We met a guy called Reece earlier this summer when we headed over to Germany for Hessisch Oldendorf 2022, as we’d fallen in love with his Oval Beetle.
It turns out that Reece is just 21 years old, and has owned the Oval since he was 13!
Once we got back to the UK we reached out to him again to get some more info about his Beetle and how he got on driving it across Europe. Here’s what he told us:
My name is Reece, I'm 21 and have owned my Beetle since I was 13! It takes me everywhere and this year the holiday destination was the Hessisch Oldendorf VW show in Germany! Having never driven on the wrong side of the road before I thought what's a better way to see how it is than drive over 2,000 miles!
Our European roadtrip started early on a Sunday morning, and a quick drive over to Brugge from the ferry. After Brugge we drove about 400 miles to Wolfsburg so we could take the Bug back home!
We spent a few days in Wolfsburg visiting museums and other cool sites, and then it was time for the main goal, HO22!
Hessisch was amazing and I'm so glad we made the trip, meeting loads of new people and many I've known for years. After checking out the show we spent a couple days heading back to Belgium, then into France and on the final day we travelled from Reims back to Brugge to visit an antiques market.
All in all, we travelled 2,300 miles with no issues on a 34hp engine, which isn't bad!
I absolutely can't wait until my next euro road trip! Next year I'm thinking Denmark but until then I'll be at every UK VW show possible!
Reece also sent us some more details about his Oval, which was built in June 1955. It’s got a 34hp 1200cc engine, but Reece is planning on rebuilding the original 30hp engine over the winter.
It’s painted in Strato Silver (L227), and was bought in 2014 from Denmark. Since then, Reece has done very little to it because it’s in such great shape, but the work that has been done he’s tackled himself.
Reece said this was partly to save money, but also to lean more about the car, which is a pretty great attitude.
For the trip to Hessisch Oldendorf and back, he took a spare fuel pump, multiple bulbs, multiple fan belts and a full distributor rebuild kit, but didn’t need to use any of them. It’s long been our belief that packing spares means you’re much less likely to need them!
The Oval has a really cool accessory – a rear window demister, which works by creating a vacuum, and still works!
Here's some more photos from Reece's awesome road trip from the UK to Hessisch and back. If you've got a car you want to show off, or a road trip story you'd like to share, then send them over to us at jkworld@justkampers.co.uk
