Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OTAGO VOLKSWAGEN
ENTHUSIASTS CLUB
NEWSLETTER
June 2010
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THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
As winter takes its hold and the shortest day now behind us, it won‟t be long before those
nice long summer days and evenings are with us again.
Firstly congratulations to Marty & Claire who took out the 1st place award at the 2010
Nelson nationals for beetles 1968 and later with that now legendary “Nana beetle”. Our
Otago club was well represented and coupled with great weather, some first time events
and of course very good company from around New Zealand and the world, the Easter
weekend was a great success.
Following the Nationals our very own Mr Dave Finnie and Ivan Ashby from the Chch club
moved into top gear and kicked into the 60th Anniversary of the type 2 ,tour of the south
Island. For what now has been described as a landmark event. My congratulations go to
these two VW legends for having the foresight in organizing this amazing VW tour which
will be very hard to replicate, copy, or even repeat – well done guys. (Thanks also to the
great turnout of Otago club members to assist in the BBQ for the tour at Dunedin Holiday
Park)
The last couple of months have been action packed for our club with a very successful
Mystery tour organized by the Nobles, Car soccer at Barry Days place, Trailer backing at the
Ice Stadium etc etc.
I would like to remind you all of the fantastic asset we have in our website and would like to
thank Chris & Jim for its constant upkeep- we live now in a world of being dependant on
electronic media- if you are checking your emails – surfing trade me for that next
Volkswagen bargain – why not go to our club website for an update on what‟s happening
or view the posted videos and pictures of past events - http://www.vwotago.co.nz/
So in closing, stay warm, keep your pride and joys wheels turning and see you all at
Robbie‟s for our next meeting 7.30 pm July 6th
Dean Driver
President – Otago VW Enthusiasts Club, Inc
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THE SMALL PRINT
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Club Officials :
As officials of the Club our first duty is to the members and that means organising things that you want to do,
and being a focus for any requests, queries or suggestions you might have.
If there are any activities or events that you would like to suggest , items for the newsletter you might have, or
if you cannot attend the monthly meetings, please contact Jim Young directly as follows :
Many thanks to those members who turned up and pulled together to make the evening a
great success, and congratulations to Dave Finnie for a successful Tour after years in the
planning. Well done Dave!
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SHOCK NANA BEETLE VICTORY!
And no, we’re not talking about Housie!
Biggest surprise of the Nelson Nationals (apart from the lack of show categories) was the
announcement of the winner of the Best Post 1968 Beetle category, going to a more -
surprised-than-anybody Marty van Elst with his 1972 blue-rinse coloured semi-automatic
(or „support-stocking drive‟ to give it its correct technical term).
Apparently Marty hadn‟t even been considering entering the car in the Show „n‟ Shine line
up until encouraged to do so by one of the judges!
The organisers would like to make it clear that there is no truth whatsoever in rumours that
the car won simply because some of the more senior judges were drawn more and more to
the car‟s luxuriously comfy looking sheepskin seat covers as the gruelling afternoon of the
show wore on.
Marty has also publicly denied that the fitting of the covers was in any way intended to
confuse or coerce judges over a „certain age‟.
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NOBES’ NAVIGATIONAL RALLY MAY 2010
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CAPTION COMPETITION
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BONUS CAPTION COMPETITION
Well, not really, I just wanted to publish this photo of Club treasurer Chris Timms taken at
the Nationals registration in Nelson. Chris looked like this for most of the weekend!
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The Newman “Indy VW”
The construction of the car was nothing short of full stop race car quality and the VW was
used by Newman for a few years after it was completed. The “upgrades” to the car read as
follows :
A number of years later Newman met the head of Chaffey College‟s Automotive
Technology Department at a race meeting at Riverside. Conversations started and a
friendship developed that eventually led to Newman donating the VW to the school (along
with a few other cars over the years) and it was repainted in school colours and brought out
to events around Southern California.
Some time after Paul Newman donated it to Chaffee College, he was re-united with the car
at Riverside Raceway when the College team brought the car out to display. Newman saw it
and went and grabbed racer Bobby Unser to come take a look. Unser asked Newman why
he didn‟t keep it - his response was that his agent and managers urged him to get rid of it
before he hurt himself!
When the College closed up the Racing Program and auctioned off the cars and equipment,
the department head purchased the car and it has remained in the family ever since. A few
years back it was decided that it was time to restore the car and a full nut and bolt
restoration was started with dreams of showing it once again to Newman, but after his
death in 2008, that dream evaporated. The restoration was completed not long after and
the car has been shown many times since not only in public at shows such as SEMA in Las
Vegas, but also in private to members of the Newman family.
Now, for the first time ever, the car is being offered for public sale. At the time of writing
the car is for sale with a price tag of $250,000 USD.
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Some pictures of Otago Club cars, and others, at the Show „n‟ Shine, plus a few more things
of interest
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↓ Dave Finnie‟s 1 st Prize winning bay window T2
`
← Bill Bell’s 1500
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Road trip :
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CAR SOCCER MATCH
Once again a lot of hard work by Grant Patrick and Barry Day saw us gathering e agerly at
Barry‟s paddock to take part in New Zealand‟s FIRST EVER 3-a-side car tournament. Three
teams of three were selected, and as referee Grant blew the whistle and the first car kicked
off, it began to look as if those three giant beach balls might n ot be quite giant enough, as a
number of the cars‟ bumpers were tending to roll over the ball instead of punting it forward.
Anyway, much hilarity was had in the brief period before the first ball was burst, and it was
yours truly who did for the last ball, as in my excitement at finding myself with a clear shot at
goal I threw caution to the wind and launched the car forward, and the front end lurched up
and swallowed the ball. BANG – too late!
So after that we simply set the cones out in a circuit and did some timed laps instead! Times
were as follows (however these won‟t count towards Club trophies as it was an impromptu
event).
For photos and videos of the car soccer, go to www.vwotago.co.nz and click on Photos
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VINTAGE VW ADVERTISING
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