Effingham, Illinois Funfest
Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 1:20 pm
Couple weeks ago I headed out to a show in Effingham, IL. Never been to it before, but it's put on by Mid America Motorworks. Typically draws 800+ VW's and I've had a few customers telling me for years I should head out there. So, figured I'd go see what it was all about. Weather forecast was pretty shitty, but two of my buddies were going and figured I'd have a good time anyhow.
Headed out early Fri morning...
First 6hrs of driving I was rolling solo... boring. Fought a head wind the whole way too which sucked. I was lucky to get 60MPH and I usually roll out at 70MPH.
Finally met up with Brad in his Flip Seat Westy...
Show grounds were a soggy mess. They eventually moved up onto the paved sections of the property.
Johnny trailered his new to him '57 Oval rag. I give him shit for trailering anything, but was damn lucky he did. We ended up spending a lot of time in that trailer out of the rain.
One of the most OG VW's I've ever seen....
I wasn't expecting much from the show cars at this event. Figured the cheeseball, hippy dippy and buggy fuck factor would be pretty high. I wasn't dissapointed
Got to keep all that Chinese chrome from rusting somehow...
They had a cruise to down town organized for Fri night...
Those are all buggies in front of that Ghey Bay...
Don't know why someone would hack all that late model stuff into a Split Beetle
Super clean Oval, but lots to be picked apart....
Would have liked to seen more obviously, but there were a few Split Buses around...
Nice view from the back seat...
Cut away stuff was neat...
By far the highlight of the weekend was the Schwimmwagen...
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCjWrolZkME[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBkNCQC3GSU[/youtube]
One of the cars from the cult classic DEATH RACE 2000
Nice WWII collection on display...
Nothing like a $400 truck to tow a $200K Schwimmwagen...
Hearse was pretty cool.
I could have watched this Hippie Chick all night
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8l621NoEz4[/youtube]
I heard they ended up with about 300 cars showing up, but that sounds like more than I saw
Weather Sat night was pretty bad. Had a tornado roll South of the town. No injuries, thankfully.
Ride home kind of sucked. About a hour down the road I could smell rubber burning and the Bus started pulling to the left a little. As soon as it started pulling I knew what it was...
Flat tire.. was in a bad spot on the highway, but only a mile from an exit so drove it down that way.
I think the drive off the highway broke open the side wall, but we couldn't find any thing else wrong with the tire. Luckily Brad was still rolling with me, as the spare I have is on a 14" rim and didn't fit the new disc brakes I put on this year. Found a Wal-Mart and had those idiots mount up a 185/60r15. No chance of finding a 165/45r15 anywhere for sure! They launched the rim off the tire machine not once but twice while trying to get that tire off.
With that big ass tire I had to raise up the front suspension as far as possible. Was surprised at how well it handled with the toe being so far out of wack. Still rubbed often going down the road and right turns were real bad. Luckily it was all highway driving home.
Back home..
Almost 900 miles (1448 km) round trip. Planing on heading back next year too.
Headed out early Fri morning...
First 6hrs of driving I was rolling solo... boring. Fought a head wind the whole way too which sucked. I was lucky to get 60MPH and I usually roll out at 70MPH.
Finally met up with Brad in his Flip Seat Westy...
Show grounds were a soggy mess. They eventually moved up onto the paved sections of the property.
Johnny trailered his new to him '57 Oval rag. I give him shit for trailering anything, but was damn lucky he did. We ended up spending a lot of time in that trailer out of the rain.
One of the most OG VW's I've ever seen....
I wasn't expecting much from the show cars at this event. Figured the cheeseball, hippy dippy and buggy fuck factor would be pretty high. I wasn't dissapointed
Got to keep all that Chinese chrome from rusting somehow...
They had a cruise to down town organized for Fri night...
Those are all buggies in front of that Ghey Bay...
Don't know why someone would hack all that late model stuff into a Split Beetle
Super clean Oval, but lots to be picked apart....
Would have liked to seen more obviously, but there were a few Split Buses around...
Nice view from the back seat...
Cut away stuff was neat...
By far the highlight of the weekend was the Schwimmwagen...
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCjWrolZkME[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBkNCQC3GSU[/youtube]
One of the cars from the cult classic DEATH RACE 2000
Nice WWII collection on display...
Nothing like a $400 truck to tow a $200K Schwimmwagen...
Hearse was pretty cool.
I could have watched this Hippie Chick all night
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8l621NoEz4[/youtube]
I heard they ended up with about 300 cars showing up, but that sounds like more than I saw
Weather Sat night was pretty bad. Had a tornado roll South of the town. No injuries, thankfully.
Ride home kind of sucked. About a hour down the road I could smell rubber burning and the Bus started pulling to the left a little. As soon as it started pulling I knew what it was...
Flat tire.. was in a bad spot on the highway, but only a mile from an exit so drove it down that way.
I think the drive off the highway broke open the side wall, but we couldn't find any thing else wrong with the tire. Luckily Brad was still rolling with me, as the spare I have is on a 14" rim and didn't fit the new disc brakes I put on this year. Found a Wal-Mart and had those idiots mount up a 185/60r15. No chance of finding a 165/45r15 anywhere for sure! They launched the rim off the tire machine not once but twice while trying to get that tire off.
With that big ass tire I had to raise up the front suspension as far as possible. Was surprised at how well it handled with the toe being so far out of wack. Still rubbed often going down the road and right turns were real bad. Luckily it was all highway driving home.
Back home..
Almost 900 miles (1448 km) round trip. Planing on heading back next year too.