GAD German Auto Display Picture and Report thread.

[Wolfgang]

No probs just to let you know watercooled outnumbered air cooled this year as well as last year too. Venue change unfortunately was unavoidable. Hopefully next year we'll be back on the grass. As for the trophy issues I'm also putting forward suggestions to avoid that issue next year too

Well fair enough. I'll be quiet now.

Are you guys serious??

Why does it have to be a competition about aircooled vs watercooled?

Not being serious, just tounge in cheek.

VW wouldn't be where it is today without he success of the Beetle and the Kombi.

[nightphotographer]

Ghost - a lot of my comments were made before I knew the background behind the error, and as with the internet no one really gets context and tone. I can assure you I wasn't being sincere regarding knowledge of VWs - I would die for the same knowledge as 90% of the car owners there, both air and watercooled.

We all had a great time, it was a great event and I wish we could have more! I'd make the trip every weekend hands down. I'll see you there next year!

[No457 Snowy]

Hi all, I would like to thank everyone who came along to the show this year.

The mix-up with the trophy was regrettable, but as has been pointed out on the forum, it was due to an error in carrying numbers over in the judging paperwork. Whilst it may have seemed that 'the club' wasn't interested in fixing the problem, you would have seen in the background that as soon as this was brought up, the judges headed back to the tent straight away and got back into the numbers. It was being checked whilst the rest of the trophies were being handed out.

We either had to keep going, or stop and wait for maybe 10 mins or so while it was fixed. We had already had people standing in the sun during the speeches, let alone the 15 min wait at the beginning whilst the final figures were still tallied. I felt it best that with an error identified, up front we needed to move on and continue with the other 'known' trophies, whilst it was being looked at in the background. And it was fixed, by the judges and club staff.

Its been mentioned that we had an air-cooled bias, and that it wouldn't have happened for the air cars. It has done in the past, just for info. We have 'guest' judges, who volunteer (are volunteered?) on the day, that do not belong to our club, and they do their best to judge the cars for us. This year, with the number of cars, the judging was still being finalised when the presentation started, leading to the figures being rushed through. It was an error, that was all.

There was a line earlier about 'knowing the models', we spent time putting together people with a good cross section of VW experience as our judges on the day. The truth of the matter is that 3 of the 4 guest judges class themselves as more water-oriented. I don't believe we could get any more 'water' knowledge in the group than that. Please do not feel that this was biased to air as the judging certainly was not.

I was the monkey up the front at the presentation. I am not there because of my mechanical knowledge, or my ability to recognise the difference in a Mk 2 and 3 taillight. I am not there to show off my ability to speak in public. I am there because the committee has felt that I have the ability to pull together a band of enthusiasts for the common good, in this case to put on a show. Nothing more. I am happy to admit that my background is air-cooled, whilst we do have a modern VW in the family I would rather an older one, no problems in making that public. But to me a VW is a VW, whether old, new, ratty, modified, whatever. The fact that I can't tell the models in a Golf (1, 5, and 6 is OK!) doesn't mean I should not be up the front. Have a think about how you would be, after being up at 4.30am, walking in the hot sun all day (I didn't sit down all day), and then standing in front of around 300 people, in the sun, who have also had a long day (especially travellers), who all want their car to win a trophy.

We started planning for that show in March, and on top of our planning, Smead also had to work with a separate event committee for the overall event. I would hate to equate how many thousands of hours we have put into the organisation, but I would rather it wasn't known as the show with the Mk3 Trophy problem. Shows are not easy to run as many people would tell you.

Again, thanks to all who came along and made it a huge VW day, I know some of you trekked some decent distance to be there.

Ghost, thanks for the efforts you put in and clarification of what had occurred with the error. I don't think anyone is being critical of the fact an error was made, I think it is more a case of how it was handled thereafter, at least for me that was what defined the issue. As the person who was called up and handed the trophy despite immediately identifying my car was not the correct model, here's what I experienced, and what I expected would happen, but didn't.

An announcement at the end of handing out the rest of the Trophies to say that an error had been identified (just about everyone knew there was a problem) and that the Judges were almost done rectifying it (they'd been recounting), would have done wonders to shed more clarity over the issue. Instead, no acknowledgement was made and the crowd dissipated and left, I also heard someone call out "What about the MK3's?", I didn't hear what the answer was so I can't comment on that.

No-one from the club even approached me about it after the presentation was completed, so not sure what was going on, I then walked over to Pierre, whom I knew had been a Judge and said to him, "Mate, this isn't right, this doesn't belong to me, someone with a MK3 didn't get this trophy" and handed it to him. He had a brief discussion with a lady in the club tent, who I think was the club secretary and then he ran off with the trophy to find the MK3 winner, who by this time was well on the way back to where his car was parked, I now know that was Jarred.

