2003 Bad Camberg, Germany

Just to make the experience that much more special, Pete teamed up with his old friend Shaun Rees (Shaun is the owner of the immaculate Polar Silver '54 that you can see on Page 54) to make the journey from Cornwall, England, to Bad Camberg. The two of them decided to make the trip in appropriate style, covering the 1638 miles in just three days of driving Shaun's showstopper. Not bad for a car that regularly wins trophies all over the U.K. and is 49-years old this year.

Here is Pete's report on both the trip and the show: "Awesome" is a much over-used adjective in my opinion but in the case of this German Vintage VW Show one that, for once, is totally justified. Such a collection of the finest vintage Volkswagens is a huge undertaking, both for the Lotterman family who organize it and for the owners who go to great lengths to get their cars there from all over the world. For this reason the show is only held once every four years, rather than the annual timetable of most other events.

I had not managed to get to Camberg before. The death two years ago of Heinz Willi Lotterman had cast doubt over the future of the show and even when it was announced that it was to go ahead there were rumors that it would be for the last time. This increased the urgency of getting there, and so last year my old friend Shaun Rees and I started planning this trip. Shaun and I have travelled to quite a few U.K. shows in his '54 but this was to be an altogether more serious undertaking.

Because we live in the far south west of England, we decided to avoid the normal Dover-to-Calais option to get across the Channel and go from our home port of Plymouth to Roscoff in Brittany. Although Microsoft Autoroute told us this route added nearly two hundred miles onto the round trip, we opted for it because it meant the final stage of the journey home would be a simple sixty-five miles from Plymouth, rather than some three hundred and fifty across southern England.