:: GTi International 2006 - 17th and 18th June::

It's that time a gain and Inters '06 will soon be upon us. This year it's being held at the old Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire - LE17 5QS - and it seems they made some tweaks to the format.

We won't be going this year as it now clashes with "les 24 heures du Mans" - (The 24 Hour Le Mans Road Race in France) so we'll have to rely on you lot to tell us if they've finally cracked it!

As ever there looks to be the sprint, show and shine, concours and some camping near to the venue. The tickets go up in price every year so we'd suggest you book in advance :

The official site can be found here

See below for some pics of '04

2004 Report

Well…. GTi International '04 has come and gone. Dan & I went on the Saturday so typically Saturday was cold and wet whilst Sunday was dry and fine. Nevertheless, it was yet another great show and the quantity of awesome GTis defied even our expectations.

It wasn't all plain sailing though thanks to Surrey County Council. The plan was to drive up early Saturday morning in Dan's 1.9 Mk2 but thanks to a large pot-hole which decided to collide with us on Friday evening, the car remained in the barn for GTI International

After hitting the pot-hole we stopped to check for the inevitable buckled wheel or blow-out but neither was present so we figured we had gotten away with it. It was only after spending 4 hours polishing the car that we noticed the impact had forced the shock piston clean through the lowered Bonrath top-mount…….not good! Luckily the Matey-Matey car collection is reasonably extensive and we were able to take my old 16v Corrado. It seemed vaguely amusing the following evening but I can assure you that at midnight the night before the situation was anything but funny!!

As for the show, it seems that 'old skool' is as popular as ever, which in our book is a good thing. There were numerous cool Mk1s on display sporting original VW roof racks, four doors (yup four doors…and very cool they looked too) and even white-wall tyres. A lot of these cars had come over from the continent but us Brits appear to be catching on - we saw a number of cool Euro-look GTis wearing UK plates.

Old gems such as Mk1 Polos, Mk1 Scirrocos and even the odd Derby seemed to be getting the old skool treatment. The overall diversity of the show seems to have improved. Gone are the days when all the cars are Mk1 or 2 Golfs. Now there are numerous Lupos, TTs, S3s Seats etc to add a welcome bit of variety. The 1.8T engine appears to be the power-plant of the moment with a number of well-executed conversions to bear testament to this.

Our hearts go out to all who entered the show and shine on Saturday and spent the morning battling the elements to ensure that their cars were in tip-top condition. If it wasn't for enthusiasts like these who want to show their cars whatever the weather then the show would be a thin in the ground. All the usual trade stands were present, although the auto jumble seemed a bit of a non-event which for sad cases like ourselves [who enjoy sifting through piles of used car-parts] was a bit of a disappointment. I also didn't notice the tyre testing taking place which seemed a very lame bearing in mind the organisers had put the ticket prices up AGAIN. As always I would summarise that the quality of the show was down to the participants and enthusiasts rather than the organisers.

One particular highlight however was the mobile rolling road. The orange rear-engined Mk1 that I saw being put through its paces looked like it kicked out enough power to twist the engine completely off its mounts, whilst the noise it made would have small children and the elderly running for cover.

We hope you enjoy all the pics. If you spot YOUR car featured in any of them, please let us know as we would love to do a feature on it.

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