence or the road layouts we made a pigs ear of getting around the capital. We certainly breathed a sigh of relief once we had reached the other side. Although we were not 100% sure where that was! After a quick stop and a check of route we headed towards the Circuit de Spa Franchorchamps. Set in the beautiful Ardennes forest the location for a VW show could not be better. A Formula 1 track, in amazing scenery with picturesque towns on your doorstep. Perfect!

The only massive negative that I had of the show was finding where to enter and buy tickets.

We found the circuit fairly easily but there was no signs at all for tickets. We ended up driving around in circles getting pushed around from pillar to post by the marshalls. This would have been annoying at the best of times but after a whole day driving in very

hot weather we got very stressed. Once we had found the ticket booth, paid our fee, collected our goodie bags and found our camping field we suddenly became very relaxed.

This was because of where we were. The scenery was stunning and with some amazing cars around us and friendly people it was time to crack open a beer and chill out!

On Friday evening we wandered through the trees and down into the main show area. The show was alive and even at nearly midnight it was electric.

There was so many cars cruising

Show Report | le Bug Show

Show Report | le Bug Show

around.

There was the strip which allowed people to sit on the fences and watch as the cars filed through. There was everything here. Super slammed split window Beetles, shiney resto-cal Samba, stock Fridolins, rat-rods, campers, synchro Bays and old school gassers to name a few. If you stood and watched for half an hour your dream VW probably changed 10 times!

Our camping spot was great. Up high on the road out of track and

was fairly quiet at night, except when a low car drove up the steep gravel road into the field. That sounded awful but added some amusment to the weekend. Saturday arrived and after a quick trip into a nearby town for supplies we headed into the show. We drove our cars down the hill and entered the main arena. This was because we had one thing on our mind.

Driving around the race track! I was not going to come the one of the best race tracks in the world and not touch the asphelt! Once we had found where to enter the track we joined to queue to follow the pace car around the track.

This was honestly one of the best things I have ever done.

Something certainly ticked off the

Show Report | le Bug Show

Show Report | le Bug Show bucket list.

Once we had done that we parked up in the pit area and went to check out the swap meet. It was amazing. I’ve never seen so many N.O.S. parts all laid out on tables.

I even managed to pick up a few bits for myself. The were a few VW’s for sale and the show prices didn’t appear too inflated. The quality was just unreal!

Once we had wandered around the swap meet for an hour or so, we

went to check out the Show and Shine arena. This again blew our mind. Due to the mass numbers arriving for the weekend the number of quality cars was spectcular.

There was Julia Thissou’s awesome rat bug on KDW’s and more split beetles than I have ever seen. I could have stayed in that arena all day!

Before we knew it it was dinner time so we heading back to the campsite for a BBQ and some well earned beers! We’d been slaving away at the swap meet plus we had done some racing laps!

That evening we all piled into the Air Monkeys Bay and drove up and down the strip taking in the night life and sounds of this amazing show. It may seem scary and a little risky driving around a show at night full of people but I can honestly say that everyone behaved themselves.

Plus there was a massive police presence on site with patrol cars

always visible all weekend.

Another few things to highlight are that the camping was brilliant. The toilets were kept really clean and on Sunday the looked unused! Really impressive after seeing some of the UK’s toilets after a weekends use.

Also once we had found where to buy our tickets from there didn’t appear to be any problems with the organisation of the show. The was less “red tape” than at other shows I have been to and this allowed it to be a

Show Report | le Bug Show much more relaxed affair. This is just the culture in Europe and due to our very legal culture that we have now in the UK we will never have shows like this.

Sunday morning arrived and we headed off home. It had been an amazing weekend with great mates and plenty of sunshine. On the way home we stopped off in Brugges for a rest and I recommend that to everyone. It was just a shame we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have stopped for longer.

On arriving home the Air Monkeys Bus was not running well at all and we found the cylinder head had cracked.

More than likely on the racetrack. Was so worth it though!

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never been to Spa before do it next year!

We will for sure. Without a doubt of the best VW shows in the world.

Feature | Squareback Hotrod

Deutschamerikaner Spencer Mathis has built a beast of car. We are more than happy to bring it to your screen.

Words: Joe Eynon Pictures: Spencer Mathis

I

n a recent episode of Fast N Loud the guys at Gas Monkeys Garage hot rodded a Dodge Sweptline truck. It was known as the Frankenstein Truck due to it having a Dodge body, Chevy engine and a Ford designed suspension setup. This sounded like a recipe for disaster but became one of the best cars they designed.

This car is of similar guise. It’s a collaboration of the best parts from different cars. Heavily modified and draped in attitude.

What’s in this extreme vehicle and why is it in an air-cooled magazine? Read on...

The car in front of you started its life as a 1969 1600 Variant.

Yes! It’s a squareback, with an American twist. The now owner, Spencer Mathis of Rochester,

Washington, first owned this car nearly 20 years ago when he sold it as an unfinished project but managed to get it back three years ago when a friend of his spotted it in the classifieds.

Spencer has been hooked on classic VW’s ever since he went to a VW show when he was in high school and since then he has owned 6 Notchback’s, 3 Ghia’s, a ‘59 Westy and a ‘67 Beetle.

This Volksrod Squareback, as Spencer likes to call it, has taken two years since buying it for the second time to get it to this stage. He states it’s still not finished but are they ever?

When we asked Spencer about the bodywork modifications on the car he said, “Wow this will take a while!” The roof is

chopped 4 inches with a 1949 Ford hood, frenched headlights.

A custom grill was used to give it the look of a 1950’s Desoto using pre-1967 Euro-bug bumper over-riders upside-down. A 1949 Plymouth bumper was then used after it was shaved to fit the width of the car. 1952 Chevy rear quarter top panels were used and incorporating the Chevy tail lights. All the chrome was shaved and cut down to fit including the fresh air vents in the cowl. 1949 Plymouth rear fenders were used and custom air vents were cut into them. Inside a 1951 Ford dashboard was built into the body with a 1949 Plymoth wheel and column. The bench seat is from a Chevy truck.

All this work, and there is so much time and effort plus an imense amount of skill required,

Feature | Squareback Hotrod

was done by Spencer himself.

The metal that was used was all old metal picked up from salvage yards.

The suspension is a complete air ride set up using a Type 1 link pin beam which was converted

by Matt Watts at Punch Drunk Customs. The rest of the set up was built again by Spencer including the neat control panel using a 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Polaroid Landmark camera.

The car is using the stock VW

brakes and is running 15 inch CWI chrome smoothies with Diamond Back white walled tyres.

All the paint was done by Spencer too. He works as a trainer at BASF so this was like a bus mans holiday. The shade is a custom mix of Ivory White and a flat clear coat.

The glass used in the Ratrod was either cut to fit or custom made.

Powering this beast is a stock Type 3 1600 motor with a Type 4 exhaust modiefied to fit. This was because Type 3 parts are nearly impossible to get hold of in the states. The engine was assembled by Ovals Motorsport.

< I still find myself smiling as I drive the car, it takes me back to high school as we all know driving an air cooled VW is different than newer car the way they feel, the smell of the heating system just takes me back. >

The story how Spencer came to owning this car for a second time is great. This is his account: I think the back story about the car is great!

It started as a father and son project in the early 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s by Bret

and Duke Dodd his dad, they were local hot rod guys and had built many custom street rods in the past.

Bret had the VW as his driver and wanted to change it up so they disassembled it and started with a chop top and then removed the side windows. The project soon stalled out when Bret started a

job filming auto racing and travelled the globe. During this time Duke sold the unfinished project and it changed hands several times over the years.

In the 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s I found the car in a shed for sale and picked it up.

Little did I know at the time I was going to keep the trend of selling the

Feature | Squareback Hotrod

unfinished car.

It changed hands a few more times then a friend picked it up with good intent but never made any progress on it before it was sold to another friend. Tom Duttrey owned it for a long time and had some great ideas for the car but never started on it and later sold it to a guy about 2hrs south of us.

Fast forward several years…Tom buys a bug that would become a well known Volksrod in our area and at the time tells me that I need to get back into Vdubs. My reply was “If you could find my old squareback panel I’m in!” thinking that there was no way he would ever find it. He hung up with out a word and called me back about 15 minutes later.

“Hey I just found your car! It’s about 3 ½ hours north and it’s for sale, I told the guy we would be up this weekend.”

The thing about Tom is he can find anything car related you’re looking for. We drove to the guys house close to the Canadian border to “look” at the car and ended up buying it.

On the drive home we discussed

finding a donor car for all the needed parts. Sadly the years had been hard on the car, parts lost, poor fab skills, and every owner making a few little changes along the way.

