Vince (and about 20 of his mates) popped in to the old school weekender & car show set in 62 acres of beautiful parkland at Penhurst Place, in the Weald of Kent. The plan to enjoy a couple of days camping along with thousands of other VW enthusiasts bringing their aircooled and watercooled VW’s.
With the promise of some great cars, decent weather, food, music and a few laughs, it was good to get amongst it again since the world went mad after Covid.
And honestly. It was great to be back! ?
DAY ONE
We arrived just after 6 pm on Friday after a decent drive across in my 72 type 3 Variant 2007cc type 1 engine (with Twin 40 Webers mounted to a Rancho Pro Street gearbox!)
Drove through the gates and was greeted by Sam from VWorks. Good to catch up.
We got proper clear instructions where to go and set up and soon found my group of people under a massive tree what was perfect to get some shade – a hot weekend!
Some decent cars on show in my group.
Mark drove a 81 Aircooled T3 High Top
Darren a 83 Watercooled T3 High Top and his peach cal-look Beetle called Lilly
Matt drove the 78-79 Cal-Look Baywindow Panel Van
Nigel drove his chopped metallic burgundy Beetle Roadster
Jay drove a white clean Devon Baywindow
The place was huge, I must say. They had split the camping into 3, family, club and general camping.
I quickly settled into my patch for the weekend, unpacked my car sorted my bed and started to catch up with people I have not seen since covid hit. Superb. ?
So… my first show in many years. What to do first.
We went up to the main area that had loads of stalls with parts and general Items that you usually forget at home. Result.
There were many food and drinks stalls, such as an inflatable pub and my personal favourite the pizza van – actual proper sized pizza for a tenner! ?
Anyways after a munch we started heading over to the event tent to get some tunes going and for more drinks.
Good music as always, it became dark at some point and the music stopped.
So, checking it was 11pm, and the night was still young, we headed back to our camp to party a little more. ?
Finished my last beer (about 2 am’ish?) and went to sleep in the square – it was rather comfortable and all in all a decent first night back.
DAY TWO
Got up, as usual, around 8 am to get the day started, a very overcast morning with a chill in the air.
Went about sorting myself out, getting the coffee going and a morning poo – toilets were pretty clean I must say and plenty of them to choose all over the venue.
After coffee it was breakfast time, a couple of sausages and bacon baps to soak up the previous evening and I was ready to go.
Some of us started to get ready for ‘Show N Shine’, including a super-clean back to 89 themed bay window panel van that was done in the 90’s already and the paint job is 17 years old now and it looks like it was done only yesterday (just stunning and my personal winner of the show – and I don’t even like bays ha ha ha!)
After cleaning and getting ready, we headed over to the ‘Show N Shine’ part to have a nose.
It was only 9 o’clock, so not many cars there yet, but we watched them arriving fairly quickly and everyone soon got the wipes out to clean the last bits on the cars.
By about 11 o’clock the field was packed with nice air-cooled’s and some water-cooled cars.
Around the same time the ‘dog show’ started and the winning dog was really cute, not as cute as mine but hey :0) – Don’t ask me what breed it was though? ?
After that it was lunch time and I got hungry, so had a walk around the food stalls to see what they offered.
We had a choice of a fancy BBQ setup, a lamb wrap van, a noodle bar and of course Pizza.
After lunch (Pizza) we started to admire all the super clean and ratty looking cars.
Music started at around 1’ish and the atmosphere was great. Can’t remember the bands, but the program said it was Steve Hewitt, Modnation and SKAstards during the afternoon.
Spent the afternoon catching up with old friends we have not seen in many years and long-standing customers too. Inevitably we made some new friends as well. Great to be around people again.
After that I was about 15 beers in and can’t remember much.
Only that it got dark. we sat down and enjoyed some live music at festival tent; Retro sounds with Jazzy and Happy Accident, and then headed back to the campsite for a few more beers and finally bed. Perfect. ???
DAY THREE
Woke up at 7 o’clock to an already hot sun. Nice.
Started the usual morning ritual. Got up had a poo, coffee and food, no beer though ☹️
Same again around the event, people getting ready for ‘Show N Shine’, chilled out hustle and bustle and general good feeling. A few more of our friends turning up for the day to display their cars.?
After a nose and a chat with a few people, and as it was roasting hot and we were suffering from the heat, me and a few good friends went off to explore Pensurst Place.
And what a place that is. It’s well worth going too and I loved it.
The manor house is definitely something interesting if you are into old 1500’s history or art/architecture. To be fair it is even if you’re not.
They had a super-cool (temperature wise) cellar and a clock from around 1550 – how crazy is this!
We did the entire tour on offer, took us about 2 hours and cost £2.00 this weekend. Regular price is £12.00 I believe.
The stately home and gardens were once used as a hunting lodge for King Henry VIII and the state rooms have been used in TV and film productions.
What with the house, gardens, grounds and parklands it really is a decent day out.
After the tour we sat down for some much-needed cold drinks and ice cream before heading back over to the show to have another look around ‘Show N Shine’ bit.
And we saw even more cars than yesterday. Some really good examples.
We hung around for another couple of hours for the announcement of the show winners and then it was time for me to pack up and go home, which to be fair was about right as I was suffering big time from the heat.
All in all a fantastic weekend with plenty to do for young and old I would say. Glad we’re all getting back to normal and bring on the events and all things VW… ?
