H2Oi 2016: Arrival

I had skipped out on the 2015 festivities. The traffic and drunk hooliganism from 2014 put me off for a whole year. Fortunately, last year was REALLY H2Oi, with constant tropical storm/hurricane conditions. I didn’t miss much. Initially, I hadn’t planned on trekking down for the 2016 event either. But at the last second I was convinced by Mauncho to roadtrip down, this time as a passenger. It would be the first time in 5 visits, that I did not take a vehicle down. The plan was to drive to Ottawa Sunday morning, leave Sunday evening or Monday morning in the E36 coupe. However, knowing Mauncho and his full blown CPT. I really should have known better. Once I arrived in Ottawa, on Sunday around 6pm, it was really clear Monday morning would be a push. While the car was painted it was far from complete. over the next 24 hours, bumpers, rear valence, headlights (opened and cleaned on the inside), taillights, side skirts, wheels, centre caps, sunroof, door cards, rear wing, door trim, door seals, window seals, hood, were all installed (some removed and installed again), the car was aligned (don’t ask me this wasn’t done before) and a rear tire was mounted (don’t ask about this either). Finally come 9pmish Monday night we were ready to set off. Right on time with a torrential downpour. From the passenger seat I can tell the car was sketchy. We put on a set of worn winter tires (don’t ask), because the tire that was mounted in the morning developed a bulge. This was stance ratchetness to a tee. As the rain worsened so did the handling. We decided to take a short nap to see if the weather will pass. An hour or so later, the skies were clear, this was the only thing that went right so far on this trip. It was also my turn to drive, as Mauncho has priors in NY (just speeding ticket). I’m glad to report that car was much more stable in the dry. 3 hours later, we take another break and swapped seats. That’s where we also decided to check our tire pressures (don’t ask me why this wasn’t done earlier). OF COURSE the fronts were down. And since these are Autostrada Modena’s the air fittings were super hard to get to. Fast forward an abundantly annoying 1 hour to when the fronts are back to normal pressures, and we’re back on the road. Accordingly, the car felt 100x better. All in all, it was not a pleasant drive down, to put it nicely -____-. Insert stupid. but did you die or yolo quote. However, we did make it to OCMD alive and in one piece.. Minus the driver side corner, that popped out, somewhere in PA . I was tired, hangry but just glad we made it to 75th st.

Ah well. We got there, time to wash up and renew freindships. We stayed at 75th again, with Rob (@kizoptrebor), Dallas (merk_fur), Adam (@friskay1), Andrew (@andrewshutter) and Derek (@_derekhall). Between teh 7 of us we had an E36, A4 Avant, Mk5 Jetta, B7 A4, a Ford Excursion, a stretched BMW S1000rr and a Grom. If I’m honest, the Excursion provided the most lulz.

Sutters Mk5 is entirely too loud. One of the few cars that startled me on startup. I don’t even think my E34 is this loud.

The first stop… Fractured Prune for a quick meet.

I don’t really like Beetles regularly but stretched, sans fenders is a good look.

Underwraps Automotive also had their Beetle there. In bagged Porsche Cayman form.

Fortunately we got some Taphouse time in before the entire lot was closed on the weekend. Which is really dumb on OCMDs part. They must love their gridlock traffic.

How to fly under the radar and how to ask to get pulled over. Mauncho’s E36 is the nice kind of stance. The white one below is the stupid dumb kind. But the kids love it, and so does the interwebs.