We catch up with one of the largest caravans from Chicago to H2Oi.
Not many enthusiasts have the balls to drive over 800 miles one way to a car show. For you West Coast readers, it's like driving from Seattle to San Francisco. But East Coast enthusiasts make similar drives without hesitation.
In only its second year, the Longball Rally from Chicago, IL has grown to enormous proportions, drawing H2Oi fans from Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and further.
The idea of the Longball Rally started with Kieran Delaney, a Mk3 Jetta owner from Chicago. He made his first journey to H2Oi in '05 and met several enthusiasts along the way. He exchanged ideas with many of them and decided to organize a caravan from Chi-town for '06.
"I would have been happy if we got 20 cars," Kieran explained. "It's a long weekend and people would have to take four days off from work, so I didn't think many would do it. But I got about 20 pre-registrations for the '06 rally and ended up running out of registration packets, with around 50 cars joining us.
"This year we were more organized. As well as shirts and decals, we had bags made. However, we didn't want to go overboard with sponsorship and make it seem like a corporate event. The premise was simply to arrive at OC together and have a good time. Any money that's left over is donated to a local animal shelter."
For this year's event, 86 people signed up and more wanted to register on the day of the drive. Like the previous year, the cruise started off in Chicago and had a one-night stop in Pittsburgh. As a special treat, a Pittsburgh supporter donated a keg of beer from the East End Brewing Company.
The next day, the group set out to Annapolis, where we met up with them for the final leg to Ocean City.
The Longball seemed to break into two groups but most cars cruised together. We were happy to hear of only two traffic violations during the drive, despite the considerable distance.
Once all the costs were subtracted, the drive raised over $500 for the animal shelter. So if you're from the Midwest or beyond (one couple drove from Portland, OR this year!), be sure to pre-register for '08 at www.longballrally.com
R32 Revisited We had the chance to drive the new R32 for the first time on US soil on the Longball, and it was a memorable experience. Driving one of these cars is special for two reasons; firstly, the exhaust note is rich and creamy. We just wish it came with a manual transmission so you could de-clutch and rev the motor at will; secondly, only real VW enthusiasts seemed to know what it was. And for many, it was their first sighting of the new R32, which made it exciting. However, we wish the new car looked as distinctive as its predecessor.
While the engine is the R32's greatest asset, it's also its Achilles heel. Cruising from DC to OC, we averaged around 23mpg. And once in Ocean City, we were only seeing 16mpg at best.
So we still find ourselves struggling to justify the price of the R32. It sounds great but looks ordinary, it's thirsty and the interior is basically GTI spec.
We really want to love this car but it keeps coming up short. Not to worry, we plan a test in the near future that will answer all our questions once and for all.