Ned Faux, Inhaber und Herausgeber des Hayburner Magazine.

Ich habe für Euch ein kleines Interview mit Ned Faux geführt und ihm ein paar Fragen über sich selbst und das Magazin gestellt. 

Ich wünschen Euch viel Spaß beim Lesen.

Für alle, die das Hayburner Magazine noch nicht kennen:

Das Hayburner Magazine ist ein englisch sprachiges Magazin für luftgekühlte VWs. Von VW Käfer, VW Typ3, VW T1, T2 Busse bis hin zum Porsche ist eigentlich alles mal im Magazin zu finden.

1. What got you into the air-cooled VW scene and what was your first air-cooled VW?

When I was a kid in the late 80’s I lived in a small village very close to Santa Pod (UK’s main Drag strip). At the time Bug Jam was quite new and probably the most popular VW event in the UK so me and my friends would go to the top of the village and sit by the main road to watch all the Beetles drive past, I think this was what first attracted me. I love how they all had their own individualidentity and made all the fast Fords and Opel Manta’s, that the teenagers of the time were driving, look dull and boring. My best friend and I put together a scrap book all dedicated to the Beetle we were going to buy when we got to driving age along with a wish list of parts from Big Boys Toys, the car was destined to be fully de-seamed in metallic purple with many green flames, I’d love to get my hands on that scrap book now. Unfortunately I moved away from the village after a house fire in the early 90’s and me and my friend never built the car.I guess It was inevitable I would end up driving air-cooled Volkswagens.    

My first ever air-cooled VW was a ’74 Jeans Beetle, I only owned it for a couple of hours and bit of a naughty story. I was only 16 so too young to get my driving licence but I was already well in to VW’s and used to get Volksworld magazine when I could. My favourite car was ‘the Homer’ built by Michael Leche, it was on the cover in 1995 and I had the pullout poster above my bed. That car was a huge inspiration to me and made me desperate to own a Beetle, desperate to the point I’d do stupid things to get one. At that time I lived with my parents in the nice end of town but I liked to go and hang out with my friends in the ‘rough’ part of town because it was more fun. One day whist hanging around the wrong end of town my friends neighbour came over and asked us if we wanted to buy an old Beetle for £50, the car was in pretty good shape and worth a considerable amount more but he owed the local Marijuana dealer money so had to get rid of it in a hurry. We managed to scrape the £50 together between us that afternoon and the car was ours, the only problem it was in his neighbour’s garden and blocked in by his parents cars. The seller ended up smashing down the garden fence to let us drive the car out of the back in to a school playing field to get out. Of course, as soon as we were in the field we started learning hand brake turns and donuts which attracted attention and someone called the Police. When the squad car came racing in to the field with the lights on I opened the door to run and my friend said “if you are a pussy and run away you lose your half of the car” I was a pussy… I ran away.              

2. What did you do before you started Hayburner?

I left school when at 16 after failing all my exams and worked at a lot of places doing different things. I did an apprenticeship in sign writing but had my son at the age of 22 and had to find a job to support a family so I started working on a building site which led to me running my own small company. I hated working on site and the building industry, I was never for me.           

3. How did you get the idea of ​​launching a VW magazine? And how did you start it?

In 2011 the UK was still in a recession and building work was hard to come by, I was doing a lot of VW swap meets at the weekends for the extra cash but it slowly became that I was doing more parts trading that building work. I was spending a lot of time in the VW community and enjoyed it so much more than working on a building site. Hayburner was a ridiculous idea that spiralled out of control. It was never supposed to be a ‘proper’ publication. The idea was first spoken about at a VW show sitting around a campfire drunk at 3am. The initial idea was to do a Fanzine, like they used to give out for free at the Hardcore punk gigs, sort of 10 sheets of white paper run through a photocopier and stapled together.With the support of my wife (Victoria) I put myself through endless YouTube tutorials on InDesign and Photoshop, learnt how to use a camera and together we wrote up some sort of half arse business plan. When I look back it’s unreal how green and naive we both were but we were so determined to make it work. With my £200 budget I spent it on stickers and flyers which I gave out for free at the shows to try and generate interest.            

 4. Why did you decide to make the magazine free? You could also take money for the magazine?

I thought there was space for Hayburner in the industry because I knew so many people that had put huge amounts of time, effort and money in to cars which I personally thought were amazing, but they just didn’t seem to be getting the coverage they deserved. I think this is why Hayburner has worked. Everybody wins; the people get a free magazine to read, the companies get a place to advertise what they do for a discounted rate but still hitting real VW enthusiasts – and we get the luxury of working on something we love rather than getting real jobs. Don’t ever be fooled in to thinking this is a good business plan. Without working seven days a week also flipping cars and selling parts Hayburner profits would not even cover the rent. 

 5. How many editions do you print from the magazine per issue?

We print 11,000 copies each issue, around 9,000 of them go directly to our subscribers and the rest are distributed at VW events.    

6. Ned, I know this question is difficult to answer, but which air-cooled VW is your favourite, and why? And what is currently your favourite car in the scene?

That is a difficult answer, I like different cars for different reasons but if it came down to the air-cooled I’d most like to own It would be an original Zwitter Rometsch Taxi. Rometsch were a coachbulider and made a four-door Beetle which were used as taxis in the ’50s. Most were Ovals but I have seen a photo of a Zwitter version. When it comes to looks, rarity, history and quirkiness I genuinely can’t think of a VW I would rather own.  

As for favourite car in the scene it was always Shuvarda but now I own it I’ll have to think of another. I’d have to say my favourite car at the moment has to be ‘RadioHallen’ Ben Laughton’s ’54 Samba. It’s not because he’s a friend of mine, it’s because it’s absolutely awesome in every way. After spending a day with it in the studio shooting for issue 35 I really got to see the detail and work involved in resurrecting the bus, I don’t think there will ever be another build quite like it. 

7. What do you think? In which direction is the scene going when it comes to cars?

Currently, I think even with the COVID19 pandemic and world wide recession, the VW community remains strong. Bus prices especially in the UK have dropped but that was inevitable anyway, it makes no real difference to enthusiasts. I personally think it’s an exciting time for the scene. The slammed/patina look has been popular for a long time and always will be but at the same time I see people looking for something different, I can see more custom touches creeping in to builds and people thinking outside the box. This is cool as the individuality of the cars is what attracted me to air-cooled Volkswagens in the first place. I say, do what you like with your own car, fuck the social media scrutiny and build what you like.           

8. How many Air-cooled VW’s have you owned?

Now that’s the hardest question yet, It’s loads… I’ve bought and sold so many I can’t begin work it out, I’m pretty sure the number is three figures.