<center><img src="http://autobahntuner.com/v-web/gallery/albums/veyron/Bugatti_Veyron_002.sized.jpg"></center><p><a href="http://autobahntuner.com/v-web/gallery/albums/veyron">Bugatti Veyron</a>

SFLGTG was interesting this year, mostly because of the aftershow event :)
Shawn and I took some pictures of the event and the bugatti. Thanks Liam for taking us to see the car at Bramann and for dinner in southbeach. We also saw a few Canadians throughout the day and near the SFLGTG ;]

<a href="http://autobahntuner.com/v-web/gallery/sflgtg2006">SFLGTG 2006</a>

<img src="http://autobahntuner.com/v-web/gallery/albums/sflgtg2006/SFLGTG_2006_021.sized.jpg">

Dave and I both left our respective houses at about the same time yesterday morning. He took SR 46 out from sanford to 95 and I took the Beach Line. I made it there a bit sooner than he did so I got off and the next exit to wait for him.

When I saw him pass the exit I was at I hopped back on 95 to catch up to him, and when I did I noticed a Mazda 6 all over his ass. Apparently, this guy got on 95 with him or was right there when he got on, and had been riding his ass all the way down.

well, I passed the Mazda and got in behind dave, and that's how we drove for about 30 min or so. Sometimes dave would get stuck behind someone or I would see an opening in the slow lane so I, and my mazda parasite, would sneek through and dave would catch up.

Sometimes, the mazda would try to pass us and would cut people off, flash his brights and even cut off Semi's right in front of us.

Dave and I decided to leave this guy behind and kicked it up to about 120 for a min to get far enough away from him. But alas, he was stupider than we thought. once he got his mazda up to 100 or so, he kept it there for about 5 min and caught us. This is when he proceeded to get real stupid.

While dave and I were stuck behind a SUV, he began Honking and flashing his brights at ME! Like I'll be able to make the freaking SUV get over... So I radio dave and say that I really dont feel like playing radar bait for this schmuck anymore and to get over and slow down so he has no choice but to pass us.

So I got over and slammed on my brakes and freaked the hell out of him, and dave did the same.

Conveniently this was about 5 min before we approached a slight bend in 95 about 1 hr south of 528. This particular bend has a significant about of trees and brush, or Cover if you will, in the median. At this same time I got a very weak, short, Ka hit on the V1 so I radio dave to keep it at the limit, and said 10 bucks there is a cop comming up. Sure enough a truck the other direction flashes his brights and Mr. Mazda is oblivious, and in the fast lane all by his lonesome doing about 85 or 90 as he passes the cop and I get a strong Ka Hit.

As Dave and I pas the cop I see him begin to move toward the road and sure enough he pulls out. Meanwhile, the mazda tried to hide between semi's. By the time the cop got to us, we were in the slow lane behind a semi doing the limit, and the cop was checking out dave's car because it was silver and so was the mazda, but due to the Black hood, he moved on.

By this time, there was an exit comming up in about 3 miles and the cop proceeded to take off toward the mazda. Dave said, "I'm going to grab some popcorn and whatch the Show" and took off after the Cop to see what was up. I followed and by the time we cought up to them, the exit was comming up and the mazda got off. But so did the cop.

As we went on the Over Pass, I could see the blue and red lights of the cop as he pulled over the Mazda. Sweet sweet revenge.

A perfect case of a cop was there when you needed it. Game, Set, Match!

mediocre tuners trying to get the money they could, and lots of people just kind of standing around. No real direction or real schedual of events. No offense to the planners or anything, but it was just kind of a waste as far as the gtg.

I met with a couple of people that were interested in the Audi club, and talked to them for about 30 min or so, did some Vag stuff for one of the guys there.

Other than that, we just kind of hung out with liam...

well atleast i enjoyed it because i had 4 friends audi's and we all parked in a row... now im the last one with an audi

<center><img src="http://autobahntuner.com/v-web/gallery/albums/veyron/Bugatti_Veyron_021.sized.jpg"></center><p>

i think i remember seeing your car ... well there was a yellow b5 s4 with black rims... thats all i remember

does anyone know?
tia,
chris

We know there will be different types of GTGs and shows out there, and people will become fans of one type, or style, and maybe find others not to their liking. It doesn't offend us if some people don't like it as long as most do.

We have actually made it an ambition of ours to keep the 'unscheduled' nature of the GTG...we want to keep the event uncompetitive, free, and open to all ages, in the spirit of what VW originally caught onto in the U.S. in the late '50s and '60s. There are plenty of other GTGs that are all about cover charges, competition and awards, and expensive, profit-driven food and product sales...so I didn't really think we needed another show like that.

I wanted an informal 'gathering'...the true definition of 'get together'...where VW and Audi owners could meet, talk, eat, check out other rides - and on the side, maybe check out a few vendors and products. The sponsors pay for the event, which is how we can keep hosting a 5-figure event for 500+ cars and over a thousand people without charging any cover fees.

The great thing about that environment is that you can hang with a group of friends you meet, or brought with you, you can leave earlier if you get bored, you can check out the vendors, or just hang out on your own, you can buy our food, or bring your own...

We will probably be headed back to Markham Park again next year - we had to make some concessions to Hurricane Wilma which struck when we were in the planning stages, and Markham Park was unable to ensure they'd be open for our event. Earhart park was wonderful to us, letting us get in there on fairly short notice, but Markham is a little more centrally located and easier to find for out of towners.

We'll certainly weigh the comments to help guide us along - if a majority of people prefer something more in line with other shows out there, then that's the way we may end up going. But for now, we'll probably try to remain the alternative...the counter-culture GTG...and buck the trend to overcharge, overplan, and overregulate the GTG. What can I say...my parents were hippies!

then off to Naples this coming weekend.

I liked it. I like informality. It gave me a chance to scope out other cars and exhibits and I picked up an idea or two. The AYCE BBQ dogs, burgers, and drinks were a great value for $5.

It seemed that fewer cars and people attended than last year's event at Markham.

#13 was our all-time record event so far, with somewhere in the vicinity of 700 cars and 2,000 people. This event wasn't too shabby, at 520 cars and approximately 1,200 people, but not quite the size of the last one.

We had grown in attendance at every event, but this year was almost a cancel after Wilma tossed us up a bit - planning this thing about 6 months out, we found ourselves unable to pre-contract with Markham park, police, fire, insurance, portolets, dumpsters, etc...logistically, it would have been a nightmare to try to slap all of that together in January, less than 2 months before the event itself - but that's when we would know for sure that Markham could accomodate. Not to mention many of the organizers ourselves suffered home and vehicle damage. We were ready to call it off, but the girlfriend of my event manager works for Earhart park, and was able to negotiate us into the park, with trash, portolets, and gate access all handled by the park.

So though we do plan on being back at Markham next year, we extend our full thanks to Amelia Earhart for coming through for us, and to all of you who came down there to support the GTG.

Hopefully we won't be planning #15 in the wake of another Florida hurricane!!