The year is 1980, the month is August and I, an impressionable 22 year-old, am off to my very first VW show. My little ’67 1300 Beetle is chugging happily along the A45 towards Stoneleigh and I wave to all the other owners as we congregate upon Action’80, an event I read about in the pages of my favourite VW magazine.

My first memories of VW Motoring were seeing it, sometime during the early 1970’s in the waiting room of my Doctors Surgery. He also bought the occasional VW magazine from the States, but mainly it was good old ‘Safer Motoring’, as it was known in those days, that I used to scan through, as I awaited treatment for some minor ailment which I hoped might keep me away from school for a few days.

I can still remember some of the adverts for those ‘must have’ period accessories, namely a clear plastic shield to ward off flying stones or a plastic bra which fitted on the bonnet and kept it clear of stone chips from surface dressed roads and of course, who can forget the sound of Cartune taper exhaust tips!

Around this time ‘Doc’ bought himself a new Beetle, it was light blue  - but I can’t remember if it was a 1300 or 1500cc model - and he looked really good as he cruised around the local neighbourhood carrying out his daily patient visits.

I’m not sure if seeing this car out and about was the catalyst for the start of my own VW interest, an enthusiasm which at one time saw me owning no less than three Beetles (1967 1300, 1972 1300 and my personal favourite a 1971 1302S - bought with over 150,000 on the clock!), but I think it may have had a lot to do with it.

I passed my driving test in November 1979, a few months after I bought my first car - the 1967 1300 complete with 6 volt electric’s! - and my love of VW’s was off and running.

Before I could actually drive I had been a regular visitor (by bus!) to the Custom and Hot Rod shows which used to take place at Bingley Hall in Birmingham, a venue long since demolished and replaced by Symphony Hall and the ICC complex. 

Once I was mobile and the world was my Oyster, I travelled further afield visiting more motorsport events and even more shows, no longer having to beg favours and lifts with my non-VW owning friends. 

Once a year I would even trundle the 20 miles or so down the A45 to the Royal Agricultural Centre at Soneleigh in Warwickshire for VW Action, which in those days was the biggest show of the year. Looking back, it seemed like such a big deal to travel so far to a show, a distance which these days you would happily travel before breakfast to complete a photo-shoot.

Due to a plastic fetish which I began to develop around this time, I was also visiting the occasional Kit Car show and events organised by the Birmingham Buggy Club. One of my friends ended up buying a Dutton Sierra Estate car (long before Ford used the name), but for me it had to be based on a VW and it had to be air-cooled. Little did I know that it would be another twenty years before I finally bought a Beach Buggy and another ten years before I could get the bloody thing on the road. But what a buggy it is and well worth the wait - I think!  

Back in those days, when I waited with baited breath for the arrival of the latest issue of my favourite magazine, I never dreamt that some 20 years later I would become a regular contributor, writing and photographing cars for that very same publication.

The following selection of unpublished photographs (sorry, still to be added!) were taken during the period 1978 to 1984 and I hope they go some way to show a snapshot – through the eyes of an impressionable 20 to 26 year old -  of what was happening, in and around the VW scene during those halcyon days. Sorry no classic 1950’s Beetles or split screen vans, I hadn’t discovered them yet!

Kit cars were the up and coming thing, with lots of new models being introduced, including the stunning Montage from Alan Arnolds UVA company. Long after the original Buggy bubble burst, the scene was once again coming alive with some stunning machines being built, very much as it is today. The Californian style of customising was beginning to make its mark, with the arrival of the Cal-Look on our shores, whilst the Germans - by now regular visitors to Action - were showing us the start of what has subsequently become known as the German Look with their big engined 1302 / 1303 Beetles. 

Elsewhere the Off Road scene was becoming more popular, BORRA (the British Off Road Racing Organisation) and SCORR (Short Course Off Road Racing) were in their infancy. Big beefy Baja Bugs were being built and the first British Off Road Rails were being assembled. In the water cooled world, the Golf GTI Mk1 was beginning to find new friends in the tuning world and Alan Thomas - of air cooled tuning legends Autocavan - was racing his own car and demonstrating his products, with great success.

Happy days indeed, enjoy!! 

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John Clewer