Bitten by the VW beach buggy bug

It was something of a midlife crisis for Simon Ward.

But his desire to feel the wind in his hair in something unashamedly “fun” has opened up a whole new world for him and his family.

Nine years ago, Simon was looking around for a cabriolet of some sort when, out with his son Matthew, he saw a VW beach buggy go flying past.

“I thought ‘cor, that’s smart’,” he says, in the kitchen at his home near Boston, a stone’s throw from where he grew up.

“Midlife crisis for a cabriolet”

“It was a bit of a midlife crisis for a cabriolet car. I’d had a trike previously, and then kids came along and the trike didn’t get used.”

As he entered his 40s, Simon was hankering after something to once more get the adrenaline pumping, and the buggy caught his imagination.

His wife, Jo, back from a trip out with the couple’s twin daughters, adds: “You came back to me and said ‘I know what I want – I’ve just seen what I want.’”

Simon, now 51, tracked down a long wheelbase buggy – capable of seating the three children who still lived at home – and it proved just the start of a love affair with VWs that shows no sign of stopping.

A “project” 1971 Beetle 1200 was added six years ago, followed by another buggy for Matthew to work on, and a VW Golf Clipper convertible Jo won in a raffle in December 2018.

Life-changing beach buggies

And while the (currently engineless) Beetle and Golf are much-loved members of the family, it’s the buggies that have changed their lives beyond recognition.

“The social side is special, particularly with the beach buggies,” says Jo. “We are quite shy really, and the people in the clubs made us feel so welcome, they really made us fit in.”

“They are all like-minded, more so than the general VW community,” adds Simon. “Under no circumstances could we ever get rid of the buggy side of things because of the social aspect.”

It all began with that first buggy back in 2010, a 1972 Rat mark 2 that Simon bought for £3,500 before stripping it down and rebuilding it, creating a rare five-seater.

“It was a pile of poo and broke down when we fetched it home,” he says, the buggy lasting no more than 10 miles before the 1300cc Beetle engine gave up the ghost.

Jo takes up the story: “The boot was flapping about, so we pulled into a lay-by to secure it, and my brother-in-law was with us and said ‘you’re not going any further in that – the oil is just running out of it’.

“I said to Simon: ‘What the hell have you just bought?’”

The buggy arrived home on the back of a Green Flag van, via a stop to get some silicone sealant to temporarily fix the oil leak.

“We ran around in it for a couple of weeks before it spent the winter in the garage,” says Simon, director of an electrical contracting firm.

Holes everywhere in the VW buggy’s fibreglass

“I then stripped it right back, and it looked like somebody had shot at it – there were holes everywhere in the fibreglass.

“I did all the oily stuff and rewired it, and got it painted.”

The blue metallic paintwork sparkles in the sunshine, as does an award-winning interior with more bling than a Christmas tree, the dash, steering wheel and seats all shimmering in a glitter finish.

It was crucial to be able to fit all three children in the back, so Simon fitted three rear seat-belts, and the family’s beach buggy adventure truly began.

“The kids really enjoy it – I have yet to come across another one with five seat belts,” says Simon, who has taken the buggy, nicknamed Emily, all over the UK and France on family holidays.

VW buggy was the perfect five-seat holiday runabout

In the early days, Jo would drive it behind Simon in a VW T5 Caravelle towing a caravan, but a larger motorhome replaced the T5 and caravan, the buggy now towed along as the perfect five-seat holiday runabout.

“We’ve dragged it everywhere, to Scotland, Wales, and six years ago we took it to the west coast of France, to a place called St Gille Croix de Vie,” says Simon, the buggy used to carry them around once there.

“We went to a waterpark and the at the top of the biggest slide Matthew said ‘let’s see if we can see our buggy’,” adds Jo. “He shouted: ‘Dad, I can see a girl sitting in the beach buggy having her picture taken’.”

Smiles wherever the beach buggy goes

It’s the sort of attention they’ve got used to, the buggy attracting smiles wherever it goes, especially when the family dog, Smudge, rides in the front seat.

“He hangs his head over the side, and everyone takes pictures,” says Jo. “My sister and brother-in-law have a Mustang, and we go to Skegness on a chip run and do some laps around.

“People say, ‘oh my God, what’s that?’, and others remember having one.

“There was one time two grannies in knitted cardigans saw it – they just loved it. It brought back so many memories for them.

“A lot of kids love it. We were held up once outside a swimming pool, and we had to get out of the car to unzip the hood. He said ‘dad, dad, you see them get out of that car? It hasn’t got any doors!’”

Helpful beach buggy club members

Simon and Jo are members of the Midlands Buggy Club and, as well as local buggy cruises, have teamed up with other clubs across the country, taking part in the Swanage Carnival, where buggies lead off the parade, and cruising through London to the famous Ace Cafe.

“We love the club,” says Jo. “We ride around and have a picnic, and stop somewhere.

