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Volkswagen Car Club of the Philippines
For the record
Filipino Volkswagen fans unite for global recognition
Words by Jaqueline Dyer; Photography by Chino Acosta
If my neighbor had just agreed to sell me his beautiful, silver-bodied, red-interiored Karmann Ghia, I would’ve been part of this event instead of just covering it. So there I was at the Quezon City Hall one hot summer morning, frothing at the mouth at the sight of a massive landscape of multicolored Beetles that had gathered to break a Guinness World Record for the biggest parade of Volkswagen cars, and merely covering what was probably the biggest national Volkswagen event in recent national history instead of being part of it. Not that I could participate, anyway, since I don’t have a driver’s license. But then I don’t have my Karmann Ghia, so, really, what would be the point of driving?
This ambitious feat of an event, held on April 6, was sponsored by Pepsi Maxx and organized by the Volkswagen Car Club of the Philippines (VWCP) through events organizer Firewire. It wasn’t exclusive to VWCP members, though the car club did spearhead it.
The record for the highest number of Beetles in a parade already belongs to Brazil, and so the Pinoys one-upped their South American brethren by including all Volkswagen models. Though the classic Beetle accounted for about 90 percent of the cars registered, the remaining 10 percent consisted of less ubiquitous but equally venerable VW models like the Passat, Transporter, Touareg, Jetta, Rabbit, R32, Eos, GLI, and of course, the Karmann Ghia.
You had a wide gamut of participants—all the way from your war veteran (the oldest participating VWCP member was 73 years old) to your barely legal Gossip Girl fan (the youngest was 17). But generation gaps and pop-cultural divides were checked at the door on the morning of the Guinness World Record attempt, which is probably why the VWCP succeeded in achieving the world record for longest Volkswagen parade, with a turnout of more than 800 cars.
VWCP was founded in 1985 by eight Karmann Ghia enthusiasts. It had been originally called the VW Karmann Registry until it was renamed in 1992, when it also received SEC accredition. You don’t even have to own a VW to be a member—you just have to be a fan of what is the only good idea ever to come out of Hitler’s sick noggin.
The tag ‘people’s car’ holds true for VWCP, and because its members can range from the richest of car restoration junkies to those who got their secondhand VW simply because it was all they could afford, VWCP is most likely the most highly populated active car club in the country, ‘active’ being the operative word here, since the club holds meetings every Saturday night for the NCR chapter alone.
The poetic irony is how definitive VWCP’s identity manages to remain despite the motley crew of members it accommodates. I witnessed it in the diversity of participants in the world-record attempt, and also in the daily web-forum exchanges. A common demographic is almost nonexistent yet the collective character is palpable: analog hearts in a digital world.
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Top Gear Philippines - July 2008
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