Once upon a time…
A lot of stories start like this and the story of the Audi Cabrio Club e.V. is no different. Mr. Wolfhard Holste was toying with the idea of founding a Club for Audi Convertibles. As he works as a branch manager for a carhouse in Germany, he wrote letters to several clients without further ado. Given that they were driving Audi Convertibles, maybe they would also be interested in a club. At first it didn’t work out. After he sent reams of letters with prepaid envelopes, he only received one single reply card back. And this was a refusal! So he had to find an alternative way.
A long time ago, Mr. Holste got in touch with DACD (former umbrella organisation of Audi Clubs in Germany) with the intention of founding such a club together. However they were not interested. Then Mr. Roland Lautner stepped in and gave Mr. Holste an internet address. Mr. Lautner was very enthusiastic about the creation of a pure Audi Convertible Club. On this website a lot of like-minded convertible drivers met there to exchange experiences, tips, tricks and a lot more.
By November 2001 things were progressing. The first email for the purposes of establishing a club was sent from Mr. Wolfhard Holste to Mr. Alexander Müller (www.Audicabriolet.de today www.Audicabrio.Info). Regrettably this email got lost amongst numerous others. Determined not to give up Mr. Wolfhard Holste tried again and this time the whole thing started.
At first, Mr. Müller was concerned about the reliability of the people. It’s always like this… first everybody sits in and when something really takes shape with all the bells and whistles nobody has time or is in the mood. However Mr. Müller was completely mistaken! The first poll on the forum www.Audicabriolet.de was started. The reaction turned out to be positive, contrary to expectations, and plans were hatched to arrange the first meeting and at the same time found the club. First they gathered a lot of information. They had to clarify if an Audi Convertible Club already existed in Germany. But everything pointed to the fact that no other Audi Convertible Club existed anywhere in the world at that time. This was even more of an incentive for us. This classical car after all, deserves its own club.
At the beginning of 2002, the planning for a Meeting was settled and the day of the club foundation was coming closer and closer. Finally the club was founded on May 19th 2002 in Bad Grönenbach in the Allgäu. In the context of a children’s party, organised by Carhouse Seitz Audi Convertible friends from all over Germany met each other for the first time. Special thanks go to the family Walter Seitz, who provided us with the area and an amazing setting for our club foundation.
Later in the evening we got together to discuss the details. On that Pentecost weekend we welcomed over 20 vehicles and registered17 members on-site. In the meantime about 60 members were registered on our website. A club should be fun and not force anybody to do anything. After some troubles in opening a club account and other small problems we were looking ahead pretty relaxed. We were looking forward to more meetings in the sunshine. The club has now been in existence for five years and we have over 60 paying members from all over Germany and one each in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. All sorts of age groups are represented in the club and we expect it to stay this way in the future. The Audi Convertible keeps you young and an age-spread of 20 to 60 tells its own tale! We hope that the membership will grow further over the years and wish everybody much fun with the 1st Audi Cabrio Club e.V.
A lot of stories start like this and the story of the Audi Cabrio Club e.V. is no different. Mr. Wolfhard Holste was toying with the idea of founding a Club for Audi Convertibles. As he works as a branch manager for a carhouse in Germany, he wrote letters to several clients without further ado. Given that they were driving Audi Convertibles, maybe they would also be interested in a club. At first it didn’t work out. After he sent reams of letters with prepaid envelopes, he only received one single reply card back. And this was a refusal! So he had to find an alternative way.
A long time ago, Mr. Holste got in touch with DACD (former umbrella organisation of Audi Clubs in Germany) with the intention of founding such a club together. However they were not interested. Then Mr. Roland Lautner stepped in and gave Mr. Holste an internet address. Mr. Lautner was very enthusiastic about the creation of a pure Audi Convertible Club. On this website a lot of like-minded convertible drivers met there to exchange experiences, tips, tricks and a lot more.
By November 2001 things were progressing. The first email for the purposes of establishing a club was sent from Mr. Wolfhard Holste to Mr. Alexander Müller (www.Audicabriolet.de today www.Audicabrio.Info). Regrettably this email got lost amongst numerous others. Determined not to give up Mr. Wolfhard Holste tried again and this time the whole thing started.
At first, Mr. Müller was concerned about the reliability of the people. It’s always like this… first everybody sits in and when something really takes shape with all the bells and whistles nobody has time or is in the mood. However Mr. Müller was completely mistaken! The first poll on the forum www.Audicabriolet.de was started. The reaction turned out to be positive, contrary to expectations, and plans were hatched to arrange the first meeting and at the same time found the club. First they gathered a lot of information. They had to clarify if an Audi Convertible Club already existed in Germany. But everything pointed to the fact that no other Audi Convertible Club existed anywhere in the world at that time. This was even more of an incentive for us. This classical car after all, deserves its own club.
At the beginning of 2002, the planning for a Meeting was settled and the day of the club foundation was coming closer and closer. Finally the club was founded on May 19th 2002 in Bad Grönenbach in the Allgäu. In the context of a children’s party, organised by Carhouse Seitz Audi Convertible friends from all over Germany met each other for the first time. Special thanks go to the family Walter Seitz, who provided us with the area and an amazing setting for our club foundation.
Later in the evening we got together to discuss the details. On that Pentecost weekend we welcomed over 20 vehicles and registered17 members on-site. In the meantime about 60 members were registered on our website. A club should be fun and not force anybody to do anything. After some troubles in opening a club account and other small problems we were looking ahead pretty relaxed. We were looking forward to more meetings in the sunshine. The club has now been in existence for five years and we have over 60 paying members from all over Germany and one each in Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. All sorts of age groups are represented in the club and we expect it to stay this way in the future. The Audi Convertible keeps you young and an age-spread of 20 to 60 tells its own tale! We hope that the membership will grow further over the years and wish everybody much fun with the 1st Audi Cabrio Club e.V.
The Story...