Post 172. Day 3 part 3. Club GTI Wolfsburg trip March 2015

First week of march would be better. Also obviously hotels, i'm sure with some digging there'll be travel lodge type place or a youth hostels near by. But i'd be up for it and a track day on the way back as said on fb which would top it off ?

 

Why March? I am skiing in Austria then, but after serving my country in the father land for 14 years of my life I know it will be wet, cold and fecking miserable lol


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This one's a bit too early in the year for me, but hopefully I can make the next one.

 

Me in to march is fine

 

I'm interested. Date/cost dependant.

 

^^^what he said ^^^


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We stayed in a travel lodge type place on the way there (can't remember price, but it was cheap) and stayed in youth hostel when we got to Wolfsburg. That was comfortable, dirt cheap and breakfast thrown in. You have to join before you leave the UK.

As I said before, even a long weekend is a bit short. It is a heck of a long drive once you are on the continent. Even driving a new (at the time) Mk5 GT and two of us driving, we didn't make it to Wolfsburg in one day, hence the stop en-route, at the travel lodge. So probably the day you arrive is a write-off, other than having a wander around and finding somewhere to eat.
Next day we spent at the AutoStadt and the off-road park, which took all day. We had to return to Uk on the Monday, due to work, so didn't have time to fit in the factory tour or trip to The Ring (which is way down south). I would think that perhaps three days there would be advisable, plus a day either side travelling, especially if you're taking older Golfs. And maybe another day if you're planning a track day too.

Hope that helps.

Edit: you don't have to be a youth, to join the Youth Hostel Association - they let me in! lol

 

The trackday was dropped from this event as we felt it would not appeal to the majority. We are planning that separately.

My family will be travelling there from tomorrow as a test to see how long it takes, including stops, where would be most suitable to visit and the hotels/B&Bs available, cost of fuel and accommodation and report back here after this has been completed.

Stay tuned, stay optimised

 

Yep. This is a road trip!

I am hoping to take JENVEE back to its original home should be epic!

 

hya Adlai count me in for the German trip pls. Mo Mk1gti79.... haveing .probs loging into my. clubgti account..thank you in advance. Mo

 

Still up for this but i would love to do a track day.

 

This is really annoying as I'd love to go with a club, but I'm already doing it with a few mates when we do le mans 24h and the nurburgring

 

WOB pre trip highlights.

I indicated on the 26th that we would be driving to Wolfsburg.
On Saturday evening, with the children along for the journey, we fired up the [strikethrough]'Quattro'[/strikethrough] 'Haldex' and set off for our hotel in snowy Belgium some 290 miles away.

West London to Hotel in Belgium



Road conditions in Belgium where pretty dire



The following morning, we set off from a -5 deg C and snowy hotel car park and caught up with HPR some Kms from where we were. Then we set off for Wolfsburg, another 300 odd miles, where we spent the rest of the time understanding what was involved for a club trip of this nature.

Audi challenge?



Belgium to Wolfsburg distance



In the Wolfsburg area 313 miles later



All went well on the trip and on the 29th Monday, we got back to the UK safely.

As a result, HPR and myself are now in a position to let you know what duration this trip will cover, what sites we plan to visit, where we plan to stay and what we need to reserve from now.

For now here are some brief highlights of places we are likely to visit in pictures.

'WOB'... Guess where we are and what car.



Outside the Autostadt Zeithaus were several displays like this MK1 Diesel



Inside the Autostadt Zeithaus, a fitting welcome.



A sign of comfort lol



Quite a mix match of looked to be a G60, ABF blocked motor



The factory were many of your GTIs began life - Volkswagenwerke!



Our hotel in Gifhorn 20kms away



WRC wins are celebrated in the town.



A walk away from the Autostadt is the VW Museum.



And a 10mins drive away is VW Classic.de


33 kms away from WOB is Salzgitter. This is the engine plant and the home of the TDI, VR and W engines.

Salzgitter






Then there is Kassel, 186 km from Wolfsburg. It is a supply factory and parts distribution centre for components such as the complete gearbox and pressed panels i.e. floors, A/B/C pillars and other components that are used to make up the shell.





There is so much to see as we only skimmed the surface.

HPR is the lead for this trip and will give more details on what is required for Club GTI to start making reservations on your behalf. We need your cooperation on this asap.



Ed.

 

Any dates yet eddie as you know tomorrow is when everyone books there holiday at work

 

When we started with the idea about this trip, the initial plan was to go to Wolfsburg and visit Autostadt and do a factory tour.
And after that do a trackday, but we soon realised this wasnt practical to combine these, so we decided to do this on a different trip.
Idea was also to bring it more forward in the season as from about half March the events season get underway and there will be weeks / weekends you want to be at more places at the same time.... while in the winter period
there is little action to go to

We arived at Wolfsburg halfway the afternoon and we parked near the Volkswagen Arena, it takes a short walk into the Autostadt.
We went in at the Info office, where we were handed an info brochure and we had a short talk about what can be done. We bought a half day ticket, so we went in.
There are about 10 places were you can eat/ drink something , be it a sandwich , a pizza or even a 7 stage dinner.
In the price of your ticket is also something to drink/eat included, we didnt do because as it was quite busy and we didnt want to stand in the que...We were told Autostadt had at the end of the year twice as much visitors
so now 10-12000 /day against 5- 6000 /day during the year.

We walked a few hours around there inside the zeithaus and outside were there was a Christmas market, a snow playfield for the children, and more... we didnt do the showrooms from the different brands
within the Volkswagen group as time didnt allow us...

We looked what more could be done in the same trip... we found that a combination of
Wolfsburg/ Autostadt with the Kassel and Salzgitter VW Factories would make a good package covering engine assembly, gearbox assembly, sheet metal presswork, exhaust manufacturing, the OTC ( Original Teile/ Parts Centre)
and car assembly. This covers about 5 hours on tours in 3 different VW factories

Here some links to give some idea:

http://www.volkswagen-karriere.de/en/what_we_do/locations.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostadt

http://europeforvisitors.com/germany/cars/vw-autostadt-factory-tours.htm

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=283840


Kassel is the 2nd biggest factory in the country that build gearboxes, body parts and exhausts and it has the original parts centre who supply the dealer network

Tours are from Monday to Friday @ 10.00 and 14.00 ( takes about 2 hours )
max 20 persons in a group

Salzgitter is a factory that machine engine parts and assemble 300 variants of line , V, VR, W type engines.

Tours are Monday to Friday @ 9.30 and 13.30 ( takes about 2 hours)

Distance Kassel to salzgitter is good 140 KM ..... this means to do both at the same day is impossible to be there in time for the tour in Salzgitter.
But as Salzgitter is only 33 km from Wolfsburg we will do that as our last stop before heading home.


Wolfsburg Here we visit Autostadt and whe can do a factory guided tour in English @ 12.20 PM ( this tour takes ca 60 - 90 minutes )


All tours need booked well in advance for groups , so we need to sort that out asap

There are all sort things to do but we think its best to leave everyone the freedom to go where their interest is...

Hotels:
As we are a group, we prefer to be in one location and have breakfast and diner as a group ... have a drink while we have chat...
from what i have seen we must reckon about 40- 50 per person / night

For hotels as its only 2 months away, there is no chance to book 20 people in one place in wolfsburg,as now already there are hotels full booked for that period.
so we went to Gifhorn about 20 km away and we ended up here:
http://www.deutsches-haus-gifhorn.de/
We found here friendly people, who speak englisch and the food was great and also had a good breakfast next morning...
Have a look on the website for prices


We think hotels and tours can still put planning Upside down... as we need confirmation from each VW plant about the planned tour that we can have it at the right day and in english
if this start to mess up then we need to see what other options we have OR we need to look at an other datum to go there as its already close and some large hotels are already full booked in Wolfsburg for that period.

in great lines the trip will be as this:

Day 1 Drive towards Kassel Germany > Hotel
Day 2 Visit Kassel Factory in the morning , then towards wolfsburg / Gifhorn
Day 3 Visit Autostadt / VW factory tour
day 4 Autostadt or museum till midday / vw classic , then towards Salzgitter factory, after that we drive already some distance
Day 5 travel back home
Day 6 Weekend to recover...


Some practical things:

We do this trip by car, but its quite a distance.... we urge everyone to get his car well serviced before starting this trip as a breakdown can spoil it for the others... or if not sure, maybe share a car and save a bit on fuel

As its still early in the year, there can still be snow on the road ( we hope not, but never say never) but realise in Germany winter tyres are obligatory.... atleast when there is snow, molten snow or ice on the road.
We heard that Police halted cars to check it.... but as long its not the above conditions they should not give you a fine....otherwise it can cost you something as 40
Eddie looked into this and he can tell maybe abit more when needed.

Speedlimit is free on the autobahn ( adviced speed130 km/h), but realise when there is a speedlimit, follow it... if you dont like to pay cash ! And Please keep it safe !

Thanks for reading.

 

Hugo,
Are we targeting the first week of March from the 2nd or the following week from the 9th?

 

Tbh i cant say atm
I try to contact asap the hotel and the factories for the tours as this is the deciding factor... as we need everything lined up, from the moment one thing doesnt work out, we need to look for alternatives
or other dates to make the trip

 

OK.
I understand it is a balance.
Do you have a time when the work from your end will be complete, so on this end a week can be agreed where we can book time off for this?

 

Thats the target, i`d like to know by the end of the week.

 

Hi guys, count me in.

Would be good if we can get dates agreed, so that i can get time off at work and we can start making travel arrangements