Road trip to Wolfsburg

Well, we finally did it. James, Adrian, Lawrence and myself (Jon) had ourselves a little road trip back to the father land to visit the factory where the VW life began.

We trundled the 560 miles from Crawley to Wolfsburg in James' Ragtop Beetle at a steady 65mph, while Adrian and Lawrence followed in the work Type 25.

Both cars performed admirably and considering the Bug had a 1300 single port engine in it we made very good time. That little engine is great with plenty of acceleration. It didn't seem to mind getting up to 75mph either as some stages of the journey.

Wolfsburg itself was fantastic. We were given a tour of the Autostadt Museum which has a vast selection of cars from all eras and manufacturers. We then went for a walk around the Golf production line where we witnessed a Golf being created, which was amazing, before being taken to the factory hall where our own Beetles would've been assembled back in the day.

From here we went into the Wolfsburg car towers where all the new cars go if they are being collected from the Wolfsburg dealership. There are about 400 cars in there at any one time and we even got to go on the lift that takes and places the cars into their 48 hour home.

After that we visited the Stiftung Museum  where a selection of the older cars are kept along with some odd incarnations of the Beetle as well as some of the prototype vehicles (old and new) that never quite made it.

Finally we got to visit the VW Parts Centre where they still hold a lot of stock for air-cooled VWs and even more for the 80's and 90's VWs such as the Golf and Scirroco.

We did all this in one day before having to head off on a 560 mile journey home.

We will be running a full feature on the trip in VolksWorld and Camper&Bus so keep a look out.