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From YourSITE.com Events Coverage
Bad weather aside, we’ll still remember fondly the eleventh iteration of the nation’s largest VW/Audi event, and the truth is that Sunday afternoon’s biblical rains didn’t occur till after 2:00 pm, and that allowed for an almost full day of fun for those who got to the event early. Let’s also not forget that since 2003, Waterfest at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ is a two-day affair, and Saturday was completely rain-free. Saturday at Waterfest is set-up day for the ever-growing group of vendors, up 50% in number from the prvious year, and the day definitely possesses a more laid back atmosphere compared to Sunday. Attendees show up to mingle with their friends and many car show entrants use the time for last minute prep work to their vehicles. We’re big fans of the two-day event format as it affords everyone a chance to ease their way into the hectic Sunday schedule and Saturday itself offers a more laid back atmosphere.
Attendance numbers for 2005 seemed well up from last year, with more vendors choosing to participate as well. Vortex Media Group extended an invitation to several Volkswagen and Audi employees, of which several took us up on the offer, one of which was none other than VWoA’s Executive VP and former head of Audi of America, Len Hunt. If you happened to see a tall, stately English gentleman wearing a black VWvortex polo shirt while walking around the event and chatting with various vendors and enthusiasts alike, well, you can assume you saw VW’s enthusiastic US pied piper with your very own eyes. No doubt some of our readers got a chance to actually share their Waterfest experiences with him as well. Say what you will about Volkswagen and their recent ups and downs in the North American marketplace, but to have someone of Mr. Hunt’s caliber mingling so freely at Waterfest is a positive and rather hopeful sign that good things are in store for US and Canadian VW enthusiasts. It also shows just how far Waterfest has come over the last eleven years. Since its inception, Waterfest has highlighted for the entire VW/Audi enthusiast community many of the styles and trends created by various show car builders. This year was no exception. We spotted a number of highlights around the show, from specific cars to the rapidly expanding vendor area, and probably missed more than we saw. Highlights include:
YarrowSport 5000 Speedster – Perhaps there’s nowhere better to start a list of highlights than with YarrowSport’s Audi 5000 Speedster. Owner Yarrow Thorne took an aging and dilapidated 5000 Avant and converted it to a speedster using the Sawzall conversion kit. A stubby speedster style windscreen offers little protection from debris, and Yarrow showed up with some protective glasses, smiling from ear to ear. He claimed the 5000 Speedster, with its two-tone rust/paint exterior scheme got more attention than any high-priced show car he’d ever brought to the event.
PPI Audi TT – AI Design is the new distributor for this subtle new body kit from PPI that makes use of the Audi shield grille design that looks surprisingly factory. AI Design had a Nogarro blue coupe on display, while chip-tuner REVO had a red version in their own booth.
Audi Accessories A3 – We didn’t spot many of the new A3 at Waterfest yet, though the black car we’d originally spotted at the A3’s launch in California was on loan from Audi in our own Fourtitude stand. Subtly upgraded, it featured the new Votex body kit, and a handsome 5-spoke wheel design.
A6 on Dubs – It seemed like more Audi dealerships displayed at Waterfest 11 than Volkswagen dealers. Amongst them, Riverside Audi had several interesting looking cars, from an A8 with polished 20-inch Audi Accessory wheels to an A6, also with 20-inchers that filled out the wheel wells more than adequately.
Dahlback Stage III Kit – TJM Motorsport had a big display, with several wild cars on display, some of which featuring their new Dahlback equivalent to what most refer to as Stage III. We spotted a cool TT roadster sporting the kit amongst several others.
RS2-Powered UrQuattro – Another plug for the Fourtitude booth, we displayed Phil Ackley’s beautiful platinum Quattro in an effort to help celebrate Audi’s 25th Anniversary of quattro. This car features too many upgrades to list here, though the jewel of his extensive list must certainly be the built 20-valve 5-cylinder engine that makes use of many RS2 components. We spotted Phil posing with former Audi of America head Len Hunt near the car at one of the few times there wasn’t a crowd around the car.
Carbonio B6 Components – A company known for some pretty cool carbon-fiber intakes, Carbonio chose Waterfest to debut a nice-looking engine cover and intake for the B6 A4.
BBS CK Wheels on an S4 – On Sunday you might have spotted our 4 Seasons S4 Cabriolet on display in the BBS booth. Featuring the company’s new CK wheel design in 19-inch sizing and new Avon tires from Tire Rack, the car had a decidedly more aggressive look that, not surprisingly, we’ve become quite fond of. A8 W12 on 20-inch BBS LMs – The perfect car for those from the subtler side of the “Big Pimpin’” set, Rodney Primus of Life Quality Audi was back this year with his LM fetish in full swing. We’ve photographed two of his personal cars for features on this site including an S8 and B6 S4 that rolled on 20-inch LMs, so we weren’t surprised to either see him back in a car with the wheels or that we were completely smitten with it. This year, Rodney rolled in a king-of-the-Audi-hill A8 W12. Should we hit the lotto, we’ll be calling his dealership.
APR B7s – APR has always been quick to embrace things Audi, so we weren’t surprised to see a few B7s in the Alabama-based company’s booth alongside regular showcar players of theirs like their Mexican S3. An Imola yellow S4 from New York and the company’s own grey 2.0T development car sat side-by-side in their corner stand. Jamie Vondruska of our VWvortex website got some seat time and managed to the photograph the grey 2.0T. Look for a feature on the car soon.