At that point still no-one from the club (I think Pierre was a volunteer Judge not a club official) had approached me or even spoken to me about it, nothing, so I left.

That's how it went down from where I stood and my comments are only based on that experience.


Snowy

[ghost]

Hi Snowy,

I suppose in recounting the day I could only say that not only was I not aware of what the situation was at the time, but also how long it was going to take to resolve. Directly after the presentations finished I was bailed up by a number of people who wanted to discuss various issues and had to rely on the fact that it was being handled in the background, which it was. In fact, it was quite some time before I was able to get back to the tent and catch up on everything that had happened, including a number of other issues as well as this one. Whilst I can't talk for the others physically I will say that as a group they would have been working hard to resolve the issue itself and probably didn't want to take time to leap out and tell you, until it was all fixed. I believe it took a while to work the problem and that the judges being back there were critical into the resolution process.

You are correct in that Pierre is not a club member, he was a volunteer judge and sponsor for the day. I did rely on him and other judges to advise on the water-cooled side of the house, as I have described earlier.

I suppose it goes to show how something as small as a wrong number can snowball. It was a mistake and nothing was meant by any of the resulting situation apart from the fact that it was a number of members and enthusiasts trying to fix a situation as quickly as possible in a sea of people. We all do things that we realise later we could have done better, its human nature and the way we are.

I will offer my utmost apologies on behalf of the club and guests and hope that the grief can be overcome. I look forward to looking at more photo's from the day and receiving any feedback (good and bad) from forum members who were at the event.

[No457 Snowy]

Thanks Ghost.

I'm just glad it got sorted. I guess as a person at the very centre of what in my mind was a bit of a controversial issue at the time, I suppose I felt an increased sense of urgency to fix it asap before everyone left the scene and went home. The fact that no-one in an official capacity from the club acknowledged to me it was being handled or even spoke to me about it while I stood outside the tent after Pierre left looking for Jarred, or made an announcement, right up until your posted reply in this forum didn't help.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.


Snowy

[fuzion]

Hi Snowy,

I suppose in recounting the day I could only say that not only was I not aware of what the situation was at the time, but also how long it was going to take to resolve. Directly after the presentations finished I was bailed up by a number of people who wanted to discuss various issues and had to rely on the fact that it was being handled in the background, which it was. In fact, it was quite some time before I was able to get back to the tent and catch up on everything that had happened, including a number of other issues as well as this one. Whilst I can't talk for the others physically I will say that as a group they would have been working hard to resolve the issue itself and probably didn't want to take time to leap out and tell you, until it was all fixed. I believe it took a while to work the problem and that the judges being back there were critical into the resolution process.

You are correct in that Pierre is not a club member, he was a volunteer judge and sponsor for the day. I did rely on him and other judges to advise on the water-cooled side of the house, as I have described earlier.

I suppose it goes to show how something as small as a wrong number can snowball. It was a mistake and nothing was meant by any of the resulting situation apart from the fact that it was a number of members and enthusiasts trying to fix a situation as quickly as possible in a sea of people. We all do things that we realise later we could have done better, its human nature and the way we are.

I will offer my utmost apologies on behalf of the club and guests and hope that the grief can be overcome. I look forward to looking at more photo's from the day and receiving any feedback (good and bad) from forum members who were at the event.

Firstly before i reply to this post above..

My story happened as such;

Driving down to Canberra with Lora we encountered a P Plated Mitsubishi Pajero who blew out their right rear tyre which followed to rip off the rear bumper it seemed with debris all over the road.

The good Samaritans we are did a uturn and back to help to find 2 young girls with 3 infants in the car who clearly had no idea like most normal people.

AP, IIS3II and co drove by and waved them down who also helped and we moved the car to the left side of the road (due to the pajero being on the right lane blocking the road!).

Long story short, VW jack used to get the Pajero jack under as tyre blow out meant stock jack wouldnt get under. Spare tyre had a puncture to which i repaired and re-inflated (very organised i am lol) and AP, his bro and myself got it on the car and sent them on their way!

Down to Canberra finally hour and a half later than expected we met up with everyone.. got some lunch, returned to my car and BAM! The clutch master cylinder was gone! ARGH! But thankfully we were near by the BBQ meet up at Canberra VW Centre.

I have to firstly thank Darren for helping a fellow stranger dubber and trying to get me back on the road from Canberra VW Centre. Unfortunately no luck and the car had to be left and also not entered **** happens! Thankfully picked the car up last night though. So a very big thanks to the guys for all their efforts.

We had a great weekend never the less and again back next year as per usual!

Now on the side of Judging and trophies.

