Performance VW turns 30 next year and its fascinating to think how the international modified water-cooled VW scene has evolved during that time. Long before the internet made everything more accessible, this very publication highlighted to its International readers exactly what styles and trends were happening in mainland Europe, across the pond and further afield. Our staffers (okay, it was mainly founding editor, Greg Emmerson) travelled the globe to bring you exclusive features on these incredibly detailed builds and highlight some of the best [water-cooled] VW events to attend (Baarlo in Holland, Castrop, Germany, Belgium’s VW Mania and of course, Austria’s Worthersee Treffen are just a few that spring to mind). It wasn’t long before streams of Brits were hopping on ferries with their cars to go and sample these shows for themselves. We even started to see some of Europe’s finest cars head to Blighty for our late, great GTI International meeting.
We quickly became obsessed with the rapidly emerging scene across the pond. America’s water-cooled scene was on fi re in the late 90s, especially on the east coast where shows like Waterfest and H20i debuted some really innovative cars. It was always cool bumping into familiar British faces when attending [mainland] European shows, but when we started seeing scene friends at the American shows, too, we knew things had gone fully international. Seeing people at shows across the pond was one thing, but thanks to our publisher’s L’oe Show event, we are now seeing European cars out in America, too. You may remember we ran a competition a few months back for three lucky people to win the chance to ship their cars across the Atlantic for L’oe Show and to see these cars, especially Claire Schönborn’s Berg Cup winning Mk1 cruising Pottstown high street is a real pinch yourself moment. We’ll have more on L’oe Show next month, but this issue we’ve brought you coverage from America’s Alpine VAG Fair (p24), the Dutch Royal Fitment event (p62), Germany’s L8-Night Show (p78) and Oldtimer Treffen (p84) here in the UK, plus much, much more. Enjoy the issue!