The Big Photoshoot 2022: Ardingly College

A whole lot has happened in the world since the last time we assembled a representative group of vehicles together to create some awesome advertising and marketing material. However, all that aside, we're pleased to report last month we managed to do it again, and this time it was twice as big! With over 20 VW and Porsche in one place and at our creative disposal read on to see what went down!

You're probably thinking what are a bunch of car enthusiasts doing snooping around a private school at a weekend? Well, allow us to explain. Finding a location that is large enough to accommodate 20 plus cars, not to mention private enough to take control of for hours at a time without causing a huge disruption is no mean feat. On top of all of that, we also wanted a backdrop to do these beautiful cars justice, and then it dawned on us... Private schools! 

Private schools are empty in the holidays, occupy vast areas of the countryside, and tend to be built in stately homes or buildings of architectural merit. After some online searches and Google satellite stalking, we found Ardingly College. An email, a phone call, and a great meeting with their team later, the date was set. We can't thank them enough... What a place!

We'd normally finish with some words of thanks, but we really owe serious recognition off the bat to the owners of these awesome machines. These photoshoots really wouldn't work without the generosity of our community and it was great to meet some new faces and get to know some of your car stories a little better too. 

In no particular order our sincere thanks to Simon (Split) Tyler (T25) Daz (T4) Assheton (Beetle) Andrew (Ghia) Andi (Mk1 Golf) Harry (Mk2 Golf) Jack (911) Gavin (911) Paul (964) Chris (993) Harry (996) John (997) Mark (986) Marc (944). On top of this, thanks to our team members Max (Bay) Dean (T5) for giving up their day and finally Barney our CEO (997) for signing off and bankrolling these creative projects. 

Our gratitude is also extended to the guys who captured these images for you - Nick from NWVT and Martin from Well Chuffed Media. We'll also include the behind-the-scenes video at the end, courtesy of Mike B Designs.  

Not wanting to blow our own trumpets, but a shout to Steph for booking and organising everyone beforehand, Janice and Dean for the catering, and I guess I should pat myself on the back too for running around and parking cars under the watchful eye of the professionals. 

I thought about trying to highlight each of the twenty-something cars we were using individually, but the whole idea was getting vehicles that would sit alongside each other in a complimentary fashion. So instead, allow us to walk you through some of the shots that were created, blending eras, styles, and colours to fine effect. Enjoy. 

If you've ever been to a wedding and participated in the chaos that can be the group photographs, you'll have an idea of the efforts Nick and Chuff put in to get all these shots for us. 

Even when cars were meant to be off-camera and parked up, it still made a fantastic photo! Here are a few more fortuitous snaps we grabbed throughout the day. 

We had a trio of topless models on hand for the day, not to mention a couple of Targa-topped beauties too. The Mk1 Cabriolet and 986 Boxster pairing was one of my favourites - with 15 years separating them, they have aged fantastically and both now sit at a very similar price point in the UK market. With examples of both available for less than £5k, which would you rather be rolling in next summer? 

Before you answer that question though, read our 986 Boxster Buying Guide and the Mk1 Golf Cabriolet Buying Guide to make sure you get a good one. 

The blue Karmann Ghia cabriolet was a real peach, but Andrew who brought it along was quick to tell us it's actually his wife's car, and he restored it for her - he has a Type 25 painted in the same colour to match! 

With a black Mk2 Golf, dark grey 997 and midnight blue 964 to play with it made perfect sense to park them up and have a play with some very complimentary colours. 

Whilst the majority of the cars in our lineup were finished in more muted tones, there were a few that really popped out amongst the crowd. In a tribute to our favourite sugar-coated, chocolate-centred sweets, we bring you the ones that make the kids go loopy! 

Whilst there was lots of fun to be had with the bright colours, our selection of white vehicles helped to hold the larger group shots together, and also worked very well in isolation too. 

Another fine visual pairing was the 986 and 997, both in similar shades of silver. Whilst sold at different times, and most notably with different headlamps, the styling cues are certainly from the same rule book. 

You have already seen the finished photo above, so here are some other shots we took at the same time, albeit from different angles. 

We were very fortunate to have Mike on hand for the day to capture all the fun on film with us, so if you enjoyed the photos you'll love this short video below. 

We started with words of thanks, and we will end with them too. 

Thanks not only to the guys and girls who came down, the media team for capturing it all, but also to our customers and community who continue to build cars and campers that inspire us, and make it possible to create this sort of content in the first place. 

No doubt we'll do something like this again in the future. If that sounds like fun to you, make sure you are following our social media and joining in with the #driveheritage community group for all the details. 

Andy