With more than 3,000 enthusiasts celebrating all things Volkswagen, the Wuste show is easily the largest German car show on the west coast and this year marked the first time Volkswagen attended the 5th annual extravaganza.
The show started with a Mexican-themed Wustefiesta and was, by the next day, in full gear when hundreds of cars set out on the Mt. Charleston Cruise, a scenic 120-mile drive reaching 7,700 feet of elevation in the mountains just outside of Las Vegas, before returning to the Show Shine. The show takes place throughout the Boulder Station parking structure, with three of the four floors taken over by Volkswagen owners. It was nice to be able to cruise the levels in shade while a cookout and a DJ kept the crowd going. The majority of vendors set up on the roof of the garage, but that space couldnt contain the Volkswagen 53 semi trailer and eight car display so they set up just outside the garage and hung out with the crowd talking shop and sharing travel stories.
Based on the crowd reception of the Tape Off at Southern Wrthersee, VW rolled it out again to see how creative the Wuste attendees could be, and the Vegas crowd certainly didnt disappoint. Hood designs ranged from VW vehicles, the Vegas skyline, The King, guitars, and unbridled VW appreciation. Artist and teacher Lauren Marie Taylor joined VW all the way from Portland, OR to do a full tape job on a 2011 Jetta inspired by her students. She predesigned and cut out a lot of the intricate tape pieces resulting in impressive true-to-life depictions of her students. As always, everyone left the Volkswagen space with something special including commemorative Vegas-inspired Wuste posters and the always popular personalized dog tags.
VW made sure their first appearance at Wuste was executed with style by bringing out a collection of cars that blew everyone away. New additions included the HR Jetta (the official SCCA pace car), the soon-to-be released Golf R, and especially exciting was a sneak peak at a 2.0T 21st Century Beetle, making one of its first West Coast showings ever.
In fact, when the 21st Century Beetle was being taken off the truck, one of the Tape Off champions happened to be driving by in his 73 Beetle and stopped to ask if he could park his car next to the Beetle to take some side-by-side photos. VW was happy to let him do it and got a few pictures of their own.
Thanks to the organizers at Wuste. An impressive showing of west coast V-Dub love!
Related Links:
www.vw.com
www.wuste.com
http://blogs.vw.com/beetle/