VWT Lifestyle

Hello, and a warm welcome to the December-January issue of VWt Lifestyle magazine. Personally, I love the Autumn months. They provide the perfect opportunity to get away for a day trip or long weekend, not least because the roads and tourist spots are less crowded than in the peak of summer. Pack a bit of lunch, find an idyllic leafy location and you’re on your way. Now’s also a good time to think about all the jobs you’ve been putting off all summer, like the sketchy bit of bodywork you were going to get sorted, the fridge you wanted to replace or that iffy camping conversion you were going to make just a bit more usable. And if none of that applies, the various roadtrips you’d promised you’d go and…

AT A GLANCE We like the fact Josh mixed things up a bit by picking a ’58 Beetle colour, Kalahari Beige, for his Bus to contrast with a period correct Velvet Green. The result looks stunning! The second largest US state after Alaska, Texas boasts a vibrant VW Bus scene, helped in part by various Volkswagen events such as Dub Splash which typically gathers over 700 vehicles. One of its promoters, Josh Hatton, resides close to Dallas in the city of Joshua, though he called California home until about four years ago. In fact, a large portion of his ’66 Bus’s resurrection, the model featured within these pages, took place while he still lived in Huntington Beach, a well-known Californian coastal community. Josh grew up in rural California, where he…

AT A GLANCE If you’re sold on a T5 but hanker after a bit more space, then a Doubleback has to be the perfect solution, right? Alternatively, buy a Crafter. Trying to find a VW Transporter with a Doubleback conversion is a near-impossible task. Imagine our surprise then, when we heard from Francis Woodcock in Norfolk who allegedly had two! Considering the widely accepted estimate that only six exist, then Francis is sitting on a third of all known Doublebacks. Outrageous! Of course, as soon as we hung up the phone we fired up the VWt Lifestyle gyrocopter and made our way as fast as our blades would spin to go check them out. We’re all about quirky inventions here so it seemed an appropriate mode of transport! As you…

STEVE PYNER’S T5.1 DAY VAN Steve has owned literally hundreds of VWs, which is pretty impressive considering he’s just a regular guy with a single lock-up not a celebrity millionaire. Well, not yet at least, but given his talents for spotting cracking looking vehicles he’s obviously got a talent that could take him anywhere. He bought this eye-popping 2013 Highline a few years ago, the colour and wheel choice being the key elements that made it jump out of the classifieds, and has since added a few subtle modifications himself – including a Day Van interior with static heater, LED lighting, Waeco fridge and split charge system – to get it how he wanted. Says Steve: “The ‘look’, which mainly centres around the suspension and wheels was down to its…

Le Bug Show is one of the biggest VW shows in Europe, if not the world. Held at the legendary Spa Francorchamps F1 circuit in Belgium, it has been labelled by some as ‘the greatest VW show on Earth’, and for good reason. If you’ve never been before, this event should be on your VW bucket list and each year we see more and more visitors from further afield – in fact, we’re informed there were participants from more than 30 countries at this year’s gathering. Now, we should point out that this is very much an air-cooled meet – in fact, you can only access the main show arena in an air-cooled VW (or by foot, of course). But, if you don’t have an air-cooled, then don’t be disheartened,…

AT A GLANCE Having realised he’d probably bought a pup, Lee could have taken an easy out. But he didn’t, he perservered and ended up with a show winner. Chapeau! We’ve all done it. Bought a project that, in pictures at least, looks to be a straightforward build, but then turns into anything but. When chatting to Lee Masters, we both agreed that it’s easy to look at pictures of a car advertised and to build those pictures into something in our minds that isn’t really there, and this truck was one of those stories. So let’s start at the beginning. Lee has been into VWs for a long time, but he took a bit of a break for a few years. He works as a commercial insurance broker and…