I don't know about anyone else, but I would be perfectly content if every single car show throughout the summer took place in Ocean City, Maryland. There's the beach, restaurants, clubs, go-cart tracks galore, and about 10 miles of "strip" to waste gas on. No matter what time of day or night, there's always something to do. Add about 5000 VW/Audi enthusiasts to the mix the result is pure entertainment at every corner. Could this be why it's unanimously agreed that H2O International is by far the summer's most anticipated and enjoyable show? I think so.

Starting off the weekend was the 3rd annual DAGBALL Rally which pushed off from Providence, Rhode Island on Friday afternoon. There were reports of only about 20 cars on the first leg down to Parsippany, New Jersey. Uh-oh, what the heck are we gonna do with the 120 t-shirts and 20 cases of Crunk if nobody shows up? Have no fear, the second leg of the DAGBALL which started bright and early Saturday morning brought an additional 82 cars for a total count of 102 cars!! There's really only one word to describe the sight of 102 modified Volkswagens and Audis occupying 8 miles of interstate: epic. Although we can't really say that the drivers were well-behaved or there were no traffic laws slightly bent, we can say that each one of those 102 cars made it to Ocean Downs Raceway without and incident and on time for Saturday's Big-Ass BBQ. Well, technically 100 cars made it. DubAudi Gruppe's own JJ decided to seek a sponsorship from JB Weld after successfully pulling off the first ever NJ Turnpike rest stop intake manifold repair on his turbo VR6. Meanwhile, angry Roger learned the hard way that if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself after mangling the power steering pulley on his stage II R32 due to an over-tightened supercharger belt. JJ's JB Weld managed to hold up under 14 lbs of boost only to be forced to surrender later that day to a broken axel. Needless to say, the show must go on and both cars were abandoned and picked up later that weekend.

As always, Saturday night proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend. If you had your fill of cruising aimlessly on the strip, you could always count on finding some friendly competition at any one of Ocean City's many go-cart tracks. Twin engines are the way to go and that's all we'll say about that. Late night festivities always include plenty more cruising, Hooters, some hotel partying, more Hooters, or the ever so popular Seacrets. Spike that hair, iron that white button-up, and fill in that line beard, it's clubbin' time. Not really, but if you wanted to get intoxicated, or hang out with a thousand intoxicated people, go to Seacrets. If you're lucky, you could even leave with a new friend.

So even though it's easy to forget , there is actually a car show going on the next day. Not just any car show but the fastest growing, most laid-back, and easily most enjoyable show of the summer. H2O International continues to please show-goers with a great location, tons of vendors, and show cars that are arguably some of the best to be seen. Nowhere else will you find as many show cars that represent so many original mods and forward thinking styling while staying true to their roots. You'd almost think bookshelf wings and vinyl graphics were history after coming to H2O International. So nice. There's literally so much to see and do while attending H2O International that it's nearly impossible to summarize the weekend without leaving something out. It's a show that every enthusiast should attend, and will definitely leave you wanting more. After literally 5 hours of walking the show field and taking photos, I'm sure there was still plenty I missed. I did however, manage to capture some of what makes this show so special. That said, feast your eyes on some of the East Coast's finest samples of VW/Audi automobiles.