After several months I found the right car for parts and started the rebuild process. After removing everything from the parts car including the wiring harness we started the reassembly process a few months into it we met a local hot rod guy who thought it

was his old car from high school.

As it turned out 2 chopped panel squarebacks had been built within 1 mile of each other at the same time by two different guys. This one was not his but he knew who built it the Doddâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so with a little effort and Facebook we made a connection they still lived local and Bret was back in the area. We arranged a meeting at the shop to share what I brought home with Duke and Bret, it was great to meet the guys. Bret shared old

photos of them chopping the top and customizing the VW. We have become good friends and still hang out often. It was a great feeling to have brought the old wagon back to life after so long!

I still find myself smiling as I drive the car, it takes me back to high school as we all know driving an air cooled VW is different than newer car the way they feel, the smell of the heating system just takes me back.

Show Report | Lime Bug Open Day

Open Day and Show and Shine words and pictures: Edd Thorpe

Show Report | Lime Bug Open Day

N

ow, putting on a show for the very first time must be terrifying, truly. Thinking about all the details that go into pulling off an open and public show whilst still running the day to day business must be a nightmare! So, imagine having then decided to do it a second time…

Like that second album, the follow-up second single, the expectation of what’s gone before must double the pressure – yet the team at LimeBug have really come up trumps with a spectacular open day!

Based out of Stoke on Trent, which is only a stones throw away from Air Monkeys HQ, we thought it would be positively rude for us not to make our way up the A50 and check it out! You will have no doubt been made familiar with the LimeBug name now, as they have

built a really solid reputation, since their establishment in 2009, as one of the UK’s finest purveyor of high performance and show goodies, stocking complete Air Ride Systems, race and performance engine parts, right down to everyday essentials.

The LimeBug shop is located in City Park Trading Estate, an industrial estate just out of town, which makes it easy to get at, but is just ‘out the way enough’ to pull off a show! This huge shared car park in the trading estate provides a great setting to line up the huge amount of cars in attendance, which could be shown off nicely as they descended the sweeping entry road into the car park, with each and every vehicle in attendance being granted automatic entry into the show and shine. Staffs VW, a locally based club, were there showing off the water cooled scene (yet the club does cater for air and water cooled flavours!) over 50 aircooled dubs were there, from rat lookers and satin black ‘rods’ to full on show car detailing! The grass ‘fringe’ areas off the side of the car park set a great scene for the free hotdog barbecue, which in the scorching hot weather was just perfect, for liquid refreshment a fantastic stall was set up right by the shop entrance to act as a drinks ‘bar’ serving cans out of vintage cool boxes!

Show Report | Lime Bug Open Day Whilst sipping on a cold tin of fizzy stuff, the perfect opportunity to check out LimeBug’s sideline presented itself.

Recently, the team have taken on a complete Floor Pan Resto service, and to show off the level of work undertaken, the guys had a display of ‘pans in different stages of repair right next to the entrance into the shop.

The shop itself has many a great display of products. From wheels, resto-cal accessories from Aircooled Accessories, IRS and Straight Axle kits, custom spring plates, pulleys you name it, with an early bay and ground scraping show detailed air-ride floor pan showing off the best of the best available from LimeBug! The staff were on hand all day to talk you through your choices of product in a very busy shop, and held it all together way in the chaos!

Come 2’oclock time and the very, very difficult decisions had to be made as to who had won the amazing trophies, donated and made by the many sponsors LimeBug had attracted, for both air and water cooled cars. Show and shine competition rightly awarded to some fantastic cars.

Best of Show winner, Trevor Franklin took home some fantastic 911-lense Mesh Stone Guards from Air Cooled Accessories and a trophy to adorn his black ’66 callook Beetle running a 1641cc duel 36 fed motor. Best Paint was scooped by Ant in his ’68 Subaru powered bright metallic green Beetle, with Best Aircooled going to a truly stunning Splitscreen Panelvan in Dove Blue, sat on hydraulics owned by Kristian Cambell! Judges choice award went to Wai Man Shin’s stunning resto-cal inspired Ghia, which had me stopped dead in my tracks with its killer air ride stance, polished & detailed Fuchs in a gorgeous colour combination of white and black roof.

(Judges’ choice? I think this was mine, too!!)

A big thanks must go to Craig, Leanne, and all of the LimeBug crew for a fantastic day – we look forward to the seeing the ‘shop’ Ghia and Beetle projects nearing completion!

Viva Skeg Vegas words: Sam Eynon

pictures: Joe and Sam Eynon

L

ast year we said that this was one of our favourite shows, and this year that remained true. The show is now a firm favourite of many, on the show calendar.

This year we got ourselves a great camping pitch with some awesome people and their awesome cars. I think we picked quite well, as several of the vehicles we were with went on to win awards on the Sunday. Some of our friends stopped in the luxury bell tents that were available to hire this year, for those that wanted to glamp it up. The tents were provided by www.magicalcamping.co.uk, and they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come cheap, but they looked great, and there were many envious glances over at them, as everyone kept checking the weather forecasts on their phones. We decided to stop checking, partly because our phone signal was pants (I found mine was good in one of the porta loos, but for obvious reasons I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t planning on being in one of these any longer than was necessary!), and also because we decided it was better just to deal with what was thrown at us as it came.

Show Report | Viva Skeg Vegas

Show Report | Viva Skeg Vegas

At one point there were over 10 of us huddled under a gazebo, drinking and laughing the night away, while rain trickled down our backs!

This year the theme of the show was The Day of the Dead, so on Saturday night, there were many sugar skulls, mexican blankets and sombreros adding to the shows great party atmosphere.

On Saturday there was a Rust and Prime and on Sunday the Show and Shine, which has got to be one of the biggest Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen at a UK show, and there was a massive array of vehicles on display. The large number of entries may have been partly a result of the show having a reputation for giving out awesome trophies. This year was no exception. There were awards from the RSVP crew, Hayburner, Seaside Neil and more.

Craig Johnston-White debuted his gorgeous Razor Edge Ghia, which had just been finished by Eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Autos. There was a big buzz about it, and it went on to win the Rapid Rodent Racing prize.

Show Report | Viva Skeg Vegas

The range of stalls was brilliant, with something to please everyone. You could buy anything from sweets to hot tubs, yes hot tubs! On a dreary Saturday it was brilliant seeing people trying out Woodtubs bespoke wooden hot tubs, and their stand looked excellent. We weren’t brave enough to strip down and give them a go, instead going for the sweets, but if we had a spare few grand we’d definitely have one for our garden!

Cut Out and Keep were on hand again, with their awesome paper toy VWs, it was a great way to

get the younger ones involved, as they got to enter their own Show ‘N’ Shine, by designing and colouring in their own campervan creation.

Other popular parts of last years show that made a return was the push bike Show and Shine, which provided some great eye candy of a 2 wheeled varity, and Seaside Neil was on hand again, with an amazing stall, chock-ful of pinstriped goodies, and he was on hand over the weekend to do some live pinstriping on whatever you fancied.

Show Report | Viva Skeg Vegas

Last year we said that the only thing that could be improved was the toliets. This year more had been provided, and they were cleaned out throughout the weekend. Some people still had a grumble about it, but there was nothing more that the event organisers could have done, as they do not yet possess the ability to control people bowels and bladders! As far as weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re concerned itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of those things you just put up with at outdoor shows. Yet again a top show. Make note now that it will take place 15th-17th August in 2014.

Road Trippin'

Feature | Euro Trips

With so many European shows now attracting UK dubbers we thought weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d see how people found the Euro experience. We spoke to hardened travellers from the 2013 show season to give you guys the best advice possible. photos by Bullymeister (Danny Bullock)

I was nervous but the 1200 mile trip would be an adventure whether we made it back in one piece or not!

The tunnel is so easy. You just drive straight on and before you know it, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in France!

The ferry is great just book in advance to get the best prices

Feature | Euro Trips

Best Part- Convoys with new and old friends Worst part- The pot holes on the Belgium motorways!

Satelite Navigation is great but you can also download European signs off the web to learn the basics.

55/60mph is ok on the Autobahn

Take plenty of water with you as European summers can be warmer than our UK ones.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mighty warm with no A/C

Feature | Euro Trips

Remember to fit your deflector lenses.

Make sure you can convert your speed into KPH easily.

European insurance is a must

Travelling with friends is less stressful. Everyone seems to look out for one another.

With a lot of UK VW fanatics now only going to European shows the question is, What do UK shows have to do to draw us in?

It’s not the prices as Le Bug was expensive.

I feel it is the atmosphere. In the UK we love our Red Tape. Thats why any show that is at a “showground” will have to abide by their rules.

