Club Veedub Sydney's 2023 VW Nationals - Article and Photos by Lee Woods
An incredible VW show from Down Under
Saturday saw the kickoff of Club
Veedub Sydney's 2023 VW Nationals with a cruise, organized by Euro Cruisers,
from Prospect HomeMaker Centre to Wisemans Ferry. We had great support from
both air-cooled and water-cooled cars. We traveled in convoy, via a short
stop at the Vineyard Hotel, enroute to the Wisemans Ferry Bowling Club for
lunch. The new lower car park had more than enough space for the 40 odd
cars and will be a great location for future events. Again, thank you Paul
for pulling this all together!
On Saturday night it was off to Fairfield show grounds to set everything
up - unpacking trailers full of gear, setting the layout, putting up signs,
setting up tables and chairs, hanging banners, getting the office and shop
areas organized and all the other work getting the venue ready. Thank you
to all the helpers who came along. The beers and pizzas afterwards were
well deserved. Early Sunday it was clear and very cold, as show cars, traders
and swappers lined up well before dawn. Our volunteers were there early,
some even camping there overnight, and soon suited up with fluoro vests
and radios. The club shop and office were ready, the entry gates were manned
and opened right on 7:30am, and it was on! The car show entry is usually
the bottleneck, but this year we had plenty of volunteers to make things
run smoothly.
Clipboards with entry forms and tap-n-go payment were run up the queue,
so that most cars had them filled out and paid by the time they reached
the entrance. They got their stickers and judging forms, their photos taken,
and then directed to their parking areas by more of our volunteers. The
traders and swappers were also in place early, and by 9am the show was looking
great. By 10am most of the show cars were in place, and the gates were closed
at 10:30. The show grounds were packed with cars, traders, swappers and
spectators, what an sight!
We simplified the show categories a little this year, with some dead categories
removed (race categories) and others simplified (exotics included with off-road,
and SEAT/Skoda merged). The Brian Walker award was retired (it's been five
years since he passed away), and the Pleydon trophy was named for both Ray
and Shirley - she had passed away a few weeks earlier. We also introduced
the Pam Withers Award thanks to Paul from Euro-Cruisers.Last year, as we
were still recovering from the pandemic, we only had 177 cars in the show.
Pre-Covid, in 2019, we had 198 cars. Our best years were 213 in 2016, and
the record 231 in 2017. This year, however, we got 241 cars in the show
- the most ever!!! And 84 of them were on Historic Registration, which is
also the most ever. They made up 35% of the entries.
There were 159 air-cooled cars in the show, much more than the 117 last
year, and just one less than the record 160 air-coolers in 2017. It's great
to see people bringing their classics out again after a few years of lock
downs And significantly, there were 80 water-cooled cars, by far the most
ever and easily beating the 58 last year. This is the future and it's great
to see our younger-generation VW Golf fans coming along and enjoying the
show. By types, there were 76 Beetles across 6 categories (24 more than
last year); 45 Kombis in 5 categories (7 more than last year), and 49 Golfs
in 7 categories (9 more than last year). The most popular show category
was Beetle 68-on Modified, with 23 entries (11 more than last year). Kombi
T2 1968-79 Standard had 19 entries (5 more than last year); Beetle '58-67
Standard had 17 entries (6 more than last year); Beetle '58-67 Modified
had 15 entries (1 more than last year).
For the water-coolers, Golf 7 2013-2020 had 11 entries (6 more than last
year), while Golf 1 1976-83 had 10 entries (5 more than last year). VW Sports
(Scirocco, Corrado, New Beetle) had 8 entries (6 more than last year!).
Golf 2 1984-92 also saw a big increase, 5 this time up from just 1 last
year. Almost all of the 42 categories in 2023 increased in number over last
year, which was just wonderful to see, and those that didn't were usually
only a few less. Classes like Pre-'57 Beetles, Karmann Ghia, Buggies and
Off-roaders matched their longer-term averages. Rat Class saw 10 entries,
5 more than last year, but 10 is the long-term average.
There were just 2 Modified Type 3s, down from 4 last year and 10 in 2017,
so modifying Type 3s is not the done thing any more. Standard Type 3s were
up to 4 from 3 last year, but a way to go to match the 7 in 2017. We only
saw 5 T3 Transporters, down from 7 last year. There were slightly fewer
Polos, Golf 3, 4 and 6 than last year, but more Golf 1, 2, 5 and 7. There
were 5 Audis, the most ever, and just the one Porsche (mine!). Again there
were no SEATs or Skodas, the only category with no entries. However Cupra
(a SEAT subsidiary) has been launched in Australia so we might see one or
two next year, hopefully. If not, well retire this category.
There were just two entries for the Concours d'Elegance category, the only
one judged by a panel of VW industry experts, and for the first time both
of them were water-cooled!All car show entrants received a judging sheet,
allowing them to wander through the show and choose up to 20 different cars
of their choice (air and water). Altogether some 1,685 separate votes were
cast on these (164 more than last year), and posted in the blue box at the
club stand before the 12:30 close-off. In addition, there were 404 People's
Choice voting coupons dropped into the box by show spectators, making 2,089
votes altogether (plus the 241 entry forms) for Phil to type into his laptop
computer.
This took all morning and lunchtime, but data entry was complete by around
1:45 pm. Phil's custom-designed Excel spreadsheet uses the COUNTIF function
to count the number of times each particular entry number appears as a vote.
Then sorting by category and vote totals gives all the results in correct
order. Then it only remained to create the PowerPoint presentation by matching
the car photos to the winning cars. Phil and Sam had everything worked out
by 2:15. Persentation could then be started a bit earlier, and it was quite
quick as we no longer do 3rd place trophies and only about ten 2nd places
for the most popular categories. We were all finished by 3:30pm and most
people started heading home. We still had another hour's work packing up!
I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the volunteers who helped
make the 2023 VW Nationals a huge success. Your dedication and hard work
did not go unnoticed, and I am deeply appreciative of your efforts. Your
selflessness and commitment to this event are truly remarkable, and it is
because of you that the event was able to run. This year I would like to
make a special mention of David Birchall, who due to his terminal illness
was not able to attend or finalize the event. This being his 35th year of
single-handedly organizing this event, he still did 90% of the organizing
work leading up to the event. We are grateful that he lived to hear about
the biggest-ever VW Nationals before he passed away. His unwavering dedication,
hard work and attention to detail have been instrumental in making the event
what it is today. From coordinating volunteers and vendors to ensuring the
safety and enjoyment of attendees, his contributions will never be forgotten.
We all say THANK YOU DAVE from the bottom of our hearts. You will be greatly
missed. I also want to mention another longtime member and Nationals helper
who passed away last month, Shirley Pleydon. She and her husband Ray joined
the club in the 1990s and were familiar at many meetings and runs over the
years. Both were on the committee for a long time. Shirley used to organize
the trophies every year and was always generous with a cake at the Christmas
meeting. Ray passed away in 2013 and the Ray Pleydon Award was set up in
tribute. This year it was the Ray and Shirley Pleydon Award. Our thoughts
and sympathies to Ray and Shirley's family. Mit mehr Wertschätzung,
als Worte ausdrücken können (With more appreciation than words
can express)