JVWF 2019: Soul of a Hero

I'm sat in the office at Heritage HQ more than 7000 miles away from Jogjakarta in Indonesia, excited to share with you the enthusiasm, cars and the people myself, Laurent and Indra had the pleasure of meeting and experiencing for a week earlier in November this year. There's so much to say, so look out for some follow-up articles too.

The biggest VW show in Indonesia

If you are going to fly for 15 hours around the world you want to go to the biggest and best show, don't you? Fortunately, our hosts, the VW Club of Jogjakarta ensure they put on the largest event of its kind and rightly chuffed with their creation, they invite enthusiasts and experts from all corners of the globe to share it with them; Laurent and I were just two of them!

The soul of a hero

Each JVWF show has a theme, and for 2019 the organisers had decided on 'Soul of a Hero'. It was the show hashtag, available as stickers, and even hand-painted onto the door of a Karmann Ghia.

Unity in Diversity

It was only through a bit of post-trip research that I discovered the national motto of Indonesia and it couldn't have been more fitting to the event and the vehicles that we saw. 'Bhinneka Tunggal Ika' can be found written on the national symbol and translates to Unity in Diversity. What a great sentiment. This is something that we really endorse as a business and are lucky enough to celebrate both unity and diversity with our monthly Heretics meetings where we bring both air and watercooled VW and Porsche vehicles and owners together.

VW Tourists

As well as ourselves from the UK we were joined by enthusiasts from Switzerland, Netherlands, USA, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia to name just a few nationalities included as 'Guests of honour. We were celebrated a number of times across the weekend, from the opening ceremony complete with traditional dancing and music (and a lovely meal overlooking the countryside at the foot of an ancient temple, where we'd just watched the sunset) through to the closing ceremony and prize-giving on Sunday night.

Every two years

The Volkswagen scene is vibrant and enthusiastic in Indonesia (and evidently from the people we met, throughout SE Asia too). However, with travelling distance and the ocean keeping many owners from meeting up with each other on a regular basis, Jogja Volkswagen Festival which is held every 2 years is the perfect reason for enthusiasts to get together to celebrate their cars and the VW lifestyle.

Long-distance Porsche driving

Whilst the show is billed as starting on Saturday morning, the car park starts to become interesting from Thursday as show-goers, and long-distance drivers turn up for the event. We get wind of a convoy of RWB Porsches (and friends) driving 600km from Terror Garage to the show having previously spent the week with Ron Fleming and Gary Berg on an engine build before embarking on this ambitious road trip. More photos specifically of this group to follow.

Cleaning up!

The western obsession for vehicle detailing is yet to land firmly in Indonesia, but that's not to say the show was full of filthy cars - apart from the Outlaw 356 belonging to Michael Lesmana which hasn't seen a sponge in over 2 years, on purpose!

Down and Dirty!

It does drive... dirt like that doesn't happen from pushing it on and off a trailer.

Lucky draw

As an added attraction to this already amazing event, the organisers build a vehicle to giveaway to one lucky show-goer. JVWF 2019 saw a grey German Look 1303 put together by club members and supporting businesses (including a host of VW Beetle parts from ourselves) and it's fair to say they did a great job. The car sat low and fat with widened steel wings tucking 17" Porsche 914 replica alloys. The star of the build for me was the unique ducktail spoiler, something that had been produced specifically for this car. The car was previewed to the media in a press conference at the Alana Hotel on Thursday, before being officially unveiled on Saturday morning by the club president with much applause and intrigue from onlookers.

Handmade Speedster

Indonesia is full of artists and craftspeople, and when it comes to classic cars there's not much that can't be made from sheet steel, or in this case aluminium. Check out the Vinos Speedster, whilst sat unfinished it was clear to see the level of detail and effort that has gone into getting the project this far. Other handmade vehicles on show include the Yumos Garage Type 64 Berlin Rome Porsche homage. With its polished aluminium coachwork, it was a work of art.

At the Heritage booth...

Sporting fresh signage, our stand at JVWF looked great and played host to a beautiful low-light Karmann Ghia built and owned by Heritage friends and customers Classic Hans Room. It was a pleasure to meet so many new people and give away a ton of our 'Greetings from Brighton' postcards that we'd had made for Brighton Breeze earlier in the year. A special thanks to Andre for taking all the photos for us and Zsa Zsa our Liasion Officer for keeping us fed, watered, and running on time.

Fancy a large coffee?!!

Just head over to the extra-long Crew Cab serving your favourite caffeine-fueled beverage.  This was quite a creation!

Walking around the show

Inside the air-conditioned exhibition halls, the humidity is hidden and you are free to enjoy the vehicles in relative comfort. Heck, if you fancy a cheeky smoke you can even use the Intersport smoking room without stepping out into the mid-thirties and mopping your brow with every other step!

Heritage Choice

With our gifted status as 'Guests of Honour' came the responsibility of picking our car of the show. It was a really tough call, but we settled with a '66 Sunroof Beetle finished in glass-like green paint. This car ticked all the boxes and would draw a crowd back home in the UK too.

EV Ghia, great idea

Sat in amongst the regular show cars was a sixties 'Ghia sporting a classy metallic orange paint job. There were two things that were rather special about it. One, a little more obvious than the other. Firstly it was powered by an electric motor. Secondly - It was a handbuilt car, rather than an original Karmann Ghia...

Trekker Time!

Type 181 (or 182 for RHD), Trakker, Safari, Thing; call it what you like, but there are a ton them in Indonesia! If you are a fan of this utilitarian 'family car' check these out!

Just a few more...

Having taken so many photos, it's tough to pick just a few to represent this show fairly and fully. I'll wrap it up for now.  If you haven't already check out the show video we filmed here, and stay tuned for more SE Asian content including RWB Porsches, an amazing workshop tour and an exclusive 3 car photoshoot we managed to bag before we came home. Andy