Has Waterfest become too commercial? That’s one question that was posed to us as we sat atop the grandstands at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ and looked out over the kingdom organizers of America’s largest VW and Audi enthusiast show have created - to the right, a large show field, to the left a burgeoning exhibition field, and in the center… one of the largest vendor areas Waterfest or any VW or Audi owner has ever seen. Now in its thirteenth year, Waterfest has grown from underground enthusiast event to major industry gathering, where bumping into Alex Roy and his Gumball 3000 Team Polizei group in their antenna and sticker-laden BMW M5 reminds us just how discovered this show has become.
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Thanks.

Great show and a great time in NJ this year.

..and we have ads on each photo. All of them. How ironic!

Modified by 602crew at 6:05 PM 7-26-2007

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I saw this car. It's really beautiful in real life.

Free brilliantyellowg60

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Quote, originally posted by friedgreencorrado »

Wasn't there a build thread for that TDI Corrado here in the C forum? I wonder if I could build one for biodiesel? No need to stop having fun just because the oil's running out.

yes click on the sig.

Thanks for including my car in the pics

Thanks Guys!

Might be my favorite! Very nice...worthy of all the praise!

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zer...d=911

LOL, Seriously.

W      i hate 'rs!

Modified by kish0000 at 6:50 AM 7-27-2007

B5 Battalion

As far as the event coverage goes I believe George must have been on a restricted badge that did not let him go everywhere because he missed half the stuff going on there and or barely mentioned it.

This review probably won't help my user rating, but come on guys. If you are going to cover an event cover all of it, or one day you will wake up and some new VW forum will have stolen your audience, and maybe even your advertisers.

EDIT: I could not find it in myself to remove this review because i really want racing and the other parts of Waterfest to be represented by the enthusiast sites and magazines out there, but upon further review my words about George and his writing ability are out of line. He did his level best from what I have learned and i only hope they will do better in the future.

Modified by VariantStg3 at 4:31 PM 7-28-2007

11.006 @ 135.74 mph 1.731 60ft - 1983 GTI with mods

MY07 Volkswagen GTi - Reflex Silver - base, base, base model.

If you read the article, I'm clearly saying that Waterfest and the entire industry (Vortex included) has changed. I still don't see it as a bad thing. There's room for it, and that's why just one year into MkV cars, there's so much more available.

I own an Audi 4000 quattro that I'm restoring and finding parts for that car is much like what Mk1 folks once had to deal with. Hard to find, hard to get if you do find them. Thanks to the growth, there's plenty for MK1 cars in comparison.

Quote, originally posted by .:Rudeboy »

Not a single pic of my car and it was in the Vortex Booth all weekend

That's my mistake. It's in the booth shots, but there were folks all around it when I went to shoot it the first time. I forgot to go back and get stand alones.

Quote, originally posted by ANCIENT »

was there any photos on either a stock MK1 Scirocco or modified MK1 Scirocco? I went through like 1400 pics, and didn't see one. Is it possible?

I was the only one shooting this year. I walked the entire vendor, show and exhibition fields both days, but I still missed stuff. I don't remember seeing one though.

For me, also shooting for Fourtitude, I was bummed when I saw a white RS 4 on white/black rims an aisle over in the exhibition field and it left by the time I made it around to the next row. I'm sure that wasn't the only car that eluded me.

Great work on the shots... you got waay more pics then I would have expected.

Ouch. Can't please all of the people all of the time.

Re-read the article dude. I said it has become more commercial and that wasn't a bad thing. The whole premise of the article came from a conversation I had with another guy who does work for some print mags. He said one of the pubs out there (won't name them) was passing on WF coverage because it had become too commercial. I'll agree the whole thing is more polished and "discovered", but again, I DON'T think that's a bad thing.

This was NOT our first instance of show coverage sponsorship and that advertising helps us pay our hosting bills that we don't charge our readers for. Our hosting bills are several times my mortgage thanks to the high degree of readership, so pardon me if I don't feel bad if we make money on this venture.

BTW, I challenge you to walk the show over two days, work our both and shoot 1600+ photos (the total before I weeded them out), and then make sure you don't miss one of the gazillion things going on at an event of this size. Ease up there man. There's only so much that can be done in a day (or two).

Care to share what you think I missed out on? I'd love to hear what I missed, as I'm sure there's quite a bit.

Saw NO pics of Autocrossing, nor anymore than a part of a sentence about it. Also with Drag racing, You did an awesome job at taking pics of cars, no doubt, but if your there to cover the WHOLE Event and work the booth, well for me you missed the parts I think balance the show.

...and for your fan club, I was not there as a photographer, I was there participating and had a blast of a time. Might even make the 18 hour cruise again next year.

Now to be fair if there is pictorial coverage of the 9 second Corrado and some of the new cars in action on the auto cross course, let me be the first to apologize. No have time to search for burnout contest pics but I don't recall those photos...

11.006 @ 135.74 mph 1.731 60ft - 1983 GTI with mods

OK I must be missing somthing. 1000+ pics posted, where? I saw the gallery. Didn't add up to 1000+

Edited: It did add up to 1400 something, so you got me there.

Modified by VariantStg3 at 3:33 PM 7-27-2007

11.006 @ 135.74 mph 1.731 60ft - 1983 GTI with mods

I only got to the autox the first year at E-Town when it was a 1 day event with autoX on Sat.

Its tough to catch all the activity.

I agree and I missed much of what he covered, but to me, many will miss witnin his coverage that there was more than a car show going on. Weather everyone likes it or not Waterfest is the biggest show-N-GO during the summer and the added activities seem to always get treated with no respect. His coverage just magnified that assumption in my mind.

11.006 @ 135.74 mph 1.731 60ft - 1983 GTI with mods

How the F are you gonna do autocross and drag racing "respect" with a still camera.

You could use the different settings on the camera to make the pictures more dynamic. F-stop/Aperture/Shutter Speed come to mind, but again I am not a photographer...

My point is he was very narrowly focused in his coverage and I believe I have made it.

11.006 @ 135.74 mph 1.731 60ft - 1983 GTI with mods