Southern Worthersee 2015 Part One | Event Coverage

By Minh | May 27, 2015

Every year thousands of European car enthusiasts on the east coast all swarm to this charming Bavarian town of Helen, Georgia for Southern Worthersee. Southern Worthersee was inspired by The Wörthersee Tour in Austria where they host the largest gathering of European cars. The creators of Southern Worthersee wanted to create an event that could bring European car enthusiasts together in a true European setting and that is why they chose Helen, Georgia. Shavi was raving how car events in the east coast are completely different than the ones on the west coast and convinced me to come along to check it out. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this trip, but my impulsive nature bought a ticket anyways.

The city lights of Long Beach.

I’m really impressed with how the Sony A7II was able to capture this shot. The low light abilities of this camera is amazing.

The first thing we did when we arrived was eat! Shavi found a popular breakfast spot called Egg Harbor Cafe.

Surprisingly, we were on the same flight as Jon and Anh from VIP Modular and they came along with us for breakfast. Jon is also rocking the Sony A7II.

Anh showing us the things we could do with the Sony play memories app for the Sony cameras.

Since Ryo is leaving back to Japan soon, he wanted to go on a trip out to the south and SOWO fit right into his schedule.

San Antonio Scrambler.

Smoked Salmon Benedict.

Butcher Shop Omelette.

Lobster Scrambler.

Egg Harbor Cafe was delicious and the workers were extremely nice and gave us our first taste of southern hospitality. I definitely recommend going to eat there if you’re ever in Atlanta.

2 hours later we found ourselves meeting up with the rest of the VIP Modular crew in Helen.

Audi A5 looking impressive bagged on RSV Forged RSF1.

I use to see this Golf at Beach Burger in California, the owner apparently moved out to Texas and still made it out to SOWO.

Some of the cars that were representing VIP Modular at SOWO.

Clean A5 bagged on VIP Modulars.

Volkswagen Sportswagen towing an even lower Volkswagen Beetle.

This is a preview for all of the slammed European cars that you’re about to see roaming the streets of Helen.

That tuck all around.

We ventured out to the streets and found all of these slammed cars just passing by. Check out some of these rollers I got just standing outside of the Inn for 5 minutes.

What I really like about the cars here is nothing is too over done and all the cars just had a nice clean stance.

Very refreshing to see that the FRS was not the majority at a car show.

Love seeing Volkswagen CCs modified.

Weird being at a car event that didn’t have a huge Japanese car presence, so seeing this slammed Miata and the S13 in the back made me feel at home.

This S13 makes me miss Vinh’s old S13.

Interesting sticker on the wing and the over fenders look great.

Finally, Chris Foreman arrived at the meet up spot.

Haven’t seen Chris for a couple of months and haven’t seen his car for about a year now. Good to see him and his 350z are doing well.

More Beetles meeting up at the Inn.

The Beetle on the trailer stretching it’s legs.

We went across the street and found a sick S2000 on Volk TE-37 SL.

Love the ASM and Circuit Garage flare combination.

More wide roadsters in this parking lot.

There was also a massive influx of Porsches at SOWO.

American brand wheels and Volkswagens came hand in hand at this show.

Seat belts aren’t required in Helen.

America’s Subaru.

Marvelous Porsche on Rotiform TMB’s.

Best fitment I saw at SOWO was on this Jetta.

That fitment is so on point.

Wild and wide hawk eye wagon on Rotiforms as well.

Fresh and clean for the show tomorrow. People using the hoses from the hotels and inns to wash their cars.

I’ve actually never seen a modified Audi TT in person and at this show there were a couple nice ones like this one slammed on BBS RS.

We had to go check in our cabin and on the way there we found a nice lake to relax at.

Calm waters before the craziness begins.

A shot of how most of the buildings of Helen look like.

We met up at Tucker’s motel and staying with him was Ryan Richey from South Carolina with his wide WRX.

Parking lots began to fill up quick as cars were still flowing into the city.

All the way from Chicago, AJ and his 7 series on Work VS-KFs.

They had a portable dyno setup next to Big Daddy’s restaurant.

Nothing like eating some ice cream while watching slammed cars scrape the streets of Helen.

One of my biggest wants in my life is an R8 and slam it.

Lexus IS with widened fenders all around and some crazy fitment.

Red Chrome Subie Wagon with a nice stance.

When the sun came down, Helen was a different kind of animal. The streets were livelier and the people were even crazier.

We hung around “burn out” alley for a bit where there were people just sitting out with their lawn chairs waiting for burn outs. Most of the time the crowds were screaming “Burnout for tits!”

Shout out to my Sony A7II for being able to capture some of these shots because it was pretty dark.

Another spot to hang out at night was Helendorf Inn where most of the craziness was happening that was non car related. This is where the champagne showers were happening and the spot that had the most alcohol.

Crowds and crowds of people entering Helendorf.

It felt like a spring break weekend party mixed with some car enthusiasts.

This truck was giving away free high fives, I hope they had hand sanitizer.

A rare sight to see among all of these European cars.

Thank God for Tucker’s room, if you ever go to SOWO make sure you get a room in town as a home base.

It was my first time seeing a limbo contest with cars and combined with it they had an exhaust test where they checked your exhaust decibel. It was like a state ref check here in Cali but fun.

Not sure how they judged it, but I would assume that Miatas would win this competition.

Awesome looking 350z breaking necks outside of Helendorf.

Selfie of Jon and Grant to end this post.

Back at our cabin it was cool to be able to see the stars at night, wish socal had less light pollution to see this every night. Check back for part two of the SOWO coverage in a couple of days, where we will see the actual show and more craziness.