Ninove… it’s been a blast

Worth an early start

up early and grabbing a prime parking spot in Ninove for the day certainly pays off when you can bask in the afternoon sunshine and watch the air-cooled world pass you by over a spot of lunch… when I say lunch, I mean a delicious Belgian waffle covered in white and dark chocolate! Hmmmm Belgian chocolate! 🙂

Nº52 - the early bird catches a good parking spot
Nº52 – the early bird catches a good parking spot

The great thing about the air-cooled VW takeover of Ninove for the day is that there are just so many streets and side streets that have great VW’s to discover. It’s also a great way to try to work off the waffle!

slammed and tough looking panel van
slammed and tough-looking panel van

The streets of Ninove soon fill up with a huge array of air-cooled rides of all descriptions and types. Great to see this beautiful Type 34 ‘Razoredge’ Karmann Ghia a really classy looking car!

stunning Type 34 Razor Edge Karmann Ghia
stunning Type 34 Razor Edge Karmann Ghia

Kool Kemperink

Not often you get to see the large ‘Kemperink’ style conversion on split-screen buses, especially in such great condition as this! With a rear interior of this size you really would have a fantastic camper with plenty of headroom as well.

superb condition split screen Kemperlink conversion
superb condition split-screen Kemperlink conversion

Good to see a few of the earlier ‘Barndoor’ split-screen buses out on the streets, some with modern twists like this one with its chrome ‘Hurst’ front bumper and detailed Porsche Fuchs… at this rate, there will be more Porsche Fuchs on vintage VW’s than on Porsche cars!

split screen Barndoor bus with all the trimmings
split screen Barndoor bus with all the trimmings

Loved this survivor looking Type 3 squareback, great stance and nicely detailed throughout, very nice! Bonus point if you know what the wheels are…

beautifully aged Type 3 squareback
beautifully aged Type 3 squareback

Speed Beetle

From stock to full-on drag racing, like the amazing amount of automotive engineering that must have gone into producing the stunning ‘Mister T’ race car. You would not want to be racing this beast of a bug at the lights!

Mister T – shiny and fast race car mode
Mister T – shiny and fast race car mode

This would I’m sure make one hell of a noise when you started it up and let rip!

Mister T – some serious automotive engineering going on out back
Mister T – some serious automotive engineering going on out back

Awesome air-cooled combo

In terms of classic cool, however, you would be hard-pressed to top this gorgeous looking split-window ragtop bug and Westfalia trailer combo, this really is travelling in vintage style! 🙂

does it get any cooler than this split window ragtop bug and Westfalia trailer combo
does it get any cooler than this split-window ragtop bug and Westfalia trailer combo

Another tough looking badass barndoor bus, very understated with an unusual roof rack that appears to be welded into the roof, plus a very cool interior design.

one badass looking Barndoor split screen bus
one badass looking Barndoor split screen bus

The understated Barndoor exterior was complimented really nicely by this neat interior utilising some very cool looking aluminium units… apologies for the poor pic, bad reflections on whatever angle I tried! 🙁

interesting interior design with cool aluminium units
interesting interior design with cool aluminium units

Air-cooled details

Some VW’s have the quirkiest little details, like these rare and limited production run, ‘Crotch cooler’ vents on this very original looking split-window ragtop Beetle. An early form of air conditioning VW style. Sometimes it really is all in the details!

distinctive ‘Crotch cooler’ detail on split window ragtop Beetle
distinctive ‘Crotch cooler’ detail on split window ragtop Beetle

Some more interesting roof rack cars on display, this one looked like it was ready to be entered in the Concours d’elegance!

another cool roofrack classic car
another cool roof rack classic car

Better than new

Amongst all the original paint survivor buses and bugs, there were still plenty of restored and shiny examples of air-cooled vehicles. It’s good that there is such a variety in the vintage VW following.

sweet looking ragtop bug on detailed Porsche fuches
sweet looking ragtop bug on detailed Porsche Fuchs

More interesting accessory details. This cool Beetle bonnet decorative accessory had a definite hint of fifties ‘Americana’ about it.

hint of ‘Americana’ with this cool Beetle decorative accessory
a hint of ‘Americana’ with this cool Beetle decorative accessory

After all of our wandering around the streets and side streets of Ninove to take in as much of the Freddy Files event as possible, we wearily made our way back to our buses for a late afternoon final brew up and bite to eat before we hit the road back to Calais again. Gez introduced me to the idea of going for some big chunky 215/75-15 BF Goodrich All-Terrain tyres, and I failed to convince them that ragtop Beetles were better than convertible Beetles, but apart from that, a great time was had by all! 🙂

sun going down on another great Freddy Files show in Ninove
sun going down on another great Freddy Files show in Ninove

An amazing air-cooled show

So time to fill up with petrol and make our way back to blighty as the sun began to slowly set. The late afternoon sun and 20ºc+ temp made for a great drive back… windows open, shades on 🙂 Have to say, it was good to confront my earlier fears, and even better that the 342-mile round trip, other than an indicator bulb connection, went off without a hitch!

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