For us, modifying a car is usually done for specific dynamic reasons. The idea is that it should work better in the right circumstances, so it’s OK to move away from the original design compromise. Here in Wörthersee it’s done entirely for visual and aural effect and the deeply degraded driving experience is immaterial.

Sidewalls are stretched to their limits, air springs let bodies down onto bump stops. The engineering efforts of Dr Hackenberg and his counterparts are cast aside, and he must be appalled at what he sees. But what artistry takes the place of those efforts: here’s a Polo with a full-frame Audi grille, there’s an Audi A3 airbrushed to look as though it’s built out of riveted steel plates.

And what’s with these terminally rusty Golfs and Jettas? Actually, the Golf is not rusty at all, just artfully painted to look that way as an anti-custom-car statement. It’s known as the rat look. The Jetta, meanwhile, is genuinely paintless and rusting, and its seats are showing their bare foam innards.

Will the owners of these cars, or of the Touareg with 24in wheels, 25-profile tyres and diamante-studded ‘24’ badges, be watching the Nürburgring 24-hours? I suspect not, although the rare Volkswagen K70 (the first watercooled VW and originally an NSU design), complete with Porsche-style Fuchs wheels looks like it ought to be racing there. If only…