Worthesee GTi Treffen

Volkswagen turned up to support its fans' Golf GTi festival in Germany last week with three different concept cars, but it was the fans themselves who turned up with the weird.

With 140,000 people rolling very slowly around Lake Worthesee in Austria, there was bound to be some strangeness, particularly on the 35th anniversary of the original Golf GTi.

But German Father's Day showed yet again why the Worthesee GTi festival should be seen as Europe's Summernats, even though it has far less emphasis on urging one gender to expose two specific pieces of their bodies.

Yet, unlike Australia's Summernats, there are as many cheers for a completely stock, well-maintained Generation One GTi as there are for a heavily modified, chromed GTi with a hundred thousand euros invested into it.

And, while Worthesee began as a pure fan's event, it caught the attention of the factory as it grew. On the slow drive around the lake, which is 17km long and up to 2km wide, you can see some of the strangest modifications you'd ever imagine possible on the Golf platform.

You can also see some of the strangest spectators, choosing to fire up barbecues in bus stops and supermarket car parks on the side of the road between the lake's eight towns as drivers lap the lake to show off their wares.

The Festival has matured to include other VW Group machines, like Seats, Audis and Skodas, but even well-maintained or modified BMWs aren't sneered at.

A tolerant police force allows for drunken, sunburnt Germans, Austrians and Dutchmen to banter good naturedly, yet violence of any kind is self-policed comprehensively and nobody derides anybody's efforts.

The factory stands of Audi, VW and Skoda are all concentrated in the lakeshore village of Reifnitz so the VW board members don't need to walk more than 50 paces after they step off their luxury lake boats.

There has been a backlash against the increased involvement of the VW factory though.
While the fans are interested and respectful of Volkswagen's efforts to get into the Worthesee spirit, it's a spirit that they create with their 60,000-plus Golfs and A3s, not Volkswagen.

No modification is too extreme. There are enough chromed engine bays to make Summernats proud, but burn-out bays don't exist. Instead, it's all about celebrating being around other Golf GTi owners, because the original GTi was the first car to open up the world of performance cars to people who couldn't afford a Porsche and it's held its place in popular European affections ever since.

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