The History of Club GTI, Est. 1987.
The start of Club GTI can be traced back to GTI Treffen in 1987. At the time this show was the largest gathering of GTI Enthusiasts in Europe. At the show some UK based enthusiasts met up and talked about doing the same in the UK.
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In the beginning...
In all, ten members put in £100 each and formed Club GTI with the proviso that if the club succeeded then the monies would be paid back. Within a year the funds within the club enabled each of the ten to get back their £100. The first member joined Club GTI on the 14th August 1987 and by the 5th September 1987 Club GTI had 25 members. By June 1988 it was reported the Club GTI had over 200 members.
The first committee members were as follows; Graeme Platt, David Pipes, Carrie Gillies, Graeme Platt, David Warren, Stuart Wood, Graham Whittaker, Chris Williams, Eddie Fisher, Keith Parrish and Mike Butler.
Rabbit was born...
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Rabbit, the cover of the first edition.
The first Rabbit issued to club members in July 1987 was four pages of typed text edited by David Pipes. Rabbit 14 was the first magazine style issue, this used a black and white picture on the front cover. Rabbit 19 saw the first use of colour with a tri colour Club badge on the front cover. Rabbit 22 saw the first full colour pages (well, all two pages to be exact!). September 1992 saw Rabbit awarded the Car and Car Conversion Club Car Magazine of the year.
The first full colour cover front cover was seen in Rabbit 28 showing a Golf Rallye in mid air. Rabbit 32 was the first full colour issue. Rabbit has continued to improve, the current issue is a full colour magazine with a professional company handling the layout and printing. Today Club members receive a full colour magazine 4 times a year by post. This helps Club GTI stand out from the rest of the Clubs within the scene.
Club GTI attended the first event VW Action in September 1987. The write up at the time described this as largely ‘aircooled’ but there was plenty to interest the GTI owners. The first circuit driving days were held in 1988 and these were basically a group booking at a circuit for club members. The first Club GTI Track day was held at Curborough on 28th April 1990. This Track has a long association with Club GTI and today we hold our National Day at the venue.
Early 1988 saw the formation of regional meetings. The first locations were Bath, Birmingham, Haverhill, Nottingham, Staines and Oxford. Today over 40 regional meeting are held each month. These cover England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. A full listing is available online and in every copy of Rabbit.
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The old Club GTI website, 2002-2006.
As we approached the Millennium, Club GTI switched onto the internet and an online presence was born. The site was designed to offer information and reports related to Club GTI, it was seen as the perfect partner to Rabbit magazine. Among the vast information a forum for both non-members and a dedicated section for the sole benefit of Club GTI members was set up. Enabling likeminded enthusiasts to communicate faster than ever before, and building a community in its own right.
20 years, and still going strong...
Today the Club is still dedicated to the Golf GTI, and with the latest MK5 version being an overwhelming success, Volkswagen have again rewritten the rule book for the Original Hot hatch. But this is not an “owners club”; it is an enthusiasts club and welcomes anyone that has an interest in the GTI marque, or an interest in the ever increasing world of performance Volkswagen Audi Group cars. So if your tendencies lie towards an Audi, SEAT, Volkswagen or Skoda, you can still become part of the largest water-cooled enthusiast club in the UK.
The future looks bright for Club GTI...
The launch of this new website is just the start of many improvements planned for the Club. We aim to offer members better communication, better value for money, a better insight into your regional meetings, exclusive discounts and deals and a sense of being a part of something special. Club GTI is good, but its about to get even better!