Few cars lend themselves as well to being personalized as Volkswagens. And it’s been this way for decades, whether you’re talking Beetle or Jetta, Microbus or Touareg, Karmann-Ghia or Cabriolet. Across generations spanning from air-cooled, rear-engined classics or modern all-wheel-drive turbo rockets, VW owners love to make their cars unique. A trip to this year’s Cult Classic show in Coopersburg, PA only reinforced what I’ve known since I was a high school twit with a rockin’ Rabbit.
Now in its 18th year, Cult Classic is put on by local VW/Audi tuning and repair shop NLS Auto Shop. The name of the shop stands for Nothing Leave Stock, a clue to the mindset of Josh Passhaus who founded the business and the show. And while Josh may have sold the business a couple years ago (to fellow enthusiasts, naturally) his spirit still feeds the vibe at Cult Classic.
The low-key gathering caters mostly to owners and fans of modified VW and Audi vehicles, but it’s open to all comers. As the show has evolved, it’s now common to see JDM tuner cars, American classics, and a variety of other German performance models on the field.
Wandering this year’s show, I was taken back to my own days of building modified VWs. Over 15 years, I owned a string of seven different Rabbits, Golfs, and GTIs. Each of them was modified to some extent or another including custom paint and interior work. The crowd is a lot younger than I am these days, but the cars still lend themselves to the free expression of their owners.
For some, it’s performance tuning. The advent of the VR6 engine and later the 1.8T and 2.0T turbo four-cylinders put VW on a power trip starting in the mid 1990s. And the aftermarket exploded to meet it. The build quality on some of the show’s best tuner cars proves how far the market has matured.
Likewise for paint – or should I say color? VW owners have always been trend setters when it comes to bold colors and unique treatments. Today’s vinyl wrap films have opened new doors for experimentation. Many of the show cars on the field sported custom bodywork like smoothed engine bays and grafted-in fender vents. The execution was consistently impressive, as were many of the paint jobs.
Perhaps the one area where the scene has evolved the most since I departed nearly 20 years ago is interiors. When VW went back to offering plaid cloth on the GTI in the early 2000s, it started a trend. Today plaid cloth seats are the mark of a serious build, with many owners applying the treatment to expensive aftermarket seats. The choices of color and pattern are much broader as a result. Today’s show car interiors look so much better than the plain black leather that used to be the standard.
The annual trip to Cult Classic takes me back to the fun I had building a car on a shoestring budget while learning to adult. I may have moved on to other projects, but down deep I still identify with all the younger enthusiasts on the show field. Who knows, may I have one more GTI build left in me. Perhaps a Euro-spec first-gen Golf GTI…
