Transporterfest 21

By Stan Wohlfarth

The 21^st edition of the Transporterfest was held Sunday Oct. 1, 2006 at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum (www.mot.org) in Brookline, MA. This year we had rain in the forecast but that didn’t deter the diehard VW bus and beetle fans from showing up. Fortunately the rain held off until noon, which gave us enough time to set-up several EZ-up tents to keep everyone dry later in the day.

This year we had 69 cars on the show field, which isn’t too bad considering the weather. For the past few years we have welcomed all makes of VWs and this year’s totals were as follows:

I have to say that I was the most disappointed in the Bay Window bus turnout. This was the first time in recent history (10 or so years that I’ve been running the show) that split window buses outnumbered the Bay Windows.

But let me back-up a bit, as the festivities actually started on Saturday, Sept. 30 with our traditional pre-T’fest campout. Once again were at Canoe River campground (www.canoeriver.com) in Mansfield, MA. We had 14 buses, 12 of which stayed overnight for camping. We had a delicious pot-luck supper, highlighted by Eric Lindskog’s smoked ribs. Eric always arrives early at the campground and gets his smoker going so he can feed us his awesome ribs throughout the evening. We also had plenty of liquid refreshments available, including homemade mudslides. One of the really nice things about this campground is we are pretty much off in our own area and we get very little grief about how late we stay up having fun. We do keep the noise down, but it’s pretty easy to stay up well past midnight, if you want to.

Sunday morning arrived with misty conditions and the early morning show caravan had to stop briefly for John Pickens to apply some RainX to the windows of his ’59 swivel seat Kombi. John recently acquired this bus from a noted California collector and reputed Barndoor mafia boss. Apparently windshield wipers are not considered standard equipment in California, because the ’59 didn’t have any.

Once we arrived at the show site, the weather was looking OK. Clay Smith arrived from Connecticut and was demonstrating his Bungartz VW-powered tractor.

 We also had a special guest bus, the ’64 VW ERL (Electronic Research Lab) deluxe microbus. Having this bus at the show was greatly facilitated by my friend, Keith Price, PR guru at VWoA and fellow VW bus fanatic. The ERL bus was displayed inside the Museum and is full of high-tech gizmos, including two huge video screens. It served as a great movie theater and we showed the recent Disney Herbie movie re-make on it. Kids and adults enjoyed this throughout the day and a special thanks goes to George Bossart who was in charge of setting up the ERL bus.

One other special vehicle that the museum staff rolled out was a Brazilian SP-2. This sports car from the 70’s uses a VW air-cooled engine and is part of the museum’s collection. Thanks to Elln Hagney and the staff at the MOT for all their help before, during and after the show. We couldn’t do it without them.

Throughout the day we enjoyed tunes selected by our DJ, Ben Wohlfarth, with plenty of good "bus-ness" and relaxing fun had by all. The long distance award went to Peter Murray of Odgen Dunes, IN who traveled 950 miles to the event in his ’85 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru motor. Maybe next year we’ll have to limit the long distance award to VW-powered Volkswagens…

Be sure to mark your calendar for Sunday, September 30, 2007 as that will be the 22^nd edition of the Transporterfest. The location will be the same, so make a weekend out of it and have fun visiting the Boston area.