volksrider

We are coming down to the last of the shows for the season in the North East. Englishtown, NJ is normally filled with a lot of cars and a lot of swap parts. If you have read my last review of their Spring show, lets hope that they have it on the traditional size of the drag track and not the round-about way on the far side (read it here). Here is the location of the show.

Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ

(732)-446-7800 - Show Info
230 Pension Rd., Englishtown, NJ. 07726

Gates Open - 8:00 AM
Drag Time Trials - 10:30 AM & 11:15 AM
1st Round Elims - 12:00 Noon
Show Car Awards - 3:00 PM

Have Fun!Stay tuned for my review next week.10. 9.06 -

				

It was a great pleasure visiting the “All Air-Cooled Gathering” in Flander, NJ today (September 17, 2006). This event was hosted by the Central Jersey Volkswagen Society and the Swim and Sports Club of Flanders, NJ. I must admit, I am often disappointed by shows that have fewer than 10 swap-meet vendors, but this was a rare moment where as I did not seem to mind. It was a pleasure taking part of an event that was slim in size, but had just about every aspect that makes a car show great. Everyone at the show was exceptionally friendly and was willing to talk about almost anything, from restoration advice to where to find parts or their take on the good live music played at the show. It was the first time in about 5 years it felt good again to be at a Volkswagen show and not being overly obsessed with pushing my nose into piles of old swap parts. Unfortunately (fortunately), as time progress, I can envision the size of this show growing to great volumes. I only hope that the show can still maintain that personal appeal that I felt today. Another thing I must mention, the show was put together for a very good cause!
“Little Johnathan born with a illness”

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This year, the show in Englishtown NJ was the worst organized ever. The problem started from entering the show area as spectator or auto bragger. The show was held on the opposite side of the racetrack, creating a huge single line of veedubs mixed with spectator’s Fords, Audis, and Toyotas trying to enter the park. From the time you entered the parking lot, your wait was well over 1 hour to enter the show area. To top it off, they still wanted your $15 bux. We should have gotten paid for waiting in line for such a poorly designed show this year. Once I arrived, I was disappointed by the organization of the show cars and more importantly the organization of the swap area. There were things scatter all over the place. A bunch of little dispersed pods of used parts. You could not easily located the beginning or end of the swap area. The previous years of Englishtown, everything was kept nice and tight. There was space designed for the show and space allocated for swapping parts. You could easily re-located a person’s table after you ran around to check if his/her prices were indeed correct. I am still tired from walking 800 feet around barriers, cars and other confused shoppers. If you unfortunately had to located any after-market parts, you had to run straight through the show cars to the other side to look at them. Sometimes I like to compare beat up old part prices with new after-market prices and weigh if it is worth my wild to restore the original part. It was very difficult this year. I hope their fall show takes Sunday’s fiasco into account and does what it takes to get back to the older side of the racetrack. A place where all the attendees on Sunday looked like they desired. On another note, one of the kewlest thing I saw at the show was this VW with multiple cameras connected to the body of the car for filming. They had pictures of some of the shots the camera took. A nice side profile of the front wheels carving through the streets. I’m pretty sure the car was doing only 15 MPH, but the camera angles looked really kewl. Nice job! This was my favor car at the show. Don’t ask me why, but it had a unique color and profiled nicely.