VW Nationals 2025
2025 VW Nationals
Was für ein Auftritt! (What a show!)
Where to even begin… This year’s Volkswagen Nationals had us on the edge of our seat, unsure of how the weather would be!!! We were lucky the rain held off… for a total of 48 hours… just enough to get those cars polished and in the undercover venue!
Saturday we unfortunately had to cancel the cruise organised by Euro Cruisers from Prospect home maker Centre to Wisemans Ferry, due to road closures and local flooding from weeks of wet weather. While the morning turned out to be beautiful, many roads remained closed, especially around Oakville, Maraylya and Cattai, and so we followed the SES’s advice.
Saturday night many of headed out and set up the venue, laying out the areas, putting out signs, bunting, tables and chairs and getting the office organised. We found out that Raymond and his family had come down with covid and couldn’t come – who was going to organise the club shop? Luckily Narelle volunteered to take it on, along with several other keen helpers.
On that note, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the many volunteers who helped make the Club Veedub Sydney, 2025 VW Nationals a huge success. Many of you worked all day and didn’t even get to see the show. Your dedication and hard work did not go unnoticed, and I am deeply appreciative of your efforts. Your selflessness and commitment to this event are truly remarkable, and it is only because of you that the event was able to run.
It was great to see most of our long-time sponsors with us again for the 2025 VW Nationals. Andrew Dodd, H&M Ferman, Stan Pobjoy and Vintage Veedub Supplies are still going strong after 37 shows – that’s every single year! Other sponsors who have supported us for over 30 shows include Aust VW Performance (Melbourne), Mick Motors (QLD), Shannons, and Wolfsburg Motors St Peters. Thank you so much to these long-time sponsors.
The cost of living did affect quite a few of last year’s sponsors and a number of them chose not to be involved this year, or have closed down. We lost Volksbahn after 35 years, and North Rocky Mechanical after 32 years; Bob Whyms (BWA) and Canberra VW Centre after 18 years, and Euro Revolution, Volkscare and Volkshome after 15 years.
On the other hand, Custom Veedub rejoined us after a gap of 9 years! Kombi Keg, Kombi Life, Noah’s Ark Café, Support Co and Volkswurst were back for their second year, while we welcome first-time sponsors Dub Hub Depot, Rockyroad Camper Coffee, Mini Halo Donuts and Showbags n Things. Thank you to all our 2025 Nationals sponsors. See the updated list of sponsors on the back page of the magazine (and a summary on page 2) – please support them, because they support us!
Early Sunday it was clear and cold before dawn, as swappers and show cars began lining up. Most of our volunteers were there early, some even camping there overnight, and soon suited up with fluoro vests and radios, and warm clothing!
The club shop and office were ready, the entry gates were manned and opened right on 7:30am, and it was up and running!!!
The car show entry gate is usually the bottleneck, but again this year we had plenty of volunteers to make things run smoothly. Clipboards with entry forms and tap-n-go payment were run up the queue, so that most cars had them filled out and paid by the time they reached the entrance. They got their stickers and judging forms, their photos taken, and then directed to their parking areas by more of our volunteers.
The traders and swappers were also in place early, and by 9am the show was looking great. By 10am most of the show cars were in place, no one was waiting to get in, and the gates were closed at 10:30. The showgrounds were packed with cars, traders, swappers and spectators, what a sight!
We moved the food vendors to the top row, at the edge of the roof, as we found that last year smoke from the grills and ovens tended to stick around and become oppressive when they were sited near the club shop. This time their smoke could waft away into the fresh air. There was a great selection of hot food, snacks, coffee and ice cream trucks to choose from.
In the meantime the boys did a great job marshalling and parking all the show cars, and directing the traders and swappers. Thank you gents! Narelle and the other girls did a great job in the shop all day, and the new T-shirts designed by Adam, Zelko, Dani and Eddie were very popular, as were Christine’s raffles. Many thanks to our club volunteers for all their work all day.
The show categories were the same as last year, with 42 categories altogether, including two perpetual trophies.
The Pam Withers award is chosen by Paul from Eurocruisers, in remembrance of his VW-loving late aunt. The David Birchall Car of the Day celebrates the late David Birchall and his 36 years of work organising the show. Wayne and Boris from Vintage Veedub choose the winner based on what they believe Dave would have liked best.
This year we got 221 cars in the show, plus another half dozen or so belonging to traders who didn’t want to be judged. That’s better than last year and is the third-highest total ever after 241 in 2023 and 231 in 2017. What a great turnout, especially after a week of heavy rain and the cost of living hitting us all.
There were 163 air-cooled VWs in the show, which is the most ever! It was 6 cars more than last year; the previous best total was 160 in 2017. That’s a wonderful turnout of classic VWs. However the number of modern water-cooled VWs dropped again, from a high of 80 in 2023 to 61 last year and just 58 this time. This is below the average of 62.3 over the last nine years, so it was a really disappointing turnout of modern VW owners.
