Titanic turn out for GTI NI Show

written by Andrew October 16, 2013

The Volkswagen Audi Group (VAG) of cars has had a fan base all over the world for years now and the fanatics love them in all shapes sizes and ages. Here in NI I have been involved in covering events for GTi NI for around twelve years and they never stop raising the bar and pushing standards higher.

Examples of this is the fact that at the start they ran track days at Kirkistown when “go” was better than “show” combined at the same time they also ran the Castlewellan show which allowed those with “no go” to “show”.

Since these days in the early zero’s GTi NI have raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities in NI through various methods of fundraising with its car shows being the big means to raise money for well deserved charities.

Some years ago the track days came to an end and the club decided to focus solely on car shows and as Castlewellan was a proven success story, the team saw a niche in the market for a huge car event in an indoor setting. This is when a vegas sized gamble was taken and “DubShed” was born.

Dubbed Ireland’s premier VAG show it accommodates over one thousand cars inside the Kings Hall Complex in Belfast and indeed sees visitors and cars coming from all over Europe, to take part in or simply see the event.

Since this event has proved its worth, the team yet again raised the bar by setting up “Titanic Dubs” which is an outdoor show on quite a small scale, nestled around the Titanic Dry Dock and Pump House.

This nostalgic area in Belfast is one that brought a part of Germany to NI in 1861 when Gustav Wilhelm Wolff became co founder of “The Shipyard” and the setting around the dry dock is where the Titanic itself is remembered as a great piece of ship building and on the day GTi NI come to town they reunite Germany with The Shipyard and the VAG cars are equally respected as great pieces of car building.

The morning of the show was very foggy and with an early start for me I was a little subdued at the fact it was cold, damp feeling and overcast however on my journey to the event it wasn’t long until I realised we were in for a fabulous day of great weather, superb cars and helpful trade stands.