BugNutz 1991-2011…yes, we are 20 years old!!!!
A brief history of BugNutz by me John Mills a.k.a. 'runningmonkey'…..Well, as much as I can remember, they were hazy days.
I did start writing this earlier in the year, but with other commitments and all that ( newly married and new sprog), Iv only just managed to get it finished, and Iv asked janski to cast his eyes over it for crossing the t's and dotting the i's. So blame him if the spelling and grammar is terrible.
Back when petrol was circa. 46 pence per litre, a certain Volkswagen club was born.
The year, if I remember correctly was 1991 and a man, by the name of Jason White and his girl friend Melinda had the idea of a Bury based Volkswagen club after visiting another local classic car club in Bolton.
Jason was well known in the Northwest area, because of his distinctive 1967 beetle 'The Cadburys bug'. It was painted in Cadburys purple, lowered at the front, fitted with one piece windows and running Centrelines. It also had a 1641 motor as the power house. The Cadbury bug was a true old school cal look bug. As a school kid at the time, I would see the car cruising around the streets of Bury and it may well have been the car that made me fall in love with Volkswagens and the vw scene.
The Club originally started meeting at the Crofters arms in Bolton where Jason had been going for some years it was an established classic car club as I've already mention but Jason wanted a vw only club and a new venue, so a moved was needed. It was decided that the new club would meet at the Flying Shuttle in Bury. The Flying Shuttle had a large car park which was just perfect for the meets. (Now the mill gate multi-storey car park).In the early days, the club had about 5 founding members, Jason & Melinda plus a handful of others which I apologise for not remembering their names. They use to meet every Thursday at the pub from 8pm onwards. At this point the club still had no name, until a man by the name of Tim Kelly joined the club, and along with another club member came up with the name BugNutz.
I had just passed my driving test and my parents had bought me a mk3 Fiesta for my 17th. I had that car for about 3 months until one day I was driving home from college and saw a 74 Bug parked at the side of the road. I pulled over to talk to the owner and 20 minutes later I had done a straight swop for my fiesta! When I arrived home my dad had a strange look on his face that was somewhere between bemusement and anger. Once he had calmed down from the initial shock, I think he began to like the car. About a week after, I was driving the bug (which was painted in a light blue robin reliant colour with a full Porsche body kit fitted) I was flag over by some nutter in a green beetle who turned out to be the fore mentioned Tim Kelly. For me, Tim was one of the people who really got BugNutz off the ground. He was chief recruiter of the club and bought many new members to the Flying Shuttle including myself.
My first Bug 1974 with Porsche body kit (it was cool....in the day)
Tim Kelly
A brief history of BugNutz by me John Mills a.k.a. 'runningmonkey'…..Well, as much as I can remember, they were hazy days.
I did start writing this earlier in the year, but with other commitments and all that ( newly married and new sprog), Iv only just managed to get it finished, and Iv asked janski to cast his eyes over it for crossing the t's and dotting the i's. So blame him if the spelling and grammar is terrible.
Back when petrol was circa. 46 pence per litre, a certain Volkswagen club was born.
The year, if I remember correctly was 1991 and a man, by the name of Jason White and his girl friend Melinda had the idea of a Bury based Volkswagen club after visiting another local classic car club in Bolton.
Jason was well known in the Northwest area, because of his distinctive 1967 beetle 'The Cadburys bug'. It was painted in Cadburys purple, lowered at the front, fitted with one piece windows and running Centrelines. It also had a 1641 motor as the power house. The Cadbury bug was a true old school cal look bug. As a school kid at the time, I would see the car cruising around the streets of Bury and it may well have been the car that made me fall in love with Volkswagens and the vw scene.
The Club originally started meeting at the Crofters arms in Bolton where Jason had been going for some years it was an established classic car club as I've already mention but Jason wanted a vw only club and a new venue, so a moved was needed. It was decided that the new club would meet at the Flying Shuttle in Bury. The Flying Shuttle had a large car park which was just perfect for the meets. (Now the mill gate multi-storey car park).In the early days, the club had about 5 founding members, Jason & Melinda plus a handful of others which I apologise for not remembering their names. They use to meet every Thursday at the pub from 8pm onwards. At this point the club still had no name, until a man by the name of Tim Kelly joined the club, and along with another club member came up with the name BugNutz.
I had just passed my driving test and my parents had bought me a mk3 Fiesta for my 17th. I had that car for about 3 months until one day I was driving home from college and saw a 74 Bug parked at the side of the road. I pulled over to talk to the owner and 20 minutes later I had done a straight swop for my fiesta! When I arrived home my dad had a strange look on his face that was somewhere between bemusement and anger. Once he had calmed down from the initial shock, I think he began to like the car. About a week after, I was driving the bug (which was painted in a light blue robin reliant colour with a full Porsche body kit fitted) I was flag over by some nutter in a green beetle who turned out to be the fore mentioned Tim Kelly. For me, Tim was one of the people who really got BugNutz off the ground. He was chief recruiter of the club and bought many new members to the Flying Shuttle including myself.
My first Bug 1974 with Porsche body kit (it was cool....in the day)
Tim Kelly