OTAGO VOLKSWAGEN ENTHUSIASTS CLUB

OTAGO VOLKSWAGEN
ENTHUSIASTS CLUB

NEWSLETTER
April 2010
THE ROAD TO THE NATIONALS

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THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Hi every one and welcome to this special 2010 Volkswagen Nationals edition of our OVWEC
magazine. Many of our club members are heading to Nelson for this year’s event, which
was last held at this venue in 2002. Many of those who attended will remember the haul of
prizes we extracted that year and which now sit pride of place in our homes. Let’s repeat
what we did in 2002!!

Our esteemed sectary and editor “Mr Jim” has requested that all attendees provide your
travel plans so that we can be aware of those travelling on the same day and also to
provide breakdown support, (breakdown support in a VW I hear you cry!?) these plans are
included in the following pages.

For those spending Easter at home or somewhere other than Nelson, I bring your attention
to our club event on the Saturday 10th, when we are hosting the “Type 2 Tour” BBQ at
Dunedin Holiday Park in Victoria Road, starting at 6.00pm where we will play host to 90
individuals travelling the south island on the 60th anniversary of the type 2. I encourage all
of you to come along for a sausy or three and a look at over 60 individual humble “kombis”,
many from the far reaches of the north. For catering purposes please email Jim by Monday
29th March if you would like to attend this event. Thanks go to those who will assist with
cooking and clean up.

So enjoy this special edition, stock up on the chocolate, fuel up the VW and see you all in
Nelson or on the 10th of April at Dunedin Holiday Park.

Dean Driver
President – Otago VW Enthusiasts Club, Inc

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THE SMALL PRINT
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Club Officials :

Patron Ken Berry

President Dean Driver
Secretary/Editor Jim Young
Treasurer Chris Timms

Address PO Box 7101 Mornington, Dunedin The Otago Volkswagen Enthusiasts

Email contact@vwotago.co.nz Club Inc meet on the first
Tuesday of each month at 7.30pm at
Website www.vwotago.co.nz Robbie’s Bar & Bistro, South Dunedin
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As officials of the Club our first duty is to the members and that means organising things that you want to do,
and being a focus for any requests, queries or suggestions you might have.

If there are any activities or events that you would like to suggest, items for the newsletter you might have, or
if you cannot attend the monthly meetings, please contact Jim Young directly as follows :

Telephone 03 455 8729

Post PO Box 7101, Mornington, Dunedin
Email j.young@rawlinsons.co.nz

VW NATIONALS – NELSON 2010

Well this is it, Volks, the event we’ve all

been waiting and preparing for. All those
months (and years!) of building, re-
building, modifying, testing, polishing and
detailing – have you finished it now? Will it
get you there? Will it wow the crowds? Will
it get you a trophy? Or maybe you’re just
going for the relaxing atmosphere, to kick
back in sunny Nelson and enjoy some
good down-to-earth Volkswagen
camaraderie, or some beautiful scenery on
the trip there and back, without having to
worry about whether you torqued those
con-rod bolts down tight enough!

There’s quite a crowd of us making our

way up there during the days before the
event, but here’s who you can expect to
see either en route or from registration
onwards :

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2010 VW NATIONALS – CLUB ATTENDEES AND TRAVEL
Wed 31 Mar Thu 01 April via Fri 02 April via Mon 05 April

Paul & Cathy Andresen 1300 Beetle Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - ChCh
Bruce & Richelle Adams 1302S Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - ChCh
Chris & Pam Timms 1302S Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - W Coast
Jim & Elaine Young 1500 Beetle Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - W Coast
Marty van Elst Nana Beetle Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - ??
Clare Madden Nana Beetle Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - ??
Rory O’Brien & Clare Fitzpatrick 1300 Beetle Dn - ChCh Geraldine ChCh - Nel Inland Nel - ChCh
Martin & Hazel van Raalte Bay Kombi Dn - ChCh ?? ChCh - Nel Kaik Nel - Temuka
Bill Bell & Pat Harrison 1500 Beetle Dn - ChCh ?? ChCh - Nel ?? Nel - ??
Don & April Woodward VW T25 Dn - ChCh ?? ChCh - Nel ?? Nel - ??
Shane Plusa 1302S Dn - ChCh - ChCh - Nel ?? Nel - ChCh
Ken & Margaret Berry Caravelle Dn - ChCh ChCh - Kaik - Kaik - Nel ?? Nel - Hanmer
Erana Plusa 1302LS Dn - ChCh ChCh - ChCh - Nel ?? Nel - ChCh
Grant Patrick & Daphne Finnie Vento Dn - Kaik Kaikoura - Nel - Nel - Nel - Hanmer
Dean and June Driver 1303 Cabrio Dn - ChCh ChCh - Nel - Nel - Nel - Hanmer
Adam Harvey 62 Pick-up Dn - Nel - Nel - Dn
Marie Lloyd Golf Cabrio ChCh - Nel ?? Nel - ??

