Dubs at the Beach 2010 - Sunday

After a quick a easy set up on Sunday, thanks to our bitchin' new set up, we had some time to kill before the masses arrived. And boy did they take their time. A very slow start to the event, with a somewhat disappointing total attendance, although considering the number of car out and about over the weekend it wasn't really a total loss.



More than a few BMWs showed up...



NGP had some cool cars on display, including Josh's 325i turbo and Nate's Jetta VR6 remote turbo, plus Dave B's Mk2 GTI 16v turbo. (those not being the Josh and Nate that run this blog)

















Ethan and Dave from 8380 were set up quickly and kicking back as well.



Dave Goodwin's A4 has been re-done yet again, this time with a carbon-fiber / vinyl roof. Pretty trick, and a lot of time (and money) in this machine.



Even with, I don't know, maybe 100 show cars, there was still some nice metal in the fields. Plenty to check out, and honestly it was the first time I managed to see more or less an entire show field since 2002!





















We did manage to catch some blue crab finally. Jason was beyond excited, but the crabs were decidedly less enthusiastic about it, and in fact were downright cross.





Plenty more pics to see over at the Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr page, so check 'em out.

_WRS

And yes, the 'scene' is ridiculous these days...

Dubs at the Beach 2010 - Saturday

Things got off to a pretty reasonable start on Saturday, and with a 12pm start time we only had to be at the track by around 8:00am or so. Things were quiet, but some decent cars showed up and with the chaps from 8380 on one side and BFI on the other, we had some good times chatting and generally not being too stressed out.



Some of the cooler machines included an R32-swapped Audi A3 (the pictures to those bright green rollers no justice by the way, they were BRIGHT) and a variety of on-the-ground show / no-go cars.







Jersey plates and an intercooler that size on a VR6 = a car you do not want to race. I can guarantee this thing is running at least 500whp (but probably higher), something you need when you're hitting the track (or highway) with the similarly equipped Hondas of the Tri-state area. They don't mess around in the garden state.

I would have shot more pics of the parking lot, but I couldn't be bothered to try and reason with the security about being a vendor and being allowed back in the "pay" area.











Saturday night was predictably insane on the strip, but for some reason I chose not to take any pictures of that. Seems stupid now that I think about it, but I was a little more pre-occupied with shooting long exposures with my tripod. Still getting the hang of that, but some turned out pretty good.









I'd estimate the number of cars parked at the convention center being about 1/10 what it would be for H2Oi. The cops on hand were more than cool with us hanging out there...there were more than enough yahoos on the strip to take care of, the vast majority of which were not VW / Audi drivers.





A little later night was to be followed by a little earlier morning on Sunday. Slow enough that I stole away from the booth to snap some pics of the main event...part 3 to follow!

_WRS

Dubs at the Beach 2010 - Friday

Working for a performance shop and going to show means that your experience is extremely tilted in one direction. It ends up very one sided. Generally speaking you get to the event well before anyone else does, and typically see very little of the actual show. It's not unusual to never get outside of the booth for any significant amount of time, maybe 5 minutes to hit the restroom and do a 360 second lap of the closest row of cars.



Still it's usually a good time, even with all the hard work and time away from home. This year's Dubs at the Beach was sort of a big question mark for everyone involved though. The show was rumored to be canceled up until practically the last minute, and then when the show was finally official, it was scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day weekend and Ocean City?



Yeah...not the best timing, since rates go through the roof once it's official in season in Ocean City. Added to that the were two other shows in the general area (Bug Out in VA and Cabin Fever in MD) and the attendance was predicted to be down from last year, at least that's what we were guessing.



With the holiday weekend bringing heavy traffic, we headed out a little earlier from the shop on Friday morning. As usual, we found ways to amuse ourselves while following the rig.



Brad and Jason were in Brad's A4, while Arno and I were each rocking our respective 8v slugs. We had a few painfully slow runs down 113 along the way....



Once were arrived at the track construction site we met up with Mark and the rest of the crew for a few minutes before setting up the framing on the new canopy. It rules pretty hard. Luckily we didn't have much else to do and were on our way to the house in no time.











This one was pretty nice, HUGE compared to most, and with a pool table and kick-ass vintage synth organ.



Jason was pretty taken with that last feature. He's a regular Beethoven.



They also had a crab pot so we started finishing for some Blue Crab..or...crabbing for Blue Crab. Either way, we didn't get many this first day, and the little bastards sure do get angry when you take them out of the water!



That was about it for day one. By the time we pried ourselves off the back porch and ate dinner it was time to call it a night. We had an early start for the next day, and couldn't get too crazy, as hangovers do not typically go well with unpacking a 48' trailer worth of product...trust me on that one.

_WRS