If you have any ideas maybe it is time you organised a show. Give it a go!

Feature | Euro Trips

The European shows are very different to UK ones. Everyone is more relaxed. People are driving around the show all night showing off their cars.

Even the police had VWs! If you are behaving yourself the police leave you alone.

The beer is much cheaper in the supermarkets so try not to spend all your money in the bars!

Save your money for the swapmeets!

Feature | Euro Trips

New EU laws state each vehicle should have spare bulbs, a red triangle, high visability vests and some breath analysers.

Plus according to this photo you can only work on you car if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re wearing Vans slip ons!

Feature | Euro Trips

Massive thanks to Bullymeister for the brilliant images, the RSVP boys for allowing him to lean out of their awesome cars and a huge thanks to Ben Freeman and Darren Hardy for their words of wisdom.

Show Report | Grill n Chill

Grill n Chill

Words and Pictures: Lydia and Matthew Stonely

Show Report | Grill n Chill

O

riginal plan was to visit my little bro’ and SIL (Joe and Sammy Eynon) for the day. A change of shift patterns meant Joe and Sam couldn’t make it so we have been asked to review the show from a “family perspective”.

There are four of us, Matt, Lydia and our two girls Gladys (3) and Betsy (1 1/2). We drive a T5 van called Roger and pull a vintage 1986 Eriba caravan - her name is Wendy.

We live only half an hour’s drive away from the Hop Farm so visiting for the day is a lot easier than an overnight stay - especially with two little girls in tow - though the facilities looked as you would expect for a festival site with separate areas for group camping. The ground was quite uneven in places making the pushchair a bouncy ride.

On arrival we headed straight for the stalls! A mixture of vintage, parts and craft makers - there was lots to spend your pennies on. We managed to escape with only a toy Morris Minor (our other car) for Betsy’s stocking.

The main show area had a good mixture of cars and buses and a large Cool Flo display. The girls loved the large selection of BMX bikes and Gladys took a shine to the Cool Flo cooler.

This had the original wood paneled interior and had been modified outside as you’d expect from Cool Flo, sitting on the grass with

a little pin striping. The show area is a very relaxed affair, with cars all over the place and lots of open space. It made a great place to sit on the grass, look at a few cars then sit on the grass again. After being at a music festival earlier in the year, the girls got a little confused by the music blasting out over the PA, dancing between cars much to other visitors amusement!

There was lots for children of all ages

to do. A fabulous display of snakes and lizards really caught our girlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention - from Reptile Events (a charity for rescued reptiles). There was also pottery painting, pyrography, face painting, bouncy castles, zorbs and more. The childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wristbands also included entry to the Hop Farm and a selection of the attractions - brilliant if you were staying for the weekend and the children started to get bored!

Show Report | Grill n Chill

I

n the wake of EBI5 – a load of snippets of some fantastc, cinematic quality footage was leaking onto the internet from non other that Aircooled TV – intrigued we caught up with Nico to give you the inside scoop into the amazing media project !

Head of Aircooled TV is 33 year old Nicolas of Belgium, a cameraman and director on regional television, having studied cinematography INRACI in Brussels.

The idea: ‘’I’ve always been fascinated by the “Aircooled”.

When I was little, I went to an annual meeting near me with a friend and his dad. We also played with miniatures of aircooled VW’s, and we imagined owning a garage.

Then I got a little out of the world of “Aircooled” and while studying cinematography, the desire to have my own Aircooled came to me. But, I had to wait many, many years to get my first Cox (a ‘66 Beetle). Before that, the family, buying a house, how short life really is...

Having my cox, I began to attend club meetings. And then I figured, why not make videos and create a web TV on aircooled. I’d

Company Profile | Aircooled TV combine my two passions, one of which is my job.

So I decided to go with this and I talked to my brother who is a graphic designer and creates websites. He was a massive help in building my website.

Now Aircooled TV is based purely on my passion. I don’t make any money from it. All videos shared on the site are in HD and good film quality, these are videos that I find on the web and where fans send me them.

The purpose of the site is to bring quality films on the “Aircooled” scene from around the world.

I capture the lifestyle through the videos, and I realize the videos are videos of atmosphere.

The future: ‘’Slowly I try to fit more in, in terms of shooting equipment. I’d like to make more videos in a kind of reportage genre or online magazine, like a Video-interview style, just as I did the Bug-In show in this way, with an interview with the organizer. The editing will take longer, but it will be different. It will approach more than the idea of TV. I have to thank my friends who lend me the

material to make this possible.

My goal is not to gain money, but later I would like to make t-shirts and stickers to try and cover my travel expenses and purchase of equipment. Maybe I’ll also create DVD’s from my reports in limited edition. But that’s not for now.

Recently, I had a call on Facebook to create a logo and stickers, all for free because as said before, I do not earn anything with it. And I do not have much money to invest (except my wifes!). So the goal was to find someone who agrees with a possible exchange of advertising on the site.

Alex, of Rothfink, contacted me and made me this beautiful logo and then they should make stickers. All in exchange for advertising on my website.

Thanks: I want to thank my wife Natalie for supporting me in my passion.

My brother Manuel, for the creation of the site.

Alex Rothfink and Burning red for the logo design.

All of the fans who regularly visit the site and facebook page. A big thank you to them.

Company Profile | Aircooled TV

Links: www.aircooled-tv.com www.facebook.com/aircooledtv @AircooledTV www.rothfink.com www.burningredstudio.co.uk

Company Profile | Aircooled TV

LuminAID Solar Powered Light A nifty little invention for camping.

A solar powered light, that is also inflatable, perfect for those packing light (no pun intended!). The bag is puncture resistant, and waterproof, it will even float. Get up to 16 hours light from 7 hours sunlight.

Available from outbacktrading.co.uk

Spiderman Custom Painted Helmets Who hasn’t dreamt of being a super hero? Now you can be one step closer to that, with these awesome custom painted helmets. Painted by DONY custom. As well as looking pretty bad ass, they are DOT approved, meaning they’ll do a great job of protecting your bonce. That’s enough to get our spidey senses tingling!

Available from ebay.com/usr/ donydonkang

Regular | Cool Sh*t

Drop Catch Magnetic Bottle Opener You can never have too many bottle openers right!? This one is the creation of Joe Walsh and Kent Frayn. They are handcrafted, and have a built in magnet, which catches the bottle caps, and by the end of the night you have a piece of bottle cap art work in your house!

Available in two different sizes and a number of wood finishes.

Available from dropandcatch.com

H&M team up with Brick Lane Bikes H&M teamed up with Brick Lane Bikes to create a collection of stylish clothing made using more sustainable materials.

H&M designed them and BLB tested them. Much of it has a vintage inspired twist, which we like a lot!

The bike in the background was also created as a collaboration between the companies, an is available in limited quantities from bricklanebikes.co.uk

Smith Journal We at Air Monkeys are definitely guilty of buying too many magazines, and now we’ve found another one to add to the growing list!

Smith Journal comes out quarterly and describes itself as a publication that is ‘...a friendly guide to all things creative, intriguing, genuine and funny...’

Not widely available in the UK, but available to purchase through the online store smithjournal.com.au

Telephone Clocks Lots of vintage items may look pretty cool, but sometimes they just don’t work properly anymore. Designer Jonas Merian gives items such as these a new lease of life.

He creates unique, handmade furniture and home accessories from reclaimed, reused and repurposed materials. One of his products are these Telephone Clocks.

To see more of his designs head to jonasdesign.net

Regular | Cool Sh*t

One Sixth Bruce This is one for those serious action figure collectors out there. One Sixth Bruce is a company ran by WaiMan and is brothers Wai Hong and Wai Ling. They have a big passion for Bruce Lee, hence the name.

Whilst on a trip to Hong Kong their friend showed them some Enterbay models, and they were blown away by the attention to detail and life like quality of the figures. It was far beyond anything available in the UK. This led them to decide to become Enterbay suppliers for the UK market. They also deal in other high quality collectables from Hong Kong. We were lucky enough to see some of the figures, and can say they are phenomenal!

So if you are a collector be sure to check out their website, onesixthbruce.co.uk, to see what goodies they currently have in stock!

Hot Toys - 1966 Batman and Robin

This model is ridiculously realistic!

ThreeA - Adventure Kartel

A really cool collection of figures.

One for Zombie fans.

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5L^I\Y` )LYRZOPYL

^^^ ]VVKVV]^ JVT

Photo Report | Pershore Plum Festival

Pershore Plum Festival

Held from the 28th July to the 26th August the Pershore Plum Festival sums up everything that is great about the British countryside including a mass gathering of classic cars on the final day.

