Alien Beetles invade Roswell
ROSWELL, N.M.–When the New Beetle was introduced for 1998, its advertising slogan was, "Reverse engineered from UFOs."
That got enthusiasts chatting on the Internet, jokingly, about holding a show in the New Mexico town made famous by an alleged UFO crash nearby in 1947.
"I'd had experience doing VW shows in Texas, and when someone said, `What's in Roswell?' no one knew," says David Allen, a 46-year-old cartographer from Grand Prairie, Texas.
"I drove out with a guy from Roswell, Ga. We got out here, and next thing, the mayor's over, and everyone's happy to have us come out. We held the first one in 2000."
Allen's blue 1998 diesel coupe was one of 80 cars at this year's Roswell 2K New Beetle Weekend, held last weekend. New Beetles came from as far away as Pennsylvania and Washington, as well as two from Ontario: Howie Lipton's 2001 turbo coupe from Hamilton, and a 2007 convertible supplied to me by Volkswagen Canada.
"It's my sixth show," says Lipton, who drove most of the way along Route 66.
"It's more about the people than the cars. I drive a 26-foot straight truck for a living, so you wouldn't think I'd spend my vacation driving, but I love the desert."
A confession: single-marque shows can get monotonous, and I was originally planning to stop in as part of my road trip, and "bug out" when it got boring.
Was I ever wrong. These folks share a refreshing enthusiasm: they're serious about having fun with their cars. Most know each other from Internet boards, and it's more reunion than car show.
On Friday night, they drove out to the desert, decorated their cars with lights, and returned to town in the dark (we strung Christmas lights on ours).
The night's dinner included a performance by a student mariachi band, which teaches children music while raising money for their college scholarships; the show donated six child-sized violins.
On Saturday, the police closed the main street and residents lined up to watch us parade, before everyone headed to watch The Love Bug. Herbie himself was on hand, or at least one of his stand-ins: Dee and Mark Hooker, and their daughter Shelby arrived from Little Rock, Ark., in one of five cars Disney produced to promote Herbie Fully Loaded.
"I wanted a Bug, so I could be economical," Dee Hooker says. "When Disney was finished with the cars, they went to dealers, and Little Rock got one. If you go to a lot of the Beetle shows, the old Beetle owners don't like the new cars, so we came because it's just for new ones."
There were several customized Beetles, and I thought the baseball-themed model owned by Kathy O'Hara of Columbus, Ohio, was handcrafted. Instead, it was one of 15 given as Cracker Jack prizes.
"I'm a baseball fan, and my husband ate a lot of Cracker Jacks trying to win it," she says.
"We didn't win, but we bought this one on eBay. The winner sold the car and the buyer gave it to his niece, and she `de-baseballized' it. We took photos of another one and worked with a graphics designer to put it back."
The car has seats made from Rawlings baseball leather, a ball and bat shifter and handbrake, and it plays "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
Aliens are big business in Roswell, and many participants decorated their Beetles with little green men. Mike Schaub came from Albuquerque towing his own spaceship, made from two satellite dishes and Christmas lights.
"I made it all, but it took a while," Schaub says. "It's easy to find one dish, but to find two? It started when someone sold me a spaceship sticker, and I wanted to do something for the show.
"I keep changing the character driving it. I rigged this one up with a bicycle cable on a string, and I pull the string to make him wave."
If it all sounds like silly fun, it is, but that's the best part: where some car shows are about serious competition, this is more like relaxing at a big house party.
"We got 265 cars the first year, but it's levelled to 80 cars," Allen says. "We get about 60 per cent new people every year, and we get a lot of support from VW.
"But my satisfaction is watching people have a good time. If only five cars showed up, but they had fun, that's a success to me."
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