Tempest

Scirocco buyer´s guide had similar mistakes, so hey ho to the mag. Ay least a mag that still mentions our cars :) Tempest

Ah yes, those chaps that made the Beetle, nearly went bankrupt end of the 60s, as they had missed the boat, took over AUDI for their much superior tech, which of course they still use today. VW and tech? Nah, forget it :lol: Tempest

That is in effect already here and now within all EU countries.Been decided on last year October, came into force this year October (or thereabouts). For example: Park in the wrong location in the UK in a car with a German license plate, and the ticket is sent to the German authorities. The German authorities then enforce this ticket the same they would, had the offense occurred in Germany. Tempest

Volkswagens, what´s one of those? :lol: Tempest

As already mentioned to some, I am eternally grateful to the chaps in a Jaguar some years ago, that slowly pulled up behind me on the 3-lane A46 just outside Coventry, when I was having a little bit of admittedly illegal fun in my Mk1 Rocco, I was doing 110 mph. I backed off to more sensible speeds thinking I´ll let the Jag pass, only to then discover the then very scary letters P-O-L-I-C-E written along the side of said Jag :shock: The chaps looked at me, drove ahead of me till the M40, then turned off onto the M40, allowing me to mind my own business, without pulling me :shock: Eternally grateful! Result? You never forget such an incident, and I humbly believe that such tactics work much better than when the law is enforced with a sledge hammer, which usually results in much hatred in said forces of the law, and most likely repeat offences (if caught, of course). I for one have not been breaking the speed limit since, as I have had my 1st life that day. Unlike cats, mankind only really has 1 life. :) Tempest

Suggestion for next year´s card, then, Schteve? :lol: Mine arrived yesterday, just after Chris and me had seen one in the flesh at Wendy´s place the day before. It shows a very good aspect of so many aspects of our cars: Use in any condition :D We can see enough of the show&shiners at shows etc., so this Rado pic is different for a change :D Tempest

Thanks everyone for turning up to this IMHO great event, and big thanks to Jim´s other half for actually coming up with the idea of us all going on the carousel, which us blokes would have probably never done otherwise! :lol: More worrying was Jochen´s aim of his camera directly at the horse´s a**e in front of him, assuring me he was pointing the camera at himself :lol: Indeed, was one of my very few better ideas :lol: Never! I didn´t do what we once did in my student days to one of my mates back then: Add 50% rum to each of his cups of mulled wine, and the chap didn´t notice it till the morning after :lol: Indeed, would be great to have you and Judtih down here for one of these visits, cost-effective hotel in Coventry, and voila, sorted :D Chris, Jochen and me stayed till we got kicked out, well the stalls simply closed up around us :lol: . That was at about 22:00! Time just flew by :shock: :D Tempest

If they manage to last that long, the MK4, 5, 6 7, 8 et al Golfs that is. In 15 years time, no-one will be able to fix any electronic probs any more, as it´ll all be totally outdated, no new software available to fix, etc. New Roc blows piston #3 ? :nuts: The oldest ones are barely 3 years old :shock: . Ah, good chances at Stanford Hall then with a certain Mk2 Storm Roc :lol: Tempest

Promo video :D Not featuring any of us, though, sow ill have to complain :lol: Tempest

Ah, the joys of a bit of bodyshop prepping :D Mind you, I suppose it´s time to take a few snaps of the state my Mk1 is in, as I´m in the process of changing front wheel bearings. Makes for a fulfilled day, doesn´t it, when you´ve done some car tinkering :clap: Tempest

Right, just got back after I scouted out the market with a German mate of mine. Yes, same set-up as in previous years: German part of the market occupying all of Victoria Square (including stand with the singing moose :lol: ), stretching all along New Street right up to the Pallisades Shopping Centre entrance almost, square behind the public library occupied by the English Xmas market (markedly quieter than the German section, where the beer is available :lol: ). Had a few already, yup, nice :D The knoblaunch, erm Konblauch stand selling garlic baguettes is also where it always is, now with an English flag on the top of the stand :( Rather have the German one :D Tempest

