I’m from the era that spent my youth on automotive boards, and early YouTube watching OG movies of H2Oi held at Ocean Metropolis, Maryland within the USA, and GTI-Treffen at Lake Wörthersee in Austria. Lengthy earlier than I had a driver’s license, I’d journey my bike to the native fuel station simply to catch a glimpse of vehicles passing by.
That’s why, a couple of years down the observe, the annual trip to Velden am Wörthersee for GTI-Treffen was such a thrill.
However when Covid hit in 2020, Wörthersee’s city corridor venue determined it might not host the Volkswagen-centric occasion that had been held on this small lakeside location since 1982. Despite the fact that the writing had been on the wall for GTI-Treffen for an extended whereas – not everybody in Wörthersee beloved having the city overrun with guests for the occasion – it nonetheless got here as an enormous shock.
Now, every time I journey by Austria, I all the time make it some extent to cease by Velden am Wörthersee. This 12 months’s cease struck me more durable than ever.
That’s as a result of my go to coincided with what would have been in years previous the week earlier than GTI-Treffen. A couple of years in the past, the realm would have been completely brimming with vehicles and folks from throughout Europe and even additional afield. What I noticed this 12 months was very completely different.
I keep in mind cruising across the lake, hitting the Faaker See parking zone for a night meetup, and grabbing late-night espresso with mates on the iconic Mischkulnig fuel station after accelerating round ‘Turbokurve’ nook.
When my mates and I visited Wörthersee for GTI-Treffen, it felt like a nasty cheat code in GTA – modified vehicles of each fashion had been in all places.
Whereas it’s comprehensible that some residents had grown bored with the occasion – the sounds of VR6 engines at full throttle on the best way to the Pyramidenkogel Tower lookout and rev-cut bangs and down the city’s on line casino strip for round a month yearly could have that impact – the implications of its loss appear to increase additional.
Velden am Wörthersee felt very quiet, with vacant storefronts, empty eating places, and little hint of the modified vehicles that after outlined it, save for some memorial rubber marks on the highway. I sat on the boardwalk, listening to the lake, making an attempt to recollect how particular coming right here as soon as was for modified automotive fans.
To that finish, all through this story I’ve included photographs from my visits to GTI-Treffen within the summers of 2017 and 2018 – the occasion’s peak years for me.
Now, the final vestige of Wörthersee automotive glory is the posh car dealership on the primary route and the stone ‘Granit Golf’ statue. It’s actual disgrace.
I’ll hold coming to recollect the nice occasions. Who else has fond recollections of Wörthersee round GTI-Treffen? Be at liberty to publish them within the feedback part beneath.
Jakub Vít
Instagram: somal1sh
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