When Volkswagen calls you up and says “Hey, can you come to Barstow” it’s probably in your best interest to say “absolutely.”

We got that call and headed to Barstow, Tope was weathered by a few storms along the way, but we got out there with no issues. The Weather in Barstow was beautiful, 80’s and sunny all week and Volkswagen laid out the red carpet for a number of journalists to show of a few examples of how their cars have been used in the last 50 years of Baja and Offroad racing. We’d like to think that our car was a standout of the show…

The event was organized by Volkswagen who collaborated with MORE. (Mojave Offroad Racing Enthusiasts) Cody did a great job of not only setting up a course, but also keeping an eye out for everyone involved. He also brought along a great little Class 9 Car for everyone to check out.

Volkswagen brought a Class 11 that they recently acquired. It was light and nimble, but needed a little prep, We discovered this after a little issue with hoses. Since we are sponsored by Gates Corporation, well, the car ended up with all new Gates belts and hoses to make sure it wouldn’t have any issues.

We had a number of photo shoots before we ever took anyone else out in the car. We had 3 of our drivers on hand so we ended up driving a few of the cars during the course of the event. Evan Klein was out taking photos along the way and got some great stuff.

Over the course of the next two days we logged about 300 miles, tested our car and got a chance to give quite a few journalists a chance to ride and, gulp, drive our car. We had a chance to tell them all about our car. Some were really inquisitive about all the details like Jason Torchinsky from Jalopnik and Elana Scherr from Roadkill. Journalists photos, videos, car reviews and more. We spent quite a few really good days out there giving people a little glimpse into what the car can do… and yes, if you are a journalist that was at the event… it actually can do quite a bit more than we showed you.

The event spanned 3 days and in the middle of it, Bruce Meyers showed up. Yeah, that Bruce Meyers, the one who built the Meyers Manx… The Canadian journalists can tell you the story about that on this post on our site.

I have to say, one of the highlights of the event was sitting down at the Slash X and listening to Bruce Meyers talk about how he created the Manx and all of his Baja stories along the way…

We left on Thursday and met up with SCORE Internationals new tech team to get our Chassis inspection done before the Baja 1000. We were really glad they could be so flexible after a very difficult year.

We had a great time at the event and we are seeing more and more exposure come out in the media because of it. Thanks to Volkswagen for inviting us along for the ride.