Merry Christmas

 

Coming up...

It's cold, wet and miserable outside and the clocks have gone back - it can only mean one thing: winter's here! To help prepare for the long dark months there is a choice of events next weekend to finish the show season off:

Slough VW Swap Meet

The traditional season closer, held at Montem Sports Centre. Not the jam packed crush it used to be but still a useful place to find parts and touch base.

Tickets are £4 (probably)

Sat Nav: SL1 2QG


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If you're feeling keen there is a cruise to the Swap Meet from Beaconsfield Services (M40 junction2). Meeting from 7.45am (WHAT?!) and leaving sometime after 8.00am for a 5 mile trundle.

If you're feeling a bit Northern and can't face travelling to a soft, shandy drinking southern swap meet then there is:

Dubfreeze Two

A new event to close the year from the organisers of the season opener featuring indoor Traders' Halls, free Autojumble plots and vehicle sales area, as well as stupidly expensive bad food.

Gates open 2pm on Saturday is you're silly enough to camp (n.b. gates close at 10pm)

Show opens 9am Sunday


Tickets
Entry: £10 each
Camping: £5 per vehicle



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Saturday evening features a cruise out to a local firework display (tickets: £6 adults, £2 kids)

The End Is Nigh!

News from the Sao Paolo motorshow is that the Type 2 will end production at the end of next year, after a mere 63 years, a victim of new safety legislation coming into effect in January 2014 which requires new vehicles to have ABS and Airbags.

Full story at Autocar

Bug Jam - As Seen On TV

Santa Pod has uploaded its Bug Jam coverage, in 2 parts, onto YouTube

Part 1


Part 2

Volksworld 25th Anniversary ptII

These 2 videos have been uploaded via Facebook. The first is a time lapse video of all the cars and vans driving onto the circuit, the second is footage of the lap of Brands.

Video 1

Tim is at the very beginning, ginga is at 1' 58" and Alex is at 2'16"

 

Video 2

The evening will be featured in the December 2012 issue of Volksworld with pull out poster of the track parade.

Prescott Autumn Classic

Next weekend, October 6th & 7th, is the second Autumn Classic at the Prescott Speed Hill Climb, near Cheltenham.

Prescott Hill Climb is one of the world's most prestigious motor racing venues and has been home to top flight motor racing as well as vintage and classic meetings for cars and bikes for almost 80 years. Set in 60 acres of glorious Cotswold countryside, the estate not only provides a beautiful setting for a range of classic car and bike weekends, but also hosts major motor racing championships.

The Paddock will be buzzing with hot rockin' music from The Bravo Boys, show cars, and high octane entertainment. Special performances include stilt walkers, cheerleaders, vegas showgirls and the legendary Demon Drome Wall of Death motorcycle show (the oldest wall of death in existance). The Demon Drome use original 1920's Indian Motorcycles as they perform death defying tricks and stunts on a vertical raceway just inches from your eyes.

Other attractions: Saturday: Bugatti Owners Club, Austin Healey Sport Speed Championship, Midland Automobile Club, Porsche Club GB, Scimitar and Sabre Speed Championship

Sunday: Bugatti Owners', Vintage Sports Car Club, 500 Owners Association, Austin Healey Club, Aston Martins Owners Club, HSCC, Historic BMW, Historic AM, MGCC, TVR Club, Morgan Sports Cars ‘Techniques’ Speed Championship. The Revington TR Register Speed and Paul Matty Sportscars Classic Championships.

End of Season American-themed Party at the Clubhouse on Saturday evening featuring 1950's Jukebox favorites.

The 1127 yard course rises over 200 feet via short straights, fast and slow corners and a breathtaking hairpin, with the fastest modern racing cars completing the course in an exciting 36 seconds.

The action can be viewed from strategic points along the course as well as from the restaurant terrace. Visitors and competitors alike can enjoy an exhilarating days racing plus vintage cavalcades up the Hill.

Some pics from last year's event:

 

Proper vintage lunacy

...the size of Space Hoppers

Penske Indy car did demo runs up the hill

The hill in the sun

Views across the Vale

In the car park

Lovely vintage teardrop caravan

Tickets: £18 for Saturday and £18 Sunday (Advance tickets are currently on sale in the online shop priced £15)

tickets are per person, under 14 yrs are free

Camping is available at £5 per person per night payable on the day.

Gates open 9am - Car park opens 8.30am

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Elsewhere...

To prove we're not alone in taking on projects that defy explanation or rationality I give you a Maserati Ghibli and a Citroen 2CV.

The Tea Strainer Maserati is from 1969 and has been a project for 9 years, so the initial stages are nearly over. Starting point doesn't look too bad.

Oh, brazed repairs under copious kilogrammes of filler.

Full build thread on PistonHeads

Meanwhile, on The HAMB a chap called Mika is sledding a 2CV. Not your obvious choice but then he is French.

The starting point

First, a new chassis

body on frame = 5" channel

And now the bead rolling...

...and a roof chop

Full build thread on The HAMB

Action Action

A few pics from the VW Action weekend

Big queues in the fire up lane due to some banana spreading his gearbox down the full length of the strip

Alex was unable to set a new PB despite some emergency weight loss

 

After a series of 11.0 sec runs Danny Pike was after a 10
and cracked it with a 10.79
Good enough for a VW Action Top 10

Tony Chamberlain needed to go under 18 seconds to qualify for BWA - Simples!

It wouldn't be Santa Pod if Cris didn't fix something with Boj Tape

Special mention for Toby who managed to drive to t'Pod without breaking down