Der Käfer Fahrer

[swanlakers]

Is Der Käfer Fahrer club still alive?
They seem to have sort have faded from view

[Brezelwerks]

Sad to say that I have recently found out that it has folded.

Gary

[John Moxon]

I noticed recently its forum pages were used by just a very few. Sad really but I think The Samba offers such a wide range of topics and attracts such a spread of knowledgeable users it's made a lot of other smaller forums redundant.

It's not a criticism, my Forum page is much the same but I don't mind you'll certainly get a quick answer on The Samba.

I think the impression most people had with the Der Käfer Fahrer Club itself was that it was strickly "hard-core" with a need to drive your Vintage VW a certain number of miles a year to qualify. A bit of an elitist air about it...I don't say I'm right about that...just an impression, maybe that put people off joining.
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John.
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My 1958 Shorrock Supercharged Karmann Ghia
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[shamas]

Tried to join a year or so ago. Sent in a check, never heard a word, followed up later, still no answer, check never cashed.
They must have given up.
Jim

[53 0val]

The club is done.......several people are trying to save it but it looks like it's pretty much finished.
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"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." Dobee, Dobee, Do

[Brezelwerks]

Again, the DKF folded, done.

The club formed and consisted originally of a small contingent of vw collectors here in the northeast. Over time, and likely due to the huge popularity of the Fall Foliage Tours held by the DKF (led by Bill Collins), those travelling in to attend from different regions often joined, and who wouldn't want to be a part of such a group? Although I was never able to attend these tours, they were considered one of the best vw events to attend.

The group first believed in driving their pre-57 cars as duly noted, and no other vintage group during their time of their size can compare to how effective they were in promoting the awareness, history, and interest level in the earliest VWs.

However, do not confuse these goals with any reference to the group being elitist. Do not confuse passion and responsiblity for the hobby with elitism. Also describing or attempting to belittlle any one of them as hard core is also inaccurate, as their members were simply purists whom enjoyed driving their cars and participating in driving events worldwide. They certainly encouraged me and incited my ambitions to own and restore the earliest cars.

While I never formally joined the club, even though I live minutes away from alot of the founding members, I'm very thankful for having met most of the members during the years. Any one of these folks could be easily approached any show or event and be welcomed into a conversation, and probably learn something interesting during the conversation.

Its a group presence that will be missed in the hobby for sure.

Gary

[John Moxon]

[53 0val]

I was a member for five years and enjoyed every day of it. It was great meeting up with everyone at various events form Bad Camberg to Solvang. Special thanks go out to Bill Collins who really was the heart and soul of the club. I will always proudly display my club sticker on the window of the old car.

Bob Sowersby
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"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." Dobee, Dobee, Do

[Brezelwerks]

Just wanted to clear the air between unqualified perception versus reality, especially when the legacy of a deservedly respected club is front in center on this forum.

The only real barrier for these perception driven people in joining this club were the people themselves, not the club. If you wanted to join you either had a pre-57 car and drove it 1500 miles a year or you didn't, not exactly elitist in nature.

But, you would need to be a serious and a committed enthusiast to begin with, especially in the northeast (here) which gets only about 6 months of driving season to begin with. In reality, whether folks like it or not, it does mean that keeping a car in "road trip worthy" condition requires a level of investment, and competence in repairing your vw, all barriers up to the individual to address and achieve.

Gary

[Dave]

I was an "associate member" for years with my '55 sunroof, but I was always just too damned busy working to log the needed amount of miles on the car to become a full-fledged member. Nevertheless, my wife and I got to participate in a Fall Foliage Tour a few years back, and Bill Collins VERY generously allowed myself and Leslie the use of his 1953 Zwitter Sunroof, complete with Judson Supercharger, and Porsche brakes.
Elitist? I dunno about that- They were a club, and they had rules that they wanted people to adhere to. I see nothing wrong with that. I'm sorry to see the club disband. That Fall Foliage Tour was some of the most fun I had had with my clothes on for quite a while
Plus, getting to drive Bill's Heb was a treat, in and of itself.
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"Those that matter, don't mind,
and those that mind, don't matter"

[kafer53]

That's too bad. It sounded like a good club!
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1953 Zwitter 11C (L73)

[coolairX2]

And he is happier being a just a driver rather than investing so much effort into orginizing the annual foliage cruise and other assorted cruises. He is still putting on as many miles in his air-cooled's, but I think his Porsche D cabrio is his driver of choice nowadays, cannot say I would make a different choice. He had driven to Quebec and British Columbia through the rockies this season with a bunch of other P car junkies. He knows how to enjoy his toys and he always shared them with others.

