Waterfest 10 (July 17 & 18, 2004)
Waterfest, having just completed its 10th showing, has now become the largest water-cooled (hence Waterfest) Volkswagen/Audi show in North America. Attracting just about 10 000 enthusiasts and boasting nearly 300 cars on display, this event has grown tenfold over the last decade. From humble beginnings on the campus of a New York state college to literally taking over northern New Jersey, this experience attracts fans from the US, Canada and Europe.
The show takes place over a period of two days. Saturday is designed for vendors, tuner shops and scrappers to display their goods for those interested in buying or swapping parts and accessories. Sunday is all about the cars. There are drag competitions, autocross races, sound-offs (car stereo competition) and, of course, show car judging to find the best looking, best built and most interesting tuner VWs.
This year turned out to be a water fest indeed. From early morning, large
dark clouds loomed overhead threatening to shower the amassed Dubbers with unwanted rain at any moment. The show cars were finally all in by around 10am even though the rules state that all cars being judged must be inside the gates by 9am. An event of this magnitude requires much planning and staff and because of the shear logistics, not everything went as planned. They had not taken into consideration the 30 to 45 minute wait just to get to the gates. In the end, everyone was ushered to their rightful spot in the exhibit section.
By 11:30am, once every show car was shiny, clean and spotless, the judges evaluated each car. The categories for judging are divided by model and generation: 1985 to 1992 Jetta, 1993 to 1999 Golf, 1998 to present-day Passat and so on. In each category, there are four different levels of classification: Stock, Mod1 (some modifications), Mod2 (more modifications that would involve an engine swap for example) and Super modified (the sky's the limit). Points are awarded for everything from display and quality of workmanship to cleanliness. The car that accumulates the most points wins the category. Those with the 2nd and 3rd most points win their respective positions.
 |
Once the judging was completed, you couldn't help but walk around and be in awe of the amount of work and money that some people spent on their cars. Some had such impressive physical alterations that the car looked almost nothing like it did when it left the manufacturer's assembly plant. Others were subtler; having lowered the suspension, added alloy wheels and replaced the North American manufacturer's original lighting with more powerful European manufacturer's original equipment. Mega-bucks is the saying for many of these tuners. The average enthusiast can spend between 6 000 and 8 000$ over a period of a couple of years. Some will even spend 4 times that much over the same period of time.
As the years go by, so do the trends. The last 5 years have seen a sharp decrease in mk1 (1975 to 1984) and mk2 (1985 to 1992) Volkswagens because of their age, and an increase in mk3 (1993 to 1999) and mk4 (1999½ to present-day) VWs because of their tunability for great power and the wide availability of parts, and lets not forget the imminent arrival of the new mk5s. The older Volkswagens still have a cult following but their numbers are dwindling.
