Waterfest Report

["George & Deanna Achorn" <coolidge@tidalwave.net>]

Hey,
    I just rolled in from W-fest. It was a blast. The new location is better
than the old by far, but it is still not perfect.

    My wife and I got up early this morning and cruised up. We mid-way
through PA we locked in on a convoy with a red Scirocco 16V with Gold BBS
wheels, obviously headed the same place. In NJ a red Camaro was speed trap
fodder for me, he passed me about 1 mile before a speedtrap and took the
heat. For once I was happy to be passed by a Camaro.
    We rolled in and walked around for a while. There were alot of vendors,
but not as good selection of used parts. Eurotech had a decent collection,
but the guy with all the sets of rims etc from last year didn't show. Too
bad, he was selling them for $400 a set (5 lug) by the end of the show or
best offer).
    Todd from AWE was there with Garrett, though I didn't get to talk to
them much. They had a booth along with some other tuners, and manufacturer
reps from companies like Hella, Bilstein, Neuspeed, Konig etc. I was
surprised Momo wasn't there. They were at VW Sport's smaller show in VA back
in March.
    Now for the cars. There was a ton of what you'd expect, on A1, A2 & A3
chassis cars. There were 3 beetles being shown, though VW Sport's silver
Beetle was the only modded one. It had a freedom design aero kit, Kinesis
Porsche look rims, and Carbon fiber out the butt on the interior. Next to it
was their A4 Golf which got alot of stares. I had a hard time getting a shot
without gawking people in the way. It's a blue 4-door GTI 1.8T. It had a
sweet Recaro interior, which I wonder if it is stock?
    Passats were also less than I expected. There was one guy with a GLX,
stock with a Fahrvergnugen sticker and mudflaps. There were two more silver
ones, both 4 cylinder, done by VW Sport. One was fully Abt equipped with
airkit and wheels & suspension. The other had suspension and Projectzwo
rims. Both were silver.
    Other than new models I am just going to list oddball cars that I saw,
that would stand out from the typical modded VR6 etc. My personal favorite
was the Scirocco VR6 from last year. Though last year it looked like crap,
this year it was more polished. The guy had a badgeless grille, A2 big
bumper set which looked pretty good, big 5-spoke rims, drilled rotors, '93+
Corrado dashboard, and full Recaro interior.
    There was an A1 pickup with custom rear hard top and a VR6. Les from
Eurotech had a blue GTI VR6T with custom covered and stitched dashboard and
kinesis wheels. It looked pretty good, and had alot of the tricks from last
year's yellow GTI.
    That guy with the green Cabrio VR6T from New York was there, and still
has video games hooked up inside. I actually saw a guy hanging out in one
car watching Austin Powers. WHile that is a trick (albeit somewhat useless
mod), why waste your time at Waterfest watching Austin Powers when you can
do it on the big screen at home and you can look at some damn cool VWs? Go
figure.
    There was a wierd chopped Jetta in the autocross paddock that I got a
shot of. It had a shortened trunk and had the 318ti look to it. There was
also a Cabriolet/Rabbit Pickup hybrid in the parking lot where I snagged
photos. While not all that intimidating it was interesting.
    Now for my gripe. There were a sh*tload of cool cars in the parking lot,
probably double what was in the show itself. I suggest Rapid do two things
for next year. First, have a non-judged VW showfield where you pay regular
entry to get in, and you can park and let people check out your car, but you
don't have to own a full fledged showcar. Second, add a second day. Two days
of Waterfest would rock.
    On the way home there was some sort of speedtrap or check point about 2
miles out of SUNY. They had a bunch of modded VWs pulled over and looked
like they were ticketing them. I didn't get stopped, so I don't know what it
was all about.
    That's about all for now. The rest of the people can update you all on
the rest. I didn't see too much of the autocross, so I'll let the hardcore
racers fill you in on that. Later-G