“They’re all so helpful. Once, my sat nav told me to turn left down a single track road that went nowhere. I had a 90 degree turn to negotiate between a farm building and the farm house. “There was nowhere for me to turn round. It was just me and the girls, but the buggy club people came and unhooked the buggy and sorted me out and got me parked up at the campsite.”

Before they became aware of the buggy clubs, Simon and Jo would attend local, general VW shows.

“From going to these shows, I just fancied a Beetle,” says Simon. “And Jo said I needed another project because I was getting on her nerves over winter!”

Project car ‘Banging Barry’, a 1971 Beetle 1200

Six years ago, enter ‘Banging Barry’, the bright orange, 1971 Beetle 1200 that became a five-year project, a labour of love that was back on the road just in time for Jo’s niece’s wedding in June 2018.

With a smile and glint in his eye, Simon says he bought the car “by accident”, his finger hovering over the buy-it-now button on eBay, where the car was advertised for £1,200.

“I keep telling Matt he knocked my hand and pressed my finger down on the key,” he says. No matter there’s still the ‘confirm and pay’ button to be pressed before the checkout is complete…

“I said to Jo: ‘Oh no, I think I’ve just bought a Beetle’.”

It’s fair to say, Barry, the car’s given name from its previous owner, was in something of a state.

“It was a full car but it was a wreck,” says Simon. “It had had a major smash on the front end and there was filler 6, 7, 8mm thick.

Everything on the Beetle had to be replaced

“There’s almost nothing on it that isn’t new. Apart from the roof, everything’s been replaced – new bonnet, boot, doors etc, and I’ve completely restored the interior.”

It remains its original orange, but with a modern twist, Mazda’s pearl metallic Spicy Orange giving it a sunshine sparkle.

After hitting the road in the summer of 2018, Simon stripped out the engine over the winter.

It’s sitting in the garage waiting to go back in, complete with new tin-wear and an orange dragonfly painted on by a friend.

“It’s pretty much a brand new car without an airbag,” he adds.

The VW collection continues to grow

With Matthew, now 15, becoming increasingly interested in the cars, in September 2018 a Seaspray short wheelbase buggy was added to the growing collection, a 1963 model with a Beetle 1300cc engine bought on eBay for £2,168.

“He said he wanted to come and do a project with me,” says Simon, “and we thought it would be a good thing to get him in the garage and off the Xbox.

“He was in the garage with me night after night, doing a lot of cleaning and polishing. He also designed it in the Avengers Black Panther theme.

“It’s the first car he’s ever driven, and once he’s old enough to drive on the road, it’s his.”

Once again, collecting the car didn’t go as smoothly as planned, but through no fault of the buggy.

“Driving up to Bradford, our van broke down in the fast lane of the motorway,” says Jo. “We had to ring the police and they said under no circumstances get out of the car. I don’t think I’ve ever feared for my life like that, and there were motorists hooting at us and shouting at us!

“We had filled the van with VW spares, a full service kit for the buggy, tow ropes, everything. And then we had to get picked up in the van.”

In contrast, the old buggy was in surprisingly good nick when they finally reached Bradford.

“We bought it off a smashing guy – he’d lost his wife and had a hip operation which meant he couldn’t get into it,” says Simon.

“We’d phoned ahead and told him we were going to be late and he said ‘I hope you’re not going to be any later than 8pm because it’s my beer night’.

“There was not a lot mechanically wrong with it. I thought I was going to get a box of bits but I drove it back from Bradford, in the dark with no roof, and we got home at midnight.”

Many restoration hours put into the buggy

The buggy was treated to a new vinyl wrap, reupholstered, rewired, some minor engine work, a new steering rack and brakes, and many hours of tender loving care.

The Wards’ Dub collection gained an unexpected fourth member in February, Simon buying £5 raffle tickets each for him and Jo to win a Golf Clipper Convertible at the Midland Buggy Club’s Christmas party in Solihull.

Donated by Lee Southerton from VolksMagic for his Santa’s A Gangsta charity, the 1987 Golf provided a surprise early Christmas present when Simon’s phone rang on December 12, his birthday.

“Simon answered the phone, went upstairs and came running back down,” says Jo. “He said ‘they won’t talk to me, they want to talk to you’.

“My ticket had been pulled out. It was exciting – it’s not very often you win something like that.

“We picked it up in February half term – the sun was out, the roof was down and we went out in it to Moreton-in-Marsh.”

The long-term future for the Golf is in the balance, but Simon’s sure of one thing.

“We’ll definitely keep the buggies and the Beetle,” he says. “The first buggy gave me the VW bug, and I love that there aren’t two beach buggies the same, ever.”

They may not be the fastest cabriolets on the road, but few vehicles are as much fun, and few engender such a sense of community and belonging.

Once bitten by the buggy bug, it’s very tough to let go.