Dylan and I were asked to represent / volunteer to help out with the newer cars as well.

It was an unfortunate accident that numbers were mistaken as mentioned above and the MK3 category went to Jarred however these things happen.

I was disappointed that it went to a mk4 and the mistake was made. But i was more disappointed how some people carried on like total fkn idiots about the situation as it was clear a mistake was made and we are all human. You have to respect that those trophies cost almost $1500 and are given as "good will" for a thank you for attending and being part of a show together.

Ghost there is no need to apologise, mistakes happen. The attitude of people regarding this is pretty poor because you should remember this all carefully and that is we go to a show to make friends, see other cars, hang out together, have fun, and enjoy ourselves and most definitely not for "oh i want to win a trophy!".

We had a great weekend, and i always enjoy meeting new people and seeing new rides and hearing stories and catching up with the guys and girls i haven't seen for a while.

I just want to say a big thanks to Simon who put in his own time and efforts to sort everything out for US (all of you out there!) and his inputs based on what he reads and what we have mentioned to him. There will always be room for improvement on anything but be positive and make it progress and not go backwards.

I hope more if you from Sydney will attend next year as for me that was the biggest disappointment!

Just my 2 PSI but thanks again to Simon, the Organisers and Darren again from Canberra VW Centre and most of all everyone who made the weekend what it was.


PS. you guy who whinge about a trophy, i had to go back to canberra and had to get repairs.. its part of the weekend! who cares! all in the name of fun.

[No457 Snowy]

I was disappointed that it went to a mk4 and the mistake was made. But i was more disappointed how some people carried on like total fkn idiots about the situation as it was clear a mistake was made and we are all human.

Pierre, I hope that statement wasn't directed at me because you know I approached you straight away so the club could make it right and I made it clear that I wanted you to do so. I don't care about Trophies either, you and I go back a bit so you'd know that's not my bag.
In my previous posts, I merely stated things exactly as I experienced them.



Snowy

[Water Boy]

Snowy sounds like you did the right thing.

Please kids lets stress less about the trophies.

I hope there is a write up in VWMA......... Craig Hughes!!!!

All you lucky buggers who got to attend. I had to sit at home with a broken bloody pelvis. Ahhhhh!

[fuzion]

Pierre, I hope that statement wasn't directed at me because you know I approached you straight away so the club could make it right and I made it clear that I wanted you to do so. I don't care about Trophies either, you and I go back a bit so you'd know that's not my bag.
In my previous posts, I merely stated things exactly as I experienced them.


Snowy

Most definitely not you mate! You were an absolute champion by even considering doing that! You and me go way back with all these shows and do it for the love not for the trophy or winning anything!

[Smead]

Thanks for your kind comments Pierre, I look forward to catching up with you again in next years show. Thanks too to Dylan for stepping up when I asked him to Judge, as it was a last minute thing

Firstly, Snowy, sorry someone didn't sort that out with you mate. As you'll probably noticed on the day everyone pretty much split straight away, so when the German Ambassador picked his favourite car of the day, a VW,and wanted to award it to that car, he had to pick another car as it was gone.

Thanks too should go to Ghost, who out of all of us in the club comittee put more time and effort into making the show happen, from a VW prospective and stepped in for me with the SGAD comittee when I couldn't be there.

the trophy thing has been done to death. Mistakes were made and resolved on the day. I've made suggestions to improve the process next year, and we'll see how it goes. To the people who were unhappy with the distribution of the trophies were unfair as there was no runners up for watercooled, I say this:

If you want to have a go at someone for fairness of the watercooled trophies then here I am. I looked at last years watercooled trophies, listened to people on the ground and came up with a fairer list to represnt all Marks this year. Last years catagories were "best Mk 1 and 2" Best Mk3 and 4" and so on. I suggested to make trophies for eack Mk, which ultimatley meant we couldn't do runner up stuff this year. I think its fairer to award one to each mark instead of grouping two different cars together? If you still dont think its a fairer process than last year come on here and tell me!

I've asked for feedback. I look at this thread every day. Ive asked for PMs, but NOONE has got back to me yet. So instead of being negative about the show, think off it as a great oppurtunity to get together and catch up. SGAD is unique because we have BMW, Porsche, MB, VW and Audi all on one show.

Please continue to post photo's, reports, and suggestions in this thread. Be assured I'll look at everyones suggestions and take them back to the VW comittee to see if we can make next years show even better than this year.

[kinezo]

What an epic weekend it was!!!!
great weather, great mates, great cars and **** loads of froths!!! what more do you want!!!
i hate editing but here are my shots!

not bad for a point and shoot cam.....

[kinezo]

[kinezo]

[kinezo]

[kinezo]