Thanks Chris, some good comments there. Yes it's a bit hard to compare Aussie VW events with those in the UK, or the US. The UK has lots of people crammed onto a little island, so everything is close - they complain that 100 km is a long way to travel. Their events are big because everyone can easily go. But gee aren't they expensive! As for the US, they have lots of space, but lots of people, so everything seems to be 'localised'. You get huge shows in LA, or Phoenix, or Seattle, or Orlando, or Pennsylvania, but they don't have a 'national' event as such. Each 'city' show is huge enough to survive on its own.
Here we have lots of space and not much people. We need interstaters to attend our shows. We chose the name 'VW Nationals' in 1988 as we wanted to appeal to everyone in Australia, even if they couldn't come. Plus, it was a registered Bicentennial Event then - we even got a small government grant to help fund it that year. We still want to attract everyone in Australia if we can - so we are going to keep calling it the Nationals. But the nats is a cool name too.
But the size of Australia makes it impossible to attend all the big shows in all the states - I'd love to go to all the DOVWs, and the Klubfest, and the Portland and Warwick drags, but family commitments, time and distances make it impossible. Oh well. All we can do here in Sydney is try to make the Nationals better each year, so all suggestions and ideas are welcome.
It would be great to have a 'camping' area at Fairfield for interstaters, but there is nowhere to pitch tents, no grass, and there is no power, or an open amenities block at night. Kombi campers are a different matter - plenty of tarmac to park on if you are self-contained. I sleep in mine every year. Maybe we could look at expanding that.
I'm giving the Nationals the two thumbs up 👍 👍
Whilst there is always room to improve these things, and a lot of the feedback has been constructive, I thought this year was great. A day of watching Beetles fanging around a track followed by a day taking heaps of photos of cars under a covered area so you don't have to worry if it rains are happy days indeed 😵💫 Total cost of my weekend of watching moving and static Dubs: $10. Can't argue with that.
Even bought myself a model KG to sit on my shelf at work to keep me motivated to finish my Beetle (only six years to go based on current budget 😁 ) so I can buy one to add to the stable.
1969 Beetle - June
1974 L Bug - Gwendolyn
2002 Bora V6 4Motion - Anita
i took my wife and two daughters for the first time all together ,normally i go with mates , and it was a great family day
With the kids rides "the best was paint the bug" my daughter without coaching painted white walls how cool . and i believe it was the biggest ive seen but all the kombis where in the car park not many showing and definately need to display vehicle types together somehow ..great show thanks ...
show us your gates
Hi
I had a really great day at the VW Nationals, I had fun looking at the cars, swap sites, sellers, models and meeting old and new friends. Yes there are some things that could be run better that will happen next year. The show gets better each year, the guys and girls who volunteered did a top job everything ran along nicely.
I agree with Kroozn63 it was the biggest nationals I have seen so far and May is better than Easter there is other events on at that time and for me I only go to church twice a year and the fellow up the top likes me to go at easter. I dont think he ever drove a VW so I could never get out of church on time.
Looking forward to QLD, ACT and VIC shows coming up will try to get there somehow.
Regards
A wave a day keeps the doctor away especially in a VW 😎:
the swap meets are a dangerous place, i banned myself from there this year 🤓
VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years
off the luft
"After reading about the judging at the Nationals there is the regular complaints that cars were judged by people who normally judge "standard " restoes, the implication being that they were out of their comfort zone judging rats.
So I had the idea that instead of complaining, maybe a set of standards or guidelines could be written up so there is something to go by.
My favourites are original signage commercial vehicles that are still being driven. (not hidden away between shows)
What else is there that makes a rat a rat and not some POS dragged out of the paddock and put in the arena?"
so there's a bit of a row over the way rats are judged, most dont think the nats rats were judged by their "peers" but by the 'standard' judge that enjoyed shiny paint and restos...
we noticed that when the judge looked over the rats he did not make any attempt to note modifications or even look under the vehicle to spot the thousands of $ worth of narrowed beams, spindles, IRS, steering racks etc etc this is where the rats have prob had alot more $ spent on thme than the pure restos.
I think most would like to know exactlly how the class was judged....
"they have all had heaps of work done on them to get them to where they are. They might look like they just missed the crusher but that is where the uninformed make their first misunderstanding about rats isn't it?"
Does anyone know what vehicle took the aircooled prize? pics?
Unfortunately, non members of melburg luft can't see that!
Part of Melbourne's Unreal Aircooled VW Community
perhaps its because we're unreal?
We will not turn away anyone who wants to help with the judging. We already let the watercooled guys do their own judging, and they are happy with that.