Photos: Danny Bullock (Bullymeister)

Photo Report | Pershore Plum Festival

Photo Report | Pershore Plum Festival

Our favourite vehicles from the past few months...

Regular | Spanked!

Regular | Spanked!

Photo by Bullymeister

Regular | Spanked!

Photo by Bullymeister

Regular | Spanked

The Split Screen Bakery

Company Profile | Splitscreen Bakery

Interviewer: Samantha Eynon

Pics: Harry Tyas

Company Profile | Splitscreen Bakery

K

ay O’Mahony & Ash Baker showed off their nearly finished Split Screen Bakery Bus at The RSVP BBQ in September, and a few short weeks later they debuted it at it’s first working event in Lichfield. We caught up with the couple there to grab a hot chocolate (it was amazing!), and ask Ash what it’s like to be the owners of a new business on wheels.

How did you decide what business you were going to run, and what made you pick a VW as the vehicle you were going to use?

We had searched over the past couple of years really for a business model we could really get our teeth into, we’d looked at franchising or retraining but after visiting a couple of VW shows we knew we wanted to be a part of the scene. The laid back lifestyle and whole VW community really struck a chord, so then we set our sights to find a way in. We went to a few more shows and researched into different aspects of the scene & finally decided on opening a coffee shop that sold flavoured hot drinks & really good cakes that could be flexible enough to go to VW shows as well as food fairs, vintage shows & weddings. We chose to use a camper over the Citroen H van or a trailer because of the community & following these iconic vans have whether you’re into cars or not they’re just guaranteed to turn the heads of everyone from 3 - 103.

How did you go about setting up the business?

Firstly we decided on the type of business we wanted to build, then narrowed it down to the most suitable style of camper, initially we wanted a high top splitty but finding a decent one that was in our budget was impossible... So plan b was the panel van because of having no windows in the back to wrestle with, as we had a vision in mind about putting the roof on hinges to serve from (I’m 6 foot tall and knew we’d have to come up with something special for me to stand up straight to serve) from there we found our van on eBay, found a metal fabricator to form the roof cut, found interior guys for the work tops & bought the tools we thought we’d need to create an awesome, one of a kind coffee and cake mobile retail unit.

< the lemon drizzle muffins are probably the best muffins in the world... You HAVE to try one!!! I defy anyone not to love them >

Company Profile | Splitscreen Bakery Who helped and how?

What events do you have lined up?

We wanted to use all local businesses to get our van out there, so we searched the internet, asked around and made some calls and found everything we needed within a 15 mile radius of our home town of Redditch. We used a local body shop to fabricate the roof, supporting structure, walls & headliner. Spektrum Interiors in Bromsgrove for the work tops, flooring & coffee machine installation & even our coffee machine came from 15 minutes down the road in Aston. All in all everyone we've spoken to & worked with have been great! From the first enquiry to the finished article, we've had support & positive feedback throughout which just spurred us on even more.

We have a few things lined up in the coming months, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be at the Alcester Food Festival on October19th, Autobahn Show at Bingley hall in November, Leamington vintage markets every Friday between 4 & 9pm from 25th oct - 6th December, Ragley Hall wedding fair 17th November and I'm sure a few Christmas shows thrown in there too.

Obviously you're very new to this, but what have been the positives and negatives of running a business from a VW van?

To be totally honest from the finding of the van to the build to the first shows have been pretty trouble free... (I'm sure the body work guys don't share my optimism) but the van couldn't be better to us... It's got a 12 month old 1600 twin port engine, a straight body and solid floor pans... What more can you ask for when buying a 48 year old beauty.

We've both always worked in retail and sales but when it's your own business, and people give you such great comments, it's just affirms that we made the right decision to take the plunge and build a future than to use the money as a deposit on a house So far, how does it compare to other jobs you've had?

It's just dosent compare, the feeling of making your own money and having the freedom to sell what you want, where you want and at the end of the day just wipe the surfaces down, close the roof and drive away in your own VW splitty is perfection.

What event do you really want to do?

The ultimate would be to go to Glastonbury & sell to the masses, to take in the vibes of a show that is the absolute essence of a British music festival on the hallowed fields of worthy farm would be amazing!!

Who makes the amazing looking cakes?

Our amazing cakes are supplied by a local commercial bakery...however if I told you the secret of the illusive bakers I'd have to kill you. Sorry :) Any memorable stories yet?

Not really stories but we've met some amazing people down the road of customisation... From the workshop guys to the people at the shows... everyone's just so nice!!

Any advice for people wanting to set up a business from a VW? Do it...don't buy that house just yet, hold off for a year, source good workmen, find a good van to start with & start something different.... think outside the box! If it doesn't work then sell it, buy a house, have kids and get a proper job just don't get old & think "what if..."

Favourite thing that you serve?

To drink it's got to be our hot mint chocolate & as a cake the lemon drizzle muffins are probably the best muffins in the world... You HAVE to try one!!! I defy anyone not to love them.

Company Profile | Splitscreen Bakery

Profile Owner name/s: Kay O’Mahony & Ash Baker Vehicle name: May Occupation/business: Luxury coffee & cake shop Dream VW: An early 60’s / late 50’s beetle cab (fully refurbed, white paint, full chrome, white interior....mmmmmmmm) What VW do you have? May is a 1965 split screen panel van When did you buy it? June 2013 Where did you buy it from?

Upton upon Severn How long to build and restore?

She had a full restoration in 2005 & it took us 15 weeks to take us from a standard splitty to what she is today

Advanced Tickets on Sale Online NOW! Visit www.elementalvw.org.uk

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labour of love

Super slammed using a chromed slamwerks beam

Feature | Rothfink Razor

and blood, sweat and heartache!

running a set cosmics giving it the perfect final touch

words: Craig Johnston-White and Joe Eynon pictures: Rothfink

I bought it from the delightful Mr Bob Van Heyst of BBT in Belgium

Thanks for letting us look at your amazing car. What’s your name and where do you come from? (in the style of blind date!)

What car is this? Year/ model/engine size.

Hello Cilla! My name is Craig and I come from CAERPHILLY!!!!

And could I just take this opportunity to say how striking that beard is Cilla it really suits you

How long have you owned it and where did you buy it from?

A little birdy tells me it has been off the road for a while. Why was this, and what made you decide to get it back on the road again?

I’ve owned it for a while, I can’t really remember exactly but it’s about 8 years.

I took it off the road to fit a narrowed beam but things kind of went wrong with that as I

It’s a 1963, VW Type 34 with the original 1500cc type 3 engine

Feature | Rothfink Razor

Those perfect karmann ghia lines.

tried to build this super slick beam using Ford Pop lever shocks (often found on early beetles and barndoors) but due to a school boy error that didn’t work out.

I had the car locked up 30miles from my house with a number of yank metal that would regularly distract me so before I knew it it had been off the road for nearly 5 years.

I decided it needed to get back on the road when I suddenly had to

Pack up and move to Wales (the best move I’ve made!) and I was getting withdrawal symptoms so I figured I needed to put it into someone I trusted to build it up right

interested, and then I heard that Ian was setting up on his own after years working for another highly respected VW specialist, so I jumped at the chance to have him finish off my efforts

Who did the work on the car?

Would you say this car is a part of you or just a I got the car in to my car that you love? good friend Ian Kent’s new business E’s Autos. This car is a major part I had waited for another of me (some say the VW specialist to do only interesting part) it but he didn’t seem

What do you do for a job?

Cardiff then please get in touch ;-)

I currently work as a driver for BT (the vehicle maintenance workshops) but I really need to get back into engineering so if anyone knows of any engineering positions around

Have you ever worked with VWâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s?

Y es, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked for a part supplier for a long long time but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m glad to be out of there. I then helped a

Feature | Rothfink Razor

craig loves how people stare at him driving it trying to figure out what car it is!

friend set up a VW specialist but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve moved on now Have you owned other VWs in the past?

Yes Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had loads but started with an early Devon double door bay that I went in on with friends only to find it was a lemon, I then went out and bought a 69 South African Panel van. I then got a 64/65 single cab pickup,

the panoramic glass and large footwells make this a true drivers car

Feature | Rothfink Razor

the rear light clusters are so iconic to this model

the type three motor sits perfectly and neatly under one of its boots!

Feature | Rothfink Razor

one will ever see)

Since it has been back on the road where have you been in it?

First trip out after picking it up from E’s autos was a 400mile trip taking in Viva Skeg Vegas (I wanted to debut it there) then it’s been out to a few relaxed meets like the RSVP BBQ and the DTA end of season get together.

I plan on doing a fair few more as the car now lives in the same lock up as the Rustbus of Rothfink fame and I am happy to be the latest member of the Rothfink crew What is your favourite thing about driving it?

