Taken from the Scandinavian Cal Look Classic 2008 this Beetle is putting out 850hp. Check out what a handful it appears to be

We don't often post video's in our blog - thats what our video section is for! But in this case we wanted to share this awesome footage with you. Check out what 850hp in a Beetle looks like at the driver struggles to keep it in a straight line. And even with traction problems he goes through the line in 9 seconds! Top work!

Jon may have missed the boat on the using your aircooled VW to get to work day!

Drive your VW to work day might have been a few months ago but seeing as the weather was fine and my Beetle is working I couldn't resist bringing it into work to show off to the team.
Armed with our IPC Trade plates I navigated the route to work without a hitch - I still can't get over how well it's driving.

Once at work I must have spent the first 90 minutes going in and out of the office with a stream of people going to admire it. It has only really started to sink in that the project is coming to end. I still need those damn front wheels though!

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you the fact the Beetle is going well and I am actually intending on using it whenever possible - proof is in the pudding!
Fingres crossed for the MoT on Saturday eh?

These last two shots were actually taken on Sunday during its first outing! I like them so thought I'd share - plus it shows the ragtop open!

The time has come and Steve's dad's Buggy is up for sale

You may remember the Buggy from the Project pages of VolksWorld. Here’s a quick recap for those that haven’t seen it before.

The Buggy was bought two years ago as a weekend car, to blat about and generally have some fun in. I went through the whole car from top to toe to make sure everything was spot on before I let my mum and dad loose on the open road in it. Safety first and all that! The Buggy already had new front discs/pads and calipers fitted before we got it. I replaced the rear brake shoes and adjusted everything up. I pulled the engine out to check the clutch and found it had been replaced only a few hundred miles before. While the engine was out I gave it a full service. New oil, plugs, leads, new 009 dizzy and a new coil! The tappets, timing and carb were adjusted so she now runs like a dream, and starts on the button.

I also repainted all of the suspension, front and rear, as well as the gearbox and all of the engine tinwear.

Basically, due to a change in circumstances the Buggy has done no miles since all this work. I went back through everything two weeks ago, re-tuned her and gave her a thorough check over and I’m pleased to say she passed the Mot last Wednesday with flying colours.

This Buggy really is ready to jump in and drive and being a ‘71 is tax exempt as well. Nice touch!

It’s in my Workshop, which is located 20 minutes off junction 6 of the M25.

The price is £3250 ono

Check out the pictures below. Any questions email me on stephen_gosling@ipcmedia.com or give me a bell on 07971 671552

Oh yes, the Ragtop hits the road after two years and one month of waiting!

Finally the day came that I was in a position to test my Ragtop Beetle. I've been looking forward to that moment for a very long time! It was very nerve racking!

My mate Rich and myself spent Saturday morning fitting the original 1200 engine that I had cleaned up and rebuilt and come lunch time we had it all wired up and ready to go. Time to turn the key! Chugga chugga vrooooom! It started first time - no flat spots - just a perfect idle and excellent responce. That was a first!

So now everything was fully working (I had had a few electrical problems with the rear lights which I've now sorted) I think it's safe to say the car will be taking me and the lady to our wedding reception in two weeks. That's if it gets through the MoT this coming Saturday!

There are a few jobs left to do such as putting on the new front wheels and tyres this week and getting the tracking done but the other remaining jobs are pretty small. I do want to get the interior light to work when the doors open - for some reason it's refusing to do so even though it all appears to be connected as it should be. Also there is an annoying squeak coming from the urethane spring plate bushes which HAS to be rectified for my own sanity.

So what was it like to drive? A dream! It was smooth and comfy. Despite being lowered potholes and lumps in the road didn't seem to bother the car, the steering felt solid, responsive and easy, the engine pulled well and the CSP disc brakes are possibly the best brakes I've had yet - I really can't believe how well it drove first time. And I can't believe that the project is very nearly over.

Don't fret though, I have more plans up my sleeve for the winter and, as I've mentioned before, a bigger engine is going in plus there are still a few minor jobs to finish off once the wedding is out of the way. Ooo and I also have some accessories to look for like a period stereo. I have some plans for that too in the MP3 department!

Previous blog post with interior shots

Now here's a cool idea to get the car of your dreams

We were notified about this site by Steve Spiers, owner and creator of iwantavolkswagenbus.com, after he purchased a few items from our eBay store.
It seems like such a cool idea we thought we'd share it with you.

The idea is simple! Sell pixel space onto advertisers in order to raise funds so Steve can buy the Bus of his dreams.
Each pixel costs a small 20 cents which gets you an image, details and a link to your own site. And from what we can gather your ad will be there for as long as the site is.

