HR Autoworks X DKG Aircooled Show 2021
1st August 2021
You don’t get much for free these days, so when a new, free, car show appears on the scene, aimed at vintage Volkswagens it has to be checked out.
Menu
You don’t get much for free these days, so when a new, free, car show appears on the scene, aimed at vintage Volkswagens it has to be checked out.
When a friend mentions they’ve had a new set of tyres fitted for an upcoming track day, it’s only natural to ask where, when and can I come take some photographs, isn’t it? When that friend is Charles Evans and the location is Goodwood Motor Circuit, you know it’s going to be a fun day.
The Shere Hill Climb has become an established part of the motoring social calendar but remains relatively small. Knowing little about the event, I took a chance and headed over to the Surrey hills.
Get up early on Sunday mornings, and a whole host of adventures are waiting for you. This week, I headed over to Essex with some of the Porsche GB crew for a gentle drive.
Another Sunday and another breakfast meet-up. This was my first time attending Squadron Scramble Cars & Coffee at North Weald Airfield, over in Essex. I think I spent almost as long driving around the airfield perimeter road as I did driving from Kent. I hadn’t appreciated how expansive North Weald is on previous visits for drag racing events.
Our last chance of the year to visit this wonderful location. It’s a great drive over to Oxfordshire, if you ignore the M25 that is.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a bush or have zero interest in Porsches you cannot have missed the fact that year has been a notable one for the German car marque. Porsche have done a great job of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first Porsche sports car, built in 1948.
This year summer has delivered us weeks of sunshine and heat, you could be forgiven for thinking we were in California. Why then, on the day the Luftgekühlt crew put on their inaugural event outside of LA, does the weather let us down with epic rainfall?
Returning for the second year, Deutsche Fest aimed to celebrate all German manufactured vehicles. This year though, they had teamed up with Heritage Parts Centre to bring us a whole weekend of activities. Saturday featured the Heritage takeover – a full track day for German cars only, plus displays and evening entertainment. With Sunday came a full race line-up, club displays, and Deutsche Fest Awards. All the ingredients were there for a perfect weekend – cars, clubs, racing and an amazing venue, but something seemed to be lacking this year. I know first hand that it takes a lot to put on a car show, and it’s even more effort if you include racing of any kind, I take my hat off to the Deutsche Fest team for putting in so much effort. There wasn’t anything wrong, I really don’t have a bad word to say, I just wasn’t feeling it this year and it probably shows in my photos. I’m sure next year will be awesome, if you like German cars then make sure you visit and support the Deutsche Fest team.
Bank Holiday Monday and another 911UK drive down to Rye for breakfast. We knew the roads wouldn’t be quiet as the early May bank holiday is synonymous with the Mayday Run which sees 1,000’s of biker make the run down the A21 to Hastings. The sheer number of bikes is always an impressive sight, but we decided to meet up earlier than usual to get a head start on our journey down to the south coast.
Beautiful weather teased out quite a few people for the May edition of Exclusively Porsche, which meant it was going to be a busy meet-up. I arrived a little late and was greeted by a throng of stunning Porsche’s and a few other classics for added interest. From Simon Moore’s beautiful 356 coupé, Toby’s 912 and a few 718’s representing the flat 4’s and various air-cooled 911’s plus a brace of watercoolers representing the flat 6’s – there really was something for everyone. It was also nice to see some other classics joining in the summer sun, such as the wonderful Triumph Herald and Paul Campbell’s 1953 VW ‘Zwitter’.
We were blessed with glorious sun for this months 911UK Kent breakfast meet at the Toby Carvery, Badger Mount. Given that it was the same day as Bister Heritage Sunday Scramble there was still a great turn out. While most were water-cooled later models, two guards red 80’s air-cooled 911’s graced the car park with their presence – one of which was still driven by the original owner. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to chat with him, but I’ll try and catch him at another event. Once again I found this group super friendly, welcoming and I left having made more new friends.
The third Sunday of the month means it’s time for a little jaunt over to East London’s Fish Island for Porsche Club GB’s R20 ‘Out East Porsche Meet’. This time Max and I hooked up with some Ding Dong Kinky Disciples in Chislehurst for pre-breakfast coffees and to cruise on over to the north side of the river – it’s safer for us south-Londoners to travel together. As the others left our meeting point I was held up at traffic lights, so decided to take a shortcut, hoping to catch them further up the A20. My shortcut must have been a good one as I arrived over at Beachy Road, E3 2NS a good 5 minutes before them.