That´s why I have chosen a Saturday, since that offers plenty of (late) Christmas present shopping opportunities :shock: :lol: . The Bullring shopping centre featuring Selfridges is literally just around the corner. Brum has a very compact city centre, so everything is within walking distance of the main train station. The Xmas market itself also features loads of handicraft and gift stalls to buy stuff from, or just simply take it all in, the atmosphere, the smells, food. May move towards the English side of the market this year, too. which is located on the other side of the Birmingham public library, leading up to the Symphony Hall / conference buildings. Time generally tends to fly once you´re in the m,iddle of it all :D May scout it out today, first day of the market (what a lousy excuse to not do some necessary work on my Mk1 Rocco :lol: ) Tempest

For those wanting to join a little team of hearty folk from Coventry, said folks are leaving Coventry train station with 12:22 train to Birmingham New Street, to arrive at 12:48, enough time to leave the station and get to the meeting-point by 13:00 :D Tempest

Just checked the dates for the German Christmas Market in Birmingham for a nice show season finale: Thursday 18 November – Thursday 23 December 2010 Meet date: Saturday 11th December 2010 Usual proceeding: meet at around 13:00 at the bottom of the fountain stairs on Victoria Square, the main square in front of the Council house in the heart of Birmingham, less than a 10-minute walk from Birmingham New Street train station (the main tratin station). Travel by train encouraged as parking in Birmingham can be a nightmare and expensive, plus it would limit the enjoyment of mulled wine :laugh: New Street has a rear entrance, directly leading onto Pinfold Street, which leads directly to Victoria Square, where you literally walk into the fountain (not falling in, of course) :) Little map: Tempest

That's certainly how I got my Mk1 repaired a few years ago. Sent in 3 or 4 quotes, got approved, received cheque and paid repairer myself. Tempest

Any news, Paul? So hope all the horror scenarios sketched here won´t unfold. Tempest

Pretty hard, as the majority were 40mm. Tempest

Indeed, as Chris and Yan have said: You have the right to choose your repairer, there is no law forcing you to use the insurer´s approved garage (usually they do a crap job anyway, as all those companies are interested in is get the car repaired as quickly as possible, so the normal shopping trolley driving punter in a Focus has his/her Focus back for daily use as soon as possible, so quality suffers as a result, but no-one including the shopping trolley driving Focus owner cares, as long as they have their car back; sad but true). Tempest

:lol: Asking for trouble, though, Kip :lol: Was great to see everyone last night :clap: Good luck with the rest of the claim. Tempest

Just had a PM from Judith on the CCGB forum, so here I am to give you a manly hug to make the experience easier to cope with, I hope. Since I only too well can still remember when I was rear-ended more than 6 years ago in my beloved Mk1 Rocco (could still today kill the bloke who did that :mad2: !). Fortunately I had a witness 2 cars behind me, as we were all leaving a show. Fortunately also the police were approaching on the opposite lane, who immedtaiely took statements from all parties involved and pics. I decided to claim from my own insurance straight away, as I had just renewed, so by the time the renewal was up again, they would have reclaimed the cost from the opponent´s insurance. It all went rather quiickly, I have to admit, got my Mk1 repaired to my exacting standards within 4 weeks. That was. however, thanks to serious hassling of the insurers: Daily emails, faxes, recorded deliveried letters, telephone calls, and rejecting the assessor´s initial verdict (calling him a w*nker, when he said something like the very expensive custom-made rear Rieger skirt was nothing more than a Mondeo plastic bumper!! That just proved to me that this assessor didn´t have a frigging clue about modded cars, which is what my insurance company claimed to specialise in!). Anyway, don´t give up fighting! Tedious but only way to get anything done quickly. Then I read about your neck etc stiffening up. Alarm bells time!!! Paul, serious, get yourself to a doctor tomorrow, A&E actually. When I was rear-ended, friends of mine immediately upon arrival back home (me in tears looking at my wounded Mk1 Rocco of course, so can wholly feel for you), took me to my local A&E to get my neck and back checked over, next morning to my GP, followed by a visit to my local police station, where I described the accident both material and body harm aspects. Then keep track of how much time off work you may have to spend, costs for envelopes, telephone calls etc. any extra costs due to this accident, that you would otherwise would not have had to incurr. Claim everything back! That stupid c*w should not have hit you, in case you feel bad about doing all this. 2 months after my Rocco was repaired my insurers came back to me saying I had mentioned at the time that I had a sore neck (which did get worse after 1 night sleep, morning after at GP it did ache quite badly, and my rear-ender was at much lower speed than yours!), had not been able to carry out sports for 3 months, so off to their appointed doc they sent me for an assessment. Result: Extra 3k from the opponent´s insurance to stick in a savings account, in case you may ever need it (still a small amount if in the future you may for whatever reason due to this accident not be able to carry out your proefession and lose your financial livelihood). Hope these pointers are of some use to you. Tempest

