For Love and a Beetle: A Tale of Two Journeys by Beth and Ivan Hodge is a delightful read for any Volkswagen Beetle enthusiast with a penchant for travel. The book not only chronicles the overland journeys of Beth and Ivan Hodge but also pays homage to their beloved Beetle, which becomes a central character in their story as they travel from London to Australia…twice!
In 1961, the newlyweds decided to buy a Beetle from a London dealership, modify it for
Approaching a VW Show is always a buzz. On the 30th of August 2024, our bog-standard family wagon slipped neatly into a convoy of modified air and water-cooled VWs as we meandered through the country roads around Poddington. A sense of pride flowed through me as one child described to another what a swamp cooler on the side of a cal-look Beetle was for, and how it’s cool in more than one sense of the word.
We
The absence of Dubfreeze left a February-sized hole in our events calendar. We had been regular patrons of the Dubfreeze and even Bugfreeze before that for those of you old enough to remember. Sadly, the final Dubfreeze was in February 2020. The saddest part was that none of us knew it would be the last Dubfreeze.
Another regular event at Stafford Showground took an opportunity to expand its offering. Billed as the biggest, busiest and best indoor
The alloy wheels on our T4 were starting to look worse for wear. After sitting on our van for 17 years, the lacquer had begun to peel.
We researched a few companies that could refurbish the wheels for us, and we decided to use RS Wheel Refurbishment as they came highly recommended and were local to us in Sheffield.
As we were refurbishing the wheels, we also decided to replace the tyres at the same time. We chose to
Back in August this year (2022), I took VW’s latest T-Roc Cabriolet for a test. It’s the newly facelifted model and it comes in two engine sizes, a 1.0 and a 1.5 TSI. The one that I tested was the 1.5 TSI and it was hooked up to a seven-speed DSG gearbox.
I took the car to VW Festival at Harewood House in Leeds and what a weekend
It’s when you’re within the 5-mile radius you can feel the buzz. The closer you get the more Dubs you see heading to their Mecca. All converging to the same Holy Ground from within the UK and Mainland Europe. A quarter-mile strip of pure flat tarmac surrounded by tents, stalls, live music, race cars, and a fairground. All steeped in lots of laughter.
VW Action is awash with VWs of all ages, air, water, and now evermore
It had been 3 years since the last VW Festival at Harewood House near Leeds. Covid restrictions meant that the 2020 and 2021 shows couldn’t go ahead, so we were looking forward to a weekend in the grounds of the Harewood Estate.
VW Festival always brings out an awesome selection of cars, and this year was no exception. Our club stall was positioned on the row right at the front, so we had a great view of all of the show cars as well as the house. A great place to be.
We were up bright and early for a drive over the Pennines on the first Sunday of August, the traditional date for Tatton Park’s VW show. As we neared the grounds of Tatton Park, we spotted the Ghostbusters car, it looked really cool and very detailed. Surely it was heading to the same place.
It was a beautiful summer day with loads of beautiful cars on the show field. We had our usual spot next to Alan H Schofield. Our club stand had a T4, a T5, two Beetles (both with a movie connection) and an EOS on display.
So here we have the ID.4 from Volkswagen. VW Press kindly lent us this car so we could take it down to VW Action at Santa Pod Raceway.
Now, this is the first time that I’d driven an electric car, and in the run-up to our trip to VW Action, I was quite apprehensive about being able to get to Santa Pod and back, with a little
Everyone joins VWOCGB for their own unique reasons. Discounts, access to first-hand niche VW knowledge, Club merch, and free event tickets are all readily on the table. For some, the opportunity to support the Club that has helped them in the past can naturally arise. During the AGM, it was briefly mentioned that a book review was being offered to the Club. I had a dash of free time, why not.
With a clunk on the floor,
