Der Bahnstormerz

Now Barnstormerz have their own website

Paul and Chris's Bugs

A very Nice 58

Der Bahnstormerz have been together in some form or other for nearly a year now but a whole bunch of things have meant that it hadn't been possible to get together at a race meet until this years Big Bang back in May. Held up at Santa Pod it's a relatively small event but for any one who fancies a pop at Santa Pod's famous quarter in a VW it is probably the best. Though it's a 2-day event we were only able to make the Saturday but for us that's the day that counts as it that's when the VolksWorld Streetcar Shootout is held. Basically a VW only "run what ya brung" session. Sounds good to me.

Tom's VW - 1/4 miles in 13.7 seconds

Mad Max on the Strip

Of-course the best way of getting to any VW event is to get together and cruise up so those of us with working VWs set off from North London sometime early on Saturday morning. Somewhere along the way they met up with a very nice '58 and it's owner, Chris and promptly proceeded to recruit him over breakfast at a cafe in Toddington. Apparently he saw the cars parked up in the car park and approached Max, Paul and Tom asking if they were the owners and could he join them for a cruise. I think the Der Bahnstormerz, Berg and FAT Performance T-shirts may have given their identity away, if it wasn't that it was probably the hats.

On arrival at Santa Pod Max and Tom signed up to race whilst Paul and Chris opted to hang back this time round, Paul's gearbox had been making some really weird noises on the way up and Chris still had a couple of bits to sort out on the car before it could be raced. It was a case of first time out effectively for Tom and Max so it was going to be interesting to see what the cars were capable of. Max had raced before but not with the current engine/transmission combo and Tom had only just finished bedding in his set up. As it happened Max went out and dialled in a 14.4 whilst Tom blasted off a 13.7, which is not bad at all given the cars were run with full road trim. Both cars can definitely go faster and a few tweaks will probably see them making significant improvements to those times. This year the field was fairly strong and there were some pretty fast Bugs there, which is good to see, all the more to race.

Aside from the VWs there was also some guy on a go-kart doing the quarter in 11 at around 115mph (terminal speed)!!?? And then of-course there was the jet cars. Whilst last year there was only one, this year the Fireforce crew have decided that that wasn't enough and have built a second more powerful one. I can't remember but I think it ran a nine and I'm sure they shut the thing down not far off the start line. I don't know why they do it but it's good that they do because those things are awesome and anyone who hasn't seen them in action ought to. For those of us who weren't on the strip there was plenty to do, which other than watching the racing generally entailed parting with money, eating and getting sun burnt. All in all a top day out, unless your clutch blew but that's another story

Mat Sanchez