The production of the Barrelbrigade 2022 is currently running at full speed. Three editors bought three used cars on a limited budget and are now fighting who made the best purchase and who let the bad buy of the year be fobbed off. But first we look back on ten years of rattling, leaks, misery and (sorrow) entertainment. Did you know that not every barrel ended up in the shredder? No fewer than four ex-barrels are still in use to this day. With one very special survivor.
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When we came up with the idea in the fall of 2012 to buy something else with the proceeds of our endurance test second-hand Kluk-Kluk (a Jeep Grand Cherokee), the idea for a competition was born: the Barrel Brigade was born. Back then, with a budget of €300 per person, three editors bought a car. Since then, there have been six editions of the Barrelbrigade and twenty dubious second-hand cars entered our at least as dubious scaffold. Twice a barrel did not even make it to the end of the competition and he was replaced along the way. Most of the barrels that did make it disappeared after the party towards the scrapyard or experienced a short, painful old age before they got their well-deserved crushing session. But not all …
Last breath
In 2019, Nic, Jan and Michiel crossed swords with a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, a Renault Mégane Scénic and a Ford Thunderbird in that order. It didn’t go smoothly, especially not for Jan, because he kicked off with a beautiful Alfa Romeo 156, which, however, breathed his last on the German autobahn. A dealer friend helped him out with a much less exciting Renault Mégane Scénic, but the remarkable thing is that that car is one of the few barrels that not only survived his participation in the Barrel Brigade, but even today, three years after the adventure, still driving around. On April 18, 2020, the fortunate MPV changed hands again and the current lucky one doesn’t have to go to the MOT again until May next year. 2019 was a good year anyway, because Michiel’s T-Bird, which left the battlefield with a drooping driver’s door, half the original power and a defective dynamo (but with Golden Connecting Rod), continues to this day. still faithful service.
Loving basket
A third survivor of the Barrel Brigade is the Kia Rio with which Nic entered the battlefield two years ago and took second place. And the winner of that edition, Frank’s Renault Laguna, came out unscathed and we donated it to a loyal reader who just got his driver’s license. This reader promised to give him a loving basket. He did that with gusto, he improved the Laguna further and even did Renaultclub meetings and rides. But that beautiful second life was not to last long, because one bad day the Laguna went straight ahead where it should have turned left and experienced his Waterloo against a lamppost.
For sale
But the most remarkable survivor is without a doubt the Volkswagen New Beetle from last year’s edition, with which guest barr Birgit Willems tried her luck in the Barrelbrigade. The black Beetle is even standing at the moment for sale for a Barrelbrigade-unworthy €1,450. Want to triple the value of your old car? Lend it to us, let it ripen for a year and hoppa!
So much for the past. The seventh edition of the Barrelbrigade starts from AutoWeek 31 (appears on August 3) and you can follow closely around the same time via videos on this website. We won’t reveal which cars will enter the arena yet, but we can promise you that it has become a surprising, diverse and colorful trio. If you spend a lot of time on the road and look around you, there is a chance that you have already spotted one, because the barrels of 2022 have been driving around for several weeks, stickered and all.
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