Hadders said:
I think there's a big gap in the market - for a follow the build type article, over a few months. At best, most of the mags seem to show a shit heap arriving on a trailer, a picture of some bits cut off and then a perfectly painted, expertly trimmed bus with a shiny engine.
I used to buy street machine in the 80s (I know, that ages me), but they used to do exactly this with their project cars, and I'm sure that Volksworld used to as well.
Maybe the readership has changed?
We have build threads online now for free... and it's a symbiotic thing. We post up our pictures, people comment and we feel encouraged. Not only that but we then hunt down people from the forums at shows to say hi and have a beer and a chinwag about that build thread and again it's encouraging.
The grassroots aspects are now catered for by the forums better than any mag can provide for. I subscribed to a couple of iPad editions last year and honestly they were a 15 minute distraction, whereas I waste a frikken ETERNITY on here and VZi and other online sources of displacement "research".
I loved Volksworld, really did... and the other mags like Ultra VW... they all had a lot to offer but the format is stale and can't match the sense of interactivity of the online communities. For me the best thing about Volksworld now is the show... that seems to be the premier event for showcars now.
TBH the things I want a magazine to cover seldom are... I'd rather see an in-depth piece on one of the numerous affiliated clubs like the Funkenblitz lot or the BWA than yet another Californian show write-up that is surface level deep and that I'll probably never get to anyway.
I'm not a good person to voice an opinion though, I'm really stoked for EBI and I love my bus, love camping and really really love and appreciate Earlybay but when I was at Dubfreeze I kept looking around me and wondering where all of the cocks had come from... there were a load of classic car speculator types and more hipster scenester types than you'd expect in Dalston on a Friday night. It was lovely to see some friends, old and new, and I always enjoy a good poke around... but
something was missing. I went home around 1pm, the final straw was having Karmann Konnection give me a price for a radio fascia (a bit of injection moulded plastic with some - badly applied - chrome trim on it)... £30!!!! You're having a laugh. I went home and played with my bus.
It's a bit shit really, I used to love the mags and love the shows. Used to get a buzz from seeing great cars that were built with skills I knew I could never emulate. I have no problem with "chequebook" cars as those people who receive the cheques keep the aircooled supply / repair business alive in the UK. I miss the excitement of seeing what Bernie Newbury, Brian Burrows, Ritchie King, Rikki James etc. etc. etc. would do next...
Pointless rant... but I am cross, I don't fit with the "scene" any longer. I just want to sit by the seaside in my campervan and drink cider while Radio 6 plays me music I no longer understand.
