Der Berg Ruft! Newspaper ISSUE 3

This issue kicks off with Brian Scotto, the man who gave the world Hoonigan but thrived in underground publications that most only whisper about now. From there we swing through Chicago, where EV Garage has been busy unleashing pre-2000 Volkswagens so wild they’ve redefined what the East Coast show scene even looks like. Behind the camera, Sam Dobbins keeps reminding us that some moments in the scene aren’t just captured—they’re preserved like artifacts, and Becker is right there too, laying down the gospel of what tools you’d better have packed if you want to survive a breakdown with your dignity intact.

Then there’s Chase, a mechanical alchemist that finishes cars with the kind of touch that makes them last; Diego and Jake, who went from total strangers to friends in the course of one Georgia swap night; and TDC Dave, the quiet powerhouse whose wiring harnesses keep half the cars you’ve seen on the road running like clockwork. And right when you think you’ve met them all, Scott Norton shows up—the collector who seems to appear at every rallye with a for sale sign as if the cars would disappear without him.

We cross back into Europe with Patrick Knole, Germany’s carbon-fiber craftsman, who tells how his work with K-Tech and Michael Koordt unfolded, before meeting Joachim Duwe, who’s spent over thirty years parading his stunning Steilheck Polo Mk2 like a crown jewel through the show circuit. Dan J. Reed joins in, the HTML hero whose unseen hand answered more Vortex questions than anyone will ever admit, and VW Tuning Classics pulls open the archive doors to remind us why old photos are sometimes louder than fresh builds.

Fabrication wizardry is alive with Swoops, whose work feels equal parts steel and sorcery, while Ben Hobson returns with photographs that cast America’s VW legends in their proper light. Brett Sloan, a Porsche dealer by trade but a Volkswagen romantic at heart, lets us into his world of builds so delicate and deliberate they read more like poetry than projects. CJ’s Inari Green Mk1 will pull you in if you stare long enough, while Nick Fareri shows us that purity isn’t dead—it just requires iron will. And then comes Cole Hannah out of Florida, a young builder writing his chapter the way you would want a kid to.

Autokrieg gets a full page because some names deserve room to breathe, while Blair proves once again that every car he touches turns into a banger whether he means it to or not. Matt Sturgeon straps into his Mk1 Scirocco and goes hunting, a racer through and through, and Alex from Queens takes us back to the early 2000s—heavily involved back then and, in a twist of fate, the one who sold me my very first car more than twenty years ago.

And because this is still Der Berg Ruft!, you’ll find puzzles, comics, a word search, and photos worth tearing out and taping to the garage wall. Every page is meant to be turned, every turn meant to feel like you’re stepping deeper into the scene we’ve been fighting to preserve.

500 copies. On newsprint only. The way it was always meant to be.