The history of UK Cruisers
It all began with Pat Yule (Foxytanith)
Let me tell you how it all started...
Just like most other would-be owners, it was "love at first" when I first saw the concept PT Cruiser. When it was announced that the PT would be produced and available in Europe, there was no stopping me. A deposit was left with the dealer in November 1999, and I then drove him mad for the next eight months until my black Cruiser arrived on 14 July 2000.
In March 2000, while chewing off my fingernails waiting for the 'big event', I discovered the American PT Cruiser Club on the internet and joined. I had so much support from the friends I made there, many of whom were also waiting to take delivery of their Cruisers, that it made me think about something for the waiting Brits. The problem was that I was the only Brit visiting the US chat room at this point. Then up popped Steve 'Ginger' Farrant.
My first step was to start a free PT Cruiser forum on Yahoo. Towards the end of 2000, the board had about 40 members. There were about 1,000 PTs now cruising the UK and four of us owners arranged to meet up. We then decided that it was time for a proper club to be formed and we set to work discussing the best way forward.
Between us we discovered that we had all the skills needed. In January 2001, UK Cruisers was born. We started with four members and now have over 400. Membership ranges in age from about 20 up to 80, and over the years we have welcomed American, Australian, German, Dutch, Belgian and Swiss PT owners as club members.
Our first real meeting was in May 2001 when the N.A.S.C (National Association of Street Clubs), a UK Hot Rod organisation, kindly invited us to attend their Spring Nationals. We had about 10 PTs attend, managed to sign up some new members, and our numbers grew to 35. We then attended an American Automobile event as guests of the British Mopar Club on a cold and damp day in June. We had about 15 Cruisers there and caused quite a stir!
Chrysler UK presented a drag racing day in July 2001 at Santa Pod where we were kindly allowed to have a club display. The managing director of Chrysler UK, Simon Elliot, judged the 'best turned-out PT competition' and presented the winner (Steve) with a voucher for £150 and a beautiful trophy.
2002 was MASSIVE for the club, to date we had held 24 PT Events all over the country (from Glasgow to Chichester), a trip to France and Belgium for the European PT Rally and had many more to come. There was something going on almost every weekend!
Our largest PT gathering of the year was in August 2002 in Northampton, where there were over 120 PT Cruisers in attendance over the weekend of our annual Picnic in the Park!
The events for 2003 were well underway with the PT Cruiser Clinic held in March with over 50 PT Cruisers in attendance at Myltons Chrysler in Bedford. The annual Picnic in the Park event saw another increase in numbers.
In 2004, 2005 and 2006 the membership grew, along with the attendance at the respective PITP events. A crew of Area Reps and Club Organisers were put into place to help with the ever-growing membership base.
In April of 2007, and again in 2009, we saw 76 cruisers attend an organised meet at Cadbury World, in the West Midlands. This was the biggest gathering of PTs for a one day event to date - can we beat it in 2017?
Our annual event, Picnic in the Park or PITP, usually has over 150 Cruisers attending throughout the course of the weekend, and 2010 - the 10th Anniversary of the PT Cruiser and our club, was a truly amazing weekend with PTs travelling from as far afield as Poland. PITP17 will be at our new venue - Overstone Park, Northampton.
UK Cruisers has an active forum and a full compliment of Reps and Organisers to help the club continue to grow from strength to strength. The events calendar is extremely full, with a wide variety of meets spanning the UK. Most weekends in the season an event or two can be found to cover most people’s interests. Each year there is also at least one journey to Europe and cruises to areas around the UK, with a full schedule of organised attractions on offer.
You can get more information by viewing our forum for up-to-date information.
You can also find out up-to-date details of what's going on from our calendar of events.
Friendships are being forged, technical knowledge is exchanged and all the other good things that come from a member's club are happening. New members are arriving at the club daily. If you would like more information about UK Cruisers, have a look around this web site and our forums, or get in touch with us via the contact page.