I love the looks on peoples faces as they drive past and try to work out wtf it is lol.

What wheels are on it?

The car is on a set of OG Porsche pattern Cosmics on loan from my ex-wife (Thanks Heather) Would you ever sell the car?

Never say never but I always price the car at at least £5000 more than the most expensive Razor I hear of for sale (you never know, someone may want an oval, a T25 (that I used to love driving into things for a laugh) a T4 and it that much!) a few others How would you describe the look of the car? og/patina/stock etc What is your favourite part of the carcar?

I love the chrome effect front beam (because I love stupid details that no

The car is lightly patina’d and mostly OG paint

Kustom Kulture

Most people follow trends. We like to belong to a scene or feel we are part of a scene. This is how our world works but it is so refreshing when somebody is able to step away and just do what ever they want to make their car theirs.

Feature | Custom Bug

words by Joe Eynon pictures by Glen Newsam

end up getting something air-cooled. He picked up this bug in August 2012 from Leicester and has doubled his money he spent buying it on customising it.

T

his beetle is affectionately named Maggie by her owner Jonny Marriage.

Jonny is your typical brainwashed 19 year old bloke. His dad had had a baywindow since Jonny was born so it was inevitable that he’d

The reason I really wanted to feature this car was because Jonny has customised it how he wants to and does not appear to have followed any set pattern or trend. It’s a true driver’s car, and it’s also done on a small budget. Showing

Feature | Custom Bug

people that they too could afford a dope VW! Dad, Jerry, has helped with the welding and bodywork over the past year and Jonny also wants to acknowledge his mums patience for putting up with car parts “cluttering up the house and garden with bugs”. Little bro Jack also has given a helping hand to make sure this car is a family affair. Jonny’s best mate Jack McDonald has also helped get this bug on the road, with a very limited knowledge of cars.

Just a true friend.

The beetle is lowered by 3 inches at the rear and 5 1/2 inches at the front with the help of dropped spindles and adjusters. The rims are standard bug steels are the front with Weller banded steels on the back.

All the usual rust and bodywork repairs have been made to the car including floorpans,

heater channels, rear cross-members and the front valence. A custom removal rear valence has been fabricated from checker plate alloy and replacement wings have been sourced and fitted. The passenger front wong has been plastered in Viz cut-outs and varnished and the other front wing left in its primer. This may be painted at some point but I think it looks great in grey.

The Marina blue paint shows its signs of wear and has a few battle scars on show. Smoked rear lenses and front clear Euro-look H4 headlights give the car more of a custom appeal. The ratty engine lid is fitted with stand-off hinges.

Inside the car continues its custom theme with

Feature | Custom Bug

the black door card slowly getting bombed, (weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to make sure some AMVW ones get on there!) A 10 inch Grant steering wheel and extra gauges make the interior stand out from the normal.

Moving this Bug down the road is a bone-stock 1300 engine with a standard carb.

Jonny is currently repairing London buses for a living but wishes to open a VW garage soon with a friend. Air Monkeys wishes him the best of luck for that. He just says he needs to finish his own projects first!

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Tasty Tees!

Each magazine we try to bring you the freshest T-Shirts by cool brands and independent artists and makers.

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Regular | Tasty Tees

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Regular | Tasty Tees 4

We were lucky enough to get our mitts on two very cool T-shirts from two very cool companies, and we pretended to be models for a few minutes to pose for these! We can say first hand that, as well as looking awesome, they are both great quality too.

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4- Carbs are NOT your Enemyaircooledapparel.com 5- Hardcore- automortal.com

Hangerz

Old-Schooled And Air-cooled

Air-cooled Club Nr Ghent, Belgium

pictures: Kenneth Anno

HangarZ is a Belgian club founded by two brothers and a couple of friends in 2013.

Before that we were in another club, but we decided to go our own way.

Our main purpose is to have fun and share our passion which is Old-schooled and Air-Cooled. We are located in a small town near Ghent, in Belgium.

Club Feature | Hangerz

As we were always working on the cars in our hangar, the name of the club was an easy choice, Hangerz.

We started last year with a meeting and a fundraise for a girl we know, who was involved in a terrible car accident.

The girl and her family were very happy with this unexpected act of charity.

A couple of months later, in the middle of the meeting season it was time to organise our first meeting as HangarZ. The meeting took place on the property of one of our friends Christophe Van Trappen, who’s the owner of Proformance.

Christophe is known for building powerful engines, like Sven Gouffaux’s 1971 Gemini Bug which has about 300HP; and of course his own black turbocharged 1968 bug packed with 475 horses in the back. We combined the meeting with an Open house at the store of Proformance.

The meeting was a great success. We had about 85 cars that visited. We even cleaned out an old warehouse, so we could use it as an indoor burnout-box!

Because to be honest, we love burning rubber!

Our good friends from Otto Bros made sure everything happened safely, because always, Safety First! They revved their gassers up too, to give a little show!

Filip Delrue brought the Black Pearl along, who couldn’t resist burning some rubber either!

Gunther Vanheuverswyn Won our ‘Best of Show’ cup with his beautiful black 19... bug and was elected ‘Donut King of the Day’!

Frederic Peeters came along too, with his babyblue bus.

I think we can conclude that our first meeting was a success!

Photo Report | Das Drag Day

Hangerz do das drag day

pictures: Kenneth Anno

words: Sam Eynon

Pictures: Andrew Seymour

El Concreto

Feature | Single Cab Split

A

shleigh Morrow was born into a Volkswagen loving family, and the brain washing started young, and rightly so we say!

When she was a baby her mum had a Lipstick Pink Convertible Beetle, which was kitted out with a baby harness for baby Ashleigh. The only way to get her off to sleep was to pop her in the back and drive her round the block.

She told us people used to say it was the fumes that helped her to the land of nod, but she reckons the unmistakable sound of the air-cooled engine was the thing that did it!

The love of VWs, has led her to own a 1974 L Bug Convertible, 1972 S Bug, 1972 Baywindow Deluxe Bus,

1960 Deluxe Beetle, 1956 Oval Beetle, 1961 Karmann Ghia, 1967 Split window Deluxe Bus, and a 1971 Squareback Her husband, Bob, is also a fellow Dubber. She met him at the Valla Spectacular, one of Australia’s best Volkswagen shows that is held every two years. He has helped her with her ‘on going preservation’ of El Concreto her 1963 Australian HIgh Roof Single Cab. The pair of them also own a 23 window Samba that they are restoring together.

Ashleigh bought El Concreto in 2008, but originally it was owned by Saffioti Concrete and Cement Rendering Company from Leeton in New South Wales, Austrailia. He

was abandoned in a farmers paddock when his owner felt his working days were over and an upgrade must have been on the cards. El Concreto was rescued, and the labour of love began.

Whilst he preserves his original sign writing and embraces his patina, he is like a new vehicle underneath.

This old boy has a few battle scars and some stories to tell.

Feature | Single Cab Split

<“It helps to wear a sports bra when tackling those not so perfect roads!”> As with most VW owners, Ashleigh has lost count of the amount of money that has been thrown at the single cab, which is often for the best! Her and her husband have carried out a lot of work on it. They have received a few trophies along the way, as a nice pat on the back for all their hard work, including a Best Rat award, Dog of the Day and Best Chicks Ute. It has been lowered with Indian IRS rear conversion, Adjustable spring plates, 4 1/2” narrowed adjustable beam by KCW in the USA Dropped and flipped spindles by KCW. Ashleigh says “It helps to wear a sports bra

when tackling those not so perfect roads!”

Much of the vehicle is original, including the headlights, seats, clutch, steering wheel (though it has a custom leather stitched cover designed by David Scanlon of Volkstrim), dash, panels.

Most of the paint is original too, except for where sills have been replaced and the colour has been matched and blended.

All this originality looks awesome sat on 15X4.5 and 15 x 5.5 RDW wheels which the couple brought back from a recent trip to the United States.

Ashleigh is quite a fan of collecting period correct and vintage items for the vehicle, as well as other cool accessories, these items tie the vehicle together nicely, including a couple of vintage spotlights, 2 coca cola bottle openers mounted to each B pillar and we just love the tiki horn push that she bought from The Samba.

The single cab has a 1600 engine with 40 kadrom carbs and it has never let them down!