Stratmosphere B7 S4 – One of the earliest adopters of the new B7 models is Stratmosphere. The company displayed their new quad-tip B7 S4 exhaust on their blue S4 sedan amongst several other new B7-oriented products.
VF Engineering Supercharged A3 3.2 3-door – Nik Sarin and company displayed their new supercharger system for the upcoming A3 3.2, getting a jump on the competition by importing their own 3-door A3 for development. The A3’s year stay is almost complete, but Nik was kind enough to bring it in from California, stopping at the entrance to each state for a picture with the welcome sign before he crossed all those borders.
S2 Rally Car – The Usually Sideways Rally Team is making inroads as a tuner, and chose to show their Audi support by displaying one of their customers cars, a rallied out S2 coupe that they’ve done plenty of work to.
B3 V8 Twin Turbo- If Fourtitude handed out a wildest conversion award, which we don’t, it might go to a company called 034 EFI. In their booth, besides a 20-valve 4000 quattro and a 20V B3 90, there was also a monster twin-turbocharged V8-equipped B3 with what looked like a secondary radiator in the trunk!!!
UneekTT’s Striking Silver Coupe – A known user of this and other forums, the forum poster known as UneekTT brought out his stunning two-tone silver/black coupe and had it on display in the Audiworld.com booth. Audiworld also had a W12 A8L on display alongside their Project B6 S4.
MasterB's Sweet B3 at Vibrant Performance – This might have been the year for the B3 at Waterfest. Though they weren’t there in huge numbers, they were there in huge numbers for the B3. Of the many interesting examples, one of the better looking was a clean lowered red sedan in the Vibrant Performance booth sporting 17-inch RS 4 wheels. We're guessing they were the new 4x108 replicas from Hartmann Wheels.
Achtuning B7 RS 4 Replica Wheels – We almost walked right past Achtuning’s wheel display, until what we saw almost stopped us in our tracks. The company appeared to have two new wheel designs on display, one of which appeared to be a very slight variation of the new B7 RS 4 wheel. Unlike the stock wheel that has exposed lugs, the Achtuning wheel sports Audi lug covers from the original B5 RS 4 wheel.
Trio of Oldschool Audis – All with Massachusetts plates, we spotted three pistine early examples of the Audi brand rolling in together on Saturday and managed to get a few shots. Amongst them were a C1 Audi 100, a B1 Audi Fox and a B2 Audi 4000 fitted with S6 Avus wheels. All were stunningly well kept and we wish we could have found them on Sunday for a closer look.
For those who also like Volkswagens, sister site VWvortex’s display area were consistently inhabited by people looking to get a first glimpse of the new MkV GTI and GLI, as well as the new B6 Passat (that happened to be fitted with some previously unseen VW accessories). Complementing the black fifth-gen GTI were black examples of the previous four GTI generations, and with them all lined up neatly in a row, the evolution of the series was perfectly illustrated. As previously mentioned, Fourtitude took the opportunity to display for the first time its 4 Seasons S4 Cabriolet, newly resplendent in a tasty set of 19” BBS CK wheels and Avon tires. Neatly juxtaposed next to the S4 was Phil Ackley’s amazing RS2-powered ur-Quattro and the striking black A3 from Audi Accessories. Sunday saw the addition of another perfect ur-Q for good measure when Phil had to hit the road a little early. Vortex and Fourtitude visitors were treated to a selection of free T-shirts and decals as well as the option to purchase the ever-elusive VMG t-shirts, hats and plate frames. Five lucky attendees sporting Fourtitude T-shirts on Sunday also won our giveaway prizes graciously donated by Audi Accessories, GIAC, HPA and Stratmosphere – two winners from Connecticut, one from Pennsylvania, one from New York and the last from New Jersey. The Waterfest vendor area has gotten absolutely huge with just about every single big name in the industry with a sizeable tent and professional display area. But it’s not just the big-boys who come to attract the eyes of VW/Audi enthusiasts – Waterfest now attracts such a large and varied audience that each year we see more new companies trying to get their name out and they’re counting on the hugeness of this event to help.
At this early date we’ve yet to hear specific details of major incidents at the various host hotels, but it’s pretty much a certainty that when you have such a huge collection of rabid enthusiasts in one area, all sorts of shenanigans are inevitable. One early rumor suggests that several S4s were stolen during the two-day event, and if this proves true, it would appear we’ve entered into a new phase of shocking behavior. Let’s all hope that this sort of behavior is a onetime fluke and nothing more. It’s long been reported in New Jersey that S4 thefts are rampant, usually for the resale of parts like HID headlights. It’s unfortunate that this has to happen, and we hope it’s totally unrelated to the event being in town. It’s hard to believe another Waterfest has come and gone; so much is the anticipation level for each event. When the rains came on Sunday and everyone made their way home, Raceway Park began to look like a dark and dreary place. A collective lack of sleep was felt by all and the dreadful traffic jams that awaited people traveling both near and far added insult to injury. Still, there’s no better place than Waterfest to catch up with friends, purchase some goodies for your car, show off your latest modifications, and just generally enjoy spending time with thousands of others who share your love for all things VW & Audi. No doubt next year’s event will be even bigger than this year’s. To see VWvortex's full Volkswagen galleries, ---> CLICK HERE.
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