60yr Commemorative Type 2 Tour South Island New Zealand April, 2010
The VW trip of a life-time with the love of your life

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WHAT IS BULLI STRASSE? Words and pics Jim Young

It was with some considerable trepidation that I stood in a dark alley way one drizzly night
in South Dunedin, waiting for my “contact” to show. A few brief hours ago I’d been
introduced to someone who finally admitted to knowing at least some details of an alleged
treasure trove of VW artefacts hidden in a remote location somewhere in Otago….

Month’s ago I’d heard mention, in hushed whispers, of a mythical and secret place called
“Bulli Strasse”, rumoured to be the resting place of a vast and priceless treasure in historical
VW antiquities, but whenever I probed local VW experts for details they either quickly
changed the subject or dismissed the notion as being pure fantasy. I’d almost reached the
point of abandoning any hope of ever grasping this thin and whispy veil of conjecture and
having it solidify into reality, when by chance, through an entirely separate search for some
almost equally as elusive Type 3 VW brake parts, I met a man on a similar Type 3 quest who
claimed he could get me “in”.

I didn’t hesitate. I quickly agreed to the arrangements and rendezvous, and only now,
leaning under the feeble glow of a downtown street lamp, were the potential dangers of
this situation dawning on me. Was it a trap? Had my contact staged our meeting so he
could draw me to a lonely and un-witnessed end? Had I been identified as a potential
threat by the dark and mysterious keepers of the place I sought? Had I got too close to the
truth? Was I being tested in order to prove my worth? The possibilities were endless!

“Get in!” During my reveries I had failed to notice a large, dark coloured people carrier pull
silently alongside where I stood. I was being beckoned into the rear seating area by its
driver, a large man whose identity I couldn’t quite make out in the gloom of the interior. I
swallowed hard and opened the door….

Once inside there were no interior lights, and again I was having difficulty making out the
form of the man sitting across from me. “The first rule of Bulli Strasse is, you do not talk
about Bulli Strasse”, the shape before me growled. “The second rule of Bulli Strasse is, you
do NOT talk about Bulli Strasse!”. He was definitely trying to make some kind of point
here…. “Put this on”, he snapped, and held out some sort of small woollen garment. It was a
ski mask, and as I reluctantly pulled it on I realised the eye holes had been sewn shut….

Dark silence was to be my only companion during the seemingly endless journey which
followed. I imagine some long and circuitous route had been planned, allowing me no hope
of ever re-tracing it again. Little did they know that they could have achieved exactly the
same result by leaving the ski mask off and simply heading away from State Highway 1 for a
few miles, such is the appalling state of my own sense of direction. In any case, one thing
was sure – I wouldn’t be making this trip a second time.

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Eventually I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness as the hours passed, until I
was suddenly awoken by a judder which shook the whole of the vehicle I was in. “Bloody
speed humps!”, I heard the driver remark, and as I looked round I realised that dawn had
broken and the ski mask was gone. We had arrived - there was the AA road sign which
proudly declared “Bulli Strasse”, and we were greeted by the most hospitable and friendly
hosts you could imagine, given cups of tea and biscuits and shown round, with great
enthusiasm, what is indeed a most bewildering collection of VW vehicles, parts, projects and
paraphernalia.

Is that a split window van being used as a chicken coop, with those little black hens laying
their little blue eggs in it? Is that really a razor-edge Karman Ghia at the back of that shed,
looking dusty but complete and rust-free? Is that a Type 3 Notchback sitting next to it in
similar condition and wearing Porsche Cookie Cutters, and a factory built wide-deck split
window Type 2 pick-up? A daily-driven Type 4 estate? One Caravelle, two, three? An old air-
cooled Chevrolet Corvair, split screen and bay window kombis sitting in that field? A
gleaming mint condition early Bay micro bus, sitting next to a similarly shiny Type 3 Variant?
Each paddock we passed, and each shed door that opened seemed full to bursting with
rare and desirable VW parts and vehicles! Look at all those Kombi models! Incredible!

The hours past like a blur, and later there was more tea and biscuits on the patio. It was
getting late now, and almost time to go, and I could feel the fatigue caused by the long
journey and excitement weighing down on me. I could barely keep my eyes open. Wait a
minute, something’s wrong! That last cup of tea, what had been in it? I looked up and saw
blurry faces swimming in front of me, and as I tried to get up, dizziness overcame me. And
then darkness descended like a club….

