User:Astraownersclub

Astra Owners Club .::Designed for all Astra Owners Mk1-Mk5 LS-VXR::.

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History of the Astra Owners Club
''' Astra Owners Club has evolved from Astra-Sport.co.uk the history of AOC is within Astra Sport and that is as follows.

Astra Sport was initially started in November of 2000 due to a free promotional offer involving web domains and hosting by Robert Carr. Robert had purchased his Astra in October of that month having previously owned and been an active member of corsasport.co.uk.

Eager to continue the trend Robert realised that no one else was operating an astra based site so he thought he would start one! 2001 - 2002 Initially the site started as more of a showcase of photos of Roberts very standard looking Astra! Soon enough people began to notice the site and in 2001 a small forum was created.

As with any forum to begin with the progress was slow and there were not many members! In early 2001 a member joined the site called Matthew Guest who would turn out to become a partner in the site. Matthew suggested the site move forward in various ways. Throughout 2001 the site grew and saw several different redesigns. By Late 2001 their were a few members and regular posters on the site. It was nice to see a diverse selection of people, vehicles and nationalities using the site.

2002-2003: By Early 2002 the site had developed into a small but bustling community and it was decided that the 1st meet should be held.

The location was a great topic of discussion, eventually it was decided to follow in the steps of the very successful corsasport.co.uk and hold the meet at the Meadowhall Centre in Sheffield. Neither Mat nor Rob expected a large turnout and they were not disappointed with what we got, the grand total of six cars made the trip, Some names you will be familiar with; Liam (lmk4), Andy (Autosparks) From this point the site seemed to take off with more developments being made both in the meets scene and on the site itself.

The year coincided with Mat and Rob showing their cars for the first time at Doncaster in April, which was a good time to advertise the site and hand out flyers! From this they managed to recruit quite a few members and things were still continuing to look up! Throughout this show season Mat and Rob attended all the other large UK shows (Trax, Billing, PV) spreading the good word of astra-sport.co.uk! This paid off as people were drawn to the cars as there weren’t a lot of modified 'G's' in the country then so they some what stood out.

2003 – 2004: Was the sites most successful year with cars from the site being featured in national magazines and the site itself getting a few mentions here and there. The first feature belonged to Jamie who was in Total Vauxhall, Mats astra who was featured in Redline magazine, Ts Astra from Belgium was next in Total Vauxhall, followed by Pete in HPM, Then it was Robs turn in redline, Then Hazman in Revs, Js Astra in Fast Car and Simon P in Total Vauxhall.

2003 also saw the 'biggest meet ever' which was a great day with a lot of cars in attendance; It was also the year astra-sport attended shows in a formal capacity. We were able to show at PV 2003 and Trax, which were all very successful and great shows.

2004-2005: This was our biggest year in growth and publicity. With a great start to the year we had our End of year Party Rolling Road day featured in Total Vauxhall and the TV crew decided throughout the year they would heavily support our community. With TV and many other features for members within 2004 it become a huge growth year for us. Steve (slimshady), Pete, Adam (AdamSxi) to name a few all had features this year. We also upped our attendance to shows and events with Redline Rumble, Kent Car Show, Fast show and Donny South all added to the list of shows attended by astra-sport it gave us massive potential to reach more new members for the club. This was also the year we had our first End of Year Party with backing from LMF Vauxhall. The 2 day event was held in Northampton with Karting on the Saturday and an open day at LMF on the Sunday it provided a winning formula for the coming years for the Astra Sport community to get together for Christmas.

2005-2006: AOC the concept was born, the site reached over 5000 members by this time and it was becoming more and more widely asked when we were going to become an official club! We were always willing to do this but unsure on how to implement it and provide one of the best club s the UK Vauxhall community as seen!

Astra Sport members provided cars for the Total Vauxhall astra Mk4 buying guide and we become the place to come to for technical advice for the astra model. With more people commenting on how friendly and strong the community was we yet again gained plenty of support for shows with attendances as high as 70+ cars for PVS and Trax in 2005 we were getting magazine coverage for our stands and being looked upon for some of the best astra in the show circuit.

This year saw AstraSport lose Rob as a full time admin of the site, this was due to work commitments and having sold his stunning Astra. Although Rob still has plenty of involvement in the club he is now more involved in the web design rather than the general day to day running. As the club was so large now Mat needed more help and a large team of members all offered there spare time to help mould AstraSport into a club that it is today. John Sumner had always been one of the most helpful members the community had seen since its launch due to this John was asked to become and Admin on the site, and in turn helped mould AOC what it is today!

Astra Owners Club are proud to me members of the VBOA Vauxhall, Bedford and Opel Association. We are backed by the Irmscher UK LTD, Vauxhalls tuning partner.

www.astraownersclub.com