Strictly European Autosport - Featured Event

____With work, school, family, etc all taking up time and adding stress to your life, it's good to get away for at least one day and spend the time with some nice European cars. That's just what Hot Water Blast allowed me to do and I can't wait for next year when I will be able to go again. This year brought a record number of cars for Hot Water Blast, 115 registered cars. That's not including the 50+ cars that were out in the parking lot. I mean what could be better than having a car show on a beautiful sunny day at a park in Houston? Next time I will try to remember to bring my jet-ski (ha, yeah right) to take a skim out in the lake.

____I can say however, I do hate Houston highways and roads. I mean come on, didn't they think about maybe some lowered v-dubs were going to be rolling through that town at least once a year? Ha! Roads aside, the trip up there was very nice as usual. Dale and Fred couldn't have picked a better day for this show, the weather was great (albeit hot) and there was no rain in sight. Perfect weather for enjoying some cars in an asphalt parking lot! There was a nice breeze coming in from the lake and some nice shade to be found though so that more than made up for the hot weather.

____Last year the show was opened up from just Volkswagens to all European car makes and models. Included in the non-Volkswagen cars was some nice E36 and E46 M3's, a very nice E90 3-series, and a Porsche. All of these cars made for some real eye candy. Both the black E46 M3 and silver E46 3-series had some really nice sound systems in them. They obviously spent a lot of time, effort, and money putting their sound systems into their cars. They weren't the only ones, it seemed like everywhere you looked there was a custom sound system in the back of someone's car.

____Sound system's weren't the only thing that was on many of the cars there. The new thing it seems like is the forced induction bug. Everyone wants to go forced induction or an upgrade to their stock turbocharger system. And I can't blame them! This show was the first show my newly turbo Ginster got to show the world what it has. I can say that I was pretty impressed with the assortment of different kits I saw around. The one always catching my eye though was Raymon's R32. It is one thing to say that your car supercharged and intercooler but is another to say that you did it all by yourself, this is truly an enthusiast.

____There was also a good assortment of Volkswagens from all years and body styles. Too often the shows are dominated by only MK4 GTI's and Jetta's and it was nice to see some of the older body styles there. It was also nice to see how far along some of the cars have gone since the last time I have seen them. There is this Jazz blue Driver's Edition that has had some serious work done to it since the last time I saw it in September. Those changes include some coilovers, MK4 dash, BBS RS's, some engine detailing, etc. There was also a very nice MK2 GTI in the corner with some fat wheels and some nice stretch that also made some good progress since Octoberfest when I saw it last. Good job guys, keep on surprising me for those up and coming shows!

____At the show this year you didn't have to look far to find cars that I would, without hesitation, put in the "show car" category. It goes without saying that I would include Raymon's car in that bunch. The supercharger and intercooler under the hood of that R32 aren't the only things he is hiding in his bag of mods, I can tell you that much. There was also the much anticipated sequel to Matt Chow's show winning, jaw dropping, wide-body S4. I can say that I can't wait to see what Matt turns this car into. I thought that the sticky notes all over the car showing all the mods done to it were a nice touch and judging by everyone's response I would say others would have to agree. Now by no means were these the only "show car material" cars in the show but I have a limited amount of space and I know you don't want to be reading this forever!

____One thing I love about this show is the creativity shown in the styling and the modification of the cars in the show. For example, the best of show car had some nice custom interior touches to it. The seats were covered with katzkin leather and a snakeskin print in the middles. Not only that but the custom sound system, stance, and wheels on this car definitely made it a worthy winner of the "Best of Show" award. There were also some nice examples of how people covered up their dents and dings. I especially like the use of the band-aids here to cover up a nice sized dent on this car. You could also find some nice examples of creativity looking around and finding the black GTI with the wooden truck floor and kegs in the back. I thought that was a very creative touch, just pray you don't get pulled over and asked to open your hatch.

____But the cars weren't the only thing to be mentioned at this car show. Like I said before, there were people coming from all corners of Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma for this show. This includes the people from VDubAddiction in Dallas, Club Volkspeed in McAllen and Mexico, EuropeanAG in Houston, Eurosport Underground in San Antonio, Strictly European Autosport in San Antonio (duh!), and many others. I am sorry for those that I cannot remember, it's not on purpose. Car clubs are the essence and the backbone of these car shows, everyone wants to make the presence felt and I think everyone did a good job of it. EAG showed up with the most cars as usual and the guys from McAllen had a good amount of cars too. Those guys from McAllen are some serious enthusiasts and they have a show coming up in September so don't forget to keep up with the information on that.
____Overall this was all I expected, a rock solid, good show. I can't wait for next year when me and countless others will have dropped a few more thousand dollars into our car with the hopes and dreams of winning something. That's money that we will never get back, money we will never see again. But keep telling yourself that's it's worth it, you will be happier with yourself in the end. Till next time, peace out!