Yesterday, I was back in the California desert, testing the effectiveness of the air conditioning of a  Dodge Caliber SRT4 that's in the Automotive Traveler garage this week. And what did I find as soon as the thermometer hit 120 degrees? Two lightly disguised Volkswagen Golf Plus 2.0 TDIs! There's no camo on the tail, so they're not hiding anything there, but the blocker in the Nissan SUV is doing all he can to stop me from getting a good, clean shot of the front; obviously there's something they'd prefer I not see.
The gauntlet thus thrown, I had to pull out a few stops to get a clearer shot of the new front hiding behind the camo. This required staking out a location with an enforced 25 MPH speed limit, where I was finally able to grab the shot below as the Nissan SUV, two Golf Plus TDIs and the trailing Toyota Camry drove by.
While I was taking the pic, another member of the test team was admiring my Caliber SRT4, and snapped a photo of my back plate. Obviously, I'd lost the element of surprise, but quite honestly, if there's a shot I want, rest assured I'll get it. All it takes is a bit of patience.
While VW tests non-US market cars in California, given our current preoccupation with downsizing and fuel economy, might VW be considering the Golf Plus as an addition to its 2009/2010 US lineup?
Post script from Rich: To me, the whole "spy photo" thing is something of a game, and as a life-long auto enthusiast as well as a photographer, I really enjoy it. I'm not a hunter—I don't believe that it's fair shooting unarmed animals—but I imagine that hunting prey is something like shooting prototypes. As I approach spots where I know the test engineers congregate, there's a sense of anticipation, a real adrenalin rush, and I felt yesterday when the two VW prototypes pulled in front of me.
That being said, after spending all day in the desert—where the temperature was as high as 126 degrees—and then driving the 250 miles home, I was exhausted. Then I thought about the engineers that spend weeks at time in these challenging conditions. I have a newfound respect of what they endure so our cars are as reliable—in all conditions—as humans can make them.
When grabbing shots like these, I try hard not to actively interfere. I take a passive approach of waiting, normally at a distance, and try to catch the engineers unaware. It's something of a game of cat and mouse game, and I try to remember that they are working, and that it's not my job to make theirs harder, I'm just there to grab a shot for thousands of passionate enthusiasts.
These and additional higher resolution images of the 2010 Volkswagen Golf Plus 2.0 TDI can be found in the Automotive Traveler image gallery (Registration required to view or download full-size images.)
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