Category: Highlight

  • Record Breaking VW Camper Van!

    Visitors to Santa Pod Raceway last weekend would have enjoyed both fun and frolics at their superb ‘Big Bang’ VW event, but also the incredible sight of a rusty 56 year old VW Van or ‘Bus’ launching down the hallowed quarter mile in considerably less time than it would take a contemporary Ferrari or Porsche. Adding insult to injury, the bus has been deliberately left with its original patina to add charm and character.

    The amazing machine, run by team ‘Wheeler Dealer’ from Frankfurt in Germany is a rare early ‘Barndoor’ model. (so called because of its huge engine cover) This fact alone makes it a five figure museum piece (despite it’s outwardly shabby demeanour) But, as you might imagine, all is not standard underneath, with the van packing a highly tuned VW engine.

    Built by owners Tom Gotta and Stefan Betzeüga, the Bus went on to set a new World record for non-turbocharged VW vans, clocking the quarter mile in just 12.656 seconds.. at 102.84mph! Impressive enough for any car, but doubly so when you start to factor in the lack of aerodynamics associated with the much-loved commercial. Driven by Stefan, the VW put in consistent performance all day, despite the sweltering heat, resulting in the crowd pleasing times.

    With the outright World Record for any shape of VW Camper standing at 12.5 seconds (also set at Santa Pod by a ‘Bay’ window bus) the team have been invited back to the famous Bug Jam event at the venue between the 17th and 19th of July to try and crack the record once and for all – So make sure you’re there to see history being made!

    One thing’s for sure, whatever you’re driving, if you see this old Bus in your rear view mirror.. Best to pull over and concede gracefully. Proof indeed that old VW campers never die.. they just get faster!

    For more information, or to book tickets, click to www.santapod.com or call 01234 782828.

  • Scorpion Unleash New BMW E92 E35 Rear Silencer

    Exhaust maestros Scorpion have released their latest rear box onto the market – and it’s bound to be popular; The new BMW 335i.

    After a considerable amount of road and dyno testing, the new back box is available as a direct bolt-on replacement to the OEM part. Whilst the fit and finish are certainly as the factory intended, power gains are most certainly not! – with consistent improvements of between 5 and 10% being recorded during Scorpions extensive testing regime.

    Each unit is precision fabricated at Scorpion’s UK factory from aerospace quality T304 Stainless Steel. Carrying a lifetime guarantee. The sound is far more sonorous than the standard item, with a nice growl when pressing on, but keeping a subtle note for comfortable cruising.

    Usefully, this box will fit all Coupe, Touring and Convertible models with either petrol or diesel power, providing more grunt, more growl – and more grins. Priced at just £495, it’s the first essential modification for any 335.

    For more information on this, or any other Scorpion product – or to order your free catalogue, please contact the sales team on 01773 744123 or click to www.scorpion-exhausts.com

  • Another reason why number plates..

    ..Should be in the legal font and spaced legally! Fairly recently google have introduced Streetview to their google maps service. Its awesome, but its very scary at the same time as you can view street level photos from almost every country in the world.

    There’s been a huge hoo-har about people being spotted doing stuff they shouldn’t, and people saying their car number plates are being displayed against their knowledge and whatever…

    Well heres a brilliant example of why your car number plate sh9ould be the legal font and legally spaced;

    number-plate-lawsClick for larger view

    This person in Nottingham decided they didn’t want to space the letters of their number plate out correctly, which resulted in the google algorithms being unable to determine it was in fact a number plate, and its been totally left out.

    I mean, google are clever – but they are not superheros!