When I came to I found myself sitting at that small table outside the back door of Robbie’s
Bar in South Dunedin, you know, the little spot there outside for the smokers, with the
garden furniture and planter boxes? It was as if I’d been there the whole time and that this
had all been some kind of Speights-induced dream. I looked up and Ken Berry was
standing in front of me, the sun behind him forming a dazzling halo around his head, and I
had to squint to make him out properly. “Hey Mr Jim, where have you been? You look like
you’ve had an adventure!”

Yeah, I thought, but who’s going to believe me? Wait! My camera! I looked down at the
table and there it was! Could the memory card still be intact? I quickly checked and it was
still there in its slot. Then I saw, sitting next to where the camera had been, an egg box. I
hadn’t noticed it before. I carefully opened it, and inside the egg box were a dozen little
blue eggs, laid by little black hens, in the back of a rusty old VW van, still with bits of feather
and straw stuck to them. And that shade of blue suddenly looked very familiar to me. Could
it be the same as L31 Dove blue, the shade of blue used most often on early VW Type 2
commercials? Nah, it couldn’t be………….. could it?

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COMPETITION – SPOT THE DELIBERATE MISTAKES

This highly desirable Beetle convertible is

currently for sale on Trade Me, and someone
has taken the sensible precaution of adding
both an oil filter and an oil cooler to their
performance engine set up.

Would anyone like to suggest how this

installation could be improved upon to even
further increase the engines longevity? A
chocolate fish for the longest list….

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READERS’ RIDES – ERNIE RIDES AGAIN! Words and pics Rory O’Brien

After bodywork, paint and general reassemblage, the final stage of Ernie’s restoration was
an interior freshen up and general faffing about. The original headliner was thankfully
almost perfect and the vinyl around the cabin mostly ok, if a little grubby in places, so we
left all of that untouched.

The carpet pieces and rubber floormats however were really showing their 45 years of wear
and tear, mostly tear, and needed to go. In the absence of any decent reproduction
floormats for RHD vehicles, we decided to carpet throughout instead; this job was entrusted
to Warwicks Auto Interiors on Wynyard St. Warwick did a superb job here including nice,
original looking cloth bindings around the individual carpet pieces and openings.

Our original seats were also showing the signs of having valiantly upheld the buttocks of 45
years worth of occupants going about their travels and benefited from some attention. The
seat frames were blasted and repainted in some colour matched L466 silver beige enamel
(Rainbow Paints on Ward St did an excellent job matching this. Tip – get more made up
than you think you’ll need!!!) and again Warwick’s skills were called upon to fix up the
frames where a couple of welds had let go and to shore up the original coconut fibre seat
pads. A pair of natty vinyl covers (which almost, but not quite, matched the rear seat)
topped off the seat refurb and they came out looking well. And comfy too!

At this stage we were able to get something of a feel for what driving a new Beetle out of
the showroom must have been like back in the day, with bouncy seat springs and heady
smells of vinyl, latex and carpet glue.

One final indulgence was the application of poor-man’s whitewall tyres. Dave from
whitewalltyres.co.nz by chance happened to be in the neighbourhood and called around
with his marvelous, travelling whitewalling contraption to do the necessary. An hour later
and Ernie was sporting spats and, with that, the job’s a good ‘un.

Many thanks to everyone who helped out with advice, with parts, with tools and on
occasion with muscle; Ern’ appreciates your efforts. Anyone selling a Kombi?

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披 CAPTION COMPETITION

Can anyone suggest what the

driver, passenger – or elephant –
might be saying in this picture,
sent in by John Noble.

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VW ODDITIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

More weird, wonderful, or downright twisted creations from the wonderful world of
Volkswagen, once again courtesy of Club member and expert internet surfer Elaine Young.

Cool roof-chopped and shortened 21 window 斐

Imagine the work that went into that!!

A pair of wanna-be Rolls Royce bugs – some people clearly have nothing better to do…

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VOLKSWAGEN NEWS Article sent in by Elaine Young

Rumours abound about the more masculine next-generation VW Beetle, which may not even be
called a Beetle. Volkswagen is set to drop the cutesy retro-infused image of its struggling New
Beetle and instead adopt a more modern design aimed at targeting the car's greatest challenger,
the super successful Mini.

The 2005 Volkswagen Ragster concept could hold some of the secrets behind the next-generation
New Beetle, which is set to be unveiled later this year before going on sale in 2011.

Reports quoting a Volkswagen insider claim the Beetle will drop its bubble-top look in order to
appeal to a broader audience. Autocar magazine quotes the person close to the project as saying
that lovers of the current Beetle won't be turned away by the next incarnation of the car.

"The design will change slightly but there won't be anything too surprising," the source told the
magazine.

According to the report, Volkswagen will focus less on retro-styling and more on the performance
and driving dynamics of the New Beetle - which is a good thing, because the current model has
aged. Fast.

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VINTAGE VW ADVERTISING

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