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It seemed like him upstairs was at it again (with the weather, that is), with another partial wash out for this years Volkswagen North West show. This was the forth year in succession that uk-mkivs has attended and out of those four years it's been dry once. But, that said, it didn't deter us from having another full stand and a great uk-mkivs turnout - if a little more varied than usual with the addition of a couple of Audi's and some Porsche Cayman thing.

The show kicked off in usual fashion about 9am with cars and their owners rather sheepishly creeping up - the now heavily scored - slope, to reach the club displays. By the time uk-mkivs arrived it was raining pretty heavy which made trying to line up a display in the worlds smallest 10 car gap all the more difficult. Good job we had our uk-mkivs umbrellas!.

We eventually got settled in, just in front of the large tree which afforded us with some cover while the gazebo (cheers to austin21 for bringing his along) and BBQ was setup. The rain had slowly (but surely) began to ease off and it was at least dry enough to being walking about. It seemed another bumper year for clubs at the show, with nearly all of the allocated plots being filled. It did seem like a couple of other clubs were having trouble fitting into their plots - Huddersfiled VAG in particular, who ended up moving due to lack of space.

As usual most other VAG clubs / groups were in attendance; VAG H20, R32 Owners Club, Club Lupo, Seatcupra.net and Detailed UK. The latter of which had a front row spot alongside Club GTI opposite the New Beetle club, evo.

On walking around the show ground it was clear to see the rain had put some people off, with the show and shine being fairly sparse but still present with the usual cars braving the elements. I do get the impression a lot of folk are holding back for Edition 38 later this month, though, so maybe this had an element to play in the lower than normal turnout.

By lunchtime the sun had partially began to make an appearance, so it was dry off time and at least try to entice people over to the stand! Maybe it was the smoke emanating from our BBQ but it did get quite busy at one point.

After lunch another walk around revealed more cars coming out of the wood work, with some stunning Karman Ghias, Porsche Speedsters, Campers and Beetles all appearing from seemingly nowhere. The standard of work on these classic examples was astounding and had to be seen to be believed.

Despite the weather the show still had a healthy turnout with punters still coming in while we were packing up. We will certainly be back next year, though, I think we'll be asking for a better position to help raise the profile a little more.

VW Festival at Harewood House is up next, hopefully the weather will hold off otherwise the uk-mkivs brolly brigade will be out in force again!

More pictures from VWNW.

Link to Forum topic discussing VWNW.