It seems like every year the hype for H2O International is bigger than the last, and it would seem expectations will never be met...eventually they have to be higher than the real thing right? I mean after all, what goes up must come down. But after all these years, H2Oi is still a monster..growing by leaps and bounds each and every year.
I know I always sound like an old-fogey with my 'back in my day' talk, but I can remember the very first time I stayed over on Sunday night rather than heading back to Baltimore after the long Sunday. This was 2004, and Ed and I stayed behind as we weren't too pressed about sleeping at home, and ended up hanging out with Matt Kappen and the G&M crew.
All told, I would guess maybe 20-30 people were still around town. (10 of them being on Boardwalk and 3rd at about 2am) A few VWs here and there, but not many. By Monday morning there were fewer still. The one or two cars we saw on the way out we waved to because well, we were all part of the same clan, and back then it was an elite few.
If I waved at everyone I saw leaving H2O this past Monday morning not only would I have looked like an idiot, my hand would have fallen off...there were that many people. Now there are at least 20 times as many as even a few years ago, when Josh and I would stay over before heading back to NYC.
Friday of this year was pretty much the same thing. Now, it has always been fairly popular to get a head start on the weekend by arriving Friday, but these days it's nuts...people are arriving as much as a week in advance. And as far as Fridays, since most places require at least two night's rental so why not use it? This Friday there were maybe double what was last year...which was probably double the year before, and so on. It's turning into quite the marathon event for some people.
And why not. All told I have never seen so many cars over the course of a weekend. The level of quality is sky high overall, and it takes a hell of a lot more than 2 days to take them all in. It's all come a long way from when the 'Big Ass BBQ' used to be at Jay's house over in Ocean Pines.
This year we had a lot of the old-school NGP heads at the booth, including the infamous Mike Herrmann, Steve Brown, and a few others. Mike was one of the O.G. Club H2O reps back in the day, back when H2O really was a car club, started by Scott Hartmann and Greg...umm...something or other. Old age kicking in I suppose, but I can recall Scott had a Black 95 Golf sport on 17" OZ Superturismos and Greg had a Montana Green 1992 GTI 8v (in full Brit-style), followed by a green G60 Corrado.
Anyway, we headed out from NGP in mid-morning, with a pack of M3s, an EVO, the RS4, Nate Baugher's rear-turbo VR6 Jetta, Dave Baldwin's Mk2 16v turbo, B-rad's A4 and my own humble 2.0, plus Arno's ragingly loud 2.0 Mk4. It was perhaps the best collection of cars we've ever had for the trip at one time.
We spent a little time at the 45th Street Plaza Friday night, after setting up the booth, and things were decidedly more low key than they would be the following evening. Great cars though, especially the Mk1s. Where these cars were 10 years ago I'll never know, but I sure am glad people find these and keep them clean and (mostly) unmolested.
The whole lower-than-the-next guy thing has gotten a little out of hand though. When your M3's front spoiler scrapes the ground when you're on FLAT ground, and you have to enter and exit parking lots like this, well...I think we're into the realm of low-riders more than sports cars.
Purist that I am, I can admit when a car is done right, even on air ride. We'll have to wait for part 2 for the air ride pics...
So yeah, Friday was pretty gangbusters, but I didn't take many pictures. Talking too much and catching up with people I suppose, but that's really what's it all about. The cars are sort of a given, but without the characters behind them, they really don't mean shit.
Part two (Saturday) coming soon...
_WRS
