We might get a bit of flak on this one...

I posted the reasons for our new club, as opposed to others on one of the regional sites of Club GTI (don't have much confidence in the main forum site). Might have been a bad move, but I feel quite strongly about this.

I don't see a conflict of interest myself, but others obviously feel different.

http://www.clubgtiworc…ums&file=viewtopic&t=2412

Cheers,

Drew.

Drew,
You make us feel so special!

Best of luck, and thanks for choosing us to announce the details.

Drew,
You have a pm !!!!

My site

Drew,

You are not an unreasonable man - the fact that this situation exists reflects the reality of how CGTI is running.

Besides that the Mk1 does need special consideration - whilst I enjoy VW's and GTi's I don't really feel part of the Mk3/4/5 clan and doubt I ever will as these cars have no appeal for me.

CGTI is ultimately catering for Mk5 GTI owners as much as Mk1 owners and in this respect there will always be conflict.

Cheers
Daniel.

ps. liking the new site - a real progression here and hopefully the start of something historically significant.

Well done with the diplomacy Drew.

I would have been tempted to answer

Stop Whining.




Peter.

I fully support you Drew - I'm sure most here will too.
 

Im sad to say I actually left Club GTI for more or less the reasons you stated.

Geoff.

As always Drew, you're the total professional and do the club (hey club, not register!) proud!

I don't know an awful lot about the history of Club Gti but get the feeling they may have a touch of the sour grapes?!

Anyway, well written and as always you have my 100% support! :wink:

Drew,

I was a member of Club GTI over 10 years ago, when it was about the cars rather than the "personalities". I have to say I completely agree with your comments, there are only a few Mk1 owners on there who seem mature enough to hold an intelligent conversation.

I think this club does not detract from Club GTi one iota.

You have my wholehearted support.

Cheers
Rajan

Perhaps I'm lucky in that the Club GTI folks I've meet in person have been good chaps all round. Forum politics aside I still think it's a worthwhile organisation.

I don't think it's set up to look after the classic oriented mk1 owner though, and I don't think that's a problem if folks like us are prepared to cover that base.

Personally I only really like mk1s and mk2 anyway, so I see myself being less interested over time in the evolution of the GTI.

I'd rather spend my efforts on preserving my favourite car, The Mk1 Golf - that's all!

Thanks all though. I was wondering if I'd been a bit too honest!

Cheers,

Drew.

I'm currently a fully paid up member of ClubGTI, but have to say in my occasional foray's onto the main forum you have to dig pretty deep to get good info about standard cars. There seem to be fewer and fewer Mk1 owners on there these days, and the ones on there seem to be more into modding their Mk1's than keeping them original, (fine by me, but not what I'm after).

I think by focussing on the Mk1 this club can potentially achieve some very useful wins in terms of part sourcing and re-manufacturing as well as building up a good archive of Mk1 related material.

I'm sure every specialist club dwindles with time eventually as the model it relates to becomes less common. I don't see that as a problem though - to me Mk1's are only just becoming regarded as classics, so I'm sure we've got a fair few years of useful life left in the club yet  :wink:

I think if anything can be learnt from whats happened to ClubGTi it is that you can't be all things to all people. In particular I think you need to regard the clubs online presence (sp?) as one of the MOST important resources a club has. If you keep the forums well moderated and build up a good library of well organised information and howto's, then people will come back to the site again and again.

Where so many owners clubs seem to fall down these days is in not dedicating enough resources to running the online side of things. Nobody is going to use a site if the search facility times out with a database error everytime you use it, or it becomes overrun with unmoderated posts.

I think the Mk1 owners club genuinely caters for the needs of people who want to restore and run their cars in pretty much standard form. I don't think currently any of the other major UK VW clubs / sites offer this kind of support from what I can see?

I guess only time will tell if you made the right move Drew, but I have a feeling you did  

Cheers,

Chris

Drew,

Just read that link and was a little disappointed in the response you received from some.

I was really excited when I found out you were starting a club exclusively for the MK1 simply because that is where my interest lies.  I have never had any interest in any of the other golfs, they just don't excite me in the same way as the MK1 does but that is personal taste and would never force my opinion on others.

As for ClubGTI, I view the main forum most days but have to say that I don't post often, in fact I only post in the tech section when I need some help.  The forum has no real attratction for me as I post on my local VW site which I find much more friendly and allows free speach without letting it get out of hand.  It is well moderated with the first post that got ugly being deleted and it has never happened again that I know of.

I think a site like this was needed for the MK1 as it is good to have somewhere to ask qestions and get answers from people who are just as interested in the car as I am.  It's good to have somewhere to post where people have a genuine interest in the car and don't just have too much time on their hands so post rubbish.  

I hope all goes well with the club and hopefully more shows like the one you held in September will help to promote it too.  Just hope I will be accepted as I have slightly modified my Campaign (only exhaust and suspension, SORRY!!! ops: )  Apart from that she will be returned to original condition by the summer.

Sx

I have read all the comments from the link to the CGTI forum Drew. I agree with all you said and interestingly enough (as you probably read) after you signed off they seemed to start running round like headless chickens - "we need to change", we need to do something with the main forum and site" etc etc. - Whoops too late  :!:

I never joined CGTi although I have owned GTis since 1990. There was never a club worthy of joining for the Golf GTi so I never bothered. I can't personally stand this "dubbing"  "Cal look" , "heavy mods" etc although that is not to say it shouldn't happen if that is what the guys want to do. Lets hopefully keep it totally free of all this - CGTI is where that is happening and hope that is left behind.

I have owned a Dolomite Sprint since 1993 and joined the TDC - Triumph Dolomite Club - (as it is known now) straight away. It is an excellent club with professional and sensible people at the helm. Superb parts backup, technical helpline, good quarterly mag stuffed full with useful titbits.

I think our new club will go from strength to strength.    

Good luck to us all each and everyone (well it is getting near Christmas)  :!:  

I've not read all of the link Guys, but I can imagine what it says after reding the first 9 replies !! I truly hope and believe that THIS CLUB will become the definitve MK1 Golf Owners Club, and I personally will be proud to be a member. This is how I felt some 13 years ago when  I first joined Club GTI, but things change, and the Club GTI I feel has lost its way (again!!) in the last few years, and is now ctaering for the newer models and not the MK1 Golf in either modified or standard form. The crazy thing about it all is that they moan and groan that no-one helps etc etc, but when you do offer help, they deny you the opportunity. Lets all help make Drew's efforts for getting this off the ground worth it, and provide him, the club, and each other all the support thats needed to make it a BIG SUCCESS !!! :wink: