Heretics comes back with a Bang!

Oh, it's good to be back! Thursday 21st April was our first Heretics meet since 2019, and the largest gathering of cars and people at HQ since our Santa Cruise back in December. How was it? Well, it was wonderful. The sun was shining and everyone was in high spirits, equally excited about the return of our much-loved event as we were.

For the first time in many years, Heretics has a visual identity; a natty 3 car logo drawn up by Dave from our design team and transferred onto stickers and printed on T-shirts for everyone to enjoy. If you missed out on either, we apologise but we'll have more again next month. Thanks to Gez and Ollie for modeling the new logo below so handsomely!

After our 2-year absence it was considered a sensible idea to try and limit attendance and reduce the risk of blocking the road by allocating tickets. We'd like to offer our thanks to everyone who signed up and registered in advance, the system worked, and chaos was generally avoided. Stay tuned to our social media for details on how to be at May's meet. 

We always get an awesome showing from local aircooled owners, and April's event didn't disappoint. 

Fresh from the cover of the latest Hayburner issue (41) it was a pleasure to see JZ Well's patina'd Oval in the flesh and parked in our yard!  

There were plenty of aircooled buses and campervans in attendance, and excitingly lots we hadn't seen before. So a big welcome to anyone who was popping their proverbial Heretics cherry, and congratulations to all those debuting a new project or recent acquisition. In amongst the 'big buses' a special mention for the Mk1 Caddy, with its snail-like Tischer conversion sat on the back. So great to see such a rare retro camper in the flesh. 

You may recall we were involved with recommissioning Joe Sugg's Splitscreen bus last year with the guys at Combe Valley Campers.  Well, it was lovely to have Chippy on site for all to see at our first Heretics meet of 2022. Thanks for arranging to bring him down Leigh. Read the full story here. 

Never wanting to leave the more modern commercials and get-away vans out, here are a few snaps of some of the newer Transporters which turned up. Lots of T4s this time around. Fancy a T4? Read our T4 Buyers Guide here. 

We'll come to the Golfs in a minute, but here's a chance for some other waterpumpers to shine... When was the last time you saw a Mk1 Passat Coupe, Polo G40, Harlequin 6n Polo and a Mk2 Scirocco all parked in the same place?! 

Through sheer luck, we managed to park a Type 14 and Type 34 Ghia next to each other, and to add to the coincidence they were both registered in 1967. If you could have picked one from the dealership back in the day, which would it have been? To further add to the fluke, Ollie's 912 was also first registered in 1967 too... Wanna change your mind?! 

From the oldest to the newest, freshly painted or rusty rat-look there was a great showing of Wolfsburg's finest watercooled export. Yes, that is the bonnet from a Beetle, welded to the front of a Mk3 Golf estate - you'll also notice the matching indicators mounted next to them, and the Type 1 blade bumper too!

One of the great things about Heretics is being able to get up and close to so many different types of vehicle. If you are building a project it is full of inspiration, with owners expressing their styles and trying stuff out all the time. Whilst you might see the finished, polished article at a show... You can see behind the scenes of a build at a smaller local meet up like ours. 

The Porsche part of our Heretics community continues to grow, and it's not just 911s making up the numbers. A few 944s, a Speedster kit, a Boxster or two, a 996 and a pair of 912s, including a rare (and gorgeous) one year only 1976 G-body example. 

Brian has been supporting our Heretics events for many years, and it was great to have him spinning the tunes for us as we kicked things off in 2022. We're pleased to say he'll be back with us again in September. Need a DJ? Look him up here.

Another thank you to Lee and Edd from B Road Hunting Club for catering for us. We enjoyed your food so much we forgot to photograph it! Next month we'll also have a dedicated coffee wagon on-site to serve hot drinks and snacks. 

Inspired to attend, or want to do it all over again... Here are the dates you need for the diary to enjoy our Heretics events in 2022. 

Thursday 19th May, Thursday 16th June, Thursday 21st July, Thursday 18th August and Thursday 15th September. Things kick off at 5.30 pm and wrap up at 9 pm. Stay tuned to our Facebook event page for details of ticketing requirements. 

Andy