East Bound and Down: Southern Worthersee 2008 Pt. 1
Worthersee is the world’s longest-running Volkswagen and Audi enthusiast show. Started in the early 1980’s, VW and Audi enthusiasts from all over Europe congregate every year around the lake in Corinithia, Austria. The best, brightest, and newest trends of water-cooled tuning usually show up first at the Worthersee show. In fact, Volkswagen introduced their ground-break Golf W12 650 concept at the Worthersee show last year (a mid-engined Golf hatchback flared out to accomodate a biturbo 6.0L twelve-cylinder engine with 650 horsepower.) The idyllic scenery and beautiful roads make for a peaceful, charming show that grows every year.
Finally, America is getting a taste of this show. H20i tuning, a Volkswagen club from Alabama, hosted the sophomore year of Southern Worthersee this year. Held in Helen, Georgia, a mock German village in the mountains of North Georgia, Southern Worthersee is quickly becoming one of the important VW and Audi shows in the Southeastern United States. We took the trip down to Georgia to see what Worthersee had to offer, and enjoyed the experience immensely. Keep an eye out in the next few days for coverage.
We left Raleigh late afternoon, with our destination being a friend’s house in Charlotte. The Audi was packed full of clothes, camping gear, car detailing equipment, some food, and a road trip playlist loaded up on the iPod. The sun was shining and the desire to get the hell out of Raleigh was strong. Despite traffic, we made great time.
The TT is killer on the highway. With the Unitronic software the tiny little K03 spools up to 21 psi almost immediately, and you really don’t even need to downshift from fifth to pass the Prius in the left lane. The ride might be a bit choppy with the coilover suspension, but this car is just locked in on the highway with the tighter suspension. It really just eats up the highway with a passion.
Cell phones, iPods, navigation system, boost gauge, cassette Aux adaptor… yeah, it’s a road trip. We had a cover of “East Bound and Down” by Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s blastin on the radio as we hit I-40. Sun was shining. Turbo was spooling. Things were going quite well 
The lack of any sort of radar-detection device made us both nervous, but we managed to not get pulled the whole trip.
We stayed the night in Charlotte, and woke up immensely early the next morning to finish the journey to Helen. With Patrick behind the wheel (driving gloves on) we made fantastic time and got there earlier than we figured we would. At 5am there just isn’t all that much traffic.
quick lesson here: don’t always blindly trust the directions your GPS gives you. Sure, it’ll give you the shortest route to wherever you’re going. But you might not necessarily want to take that route. Our wonderful Magellan took us down this little road here: 2 and a half miles of hilly dirt road. It would have been awesome in a WRX or a 5000 Quattro. In a slammed Audi TT, not quite so much. Nice artsy shot, though.
we spotted this beautifully restored Karmann Ghia in a parking lot about 15 miles outside of Helen. Wonder why he wasn’t going to Worthersee? I’ve always loved these - it’s like the Scirroco of the air-cooled era. Kermit the Karmann, anyone?
After our stop, we finished the last leg of the trip into Helen. The roads around here are simply gorgeous. Here are a few shots.
We camped for the night at a nearby campground, explored the town, met some people, and prepared for the next day. Helen is almost painfully kitschy, but it’s adorable. It’s a mixture of tiny German village and pure unbridled redneck; imagine a German beerhall that also sells “The South Will Rise Again!” T-shirts. Of course it’s a flagrant tourist trap; everything is overpriced ($2.41 for a small cup of coffee? Really?)
tomorrow: show coverage!