The Cultural War Over Americas Most Ticketed Car ShowIt wasnt always like this, Don Santora told me. And it wasnt supposed to be like this. H2. 0i, the annual car show in Ocean City, Maryland that Jalopnik declared the most ticketed car show Read more Read. The massive crowds, the traffic stops, the tickets, the towing. The bad reputation. H2. O International, what was once just a big Volkswagen and Audi show, has become the worlds most ticketed car show. You only had one or two guys doing a burnout to show off, but today is much different, he said. Indeed, a quick You. Tube search will result in video after video of burnouts on public roads during H2. Oi. You got people telling people, were going down to party, Santora continued. And thats what people think you do just go down to Ocean City and there are no rules. Thats what its turned into. Officially, H2. Oi not happening this year. But according to multiple people Jalopnik spoke with, it wont keep people from coming down to Ocean City to hang out with their fellow car enthusiasts. What that event will look like this year, without H2. Oi officially happening, remains to be seen. For two decades now, as September faded into October and the last of the beachgoers retreated from Ocean City, MD, a different kind of crowd settled in. One that reveled in cars with cambered tires and underglow. Big wings and loud exhausts. Three piece wheels. When you saw these cars start rolling up and down Coastal Highway, then you knew H2. Oi was underway. The atmosphere at this massive car show is open and inviting. It wasnt always like this, Don Santora told me. And it wasnt supposed to be like this. Commercial space tourism company Blue Origin, and its overlord Jeff Bezos, have been pretty quiet over the last few months. But last week, the Amazon founder made his. Instagram, Facebooks hotter, snootier subsidiary, may have a massive data breach on its hands. Its comprised of groups of different kinds of car enthusiasts coming together for about a week to hang out and soak up the automotive atmosphere. Make new friends. See old ones. Smoke some pot. Swap parts and ideas. Subarus share space with Audis that share space with BMWs that share space with Volkswagens that share space with Hondas. Because why not Summers just ended and falls around the corner. Too soon, people on the East Coast will be putting their cars away for the winter or prepping for the salt. But the trend that emerged in recent years is that many of the stanced and lowered cars attending the event do not, according to police, adhere to Marylands vehicle safety standards. And some owners have a habit of showing off and doing burnouts. So cops can be seen posted on nearly every street corner, handing out citations. We dubbed H2. Oi the most ticketed car show in America when we went for a look last year because thats exactly what we saw. Gig, a new carsharing app created by the emergency roadside assistance service AAA rolled out to the Bay Area today. The startup comes out of A3 Ventures. Seattle-Parking-Day-2013-Zipcar.jpg' alt='Instagram For Windows 2013 Zipcar' title='Instagram For Windows 2013 Zipcar' />Based off of posts uploaded to the now deleted Instagram page OCPDRoll. Call, it appeared that certain attendees of H2. Oi regarded getting served a citation as a type of masochistic trophy. The question wasnt if his car would get impounded. We knew was going to happen the moment we sawRead more Read. Jalopnik Features Editor Raphael Orlove reported at the time If I were one for grand declarations, and I am, Id call it the most ticketed car show in the country, if not the world. Take a single drive down the citys main drag, Coastal Highway, and youll see a good four or five cars, at least, pulled over and getting cited. And this is true day or night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before even H2. Oi officially starts on the weekend. Then, expect to see a good four or five cars getting pulled over on any drive longer than two blocks. But old timers are quick to remind people that this wasnt how H2. O always was. Far from it. And many of them arent happy with the reputation it has now. When H2. Oi first started, it was an Ocean City sanctioned event, a show exclusively for Volkswagen and Audis where the cars were judged at the end and trophies were awarded. It was never held in Ocean City, but rather in a neighboring area. In part, it was started to help build the VW and Audi community, to give those owners a safe, exclusive environment in which to display their cars. Over time, the event grew. Attendees with all sorts of different cars started turning up. Santora, one of the owners and builders at Tuning Works, recalled that this is approximately where some of the problems began to happen. Jamie Orr, a moderator for popular Volkswagen forum VWVortex who also helps connect H2. Download The King Of Fighter 99 Game. Oi with the VW community, said its gotten to the point where downtown Ocean City gets taken over by gearheads. You cant even get a hotel room. Thats what makes this so magical for all marques, he insisted. Yet, he also admitted that within the last four or five years, its attracted a lot of people who might not even know there is an actual showwho think that cruising up and down and hanging out on Coastal Highway is the main attraction. Because at some point along the way, H2. Oi split into two events the official VW and Audi show and the unsanctioned car meet, open to all, not sponsored by H2. Oi and sprawling through Ocean Citys main drag. This meet is most likely what you think of when you think of H2. Oi. Its here that you see the majority of the burnouts and the stunting and the ticketing. Here is where youll find the people who want the notoriety of getting a citation, the people who get a thrill from it. Orr insisted that this is not representative of what H2. Oi started out to be. This years event, according to event sponsors, has been postponed until 2. But all this means is that the official H2. Oi VW and Audi event wont be happening. The ones who will make the journey, who had no intention of attending that event, will continue on, their plans unchanged. Both Orr and Santora are certain that thousands of people will still turn up. Indeed, a search of hotels in the area show that in the last weekend of September, when the event was to be held, many are close to full. The venue where the official event took place has changed over the years. Last years location changed hands and new zoning ordinances were put down, which prevented H2. Oi from holding its event there again this year. Ultimately, the show was unable to secure a location in time and forced to cancel. You have to wonder, though, if serious police concerns from past events factored into these new zoning rules. Ocean City has a history of car events, but recently, the death of a motorcyclist doing wheelies during the Crusin event in May 2. Most everyone who attends H2. Oi, whether it be the sanctioned or unsanctioned aspects of it, appear to only want to go and have a good time. They dont wish to cause trouble for others. But because the unsanctioned arm of H2. Oi has grown so large, its difficult to police, both internally and externally. Its not like the event itself hasnt tried, either. A excerpt of a post written in 2. H2. Oi Facebook page reads To the ones who think H2. Oi is a FREEFORALL and no rules or laws exist while attending H2. Oi and staying in OCMD I hope to make this crystal clear I dont want you, the VWAudi community doesnt want you and Ocean City doesnt want youSo please stay home if you cannot control yourself and act like normal, respectful adults. Whats unfortunate is that this year, the original event was cancelled, while the public one will be in full swing in a couple of weeks. According to Santora, there are only a handful of big Volkswagen events in the United States and H2. Oi was the one that everybody was looking forward to most. Hes still goinghe has friends to seebut hes disappointed. Clearly, both Orr and Santora are in deep within the Volkswagen community. And as OG attendees of H2. Oi which, I suspect, also rings true for other veteran participants, there is a certain step offism to the way they regard the newer, non VW or Audi H2. Oi goers that they were here first, and that there is a certain established decorum that they expect to be followed and respected. The truth is that car culture belongs to everybody. Thats what makes it great and democratic.