Barney, Aurellie and Andy took a few days out of the office to experience one of the worlds largest VW shows last week. Held in the town of Reifnitz on the edge of lake Worthersee in Austria the main show lets fans drive their cars around and park up where they can. With heavy backing from Volkswagen and their sister brands there are huge displays to catch the eye and performance models and concept cars for fans to take in. Guest houses in the town are full to bursting with VW nuts and their cars, offering additonal show car parking away from the main traffic. For those who haven’t driven, or who would rather not have 1000’s of people bumping into their cars, water taxi’s (speed boats with too many passengers) run from one side of the lake to the other, at full pelt from morning to night to get you straight into the show.

Spending your day at the show is only half of the fun to be had in and around this event, the evenings offer inpromptu meets and cruising for all Volkswagen drivers and Audi, Seat, Skoda, Porsche and in fact even us in our Renault Clio hire car were cruising the streets lapping up the atmosphere taking in the sheer size of this VW related extravaganza. 

The Shell petrol station at Selpritsch has become something of a Mecca for those making the trip to Worthersee – it has a big car park to the rear, and several jet washes for those wishing to remove dead flies and road grime post European road trip. A conveinent pub right next door offers a great vantage point and refreshment combo for those not needing to polish or fill up.

Driving anywhere around the lake during the evening, the nature of how enthusiastic people are about this event really shines through. Small gatherings of revellers on an otherwise empty country lane, sat in camping chairs, with blankets for warmth and beer for food wait to see another VW or VAG car drive past. This is even more commonplace on Velden high street, lots of groups with horns and loud halers and too much drink inside them cheer on any passing car.

If you are fortunate / unfortunate to get lost and head up into the hills, there are parties to be found, search lights litter the sky like an air raid and eurodance music blares till the moring. Don’t expect to proceed through these roads without passing a “burnout checkpoint” manned by drunken Europeans who will halt your progress until you smoke those tyres!

Would we go again?!! You bet, this is one crazy show and really has to be visited to be completely understood (in fact we still can’t quite take it in) Please look through more of our show pictures on our Flickr photostream here – be prepared for some interesting sights!!

Andy