I never got my split done in time to be a full fledged member but my 58 Ghia allowed me to be an associate member. I only got to do one fall cruise but it was a LOT of fun. Good people, great vintage cars and beautiful country side.

-Craig

[Dave Haviland]

DKF was an awesome club (hate to say "was"). But it seems that that is the way it is.
I am (was) a member for 4 years. My wife Tracy and I drove our '57 sedan at least 4,000 miles a year. We love to drive.
We met at lot of great people through DKF and travel great distances to visit them.
Yes, it was an elite club. Elitist, no. But from the time we became members, it always seemed "special"
I honestly don't know where the future lies for the DFK, but when we meet with DKF'ers there's still that special bond.
Dave knows what I'm talking about.

Dave

[Rome]

The time was right and ripe for a club like the DKF, but as with most hobby activities, you have to be realistic about the time investment to RUN the club. Jon Lane did a wonderful job with editing and publishing the club newsletter. It contained articles from local DKF club drives to different events, recollections from past drives or cars from clubmembers, etc. Daily lives and aging leave less and less time and energy for holding up a club. All of the "steering committee" had invested time, money and energy to plan events and keep the club alive. The fact that it only was possible for a relatively small amount of VW enthusiasts to join the club, really separated more the "wanna runs" with the genuine drivers, who, like Mr. Haviland, appreciated and tolerated regularly driving their 50-year old cars like they were meant to when new. Maybe it was an aspect of "admiration" for the clubmembers instead of "elitism" for having enough faith in such old cars to really still drive them so much.

And when they drove, it was not like little ol' ladies; our cruises regularly had sustained highway speeds of 65mph (on level surface ) even with just a stock 30hp engine (OK, "25" hp) pushing it.

I also was an associate member (had a late '52 hotrodded Zwitter in those days). Unfortunately I never participated in any of the club's Fall Foliage Drives, but my friends who did always raved about the drive, the accomodations, and the friendships. The Foliage Drives also made it intersting/tolerable for the wives/women due to the upscale evening accomodations. I did join many of the group out of the NorthEast on their drives out to the big Michigan Vintage VW club meet, at that time held at VW's HQ in Auburn Hills. The very fact that your car had to be reliable and roadworthy to meet the 1500 miles per year often meant that the cars were also in excellent physical shape. That usually implies an expensive restoration, and most of the cars of the clubmembers that I saw were indeed among the top 10% of such era cars in the country. Yes, Country. I've also seen Mr. Sowersby's Beetle at HotVWs Drag Day in Irwindale CA 3/03 and it is highly impressive. My Zwitter would never have held up on longer drives, and I usually drove either a '64 Ghia or a '77 Beetle on the Michigan runs with the group.

Roland from NY

[Brezelwerks]

FYI....there an in inkling of activity in the DKF still being investigated, so its not over until its over, stay tuned.

Gary

[johnshenry]

[Wiggy]

[johnshenry]

No Kev, you are not invited. You are expected.

Seriously I plan on organizing a fall cruise next fall. Will be in Columbus day weekend (pray for better weather than this last one!!!) like the DKF ones always were. Will be a 2.5-3 day weekend deal, and we'll stay somewhere up in the NH mountains. The Black Bear lodge where we stayed last 2 times was a good deal (Mt Washington Hotel was real nice too.... but $435 a night!!! And I think you had to book 3 yrs in advance.....)

So set the date. I would like to plan this to include cars that fit under the old DKF "rules", '57 and older, stock, but period and safetly mods OK.

It will require a deposit sometime in the spring.

It will be a driving event., leave the trailers at home..

Stay tuned here for details, Gary, Craig, we need to go out and have a beer somewhere and talk about this. Dave you can come down too
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab

[Rome]

John, wonderful idea! So for those of us that have newer ACVWs ('58 and up), should we start at the opposite end of the day's ride and meet in the middle, so that there is no generational contamination?

No more "old man of the mountain" in NH...

[johnshenry]

This is an interesting idea, we could have a "met up" point on Saturday, where anyone could show up and we could gather and chat.

Of course I can't determine what cars can drive in New England or not. If someone with a newer car really wants to tag along, I don't pretend I can stop them. But my thoughts now are that I will work out with a hotel a set number of participants/cars (I'm thinking 25 cars) and to officially register with the program you will have to have, and drive in the event, a '57 or older VW.

I'm sure the elitist comments will fly, but I personally always enjoyed the "focus" of the DKF club. Of course one day in this country some one will sue to have their boy forced to be allowed to become a Girl Scout....
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John Henry

'57 Deluxe
'56 Single Cab