Ashleigh says people often comment on what a great “cut down” bus she has, which she does find annoying, but feels it shows that “these characters were definitely a commercial vehicle and not all of them have

Feature | Single Cab Split

Feature | Single Cab Split

El Concreto as he was found

stood up to the test of time and people aren’t realising that Volkswagen produced them like this” This is more so the case for the Australian High Roof Single Cabs. El Concreto has a slightly higher roof than your average single cab. This is due to the removal of the rear engine vents and an extra skin being installed in the roof. This design allowed air to flow over the roof and be directed back to the engine bay, designed like this for the hot and dusty

Australian roads. Ashleigh likes to call it his “muffin top”. The roof design was perfect for the dusty conditions and protecting the air-cooled motor, but it also had its downfall, moisture.

There are fewer and fewer high roof single cabs on the road now due to the moisture often rusting out the roof.

Like other owners of Patina vehicles, much to her annoyance, Ashleigh often gets asked “when are you going to

paint it”? She says, to her “... this is blasphemy! El Concreto to me is a moving piece of art, every inch of him tells a story” El Concreto is still put to work and has helped many times with carting parts, furniture, garden supplies and much more. Much better than having a trailer queen we reckon, and any other knocks and bumps just add to the Single cab’s character.

Show Report | VW Action

VW Action words: Edd Thorpe pictures: Joss Ashley/ Wide5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Photography

Action, for me as now a firm fixture on my calendar that any other significant life event simply must bow down to avoid clashing with. I literally would do (pretty much) anything to get there (within reason..) No stronger has this point been proven when I awoke at 04:00 (yes AM) to load up the ’67 so I could jump straight back in it after work at half 9 and blip straight down the ‘The Pod’.

Oh and I was went on my own. Completely and utterly on my Todd, my Jack Jones, my Larry, “on my ones” – as the kids say. Clearly I’m the most hardcore among us Air

Monkeys lot as I’d booked my ticket long in advance and was the only one not doing my hair and or make up so that weekend so thus had a free schedule.

What a reward it was though for such an early start, never before have I been to a Pod show and it not even attempt to rain once – magic! The place for me is definitely some kind of Mecca, where generation after generation have made their pilgrimage to Wellingborough to take in the Marvel (see what I did there..) that is VW Action.

Now, the VW scene has a way of making the world seem small, but I simply could not believe it that having had no prior communication, having not planned it, and having started out from two very different counties, that as I started pitching my tent (a challenge in itself as it was a bit breezy on the Friday morning) that Pam and Kev Gregory should pull up next to me in their freshly graffiti’d

Show Report | VW Action

Bay – which incidentally you can read all about in this issue! I was fully aware of the fact that the guys and gals from the SAS Rennwagens would be out in force too, so between us all I was never properly ‘alone’ for the weekend!

Action has always put on an all-things-for-all-people show, whether it’s the quarter mile action that tickles your pickle, you’re one for the epically turned out show and shine, or you like you dubs a little ‘dirtier’ than the rest there’s

something to keep you busy all weekend.

Inevitably the ¼ mile box was going to be ticked all weekend if the weather stayed true and Friday was holding up nicely, though the RWYB guys would have to sit on their hands until

Show Report | VW Action the Saturday.

I always take full advantage of the opportunity to catch up with the people who have made the season for us at Action, as unfortunately it can be a little reminder that the season is reaching the autumn of its time, and so I made an effort to catch up with Scott “Donnyburger” Mitchell and Simon “Nefarious” Pollock, to take in another excellent stall that he’d got this year! Situated right in the show field the stall was set to be busy all weekend (which got me thinking..!)

Having been up since 4, Friday was an earlyish one for me, but not before partaking in cocktails with the Rennwagens – thanks Fi!!

My only error was not getting up much, much earlier on the Saturday.

Little did I realise that I was, funnily enough, not the only one dreaming of making a pass down the legendary Santa Pod Raceway, and so subsequently once I’d stripped out everything I could think of, even taking the glove box lid off, to be dropped off at Nefarious for the Air Monkeys script I’d been dreaming of for ages, and singed on for the princely sum of £25 (unlimited runs) the queue was an hour and a half long. Yep 1 hour 30 mins for 1 run – such is the popularity of the RWYB! The camaraderie I found took me by surprise, though this has to be noted coming from the dub side, and water pumping at that..! Not so much from the Corsa and ‘cosseh’ brigade but oh well.. It turns out my ‘rival’ was to be a VR6 Corrado. Hmm. Second place for me then..

FINALLY I got to stage in the left lane having elegantly declined the burnout…

I cannot describe just how hard my little ticker was pumping now, not least because I had to drive home in this here bug, but there’s how many thousand people sat watching you banks and in the grandstand ready

Show Report | VW Action to pounce if you stall it! So with me ‘staging’ 1st time I patiently awaited what seemed like an age for ‘rado boy to hook up, then that’s it we’re off, as the red Corrado got smaller and smaller in the right lane, all I could focus on was pointing it straight under the gantry, and wonder if the clocks would time out of their 30s bracket or not.

It was such a rush to have driven on the very tarmac that such legendary passes have been made by generations before me, and having spent all season photographing such runs it was bliss to finally have a go myself. Those that know me and know my humble white 1300 ’67 bug know just how much effort it took over the 18 months prior to March this year when I first got it on the road and just how much it costs me financially and otherwise so I made this pass as a bit of a homage to those that have helped, and it HAD to be the left lane, yes Martin, (a private joke about Left Lane racing i.e. being in the slow lane on the Motorway.) So, having wandered down to collect my timing slip and prove that this thing could make a ¼ mile in 23.8236 @55.55MPH it was time to collect my glove box lid now complete with AMVW sign writing, rebuilt the Bug and finally sink a beer!

Saturday sees much of the main show and shine assembly, with the Everyday Vehicle concourse, which I don’t ever remember seeing quite so packed before!? Having the majority of the trade stalls circling the arena made for a busy central hub for the day, a great chance to scoop up future features, so watch this space!

All too soon the blur of the day came round as the night descended and the temperature dropped, which can only mean one thing, yes the Night Racing! Made up of the fastest cars having qualified during the day (sub 14’s only so afraid I was out). The racing takes on another level with the floodlights on, consisting of the fastest Aircooled from the Rennwagens, Crazy Cannuck among others and invited pro mod V8s and fast retro fords - we were in for a treat! Unfortunately the game was over all too soon for John Walklett of the Rennwagens, having sheared a rocker after a particularly hard launch, he coasted over the line at a mere 32mph (but STILL beat my time!) It was clear that everyone was running hard, competing for a pretty generous prize pot, as it covered more than just the winning entries so a big thank you to all those sponsoring the night racing is in order.

After a spectacular session on the drag strip, the party was about to kick into full swing in the main tent, with the comic book superheroes and super villains party! By heck did people put some effort into this, now the Action fancy dress is the stuff of legend but really and truly the bar was raised this year! A long nights dancing away seems the perfect anecdote to the high-octane fun on the track, right?

So, all too soon Sunday reared its head, complete with hangovers for a fair few I’ll wager, but to be greeted by another glorious day of sunshine! I was determined

to make as full a day of it as I could, and knowing the chance to finally meet up with John Hilton (who’s work you’ll recognise throughout the magazines as he is design and layout guru for much of my work as I have the design knowledge of a stick.)

The Action Auction seemed as good a rendezvous as any, and so the banter began as the hammer fell on item after item all raising money for the fantastic Brads, who if you have not heard of by now I’d suggest removing the rock from whence you must have

been hiding! It was good to see Hayburner donate their goodie bag which made a solid £40 among items such as Nefarious ‘striped radio flyers, and BMXs galore! The signs, which had dominated the stage all weekend, were also up for grabs, having made around £150 each, signed

by Brian Burrows and Jensen D Groover. The star of the Auction for me though has to be the print of the show car Homer, built

by Michael Leche of Machine7.

Scott Mitchell, having won it at auction last year, most generously donated this. Michael was an

absolute start making a superb bid in order to gain Homer back, to hang on the walls of Machine7 – you should really check it next time you’re there!

< some amazing news has emerged regarding Action 2014, in that the RWYB session will be VW ONLY!> So come 3pm time, it was time to make the way back up North for me, having had one the best weekends on the show calendar

Show Report | VW Action

this year, big thanks to all who tucked me under their wing as the lone ranger and massive thanks to Brian Burrows and the NAS events team, and not least the Santa Pod track crew, security and marshals.

A massive congratulations is needed also to the guys and girls behind Brides for Brads. Our man Scott Mitchell and a few other crazy die hard nutters dressed as brides, yes really wedding dresses and even the correct under garments in some cases!

With some eager bucket shaking and all for a good cause they managed to raise £1150 on the day and a further £340 online through their “Just Giving” website, (this is still open by the way...).

At the time of going to press, some amazing news has emerged regarding Action 2014, in that the RWYB session will be VW ONLY! Now that’s massive news of a

monumental scale, making for a spectacular session which ties in the theme of the show perfectly.