If any of these 'rat' enthusiasts, from Melbourne or anywhere else, want to do the rat class judging next year, they will be more than welcome. Please get in contact with the Club Veedub committee and we'll arrange it.
All Nationals results, information and photos are on the Club Veedub website. For show results and photos, see
http://www.clubvw.org.au/vw_nationals_results.htmThanks Phil.
That's a good idea for the rat class judges. i am sure you'll hear from some folks.
With the results - maybe I am just looking in the wrong place as I see the PDF of winners names and other links with photos of all the vehicles, but not knowing who owns what, the names of the winners means nothing to most people without showing the winning vehicle also. Is it possible to have the winners names AND a photo of the winning vehicle posted somewhere.
Thanks
Dan
Hi
I will add pictures to the results soon, I just put the pdf up as a temporary measure.
Steve
"If any of these 'rat' enthusiasts, from Melbourne or anywhere else, want to do the rat class judging next year, they will be more than welcome. Please get in contact with the Club Veedub committee and we'll arrange it."
so we agree that it was not judged by our "peers"?? if not, any refunds on the $15?😵💫 just kiddin...
Thank you, all the best
"These 'rat' enthusiasts" 🙄
Big thank you to the volunteers and organisers. It was a great show. It's the 3rd one I've been to, and I'll be there next year.
Got some parts, lunch, and trinkets. The cars on display were beautiful, from the daily drivers, the rats, and all the way down to the humble splittys.
It was a family (wife and kid) day for me, and the show was just great.
Personally I don't care for drag racing, and I don't give a rats how the judges judge.
If the coffee queue had been shorter, I may have had a couple, but who cares? These coffee vans always have a queue at events.
since everyone is mentioning food and drink queues, whatever happend to the bar being open?
VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years
The judges judge the presentation of the car in front of them. It is not their job to make value judgments on the individual class. The judges are not 'peer' judges; they judge as knowledgeable VW enthusiasts only, and they awarded the 'Best Rat' to the best presented Rat on the day, in their opinion. Like they do with the other 40-odd classes.
If someone has a different idea on how something should be judged as 'best', then by all means volunteer your services for next year. We would welcome your input. I am sure this year's judges are sick and tired of hearing people whinge about their impartiality, or expertise, or procedure, or attitude, when they don't win a trophy.
But then after 22 years, we know that we will never make everyone happy.
There's no reason why we can't get another couple of coffee vans, or ice-cream vans, happening next year. I am not sure what happened with the bar - I didn't get a chance to try it! Was it closed?! I will check with Birchall when he gets back from OS.
A big thank you to all invloved on the day, a very well put together event.
We were only asking as it did say "peer" judging on all the entry forms and info before the event. I'm sure everyone can work together to make it work in the future.
polak wrote:since everyone is mentioning food and drink queues, whatever happend to the bar being open?
it was open down in the swap meet at my old mans stand.
as i said earlier i came home with half a keg.
“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me
Well they ARE peer judges from the perspective that they are VW enthusiasts, like everyone else there. In previous years we have tried using judges from the Street Machine Assn, who are car enthusiasts certainly, but not really 'VW peers'. People complained, so we haven't used them since. We could also get judges from the CMC - vintage/classic car club members - but again they aren't strictly VW enthusiasts. Our judges are, so that DOES make them 'peer judges' in a VW show, as 'VW judges', by any reasonable definition of the word. They just aren't 'rat' specific, any more than they are 'Country Buggy', or 'VW Trike', or 'Historic Plate' specific.
I don't know that we can, or should, go down the path of separate judges for all 46 classes - although if we can get 92 volunteers, then hey, why not? It would certainly make things faster...
the comment about the swap being disapointing is probably due to the fact that everyone seems to want everything for nothing and as a seller its smarter to use ebay and avoid all the tyre kicking tight asses
Yes we have noticed that the swap seems to be not quite as large or as interesting as previous years. Ebay could be a reason. I don't know what we can do about it - any ideas?
The next Sydney VW-only swapmeet, now that the Flat Four Shootout is no more, will be at Boris' Picnic Day at Dolls Point, in November. That's a few months to clean out your garages and under your houses...
barls wrote:polak wrote:since everyone is mentioning food and drink queues, whatever happend to the bar being open?
it was open down in the swap meet at my old mans stand.
as i said earlier i came home with half a keg.
hahaha, next time i swing round :P
🤪
VW - helping put oil back into the ground for over 60 years
you would have to find us but thats not hard considering i drive a red bug.
“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me