They were very much actually. What else was Karmann going to do with the ageing platfom their Ghia was based on? So Wilhelm Karmann Junior invited his close friend (as these things work in the automotive sector) Giugiaro to design a successor to the Ghia, which VW couldn´t be bothered (for financial reasons, they were nearly going bust end of the 60s) to design, finance or prototype, so Karmann did all of that. A good book to read on everything related to our beloved coupes are: 1. The Karmann Story, Germany´s Coachbuilder to the World by Dieter Knust 2. Scirocco, Aufregend vernünftig. Der Volkswagen Scirocco 1974-1992 by Claudia Böhler (covers the Rado, too) Then come along to German meets, where a visit in some shape or format to Karmann´s still existing car collection (the museum) is involved :D Tempest

Very interesting video. I am still hoping to lay my hands on some internal Karmann videos detailing the production run of the Rado, after having met a further ex-Karmann employee in the rehab clinic that my Mum was staying at back in July :D Indeed, but the next pic would have been more in teresting, when Schwebe walked away from the Iroc just waving his hands at it, saying ¨Karmann would have never got away with that, we would have lost the contract!¨ Schwebe on the rear tailgate hinges was even more delightful, pulling out his patent document on how he solved the problem of not having to use ugly bumps like on the Iroc. Do a search on the EPO (European Patent Office) website and search for Schwebe :D . Tempest

Oh go on then, add in CV1 2TT (OK, my work address, but close enough 8) ). Thanks for adding :D Tempest

Just been to Karmann about 2 weeks ago (see relevant thread in Events section), so shame that you couldn´t join us then. The Karmann private car collection (as it´s strictly speaking not a museum, never was, just a collection of cars that Wilhelm Karmann put to one side, typically a model of each car that rolled off his production lines) will remain in Osnabrück, now that the factory itself has gone into liquidation and has been sold to VW (who are about to start up production of the new Goof cabrio). The format of visiting this car collection is as yet unknown. The chap who guided us around 2 weeks ago, is about to leave in 2-3 months. He is the last Karmann employee. Visits are by prior arrangement only. The site is indeed a locked compound. You can drive past it, and see the buildings, the signature building no doubt being the Karmann tower (belongs to their multim-million Euro paint line), which now no longer sports the characteristic Karmann-lgo, since VW have on a Saturday some weeks ago at 5 am (when no-one noticed) removed the signs from said tower. All the buildings are currently logo-less, the outlines of where the Karmann logos used to be still visible. New VW flags are dotted around the site, they haven´t seen a drop of rain yet, when we were there. The admin buildings are empty. The factory buildings were a bit like Longbridge: derelict, no soul on-site. Karmann or VW now are about to recruit again, as the chap that organised the meet in Germany 2 weeks ago used to work for Karmann, got made redundant and has now been offered the same job he used to carry out at Karmann with VW again. The 1/24 scale Corrado model that we gave the then guide of the private car collection (back in 2008 for the 20th anniversary of the Corrado) is still within the museum building, locked away in a glass cabinet :clap: We did get to see the basement, too, where there is still a certain 16V G60 Rado, as driven by the first non-Karmann boss, Rainer Thieme (ex Recaro chief). Pics of the whole meet 2 weeks ago (including Karmann visit) are here Tempest

Amazing stuff, brings back memories of my youth :lol: , just not as creative as some of the stuff here: Tempest