Well.. let's put some words around the videos and pictures soon to follow!
This was our 5th Camaro2010.de fest held in Wuppertal in the southern part of the "Ruhrpott" - one of the busiest and most crowded areas right in the heart of Germany.
Starting with what must have been the smallest forum meet ever with 5 cars (4?) back in 2010 we're organizing annual meets similar to what guys are doing, just a "tiny bit" smaller....
First meet:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85570
The first "big" meet back in August 2010 was already counting 25+ camaros - see below thread for details:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100820
To bridge the time until the 2011 Fest, we decided to take part at Luis Chevrolet 100th Birthday held in Switzerland:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154502
The next official meet in 2011 was already counting 60+ Camaros and was starting to become one hell of an event!!! (No thread for this unfortunately...
)
With a peak of 85+ Camaros during this years meet in Wuppertal, it became clear that the community over here in Germany/Europe is what you could call a big family, sharing the enthusiasm for a car that still is one of those rare exotics - not often seen on Germanys (Europes) roads!
We're growing, slowly but gradually, supported by the fact that the Camaro is now officially sold in Europe! The amazing thing to see is how friendships amongst the members have developed over the time. Germany/Switzerland/Austria has become quite a small place given all the events taking place near and far...
Anyway - Wuppertal it was this time!
3 days, 85+ cars, 150+ friends, one Hotel, one hell of a place to hold such an event!
The traffic in this area is huge at any time, so obviously if a convoi of 85 cars sets off for a cruise in Wuppertal something's gotta give... Admittedly some spontaneous roadblocks were needed to keep the cars together but overall things ran smooth enough to not leave the city in a complete chaos! However we needed 2 "test cruises" to restaurants nearby on day 1 & 2 to figure out how this is done the best...
Saturday, we've organized a 120mile cruise through the countryside south to the Ruhrpott - hopefully a lot of pics and videos will be provided later. Surprisingly this cruise went as smooth as silk. Most amazing thing was to realize that in this area of Germany the camaro was not often spotted before. Difficult to describe the faces of bystanders looking at a 30.000hp centipede roaring along... priceless to say the least!!!!
Best bit of the meet - for me at least - was the time spent on the parking lot in front of the hotel. Seeing old friends again, making new friends amongst the new members, discussing the latest mods and at the end partying through the night - this is what makes this community special!!!
Unfortunately fate struck hard upon a couple of members... 2 clutches went out, 1 harmonic balancer simply exploded and a fender-bender was on the list of things that shouldn't have happened and put the local motor club (ADAC) on the agenda....
More to stories to come later on together with pics&vids of the best event we had to date
Thanks to everybody taking part at this year's fest - you guys rock
Thanks to C5 as well, although thousands of miles away, I can feel we're sharing the same sort of love - our cars and the community