A Mk2 Golf inspired wheelie bin racer? We’ve heard it all now, surely? Well, apparently not because it exists and it’s the proud creation of VW nut Dan Kelly. Most importantly, it’s all been done in a good cause – namely a teenage cancer charity.

Dan Kelly runs a VW Club in Nottingham called Dubfellas and when a close friend and fellow member lost his niece through cancer at the age of 21, he accepted his invitation to help raise funds for The Teenage Cancer Trust by building the wheelie bin racer, based on the look of a Mk2 VW Golf.

“The wheelie bin was built by myself and friend Tod Brown in a week,” said Dan. “The front end is a mobility scooter with steering and it has wheelie bin rear wheels in accordance with the rules of the league. It has three pushers and one driver.” Dan and his crew take part in a number of VW festival events, in particular the club’s #2016SummerOfDubs tour where there is a wheelie bin racing League. This not only helped to promote the Dubfellas club but also raised awareness and funds while racing the bin for the trust. Said Dan: “The wheelie bin race was started by Dubdayz Summerfest in 2015 and in 2016 became a league over a few different VW events. This was the reason why it was fashioned on a VW Golf as we are a VW club and thought a Back to the Future Golf GTi time machine theme would go down well. The wheelie bin is people powered at the moment to fit in with the rules of the racing we do, so it will go as fast as the team push it. However, we have to stay under 8.8mph or we end up in 1955!”

On the 3rd of September the team are taking on the big guns at VW Action by running the drag strip with the bin just for fun and to raise awareness for the trust. As Dan put it: “We will be the first ever wheelie bin to set a time on the strip in front of a massive crowd of dub lovers.”

The bin itself is built to conform to racing wheelie bin specs which means that it has to have 80% of the bin with its lid and be running on its wheelie bin wheels. But that hasn’t ruled out Dan making a few future modications. “After VW Action I’m going to put some better wheels on and we will be continuing to raise funds for the Trust and having a great time doing so.”

Dubfellas can be found on Facebook and Twitter and you can discover more about The Teenage Cancer Trust by clicking here.

Ian

 

The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage.

 

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