Wide 5 Club Bio

Wide 5 Vintage Volkswagen club was “officially” formed in 1995 when a local group of VW enthusiasts from other local VW clubs (and some high school friends) decided to have weekly meetings held every Sunday at the Suntrust parking lot on Bird Rd. and 84ave. in Miami, Florida. Phil Weiner suggested we call it "67 and down" since we all had vintage VW's. Then Danny Tito chimed in and said "Why don't we call it Wide5". And there it was, a new club was born. We weren't a big club at first but people started to take notice and pretty soon our weekly gatherings would draw about 15-30 VW's. The club consisted of about 50 members over the years with a few hardcore members such as Bill Dwyer, Patrick Gomez, Mike Hedrick, Alvaro Rodriguez, Kevin Schmucker, Danny Tito, Jason Walters, and Phil Weiner. Some have come and gone but we are all still heavily into VW's. Some new guys have joined in the last year or two and they include Captain Tony Stewart, and Mike and Serena Reed. Since its inception Wide5 was formed around the love of early pre 67 VWs. Not excluding other years, but emphasizing early “Cal Look and Resto Custom” cars and the movement of Resto custom that was hitting the East coast in the mid 90s. Wide 5 is headed up by roughly 5 members (or lugs as the joke was). This eliminated the problems with one or two members trying to push their own agenda and to eliminate the politics we had seen in other clubs. Our club is about the history, the fun and the building of vintage VWs, with pride in doing our own work and maintaining lifelong friednships. Members can and do belong to other clubs and we meet at most shows in FL. We have members throughout the country and on both coasts. Now in our 14th year and many members strong we appreciate our past and look towards our future. Along with the Palmetto bugs of Miami, we started Volksblast Miami. Now in it’s 11th year, it has raised nearly$100k for Habitat for Humanity and many other local charities. Many current members are working on other shows and events like WinterJAM weekend in Daytona Beach. We hope to further expand the scene and continue maintaining and growing friendships based on the common love of the VW. We love building VWs and have many currently being built, as well as having built magazine feature cars thought the years, but mostly concentrating on drivers. We’re all about having fun and building, driving, and talking VWs. Contrary to what some may say, we are not defunct and never were. Some had kids, some moved away but we always had our VW's, stayed in touch, and live on in the VW hobby we all love. This thread is for Wide5 members, friends, and other vw related chat. We hope to see you at a VW event in the future, stop by and say hello!