Now you might be thinking "yeah ok so I can pay to have a small ad on a site - how is that going to benifeit me?"
Well if you know the internet you will know that the more links you have to your site from another, the better! It increases your Google ranking and gets you better noticed on the internet. Excellent for businesses and companies and it's cheap as chips.

The idea behind this concept was thought up by a dude named Alex Tew who wanted to fund his way through colledge. He set up the "Million Dollar Script" and started selling pixel space off to anyone and anyone for $1 per unit. He made himself known via the media and eventually he sold off all the space and had a million dollars.

So if you want to support Steve in his quest spread the word or even buy a pixel for your own website. You never know, if it works you could do the same!

You can check out Steve's site here: www.iwantavolkswagenbus.com and you can keep tabs on his what he's been up to here: www.iwantavolkswagenbus.com/blog

Good luck Steve! Keep us posted!

We're open for business again!

As some of you will have noticed our eBay shop has been lacking stock of late.
Well now we're back in full swing, our stock room is, erm, stocked and we will be checking eBay everyday to make sure your winning bids are dispatched right away.

If you haven't seen our eBay store it might be worth checking out.
We're currently selling our Keeping Your Bus Alive and Keeping Your Legend Alive magazines as well as the 20 Year special and dash plaques from the VolksWorld Show 2008.

T-shirts will also be available very soon along with any upcoming VolksWorld related merchandise.

So if you haven't done so already, click on over to the VolksWorld eBay shop!

Busy, busy, busy is the best way to describe my latest progress!

Having not had much time to do anything to the car of late, what with Bug Jam and then going on my stag weekend the following week, I decided to book a few days off (hence no blog updates - sorry). The idea was to recover from the messy pre-wedding party and tinker on the Beetle.

Well the weekend was excellent and boy am I glad I took some days holiday after! The thing is, I didn't actually rest! With the end of the project in sight I seem to be picking up the pace - I'm so eager to just get in the car and drive it!

So for the last few days I've been out on the car doing anything and everything I possibly could. And you know what? It's paid off!

In my last blog post I hadn't even fitted the interior but now I'm happy to report that all that is in and I'm pleased with the result.
The front seats are slightly the wrong colour but these will be changed after the wedding for the correct shade of brown.

So what's left to do? Well, finish putting the engine tin on my temporary 1200 engine, bolt on the exhaust, engine in, wire it up, wire in the rear lights, rear valance on, bumpers on, wiper arms on, fuel in, fuel cap on and pray to god that the engine starts and the electrics work.
If all that goes to plan then a quick tune up will no doubt be in order before going for a small spin to test it all works ok and the brakes actually work.

With 23 days left 'till my wedding I think (I hope) that I will be booking the Beetle into the MoT sometime next week!

A few photos from The Bug Jam weekend

Well that's the big one done! And by big we mean BIG. This years Bug Jam had to be the busiest yet!
Right from the off on Friday the fields were filling up super fast. By Saturday morning they were pretty much bursting with the overflow rammed too!

There was lots to see and do such as check out the trade stands, watch the racing, watch the comedy act, listen to live bands and DJ's, go on the fun fair, look at the show cars, watch the moto cross stunt bikes, see Terry Grant doing mad stunts in his New Beetle and Mitsubishi Evo... the list goes on and on.

What a weekend!

As always a full report will be in an issue of VolksWorld very soon but for now we've put up a selection of photos for you to look at. There will be a few more by next week too!

Bug Jam 2008 photos

Some little s**t's broke into the beloved VolksWorld Fridolin!

We got the email at around 11am.

"The lockups have been broken into, number 3 is one of them - there is nothing left inside".

I turned to James "Isn't our's number 3?" I asked, "and isn't the Fridolin in there?"
"I think that's ours" was his reply!

Panic rushed over us. Could the Fridolin really be gone?

We quickly headed over to the lockups to find that three of the 20 odd garages had the doors wide open and the locks cut off with bolt cutters. The first one we saw was totally empty, this didn't look good.

Sure enough number 3 was ours and it had been hit but on swinging the broken door open the big orange vehicle was still sitting there.
A wave of relief put the colour back in the cheeks.
On closer investigation we noticed the offside sliding window had been smashed in and it was obvious they had tried to rip the tachometer off - shame they didn't really as it's pretty naf.

We decided, what with the lockup not able to be locked up and the Frid being insecure, to take it back with us. It became apparent that the would-be thieves had fidled with the ignition too as the key wouldn't go in. After a lot of persuation we got it in and the old girl fired up.

It could've been worse, they could have smashed the front screen which is irreplaceable. At least the sliding window is flat and can get cut.

On a lighter note it seemed a fox cub had set up camp in the lockup and was watching us empty it of our valued parts from behind one of the old seats propped up against the wall. The poor thing was petrified!