XTT 3 : Indian Summer

September 21st, it's that time of year again, the Kross Town Traffic circus is back in town. It's already been one full year since the XTT "Double O" try-out, and it has been a big hit with the aircooled crowd, with over 40 cars showing up for this informal cruise trough Ghent last time around. We want to stress that the cruise is open for any car, bike or plane, be it aircooled or just Plain Jane Cool ! So be there or be [].

Oh yeah, for those not savy with the concept, you show up with your ride, right from the strike of seven in the evening. You get the chance to chit-chat with like-minded or other people. And at around eight, off you go, with a small, not too hard to comprehend roadmap. We meet again after the cruise at the local MacDo for a quick bite.

Possessed

It looks like I'm in dire need of an exorcist after 666. One of the only 5 pictures of the night on my own digicam and this is what you get.

RoooOoooxanne...

Finally, after the third time visiting San Fernando Valley, the main attraction of XTT, someone dared snapping a spy picture. Nice work Keverclub België !!! And thanks for the other nice shots too.

and Off we go !

Nice Pic of the Baron having fun. In his hand you can almost make out the roadbook. Too bad he had to hand it over to his trusted Co-Pilotesse with as a reslult that upon arriving at the MacDo, where we finish and chow, he came rolling in from the other direction.
Some people blame it on the excellent roadbook, I tend to blame it on the Boogie.

Apocalypse Now

As we like to drive our cars, we, Die Volksfreunde, get together evey 3 months or so to make the streets of downtown Ghent an unsafer place. This time we couldn't have picked a better day as it was the number of the Beast, 06/06/06 !

And as we don't like to drive alone, we invited anyone with Hot Wheels to tag along. This resulted in a lively Park&Ride, with over 40 cars showing up. Mainly aircooled from early fifties till late 2003 and Type 1, Type 2 to Type 3 over to some Porsches. But even some chunks of American Iron came out to play.

This all resulted in some fine line-ups, to be admired by passerby's, some of them turning up in Beemer cabrios, but they soon realised that you at least needed something Vintage to part in the fun.

Theme to this XTT was "the Devil" and you were supposed to turn up masked with your flyer. Few did, but this guy really wore his mask with the pride it deserved. I wonder if he has already taken it of by now as it looks so natural on him.

Mask on !!!

Finally, at long last, the flyer is locked and loaded. But as San Fernando Valley is becoming a regular item, so is last minute notification.
This time it's interactive as hell. Get out your scissors and maybe even your crayons and start printing big. Cut along the dotted lines and make holes for headlights, put a rubberband trough the black dots on the sides and presto, you look like one bad bat out of hell. Fun, isn't it.
For once leave your cool at home and put on your mask, as it might as well be your last night on the town. Remember it's 666 ! And no mask, no plan, so...

666

Here you are, the date for the next XTT has been set : the Sixth of June 2006, one Hell of a day to take a ride into town as if the Devil is chasing your tail. I know it's a tuesday, probably after a long and hard weekend, but Hell, it might just be your last chance to drive your beloved car, as the End is near.
As usual we park at seven and ride at eight, starting of at the Park&Ride in Gentbrugge, heading for the Macdo, cruising trough Sin City Ghent. And yes, San Fernando Valley will be included in the tour.
Come back here for more info and off course a flyer to hold the boys in blue at bay.

Dangerous terrorists

One of the few shots inside the MacDo. We were deemed to dangerous to be taking pictures, you never know we were planning a bombing of the drive in. But thanks to Modder- en Chokomelksmurf from the Keverclub België for this and the previous pictures, they risked a lot, first and foremost their credibility, but we're used to that by now. For a lot more pictures you should check the VWKCB web site now.

To cut a long story short

As night time driving makes for lousy pics, there are not a lot of them taken. So we skip the tour, which was cut short due to the news of the local police force doing paperchecks along the end of the route. Stupid coincidence, but as we don't tempt faith we decided to skip one of the nicest parts of the trip, a high speed stretch along the Watersportbaan, almost 5 km of unadulterated fun. We parked out on the parking lot next to the MacDo, and all went in for a treat. Some of the cars only showed up half an hour later as they had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Wondelgem, going to Zelzate. OOps.

Engines on

After handing over the very well thought out roadbooks to every co-pilot, off we went. Straight on to the highway as we headed for San Fernando Valley. Strangely enough, again there are no pictures of the wildlife, I wonder why, most photographers did not seem to shy to me. But I could be mistaken.
Off course some illiterate Fools missed out on SFV, but in the end they were very smart to pick up on the tour again, only missing 2 or 3 streets, which is not easy once you have left the roadbook. Especially in Ghent central with all its one way streets.

Starting grid

Come Eight, 31 parking spaces were filled with Aircoolers of all sorts, ranging from a 51 splitwindow to my very own 84 T3 (and I don't mean type 3, but rather one of those real ugly bricks, so ugly you have to love them). Oh and lets not forget this gorgeous Ultima Edicion, courtesy of the Belgische Keverclub. There was also one Volvo Amazon to prove that we are very openminded when it comes to cars. It's always fun to meet with other passionates.

Park at seven

And this is where all the mayhem started, the Park&Ride at Gentbrugge. I showed up at exactly Seven 'o clock and already 3 cars were waiting for me. Off course Wim was there with his 65 Notch, the DVF's unofficial head honcho, always ready to speech if you ask him to. And then two more young beetles, and their lovely and less lovely drivers, getting ready for things to come. Which one the lesser lovely was, you should fight out yourselves. As the one organising, I can't take side.

The end of it all

I'll start with the final destination of the tour, the parkinglot next to the Drive trough MacDo, with enough place to park more than a hundred cars, so if you like what you see, feel free to show up next time somewhere half trough June.
Thanks to Sancho for the moodfull pic.

Bugtour 3

And while we're at it, presenting this years DVF exploits, just a small reminder. The seventh of Mai, we're riding out for a nice daylong ralleye/cruise around the town of Ghent. It is all included with breakfast, lunch and apres-cruise. For more info feel free to visit one of the other blogspots of the DVF emporium.

Sneak preview Pt2

Lucky for us you need the darkness to experience the delights of San Fernando Valley in its full splendour. And don't be sad if you can't stop to fully enjoy the view, by fear of being kicked out by your girl, later on we pass on by a more family oriented playground, and we can't stop either. Ah, sweet revenge.

Sneak preview

If you come, or better when you come to XTT, these are some of the sights you may or may not experience from behind the wheel of your beloved (air)cool ride. Only difference will be the time of day and ergo state of darkness. You don't have to warm up the engine as there are some more fine stretches to break speedlimits on later on. But you didn't get this from me!

Spring Ride Out

The dices have been thrown, Kross Town Traffic is back in bussiness. On March 16 we will have another night at the town, the first in a row of three troughout 2006. If you want to join, please meet us at the Park&Ride in Gentbrugge at around seven. We will leave, hopefully with a readable plan this time, at eight sharp. San Fernando Valley is first on our schedule, so Ffred, be there or be .... An hour later we will grind to a halt at the local MacDo for a quick bite and a cool coke.
Every one in a cool car is free to join, the more the merrier.

Cars, the stars Pt5

The Players, Bus people par excellence, also showed up. They managed to break down with slight electrical problems, but were helped out by one of the other cruisers and one friendly local.

Cars, the stars Pt4

And two more Type 3. The 64 in the back is being sold, but will hopefully turn up at some of the planned DVF events. The flat black one in front is property of DVF chairman Wimme. Apart from the special look, two-tone frontpanels, this 65 is as sound and solid as they come. A moderately hot engine is going to be shoehorned in the trunk pretty soon.

Cars, the stars Pt3

Purrrty 66 Notchback on Baby fuchs with hot 150 HP engine out back, with Porsche cooling to boot. To bad Pascal sold this very nice car shortly after to fund his passion for Harleys. But it turns out we may have lost him forever as good sources say he has been enquiring about the new Opel Astra just recently. He'd better wise up, 'cause we can take him any day.

Cars, the stars Pt2

Chequered Roof, early Bay on Cosmic alloys.

Cars, the stars

Mid sixties bug on Fuchs pulled a little sprint on entering the carpark, something we can and will not endors. But Hell, it sure made for some fun.
Check out the New Beetle in the back, which isn't the only waterboiler who showed up, as Kross Town Traffic is an all brands cruisenight. We also had two old Audi's boiling over, an Opel Manta dropping by to say hello and one ragged Neon, but we really had to ban that last one.

MacDo

Last stop was at the MacDo on the small Ring. Lots of parking space there so next time, bring your friends. We all headed inside to have a quick (no pun intended) bite and talk up some more. We all had fun, so, to be continued...

Getting ready for San Fernando Valley

At the Kouter, smack in the middle, we were able to regroup. Then everybody just followed the leader of the pack as we headed into San Fernando Valley, where we were able to admire the wildlife. And man, do they live wild in that part of town. To bad there are no pictures of that stretch, either everybody was gobsmacked or just plain embarrassed, who's to tell.

Roadmap

But fun lasted only untill the roadmaps were handed out. The look of amazement on peoples faces was only a slight indication of things to come. What seemed to be a very easy cruise through the town of Ghent turned into Comedy Capers pretty soon after we left, as at the first right some of us were already heading straight ahead. We had fun anyhow.

Line-up

A total of about 20 cars showed up, which isn't to bad considering that everything was planned and broadcasted only one week before. There were even some total strangers pulling in the parking lot under the E17, and then again, others were just utterly strange. Nevertheless a great way to get to know your Pappenheimers.

Punctuality

The flyer said Park at Seven, but who could have thought that V dubbers are that punctual, must be a touch of Deutsche Gründlicheit. By 7.30 they were almost all there, but we were sheduled to ride at eight, and were expecting some more arrivals.

The Big Double O.

This nightcruise trough Ghent, also known as Kross Town Traffic - the Prequel, was held by Die Volksfreunde on September 15th of 2005. It was to test out the full potential of a monthly on the move gettogether, and it worked out just fine. So, every month of the 2006 season our hometown will be infested with little buggers, that's a fact.