This has taken a great deal of guts and investment from Brian Burrows so for one will be returning the favour by making full use of the facilities on Fri 29th - Sun 31st August 2014!

Who knows I might join the sub20s club!

Music that has been doing the rounds at Air Monkeys HQ Franz Ferdinand Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action Pete Salter

Given the infrequency – not to mention inconsistency – of their output over the last 8 years, you could be forgiven for thinking Franz Ferdinand had gone the way of so many other mid-noughties indie-pop revivalists and disappeared into the musical ether.

‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action’ therefore, is a welcome return to form for a band that just shy of a decade ago, were one of the most promising outfits in British music following a couple of fairly forgettable releases and several years in the wilderness.

The Scottish group’s fourth full album is a great big slab of angular guitar pop and disco drumbeats that have more of a whiff of the old Franz about them, nowhere-more-so than on the record’s titular opening track which sounds like a medley of all their debut’s best bits – no bad thing.

Joe Goddard of Hot Chip fame produced RTRWRA (alongside Björn Yttling [Peter, Björn and John]) and it shows with groovy, bassy synth hooks and disco beats being the order of the day.

And while the album harks back to the old-school stylings that made the band such a hit in 2004, the glossy multi-layered production present nine years later is complimentary to the band’s sound rather than reductive or over-bearing.

Highlights are recent single, ‘Evil Eye’, which is a funky, disco number about supernatural powers and ghostly goings-on (a particular type of cynic might point out that the spooky single was released just a few weeks before Halloween, but this reviewer is above that…) and ‘Love Illumination’ which is full of fuzzy guitar riffs and walking basslines that sound like Cake at their very most rock.

Franz Ferdinand realise their potential with this latest full length offering, which meets – and perhaps even exceeds – the high standards they set for themselves with their self-titled arrival on the indie rock scene, back in 2004. Right Thoughts, Right Words, Great Album.

Verdict: 8/10 Stand-out Track: Evil Eye Sounds Like: Arctic Monkeys, The Mystery Jets, Cake

Regular | Earworm Nine Inch Nails Hesitation Marks Sam Eynon

Trent Reznor returns with a new album from NIN. The first since 2008, and one that fans weren’t sure would ever happen after, in 2009, Reznor said “I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while”. They have resigned to a major label, but have come out with an album that is not always an easy sell.

It is more stripped down than some albums and not as agressive as some of their earlier efforts, but there is something satisfying about the juxtoposition of the electronic beats and tics with crunchy guitars (though guitars seem minimal on this album) and Reznor’s voice, which can be soft, whispering and full of menace at times, but powerful and passionate at others.

Everything is one of the happiest sounding songs they have ever done, the album as a whole isn’t as dark in tone as other records, though it does still have a haunting quality to it. Satelitte has more than a touch of Funk to it. There are some nice surprises on here, although some hardcore NIN fans would disagree.

Sounds like: Marylin Manson, Black Light Burns, Depeche Mode Stand out track: Copy Of A Rating: 8/10 Saves The Day Saves The Day Joe Eynon

After they finally completed their dark trilogy in 2011 with the release of Daybreak, Saves The Day are a new band! Gone are the suicidal lyrics and self deprication and a newer, fresher, and dare I say, bouncier sound!

Lyrics like “I Love You” and “Let’s Stay Together” are heard with of course some lower points but they haven’t had a lobotomy.

With the return to what the band started out with, back in 2002, the quartet have been given a fresh start and have been given the ability to start again without having to split up and rejoin.

As this album is the beginning of the rest of their lives, the next decade of Saves The Day looks very promising indeed!

Sounds like: I Am The Avalanche, Lifetime, The Get Up Kids Stand out track: Lucky Number Rating: 9.5/10

Arctic Monkeys AM Sam Eynon

The first time I heard I bet you look good on the dancefloor I fell in love with The Arctic Monkeys.

They sounded so fresh and exciting. This album captures the same excitement, but in a totally different way. Arctic Monkeys can definitely not be pigeon holed, this album draws influences from so many different genres and artists. It sounds dark and dirty in parts, like being in a smokey, sweaty club, filled with lust and sexual tension.

Josh Homme is on hand again, and his influence can be felt, but this time guesting on the album.

Pete Thomas and Bill Ryder-Jones also make guest appearances on AM. Sounds like: Queens of The Stone Age, The Black Keys, Miles Kane Stand out Track: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re Hight Rating: 9/10

Arcade Fire Reflektor Sam Eynon

You know when you hear one of those songs that you think may change your life, this is how I felt in 2004 (ruddy hell, I can’t believe it was that long ago!) when I switched over to BBC2 to see Arcade Fire performing Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) on Jools Holland. It gave me goosebumps.

Reflektor is the bands fourth album and it is a double one at that. It was co-produced by former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, regular Arcade Fire producer Markus Dravs, and the band themselves The influence of Murphy can be felt, as the record has a dancier feel. There are many changes of tempo on this album, and it actually sounds like the band are starting to have fun on this one. Though it didn’t give me goosebumps.

Sounds like: Beach House, The National, Volcano Choir Stand out track: Here Comes The Night Rating: 8/10

Regular | Earworm Sleigh Bells Bitter Rivals Sam Eynon

Sleigh Bells exploded onto the scene with their debut album, Treats, in 2010. The album was well received and was chosen as one of the albums of the year by many reviewers. Bitter Rivals is now the duo’s third album. In previous albums, Miller had handled the music, production and lyrics, here Krauss has created most of the melodies.

The record certainly is more melodic, and allows Krauss to show more of her range. This at times works really well, but at other times these songs sound painfully close to girl band material, which I suppose shouldn’t be a surprise, as Krauss’ began her career in a girl band. There is still plenty of loud, well very loud guitar, and synth, but it is defintely more radio friendly then their previous offerings, though this is not always a good thing.

Sounds like: M.I.A, Santigold, Cults Stand out track: Sing Like a Wire Rating:6/10

Trentmoller Lost Joe Eynon

something different and it has failed.

Sounds like: Moderat, Telepopmusik, Royksopp Stand out track: River of life Rating: 4/10

There has been a lot of excitement for the release of this album. I was excited, then I was very disappointed. It’s a shame as when Trentmoller is on his own his work is brilliant but for this album he has joined forces with the likes of Low, Johnny Pierce of The Drums and Ghost Society. It just hasn’t worked.

The introductions are sadly the best parts of the songs and there is a few positive tracks one of them being River of Life. The abient lyrics of Ghost Society echo smoothly over Trentmollers electromix house and it fits fine. The other tracks appear rushed and the album title seems very fitting.

Trentmoller still remains one of the most exciting artists in modern electronic music, he’s just tried

Lorde Pure Heroine Sam Eynon

Scarily Ella “Lorde” Yelich-O’Connor is only 16. This album has the confidence of an album by someone much older, especially as it is entirely self penned.

The songs on the album do all follow a very similar pattern, hip hop beats, earnest lyrics sung in a low murmur, but it is a pattern that works well. It is a very accomplished and polished album, but sometimes it feels like the cool detachment that it oozes may be a little forced. Having said that if you did not know her age this is a thought that perhaps wouldn’t cross your mind.

Sounds like: Lana del Ray, The XX, Haim Stand out track: Buzzcut Season Rating: 7/10 Haim Days Are Gone Pete Salter

Ever since this trio of sisters burst onto the scene late last year there has been a fervour about them with music journalists falling over themselves to shower the group with praise and adoration, resulting in their dizzying ascension to the top of the festival circuit and radio playlists everywhere.

The BBC’s touting of HAIM as ‘The Sound of 2013’ might have been somewhat premature in hindsight with a whole host of rock and pop veterans and heavyweights releasing big records this year, but the sisters have sold out numerous venues already and have pulled massive audiences at some of the summer’s biggest events including Glastonbury and Reading. No mean feat for a group that were barely in the consciousness of most music fans this time last year.

Given the pressure put on the three-piece by the hyperbole surrounding them, the fact that their debut is so good is even more impressive. And Days Are Gone is a truly great record, expanding on the Forever EP released earlier this year and oozing a confidence and swagger that belies their rookie status.

Oft-described as ‘folk meets R&B’ and hailed as a modern Fleetwood Mac (which, Tusk aside, is a compliment many-a-musician would be happy to receive), Este, Danielle and Alana are a demonstratively talented trio who are destined to be huge.

New single, ‘The Wire’, is the record’s clear highpoint with its catchy choral refrain and infectious lyrics that *will* have you singing them days after you’ve heard the song. Elsewhere, ‘If I Could Change Your Mind’ is a glorious lesson in pop song construction (as well as execution) and the epic ‘Let Me Go’ is a swelling, swirling masterpiece that’s destined to be a crowd favourite when played live.

