At the beginning of March, five Volkswagen enthusiasts left their homeland in Malaysia in three Buses and a Beetle. Their destination, two continents and 20,000km away being the Transporter production line in Hannover, Germany. It’s incredible then, having taken three months to successfully complete their trip, they travelled across the Channel to see us at VW Heritage before heading home…

It must have been quite a moment when Cliften Nathaniel (1978 Bay Window), Terence Moses (1967 Split Screen Bus), Stephen Pang (1967 Split Screen Bus), Monica Xavier and Udhaya Kumar (Beetle) proudly drove their vehicles onto the production site at Hannover where they were welcomed by Friedrich Mattiszik (Production). “We know that we have Bus fans across the globe, but to see them travel here from such a distance in their vintage vehicles – we have never experienced this before. It is an honour for us to show our plant, the birthplace of the vast majority of Transporters, to these globe-trotting fans.”

As you can imagine, having achieved their objective, we were just as chuffed when they made their next destination our Shoreham HQ last Thursday. Having been shown around the warehouse and no doubt picked up a few souvenirs or their own to take back with them to Malaysia, they even stayed on for our monthly Heretics meet in the evening. They were undoubtedly the furthest travelled!

Their route from Malaysia to Hannover passed through Thailand, Laos, China, Russia and Europe, the classic VWs managing the epic journey without major breakdown. “VW Buses are simply indestructible. And when they do need repair, we can usually handle it ourselves,” enthused Splittie owner Terence Moses. However, just in case disaster did strike, they had tyres, replacement parts and tools lashed to their fully laden roof rails, along with countless pieces of luggage.

While on the European leg of their trip, the Malaysian enthusiasts also visited to the vintage VW meet in Hessisch-Oldendorf, Lower Saxony. Around 45,000 fans attended this event to admire 900 vehicles from 28 countries, including we expect, the ones belonging to these intrepid travellers.

After the show, they took to the road once again to visit Belgium, France and Scandinavia as part of their mission. They are visiting orphanages in various countries and participating in a number of charitable events for their #Live2drive campaign. Having been treated to an equally welcoming reception at our Shoreham HQ and being impressed by the scale of our operation, they are now planning their route back to Malaysia on a journey which is likely to total 50,000km (over 31,000 miles) by the time they get home.

Ian

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