Apex festival first exploded onto the show scene 3 years ago. Held at Lydden Hill race track in Kent, it’s a great venue offering circuit wide views from pretty much any vantage point.
Unfortunately for everybody involved this year the weather was the number one talking point, and really did hamper what is a fantastic event. The forecast in the week before was pretty awful and predicted rain for the weekend. Saturday morning aside the rain held off, but the wind was battering, with many tents damaged, some even taking off and heading for the main road. A number of traders arrived and decided not to set up, and others choosing to down camp after “surviving” the Friday night and call it a day, before the show even started.
With the doom and gloom over and done with we can celebrate what is a great event in the show calendar. For those who like to see their favourite cars in motion, the track action offered some great visual and aural entertainment with retro rides not just from the VW stable, but Porsche and further afield too. Special guests from the German Berg Cup were on hand to demonstrate their skills, going “head to head” with various track cars from this side of the channel in some great spirited sessions.
If you like things a little bit sideways the Retro Drift challenge could be right up your street. A selection of perhaps overlooked classic cars sliding round corners is a sight to behold.. A number of them clearly sporting alternative power plants, the engineering can be admired even if this sort of tomfoolery isn’t for you!
While those who wanted to try their hand at racing could get out on track for timed sessions, everyone was welcome to participate in the Track Parade laps. A chance to get on circuit no matter what you were driving!
If you came to party, then Cool Flo were your guys! Aside from their now trademarked array of BMX’s on display, a collection of lovely splitscreens, and the Coolflo cooler (one off campervan conversion) there was live music throughout the day and a silent disco to round off proceedings in the evening.
Wanted to see something shiny? The show area played host to the cleanest examples of all your favourites, plus the obligatory rat lookers and patina soaked classics at the other end of the spectrum. Offloading children for a few minutes was no bother, a kids area equipped with a bucking bronco and free Ribena would keep them out of mischief long enough for you to catch a few photos or chat to a mate.
One of the stars of the show was the Hayburner Minerva project. Based on a Land Rover this creation was put together by the guys at the mag in just 24hours, under the watchful eye of a live webcam! Of course, the vintage Land Rover running gear was long gone, along with the arch gap, and the engine. The body had been mounted on a modified Beetle chassis and naturally sports an aircooled lump out back!
Overall it was a great show, it was just a big, big shame about the weather. Hopefully next year we shall have some sun (and no wind) and this event will get an even bigger turnout and the packed show field it truly deserves.
Andy
Photos – VeeDub Racing, Neil Sayer, Anna Richardson, Michael Flynn.
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage