My obsession with Volkswagens actually started 16 years ago, when I was just 16 (god that's half my life now!). At the time, the only wheels I was interested in were attached to skateboard, but when a friend of mine passed her driving test and brought a bright white 70's beetle, including aluminous splats (It was the mid 90's!), I had my first ride in a bug. We decided to go into town so that she could show off her new car, and while we were crossing a junction another car jumped the lights and sideswiped us! That was my first introduction to air-cooled VW's!

A year or so later I had my first visit to the hallowed grounds of Santa Pod Raceway, when I decided to forget the A levels, and go to some party in the middle of a field called 'Bug Jam'. After spending a very uncomfortable night in a mini, I was woken by the sounds of screaming engines from over a bank in the distance. Stumbling over the bank with a hangover I saw my first glimpse of air-cooled drag racing, and that was it, I was hooked.

Although it would be another 8 years before I owned a Volkswagen, the seeds of obsession had been sown!

Fast forwards 5 years, and I was living in Bristol with an ex girlfriend, having done the university thing (Which did me loads of good as I was working as a drivers mate delivering beer for the brewery!). Having saved up she decided to buy a car, and she wanted something a bit different. All of a sudden a 70's black and chrome bug appeared on the drive! Although I was very jealous at the time, this was my first experience of working on a bug, which finally accumulated in a full rebuild, replacing much of the body work including the floor pan, an A post, and heater channel. During the rebuild I also managed to set the headling on fire with the welder!

After a year or so of my ex's bug I decided that I had to have one too, and with her help I got the 1969 bug you see here. At the time it was painted in a lurid purple with a horrid Oakley sticker across the front window, and was lowered all round. But I loved it! It was my first bug! I drove it like this for a year or so, however, after a while things started to go wrong! (well it's a VW!). After a number of extortionate garage bills I decide that I needed to learn how to do the work for myself, and sat down and read the Haynes manual from cover to cover! We had also moved to Cardiff by this time, and I decide I needed some practical experience of working on vw's. Therefore one morning I walked into Air-cooled Revival, the long gone air-cooled VW dedicated garage, and said, 'Hi I'm Dude, I want to learn about air-cooled VW's, can I help out for free on Saturdays?", an offer they didn't refuse. Thus began my long friendship with the owner Gerard, and my introduction to the mechanics of old Volkswagens.

Fast forward a few more years. I had now been to many VW shows, and although I loved all aspects of Volkswagen, Aircooled drag racing had really become my passion! Standing in my back garden looking at my daily drive beetle rusting away, I decided it was time to start my drag car!

The car itself took 4 years to build, during which time I taught myself to weld and fabricate, as well as much about panel work and prep. I received a lot of help and advice from friends during this time, and talked to many people in the VWDRC, who without their help I could have never finished the car. All the parts were brought as I could afford them, and many of these are second hand recycled parts (i.e. the flip front is off the ex Cardiff based drag car "Mikes beetle", and the gearbox is originally form "Beatleguise"). I also struck up a continuing friendship with Jim at Stateside Tuning who agreed to help me out by building my engine for free in exchange for doing him a website. There were a number of slow periods during this time, for example, when I simply did not have the money to go any further, or when my girlfriend left me and I lost all interest in it. However, the car did eventually get finished, debuting at Bug Jam 2004, after 3 solid week of 13 hour shift in the workshop, with about 4 hours sleep per day. Dude's Beetle was born!

Since that Bug Jam the car has progressed massively! Starting off with a stock 1600cc engine to make sure it ran straight, the car has now progressed to a larger 1914cc engine, which 50bhp of nitrous fitted, allowing me to run a best ET of 11.82 at 115mph at Shakespeare County Raceway!

In 2007 after a long season of many missed gears I managed to secure runners up in VW Pro, winning Easter Thunderball and coming runners up at Summer Nationals along the way! Other achievments also include winning the Avon Park International Race Asociation (APIRA) VW Pro Class in 2006.

I couldn't have done any of this without the help and support of a number of people, including fellow EBC Racing team members, such as Stretch, Kelster, Phil (of Autobdyworx who has help no end!), Rodders (who didn't do much on the car, bur helped me during the bad times), Cardiff-Air-Cooled members (Specifically Chris), Matty and Conner from RaceShack (Cheers both, there no way I'd have got the 11's without your continuous support!), Buzzo for lending me the nitrous stuff, and Huggy and Ian for the nitrous advice. Thanks also to the many business who've have helped including, Stateside Tuning, Cotsweld, Raceshack, Autobodyworx, BEARS Motorsport, Motorshack, and Twisted Sanity. Also thanks to the many people who have crewed for me, such as George and Rachel, Aidie, Kiwi, Pete, Phil, Fat Bloke, Matty, Rod (my worst crew person but a good mate!) Nat, and all the others. There are probably many more I've forgotten that I need to thank, but you know who you are!