Volkswagen Anonymous Club Kenya
Founded in 2008 by five visionary individuals, The Volkswagen Anonymous Classic Club of Kenya (simply known as VW Anonymous) is Kenya’s leading vintage VW club. Its membership is drawn from motor vehicle enthusiasts with a demonstrated passion and commitment for restoring, driving and maintaining the timeless VW Beetles and Bay window Buses. The joy of a classic car is sharing the fun and experience with fellow owners.
Driven by this common interest, the club members have become a closely knit group of friends who encourage each other by sharing experiences, technical support and valuable ideas, to ensure that members eternally enjoy the unparalleled pleasure of driving these iconic vehicles. Indeed, the club is blessed with some of the most knowledgeable DIY (Do It Yourself) techies. It is therefore no surprise that some of the most reliable crop of these classic VW Beetles and Buses are found within the club.
“Virtually all members are younger than their vintage vehicles, some of which have been impeccably restored close to showroom standards”
Being a member of VW Anonymous offers each person an opportunity to share the joys and pains of keeping these classic gems alive, on the road and pristine. With members at various stages of individual project vehicle restoration or enhancement stages, a wealth of tips and tricks on how to fix, maintain or restore the cars are always available. The club assists members to source for genuine parts and at pocket friendly bargains from even as far as the USA and UK. In the unfortunate event that a member’s vehicle experiences a breakdown, other members are usually quick to answer to any SOS calls to ensure the affected member is rescued and the problem sorted conclusively. Naturally, these situations are becoming more and more rare, thanks to the benefits accrued from club standards of car maintenance.
The club holds regular informal and fun filled meetings to catch up and network at personal and professional levels (Yes! Classic Cars bring people together). It is during these meetings that detailed discussions, updates and planning of events take place. These meetings also double up as “car clinics” where members showcase their recent upgrades and/or simple maintenance and tune-ups done to their cars.
One of the core values of the club is “giving back to society”, and it does this by participating in various charity ventures either as the club’s own initiative or through joint ventures. In fact, most of the club events are primarily driven by charitable cause (https://www.facebook.com/classicvwcharitytour/). The club is keen on teaming up with like-minded groups both corporates and individuals to share some of its “Vee dub” love with the less fortunate members of our society.
On the fun side, the club cars have had the opportunity to grace social events such as weddings, photo shoots, advertisements, road shows, products launches, awareness events and fuel economy drives. In the process, members get to travel to local and international destinations. Members hire out their vintage treasures at daily rates ranging between Kes. 25,000 and Kes. 35,000 per day, depending on nature of events, the number of cars required and the distances involved.
Currently membership stands at 24 members. Recruitment is done twice a year mainly through references after which applicants go through a vetting process. The applicants must be owners of at least an air-cooled VW classic, in running condition. First time membership attracts a fee of Kes. 10,000 and an annual fee of Kes. 1,000.
Some recent events that the club has participated in include:
Bite the Dust 2016 – 5 Day – Off Road Challenge (Nairobi-Teule-Diani) – 31st May – 5th June 2016
A total of 14 VW Beetles/Buses and crew braved tough off road terrains from Nairobi through Amboseli National Park, Tsavo East/West National Park, all the way to the South Coast of Kenya, Diani. The goal of this drive was to raise funds for Teule Children’s Home in Loitoktok, to meet some of the basic needs such as food, clothes and sanitary pads at the home. Teule Children’s Home rescues, supports and hosts abandoned, orphaned, abused or neglected children in Kenya.
Marsabit Charity Drive 2017 – 30th March – 2nd April 2017
In conjunction with Simply Do Good (SDG), a movement geared towards influencing a culture of generosity through acts of kindness and social impact while encouraging others to do the same, and other well-wishers, a convoy of VW beetles/buses weathered the high temperatures and sand storms to deliver the much needed food supplies to families in Marsabit County faced with imminent famine.
Uganda Vintage & Classic Auto Show 2017 – 29th July 2017, The Sheraton Hotel, Kampala, Uganda
On our debut at this event, we entered 8 vehicles, 6 of which were driven from Nairobi, to and from Kampala. One of our members’ 1959 VW Beetle (aka Vanessa), deservedly won two awards i.e. the best restored car in its class and the best international entry
CBA Africa Concours De’legance 2017, Ngong Racecourse, 24th September 2017
As a regular participant, plans are at an advance level to have the club feature prominently at this year’s event.
Going forward, the club is looking at impacting more lives through CSR opportunities as they share the joy of their air-cooled beauties. They also want to remain at the top of their game in terms of top-notch quality classic car maintenance. In order to do this, they plan on working towards ensuring that spare parts are available locally in order to mitigate the delays and costs associated with getting spares from abroad.
The VW Anonymous club is open to discussions with corporates and individuals around social and community service events subject to mutual interests and availability of the members. They are reachable via 0722921108 or info@vwaclub.com.
