ALMS: Baltimore Grand Prix preview

We'll have full coverage of the Baltimore Grand Prix - but I do want to apologize for the total lack of updates lately. I'm in the process of moving, and well, it's kind of been taking up all my time. After the BGP we'll also have fresh H2O pics and feedback, plus work will commence on the IMSA GTI.

_WRS

Home for the Holidays

Being back in freezing Baltimore for Christmas meant the obligatory visit to The Wiz car wash to rinse off the Winter grime. Here's to hoping you and yours have a safe and happy holiday season.

_WRS

Big fun in Baltimore - ALMS joins Indy exactly one year from now

There was a big announcement from the American Le Mans Series yesterday, officially confirming the numerous rumors that had been circulating for the past few months: Yes, the ALMS is officially going to be making a stop in Charm City USA. The great Memorial Labor Day bash, part of the Indy Car weekend that the Baltimore Racing Development has been working on for the past few years, has just been put on must-attend status for us here at Der Wofsburg Rennsport.



Aside from the fact that there have been no Mid-Atlantic ALMS events since the very short liveed Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington DC, Baltimore is our home town and knowing those streets and the environment of downtown Baltimore, it will be a heck of an event for sure. The Baltimore Grand Prix, as it is officially known, will take place over the weekend of September 2nd through the 4th, and will feature the IZOD Indy cars as the main event for Sunday, backed up by the ALMS on Saturday.



The announcement was made official yesterday afternoon, fittingly, at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The streets to be used for the track are already under reconstruction and improvement, and based on what we have seen it should be an excellent layout, with great vantage points and a supurb backdrop, fitting the world class racing the ALMS is known for.

More as it develops, but if you're on the east coast you owe it to yourself to be in Baltimore next year for this event. We certainly will be.

_WRS

VW Roots (Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club)

Every once in a while it's good to look back on where you came from, and where you managed to pick up this addiction. I've been into cars my whole life, my favorite Matchbox car was a blue Sachs sponsored Porsche 935, so the post and pic series which is forthcoming isn't necessarily exactly where it all started for me, but it's the first time Josh and I would hang out with other people strictly because they shared a similar passion. That group was Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club. Thanks to Josh's camera always being in hand, he was there to take these pictures.



Back in the day, a certain car or model would tend to get really popular in Baltimore, and for a really long time it was all about the Mk2 Jetta. Back then half the cars weren't really sporting anything more than some chrome Hammers and maybe some kind of body kit or some lowering springs, but it was the car to have, no doubt. The 'it' car went onto the 300Z soon after, and the Acura Legend soon after that, but there were those who stuck with the Volkswagens, and those guys were the Jetta Club.



I'll need to check with Josh if he has any other pics, but this series is of the club president, Billy, and his newly acquired Corrado G60. Keep in mind this car was only 3 years old at most when these pictures were shot...and Billy's black 92 GL with the Momo Quasars and modified Maxima body kit was only a year old. Billy was quite the VW head...he lived and breathed it hardcore, and he had an 87 GTI 16v as a more in depth project as well.



The closest thing to this grip of cars these days would be an R32 parked next to a Mk5 Jetta, with a Mk4 20th Anniversary out back.



This 16v was running a full body kit from Autotech (I think?) and was resprayed in a slightly more flashy version of the OEM maroon paint. There wasn't any internet to jump on, no way to know what the other guys were doing except for what you saw in European Car, or what you saw at Bug Out. There was no Waterfest, no H20, no Dubs anywhere at all. Just your catalogs from Neuspeed, Autotech and Techtonics. There were other shops, like JT Motorsport and Rapid Parts, but they didn't have those same glossy mags, or the cache of the 'Big Three.'



Altogether there were probbaly 10-12 hardcore members of Baltimore's Finest Jetta Club, and maybe another 5-6 that would show up on the odd occasion. Most of these guys were getting out of the whole car phase, with families and real life to deal with, so after that first 6-8 months of hanging out at the Polytechnic parking lot on Sunday afternoons, we lost touch with Billy and the rest of the guys. From there we started hanging out with the younger guys at Loch Raven Reservoir, but that's a story for another time.



Who knows, maybe there's a mint G60 Corrado stuffed into some garage in East Baltimore, parked next to a dusty old 16v project that never quite got finished all those years ago. Probably not, but it wouldn't surprise me...just remember that it's guys like this that helped keep the VW scene alive back in the dark ages of Watercooled tuning. Sure the cars look dated and a little tame by today's standards (however the wheels are all hot!), but they were the way things were back then.

_WRS

Pic post: Film just looks better

After my session of scanning in photos last night, I came to a bit of a realization. Old school film looks better. Well, perhaps not better, but more natural. To me it should have been pretty obvious I suppose, as I'm a long time believer that vinyl records sound more natural, and for a guitar nothing is better than a tube amp...solid state has no place in a serious guitarist's rig.

Now, the thing of this is that film certainly doesn't appear to be more accurate, much like a vinyl record isn't more accurate than a compact disc, but it looks like you think it should, just like a record gives that warm sound like a band at a perfect venue. It looks like a memory...which is what pictures are really supposed to be I guess, but in these days of digital SLRs where you can set it to "rock and roll" and just fire away, pictures almost seem to have become less than they were just a decade ago. A good picture is still a good picture, but it's too easy to just snap snap snap...the two pictures on this page were both taken with my old, beloved, and still occasionally dusted off Cannonette G-III rangefinder. Neither are perfect, but to me they look just right....

_WRS