There were 70 Beetles entered in six categories, 1 more than last year, and there were 48 Kombis across five categories, 6 more than last year. What great numbers for these classic models! On the other hand there were just 27 Golfs across eight categories, which was 9 less than last year and 22 less than 2023. That’s very disappointing. After the show a few people have suggested there are too many Golf categories, and with these dropping numbers they’re probably right. Phil suggests having ‘Classic Golf’ (Mk1-Mk4) and ‘Modern Golf’ (Mk5-Mk8) categories. Let us know what you think.
This year the most popular show category was Beetle ’58-’67 Modified with 16 entries, matching the record results in 2016 and 2018 and one more than last year. Beetle ‘68-on Standard had 15 entries (6 more than last year), while Beetle ’68 Modified had 14 (2 less than last year). Beetle ’58-’67 Standard had 12 entries (1 less than last year), along with Kombi T2 Standard, also 12 entries (1 less than last year). There were 11 entries in the Rat class, 4 less than last year, and 11 also in T3 Transporter – 3 more than last year and the highest ever.
The only water-cooled category with 10 or more entries was – amazingly – VW Commercial (T4-T7 Transporter, Caddy, Crafter, Amarok) with 10 entries, 9 more than last year! Golf 3 (’93-’97) was the most popular Golf category with 8 entries, same as last year, and Golf 7 had 7 entries, 1 more than last year. There were 6 Polo/Up!s, 2 more than last year. Every other water-cooled category had less than 5 entries.
As we’ve seen, some categories saw some big growth this year. Beetle ’54-’57 Modified, Beetle ’68-on Standard and T3 Transporter were the highest we’ve seen, while Beetle ’58 ’67 Modified was the equal best-ever. In water-cooled, VW Commercial (T4-T7 Transporter, Crafter) was by far the biggest ever. That’s great to see, thank you to the owners of these VWs!
Yet some other categories are unpopular. Over the last nine years there have never been more than 3 Standard Karmann Ghias at any show, and this year there were none at all. There were 6 Modified Karmann Ghias, which is about average, so we think we might forget about Modified or Standard and just have best Karmann Ghia from now on.
Golf 1 had 12 entries last year but only 4 this time, while Golf 5 dropped from 3 last year to just 1 this year. There were no Golf 6s at all, after getting 8 of them two years ago. We’ve had the Golf 8 category for 3 years, and we’ve had 0, 1 and 1 entries in that time. VW Sedans (Bora, Jetta, New Beetle, Passat, Arteon) normally average around 4 entries, but there were only 2 this year. Likewise VW Sports (Scirocco, Corrado) averages just over 3 entries; we had 8 of them two years ago but just 2 this time.
We generally average around 3 Audis and got 5 of them two years ago. Just 2 Audis this year, but probably worth persevering with this category. We started a Porsche category in 2019 to encourage these owners to bring their Stuttgart sporties along, but it hasn’t worked. For the last three years there has only been 1 – mine. Skoda is even worse – we got 1 this year but for four straight years before that it was 0. No one drives SEATs anymore and no one brought a Cupra along. Phil suggests we just have a ‘VAG Family’ category for all of these together next year.
When we went to peer judging in 2012, a few people complained that they wanted their immaculate VWs examined by proper judges. So we created the Concours category for these owners to enter their cars and have them judged by some industry experts such as Boris and Wayne from Vintage Veedub. Yet over the last five years the entries have been 2,2,2,2 – and 0 this year. We’ll probably have this category again next year, but might retire it after that if no entries next year.
The 221 car show entrants all got voting sheets, which enabled them to vote for up to 20 different cars of their choice, air and/or water. Some 1,835 votes were cast (on 173 different sheets) into the blue voting box before the 12:30 pm cutoff, though we also accepted some latecomer sheets up to almost 1pm. As well, every spectator through the gates got a People’s Choice voting ticket which allowed them to vote for one vehicle of their choice. There were 470 of these handed in before the closeoff, which made 2,305 votes (plus 221 entry forms) for Phil to enter into his laptop spreadsheet. This took all morning and lunchtime, but was completed by 1:30pm.
Once the computer had the trophy winners worked out, Sam our photographer had to match the winners with their specific car photos for the Powerpoint presentation. One or two usually go missing and it then takes a few minutes to find the cars in the show and grab another shot. But everything was worked out and done by 2:20pm.
Everyone was happy that we could then start the presentation more than half an hour earlier than the 3pm schedule, which everyone welcomed – in fact a cheer went up when Phil announced over the PA that it was about to start. We could start the presentation (and end the show) even earlier without the photo presentation, but I think everyone enjoys seeing shots of the winning cars as the owners come up for their trophies.
This year they were great-looking steering wheel designs with a VW logo on them. We don’t do 3rd place trophies any more, and we only do 2nd-place trophies for categories which average more than 10 cars entering the category over the last half a dozen years and there were only 7 of them this time, plus the 42 1st-place trophies.
After a long day we pushed through the presentation as quickly as we could and were done just after 3pm. Most people immediately started heading home. We still had another hour’s work packing up and making sure the venue was as tidy as we found it.
Only 6 trophies remained unclaimed; the winners had already gone home. They have already been emailed and their trophies will be available at our next meeting on Monday 16 th June at the Canley Heights RSL Club.
Mit mehr Wertschätzung, als Worte ausdrücken können,
(With more appreciation than words can express,)
Lee Woods
