I hung out with the Club Lupo lot on their stand with my lil’ Lupo GTi on show parked next to some crazy supercharged Lups, an assortment of slammed to the floor specimens on 17’s and crazy induction kitted ones. So basically mine was the slowest of them all. But hey, I thought my luck was in by entering the free Shown ‘N’ Shine until I popped open my bonnet and stared at a grey grubby salt ridden mess. No problem! I thought. I grabbed together the brill Club Lupo lot, some trusty Back to Black spray and went to work. An hour later and after several sniggers, I thought it looked the dogs. I glanced over at the competition in the same class – two Skoda Octavias, a Vdub Beetle and one other Lupo GTi. Easy! Until Darren from Club Lupo pointed out that they were cleaning their motors with gloves on and even using cotton buds to scrape out the last dregs of dirt from each crevice. Now, if you really knew me you’d understand how much I dislike cleaning cars. So I was in a totally different league and yes, I admit it, gave up. In fact, I didn’t move from the Club Lupo stand so I didn’t embarrass myself too much.

There were some quarter mile sprint surprises on the day – a Vdub camper van doing average times of 22 seconds and perhaps the slowest vehicle ever to do the strip, with mighty Corrados canning it in an average 13 seconds. One of the fastest Golf’s of the day was a converted R32 Turbo with 400 bhp, burning the rubber at a crazy 12.9 seconds. Respect.

Instead of just one mental jet car this time round, there were two. Both weren’t going as fast as usual, in fact the Vdub Beetle jet car was really just showing off its flame throwing action. Think the crazy heat wave had something to do with it; even the marshals at the starting line were sticking to the track. A fair amount of drivers broke their cars up the strip too including a race prepared modded MK1 Golf, which at one stage was running the fastest times.

Overall, although this turned out to be a small laid back Vdub enthusiasts event, it brought out to play some of the best show cars in the UK. The words on everyone’s lips as they were leaving were ‘Edition 38,’ followed by the painful realisation that you can actually get sunburnt where the sun don’t shine.

Sezza