All roads lead to Wörthersee

Car meets and jamborees dedicated to a particular brand or genre are hardly a novelty. They take place all over the world. From Ford Falcon and Chevy Camaro gatherings to festivals dedicated purely to Italian machinery, many of you have probably been to several.

But for festive “Oompah” spirit, a dramatic backdrop and several examples of pure kookiness, nothing tops the annual Wörthersee GTI Treffen that takes place on the shores of Lake Wörth (or Wörthersee), which stretches from the Austrian towns of Klagenfurt to Velden. A bit further south lies the border with Slovenia.

The crystal-clear blue-green water of the lake (which is about 20km in length and almost 2km wide in parts) is juxtaposed by steep alpine foothills to the north and south that are coated with lush green forests.

Depending on visibility on the day, you can also see snow-capped alpine peaks in the distance. Beneath it all takes place the meet that began as a small gathering of Volkswagen Golf GTI enthusiasts 34 years ago.

From these humble origins, the event has mushroomed into a sprawling, megabuck festival that showcases not just Golf GTIs, but pretty much everything that sits in the VW Group portfolio. The Audi, Skoda and SEAT brands are there in force, and there’s even a small presence of Lamborghinis and Bentleys.

Perhaps putting their lives (or at least the welfare of their vehicles) on the line, there are a handful of cheeky interlopers in BMWs and Mercs, but you can sense they’re not welcome around here.

Such is the scale of the event that it now attracts around 150,000 enthusiasts from all over Europe (some of these come to show off their own vehicles, while others just come for a good gawp).

Recognising a captive audience when it sees one, the VW Group now treats the Wörthersee fest as an unofficial motor show, setting up expansive pavilions for its mainstream brands (VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda).

The German car-making juggernaut clearly takes the event seriously, and I spot several VW/Audi board members and senior management types hobnobbing on their respective stands.

The VW presentation (which takes place at 1:00pm on the opening day) is fanfare-packed, with Austrian showbiz luminaries (whom I’d never heard of) livening up the occasion with a bit of song-and-dance action. Even world rally champ Sebastien Ogier, who pilots a VW Polo in the WRC, pops up for an onstage interview.

But what the fans have flocked to see are the new concept cars being rolled out. VW goes the whole hog, with its showstopper being the futuristic Golf GTE Sport Concept, replete with scissor doors and a cockpit seemingly appropriated from a fighter jet.

Propulsion for the car comes from a 1.6-litre turbo engine borrowed from a WRC Polo rally car, but the petrol powerplant is supplemented by a pair of electric motors for a combined output of 294kW and 670Nm, enabling it to scoot to 100km/h in 4.3 seconds and hit 280km/h flat out.

While the GTE Sport is pure showcar fantasy, the Golf GTI Clubsport Concept that debuted simultaneously will go on sale (at least in Europe) next year.

Although derived from the GTI Performance Edition, the Clubsport scores a 26kW power hike, taking its tally to 195kW. But it doesn’t end there as there’s also an overboost function that liberates another 19kW for short bursts.

Another interesting concept is the Golf GTI Dark Shine, which was created by a group of Volkswagen apprentices. The racy black-and-yellow one-off pumps out 287kW and 487Nm, although specific details as to how these towering outputs were achieved haven’t been disclosed.

All we know is that the Dark Shine has a custom stainless steel exhaust system, a carbon fibre air box and a tasty set of blacked-out alloys. Sadly, it’s not production-bound.

Sister brand Audi also has an ace up its sleeve with the TT Clubsport Turbo Concept. It features a 2.5-litre TFSI five-cylinder engine with a ground-breaking electric turbocharger to all but eliminate lag.

Pushing out a brutish 441kW and 650Nm, it’s got Lambo Huracan-frightening stats. How does 0-100km/h in 3.6 seconds and a top whack of 310km/h sound?

Although the car itself isn’t destined for production, its electric turbocharging technology will filter through to upcoming Audi offerings.

While these concepts are eye-openers, the debutant that most takes my fancy is the T1 Racing Taxi conjured up by Swiss coachbuilder Fred Bernhard. Six years in the making, the ‘Taxi’ is based on a 1962 split-windscreen Kombi Bulli.

It’s festooned in grey, white and orange livery and hunkers down on a chunky wheel-tyre combo, but the real point of interest is the 389kW/757Nm flat-six engine purloined from a 993-generation Porsche 911 Turbo. The steering and brakes have also been borrowed from a 993, endowing the old Kombi to hustle around the Nurburgring Nordschleife with supercar-rivalling pace.

After taking in these concepts, I go walkabout to see what else captures my attention at the sprawling festival. A procession of cars crawls past through the throng of people. These include immaculately restored MK1 Golf GTIs and Sciroccos that wouldn’t look out of place in a Concours d’Elegance.

There’s also a huge contingent of modded vehicles – some of these have nothing more than bespoke wheels and/or paintjobs, while others are more wildly revamped custom cars.

One of the kookier customised contraptions is a bright green 1970s Beetle with a Schnapps bar housed under its sloping bonnet. There also seems to be a fetish for ‘rust buckets’ at the festival, as I notice a couple of rusty Beetles and a Mk3 Golf that seems to be held together purely by corroded bodywork.

It’s not just the cars that are the point of interest, as the tuners and aftermarket parts suppliers are out in force with stands or kiosks of their own. With so many car-modding fiends in attendance, they stand to make a fortune flogging their bits and pieces.

My attention turns to an ear-piercing screeching and the smell of burning rubber. I peer over at the burnout arena, where a Volkswagen Type 2 pick-up is performing smoky doughnuts, the driver leaning out of the window with a big grin on his face.

As if that wasn’t absurd enough, the follow-up act is a full-size MAN truck doing even more extravagant ‘circle-work’. Over in another enclosure, Ogier is also subjecting his WRC Polo to some drifting, albeit at much higher speeds.

The action intensifies as the afternoon sets in and several thousand litres of ‘cleansing ale’ have been consumed. Some of the other popular attractions include a bikini carwash and a strongman contest that’s open to all comers.

A few musclebound gym freaks from the crowd manage to heave up sizeable weights in the deadlift contest, but there are also several beer-fuelled revellers who barely manage to stumble onto the stage without tripping over.

My feet now ache after plodding around all day, so I rejoin the Audi and Veedub press minders for the speedboat ride to our digs at the Falkensteiner Schlosshotel Velden, which is located at the other end of the lake.

Skimming across the aqua at 60km/h proves a fitting end to the day, especially as one of the attractions along the way is the spectacular lakeside villa of Ferdinand Piech, who until just a fortnight previously had been chairman of the supervisory board at the VW Group. He had been forced to resign after winding up on the losing end of a power struggle with chief executive Martin Winterkorn.

However, Piech’s formidable legacy at the VW Group will forever loom large, so it’s quite appropriate that his residence is positioned within sight of the Wörthersee GTI Treffen.

Atmosphere pics courtesy of Steve Bauerschmidt