the title above says it all! Again we invaded Merchantville with some of the finest cars ever seen in South Jersey and spent a great day showing them what great VWs look like.
The list of members was..
Me ( Bob M ) - my 72 Super blu_bug
Jay - Louieeee redbug
Chris - his daily driver all spruced up! orgbug
John Weezy t-3 sqBk
Marc & Daughter - White Baja back from a long rest vwlogo
Mike P - 71 vert with new engine only hours old! sparkplug
Bill W - Beautiful Vert with some very interesting license plates vwlogo
Frank ( with Jay S, "Lucky" & Friend ) - Franks vert $61$
Ramone Gonzolas & Wife - Ramones Baja ( I've got to apologize ramons wasn't parked with us and I didn't get a photo of his car..) sorry.. :icon_cry:
Ramone C - 67 Blue Beetle Awesome as always! blu_bug
George - ramones friend with a great red Baja drive&&
Martin - 64 rag top lookin great! bronz_cup-winner
Jim Schwarz - Auto Stick Rescue! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Ed Mcgrath - Boss Bug 1940's racer burnrubber
Rick V - Monkey Bars VWracing
Danny - Herbie, what else but?? NO.1sign NO.1sign
We met at the CVS in Haddon Heights and after an impromptu "car show" which had some of the local folks pulling in and checking out our rides, we got in line and started up the White Horse Pike toward Merchantville. I again was lucky enough to be the first car in line and all I can tell you it was a great sight in my rear view mirror just to see the line of cars and the looks on peoples faces when we went motoring by. Several people blew horns and waved, I have to think a line of VWs is still not a common sight in South Jersey ( We hope to change that soon!)
When we got to the show the guys parking cars lined us up across the street from last years spot. this was a great spot since our line of cars stretched just about 1 block, imagine the site of 1 full block of VW's! The spot was a good one for another reason, the huge shade trees kept us cool all day! Couldn't get better!
When we got to the show I had a great idea, I approached Danny and asked if he would consider trying to sell a few raffle tickets for the "Clayton Foundation" raffle. Danny was more than happy with the idea and I started him out with 3 books of tickets, just about 30 tickets. About an hour later Danny came up to my car and asked for more tickets "You sold them all out in one hour!!!" I said. During the day he came back to me with more sold ticket stubs and the payment and by the end of the day he had logged in 140 sales!!!! plus several donations for the foundation!!
WAY TO GO DAN!! I never knew it but he's a natural born salesman and with so many kids and their folks coming to see his Herbie replica it was a natural those folks would be interested in helping out a foundation dedicated to curing a terrible childhood disease! I want to make a special point at the next meeting that we should give Danny a round of applause for helping out in such a generous way! @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@
Now for you who have never been to Merchantville just think of it as an "Invasion of the classic cars". Every street, alley and parking lot becomes filled with some of the most beautiful antique, classic, street rods & muscle cars anybody has ever seen. Theres so much there that the variety spans cars like a 60's French Citrone 2CV to a 1950s "Bath tub" Nash street rod ( who also won best street rod ). If you like the usual Chevys and Fords there were tons of them also. Its such a great mix of cars that our VWs fitted in just perfect. I can tell you the club attracted tons of attention from both spectators and also other car nuts. With one city block of VWs we were quite an attraction. A couple of cars seemed to highlight this fact, Jays Bugru, Subie powered oval window car literally "WOWed" the crowds all day! Several times jay was asked "what does it sound like' so to keep everybody happy he fired up the Turbo Engine several time so everybody got a dose of this "Hybrids" powerful exhaust note!
We also had a gentlemen park with us who wasn't a club member. A beautiful Ghia vert pulled up to the end of our line of cars and a gentlemen named Jose'. When I saw this car I had to stop and say "hi' to the owner. I found out that Jose' had done all the work himself and saved a "Basket case" ghia from the junkyard. I couldn't believe the quality of this restoration and he had a gang of "before and after" photos to back up the story. I mentioned the club and I hope he decides to join since such a great car and knowledgeable owner could only be an asset to our group.
Now about trophies...sure there were a few! Remember this show attracted close to 1000 cars so with that thought I'm sure the guys running it realized what a headache trying to judge that many cars fairly would be so they did the best thing possible and declared "Everybody a Winner" and gave trophies out to every registered car! Again they out did themselves and made a great show better! Now theres rumors around that this might be the last year but everybody out there in car land sure will miss this one if that happens. If you go to a cruise night or show and see anybody you recognize from Merchantville just pass along the thought how we would all miss that show if it was to go away!
OK Enough of me typin... heres some photos I took so enjoy!!
http://sjvwc.net/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=204