VW Days 2018
Published June 22nd, 2018
Words and Photography: Michal Fidowicz
Last year’s VW Days trip was a weekend I’ll never forget. Naturally, I looked forward to this show all year long and booked ferry tickets as soon the dates were announced.
This year I made the trip down in Matt Holland’s E38, along with Will and our friend Bobby. Unfortunately, weather forecasts predicted a moody overcast and even a little bit of rain. Luckily for us, the rain stayed away and we managed to spend the night in a dry tent. With all of this said, I think next year I’ll be booking a hotel. I don’t care how comfy you think your blow up mattress is, it won’t match a proper bed and a proper shower in the morning.
Anyway, onto the reason you’re here – the cars.
I’ll break down my coverage into chunks. Upon our arrival in St. Quentin we headed down to the scene car wash that all brits take over. Whereas last year I was dashing about with my camera, this year I was dashing about with a beer in my hand. No pictures from here I’m afraid. Don’t worry though, I popped down to Buffalo Grill where a few friends parked up at, and had a little nosey around.
Saturday – Buffalo Grill
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We also recorded a little section of our VW Days film over here. I’ll have the link to that right at the bottom so you can give it a watch after the article. I’ve got some mixed opinions on the film so far, so let me know what you think!
Saturday Evening – Camp Site
I grabbed all my belongings from Matt’s car and chucked them into the tent. I’m not going to lie, last year’s perfect weather made for such a picturesque setting that I had to go and have a little look around with my camera.
I bumped into a few pals who also made the trip over to France and went to take a look at the metal on show.
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And then, as the evening got a little darker, the sun finally came out and offered some incredible lighting.
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As the French would say, that Peugeot is “tres bien!”
We walked over to where the main show and shine area is, and luckily for me some cars from Saturday’s show and shine were still lingering about. Unfortunately we missed the show and shine as we were down in Buffalo Grill during the day. In fairness, we were only in France for Saturday and Sunday so there was only so much time for us to capture everything.
I feel next year might have to be a 4 or 5 day event. Anyway, back to the cars.
And then, as I thought I was all done for the day, I was blessed with probably one of the best sun sets I’ve ever seen.
I rushed Matt to move his car into position and shot away.
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After this I drank a load of beer and went to the stage area where the VW Days organisers threw on a party. I lasted about 25 minutes before my body realised it was up since 4:00AM and begun to shut down.
Best night of sleep I’ve had in a while. I don’t know, but I remember last year’s sleep to be really refreshing too. There’s something in the french fields, I tell ya!
Sunday – The Show
Well, one thing I’ll let you know straight away is that the French know a thing or two about a clean Euro look. All the cars on show were top notch – with that said I did notice that a large chunk of the show did have British attendees. Let’s just say, if your car was in the show and shine here, it deserved to be here.
Last year I noticed a lot of OEM wheels floating about, and mixing up stud patterns etc was rather in fashion. This year, there was definitely less of it, with split wheels and air being the thing to have.
Take a look for yourself!
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Really chuffed to see Connor’s W201 making it over of the show. The mad man drove it from his hotel over to the show with no plates. Two weeks ago the car had no engine in it.
We posted a few of the photos from when the car was being pulled together over on our Instagram story. If you don’t already, follow @candyshowroom on Instagram to make sure you’re in the loop.
Another local chap that popped down is Jack, who is killing it on his custom 3 piece Flegen Factory splits.
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As I’ve mentioned above, the bar for the standards of cars on show keeps on going up and up.
Loads of “tres bien” going on here, I must say.
And that pretty much sums it all up.
I’ve uploaded all of these photos to my Flickr, feel free to have a browse and download them from there if you fancy it.
Don’t worry though, there’s more to our VW Days coverage. If you head over to our YouTube you can watch our VW Days film.
Thank you to everyone who made the weekend so enjoyable. I had a blast and I’m more excited than ever to keep on snapping and making coverage for you.
Catch me at Players Classic on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th in my E46. Don’t be shy to come and say hello!
Until then, in a bit.
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