VolksRod build a beach buggy in just two days at Bug Jam
The immense Bug Jam festival at Santa Pod has closed its gates for another year, after some 35,000 enthusiasts enjoyed one of the best shows ever in the event’s 27 year history. Packed amongst the bands, tents, comedians and traders were a hard-working team from Volksrod Beach Buggies – who managed to build one of their shapely creations, from scratch, in just over two days.
Bug Jam has become well known for its famous live builds, with previous shows seeing the likes of ‘Kustom King’ Andy Saunders and Type 2 Detectives using their considerable skills to transform, customise or restore some kind of Volkswagen over the three days of the show. Although the cars and styles employed and the difficulty involved have varied wildly over the years, two basic facets of the builds have been cast in stone; firstly, all work must be carried out as ‘performance art’ in front of the capacity crowd, and secondly, the finished creation must make a trip up the strip at 5.00 pm on the Sunday to close the show, come what may.
With temperatures at a 7-year high, the choice of a Beach Buggy seemed inspired, so Volksrod boss Stuart Hopewell gathered a crack team of talented technicians and laid out the components of the kit on the Friday morning to start work as the crowds rolled in. By the end of the first day, the team had a rolling chassis, and by the end of day two, the body was on and details like the wiring were ready to be sorted. Despite clearly being distracted by Bug Jam’s impressive nightlife, and having been spotted backstage well into the wee smalls, the Volksrod team were able to finish the build on time, adding the final finishing touches to the buggy on Sunday afternoon before blasting up the strip to close the show; a testament to the skills of the team – and the quality of the kit! In addition to the kit itself key partners TOYO TIRES also helped with the essential ‘big’ rubber, VW Heritage assisted with all of the parts and safety items and Cobra Motorsport created a stunning bespoke interior, all totally finished by hand. Graphics duties were handled by Creative FX.
Commenting after the show, a tired but elated Stuart said, ‘We’re delighted to have been invited down to Bug Jam this year, and the team and I have enjoyed this build immensely. We wanted to prove to the Bug Jam guests just how easy a Volksrod buggy is to build, and although we’ve had a little practise over the years, hopefully they’ve been able to see that it’s all relatively straightforward. It was great to meet the showgoers, and I think we may have made a few buggy converts along the way!
On behalf of Santa Pod Raceway, marketing manager Caroline Day said, ‘We have had some really great builds over the years, but no team has entered into the spirit of the show as much as the Volksrod team did! Quite how they managed to balance such hard work with such relentless partying is beyond me, but the quality of the end result is a real thing of beauty. We’ll now be using the buggy around the UK to promote our VW shows and the venue itself, so look out for it all around the UK!’
For more information, visit bugjam.com.