HAIM’s debut full-length is genuinely without fault and needs to be on every serious music fan’s musthave list for 2013. It’s not so much a question of IF these girls will achieve world domination, as it is WHEN they will achieve it.

Verdict: 10/10 Standout Track: The Wire Sounds like: Fleetwood Mac, Bat for Lashes, Foals

Regular | Earworm

Air Monkey’s Classic Album Motion City Soundtrack Commit This To Memory (2005) Sam Eynon

An album of pop punk perfection. They released their first album, I Am the Movie, in 2003. Mark Hoppus, of Blink 182, was so blown away when he heard it that he took them on Blink’s 2004 European tour. Motion City Soundtracks’s guitarist Joshua Cain went on to ask Hoppus to produce their next album, Commit This To Memory.

Lead singer Justin Pierre’s lyrics aren’t your average pop punk lyrics. They are shot through with self loathing, anger and a sense of loss.The album starts with Attractive Today, a song that at under two minutes long, comes up and smacks you in the face with all these emotions, summed up by the final lines “i am wrecked, I am overblown, I’m also fed up with the fucking common cold. I Just want to feel alive for the first time in my life, I just want to feel attractive today” There are also many references to Pierre’s struggles with alcohol and drug abuse, the bands next and third album, was the first he wrote while completely sober.

Commit This To Memory is characterised by catchy hooks, clever lyrics, and the Moog synthesizer, played by Jesse Johnson, who joined only three weeks before the recording of their first album and in this time taught himself how to play it.

Sounds like: Say Anything, Taking Back Sunday, The Matches Stand out track: Everything Is Alright Rating: 10/10

Dubdayz Summerfest

words: Edd Thorpe pictures: Scott Savage

Show Report | Dubdayz

The Dubdayz Summer fest has long been a firm favourite on the VW calendar, famed for its laid back low key style of show in the settings of an iconic pub known kingdom-wide (if not the world!)

The MFN pub, affectionately known as Middle of F**kin Nowhere (or Middle Of Nowhere in public) due to its locality of sod all somewhere in the greater realms of Nottingham, really is a great venue for holding meetings and shows for petrol heads of all persuasions, from their Bike Nights, Jap Nights and VAG orientated meets right through to the aforementioned Summer Fest.

At the heart of the venue is a really great pub, perfectly themed to create an air of petrol head Mecca, yet surrounded by wide open spaces to house literally hundreds of vehicles come bike nights and car shows.

This year’s Summer fest had a rather different swing to it (literally..) as a theme of 1940s Britain had been set for the fancy dress and overall vibe to the show, which certainly made Summer Fest unique this year! The timeless venue suited this perfectly, with period displays such as the vintage truck, petrol pump, gas cans, oil cans and even incorporating vintage themed street signs into the grounds. The display of hot rods and Harleys to front of the pub really set off well from the Volkswagens of the show and shine. Controversial, perhaps, was the fully decorated kubelwagen replica dressed in full military regalia – grenades et all!

The central pavilion provided a great retreat in which to enjoy the scorching hot sun that we were lucky enough to find on the Saturday, where show goers could sink a swift pint (or gallon) and enjoy the many and varied foods on offer from the stands on the picnic benches, all accompanied by the dulcet tones of “Johnny Victory” singing 40’s favourites, which further emphasised the Rations to Rock theme.

The trade stalls were wrapped around the lawns of the pub, selling all sorts from T shirts and memorabilia to all kinds of VW based artwork, so good was this in fact that our snapper Scott couldn’t resist a Splitscreen canvas!

This provided a great walk through to the Show and shine to rear car park, where a great variety of Wolfsburg metal was on display, with one thing being abundantly clear, this was one show where the rat look was on song again! There really was

something for everyone, right through to pimped up T5s and even a T4 based RV! It’s the small show feel that really makes this weekend great, but with lots of camping space spread to each side of the pub, it never feels crowded!

Even the camping areas saw some of the best vehicles turned out for the weekend, and I especially had to watch out for the trenches (quite appropriate, really!)

All in all, a good clean bit of fun was had by all, bar for one bit of misbehaviour on behalf of a motorcyclist performing a rolling burnout on his way out from the venue (as good as it was, there’s a time and a place I guess..!)

With Live Moto GP on the Big Screen by day and bands on in the main pub by night, the Saturday really saw something for all, this is certainly show we’ll be waiting out for next year!

Show Report | Dubdayz

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Feature | Graffitti Bus

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ow, ‘different’ can mean mind blowing and fantastically awesome in every way shape and form... or it could be just plain damn wrong.

That could never be said of this killer graffiti-inspired paintjob applied to this ‘72 (yes one year only!) Bay Window camper, under the proud ownership of Kev and Pam Gregory of Mickleover.

Having owned the bus for 4 years now, it was decided that once that nice subtle stance had been applied, thanks to John Massey (whose single cab starred on issue 4’s cover) a freshen up in the paint department was needed. Not that this bus is in any way ‘bad’ – far from it, but hey when the opportunity arises to work with a highly skilled graffiti artist who just so happens to fancy the blank canvas of a Bay Window bus to work on, who’s going to argue?

It is this paintjob which forms the pinnacle of this feature, as we’re sure you’ll agree, it really does do the talking here. Well, more shouting. Loudly. Very loudly!

< when the opportunity arises to work with a highly skilled graffiti artist who just so happens to fancy the blank canvas of a Bay Window bus to work on, who’s going to argue? > To apply this rolling artwork it was first necessary to ‘key in’ the baby blue paint work of the van, which I myself even poured some effort in with the good old scotchbrite (as the kitchen scourer approach was just not cutting it, sorry Kev!!)

It’s only really needed to dull off the shine and remove any traces of silica based car cleaning products prior to paint. All ancillaries such as rear lights, front indicators, spare wheel and rear number plate were removed prior to masking off the door handles and headlights, before finally applying a run of masking tape just above the ‘belt-line’ in order to keep the work to the blue sections of the van. Job done, no primer needed! The acrylic based paints the artist, Graham Scott, uses bond rather nicely to flatted off paintwork.

Feature | Graffitti Bus

Feature | Graffitti Bus Graham was quite happy to bag up the wheels and bumpers, and protect the upper bodywork and glass from overspray, before commencing his art. Graham has been an uraban artist for a few years now, but is slowly increasing the presence of his hobby into his everyday norm.

He confesses to have never been one to go tagging (whereby a trademark design is sprayed onto public utilities or buildings) as he never trusted himself to not get caught! Instead in the legality and safety of the barn here, the scene of today’s’ art, he can commence his creativity safe in the knowledge that he won’t get a rodgering from the rozzers. The design of this had been very much in the air prior to beginning, something that lends itself well to the creativity and free flowing nature of graffiti artwork, being very much in the here and now – yet some form of pre planned design was roughly in place!

< The only thing really to do once the paint was drying was nail a good cup of tea and stand back in awe! > Starting with the passenger door, the outlines were applied for the overall design – no going back now! Gradually as you can see, Graham worked his way from front to back, wrapping round the rear end of the bus before finishing off the work with the drivers door, and front panel.

Building up the base colours first, to block out the larger shapes, Graham had to partially mask off the design in order to create the neat, clean lines which define borders between shapes and lines, as and

when this was required. The real piece de resistance is the white ‘sparkles’ that are so very poignantly placed, as its very easy to go overboard and kill the look, yet this is something that really has been nailed here, it finishes off the design superbly and really makes it pop off the van!

The only thing really to do once the paint was drying was nail a good cup of tea and stand back in awe! A quick de-mask and rebuild and it’s job done. Van painting is something relitivley new for Graham, having only seen a couple of examples of his work on VW’s myself, yet he is keen to expand into this style of work more and more.

It takes a very brave move to graffiti your pride and joy but one that I think has paid off big time, and we’re sure you’ll agree, too! Kev and Pam have had many a reaction to the van since it was painted, with comments from ‘that’s rad, dude!’ to “ooh its very pretty” (not quite sure ‘pretty’ was the look intended but bless the old dear!).

So there you are, something very different.

In a world full of O.G paint, sign writing and pin striping, it’s a bold way to ‘stand out’ and spice things up a little, which is something I love about the VW scene. It’s not all that long ago actually that crazy urban-styled paintwork was all the rage along with wacky pastel colours, so maybe this could be a sign of things to come..?

If you’re feeling brave enough to take the plunge, Graham can create and apply a one-off design to your ride, by contacting him on 07877 482610 – tell him we sent you!

If you want some free advertising in Air Monkeys then emailairmonkeyvw@gmail. com

This Could Be You!

Air Monkeys 2013

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