wtf happened?
07-11-11, 12:52 AM
#52
i tell you what..... this thread has become useful. you all are coming up with wonderful ideas that have actually been done in the not so far past. both here and on the east side. the big challenge was BURN OUT. we didn't have enough people dedicated to doing the ground work to put meets together. it was pretty much left up to one person. and out of experience i tell you it gets disappointing. kind of funny that when i found this forum eight years ago there was alot of posts like this one. me and codeblue2 said to stop whining and do something about. nobody stepped up, so we did. put together meets, drives, tech days, and bbq's. pretty much had one good event each month. codeblue2 moved to Spokane where she worked on it over there and i kept it going here. when you're the only one putting them together, you get tired of it. kids are growing up, family life changes, and just plane getting burnt from the damn rx7's play a toll. was a fun few years with the mt. st. helens drives, big bbq's, engine builds, apple blossoms, tech days, and just plain lets go drives. we do have a small group that does alot of this together on spur of the moments down here, just not super main steam. my suggestions to you all that are wanting this is to do it. much easier with a few people working together to keep things moving. you gotta work together though. and most important thing to remember............ make up your mind and post it. do not change days and times. once you post it it is in stone. you start changing things, well it mixes people up and discourages them. i can help out a little, but my main goal anymore that takes alot of time it the NW TOYRUN. that i am dedicated to.
07-11-11, 12:58 AM
#53
For anyone who MIGHT be interested, as of now I'm planning on doing the RPNW Blake Qualley/Oregon Coast Rally in September, provided I can get my clutch replaced before then. I think it would be great if some others Seattle 7's wanted to come along. Guaranteed you will have a great time...and the route is PHENOMENAL!!! Wish we had roads like these in Washington!!!
07-11-11, 05:54 PM
#54
Furthest I've driven is to Chehalis and back, though it made the trip up from California nearly without a hitch (fuel filter was the only problem)
Red Rotor : it's an 85 gsl-se. Lots of write-ups on doing it and how to pre-mix, but didn't see any with actual shots and descrition of doing it. I don't want to de-rail this thread on this, I'll check that out when I have time.
Back to discussion on hand... How about if we get a poll going for each meet or something, and not wait till 4 days before the meet date to post about the meet. if it's a regular day, a good poll on the best day/time and then keep it there. cross-post on rx8 club like Kari did on the BBQ, and decide if it's going to be a show day, tech day, drive day, or eat & greet.
As soon as the meet has happened, post up the info for the next one so it's there long enough for the people who only log on weekly to see it.
Red Rotor : it's an 85 gsl-se. Lots of write-ups on doing it and how to pre-mix, but didn't see any with actual shots and descrition of doing it. I don't want to de-rail this thread on this, I'll check that out when I have time.
Back to discussion on hand... How about if we get a poll going for each meet or something, and not wait till 4 days before the meet date to post about the meet. if it's a regular day, a good poll on the best day/time and then keep it there. cross-post on rx8 club like Kari did on the BBQ, and decide if it's going to be a show day, tech day, drive day, or eat & greet.
As soon as the meet has happened, post up the info for the next one so it's there long enough for the people who only log on weekly to see it.
07-11-11, 06:35 PM
#55
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If you ever need a spot to meet up at Forged Performance is always ready to help out the RX-7 community. Ill throw a RX-7 dyno/bbq/car show day, free food/drinks and cheap dyno pulls. We've got a huge parking lot so it wouldnt be a big deal is you wanted to make it multiple car make day. 
07-11-11, 07:06 PM
#56
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I think what's going on is the Olympia meet is more of a group of friends that have been meeting together for a while, it's not a big glamorous meet like you are envisioning. I get the idea of organizing bigger events that are fewer but honestly I like seeing everyone once a month simply because they are my buddies.
That being said it would be awesome to go to a huge meet where everyone between the seattle/olympia area turned out, but I don't think it should replace the monthly meets down here. At least for my family and I are schedules are crazy so if we can't make one of the bigger meets then we don't get to see anyone for another 6 months or whatever.
Using the monthly meets to plan bigger events is a great idea, and I think Sunday afternoons work best for everybody. I love the idea of having tech days and adding in drives after the meets. Better and planning more in advance would help out too. I'm actually kind of excited for the meet tonight to see what's going to pop up. This way we can make the winter meets worth going to
That being said it would be awesome to go to a huge meet where everyone between the seattle/olympia area turned out, but I don't think it should replace the monthly meets down here. At least for my family and I are schedules are crazy so if we can't make one of the bigger meets then we don't get to see anyone for another 6 months or whatever.
Using the monthly meets to plan bigger events is a great idea, and I think Sunday afternoons work best for everybody. I love the idea of having tech days and adding in drives after the meets. Better and planning more in advance would help out too. I'm actually kind of excited for the meet tonight to see what's going to pop up. This way we can make the winter meets worth going to
07-12-11, 12:03 AM
#57
the meet turned out pretty good. 9 rotaries made it. alot more than last time i was out there. spent a good amount of time chatting about the cars. now while the good weather is still here, lets try to plan a drive for next months meet.
07-12-11, 11:21 AM
#60
Organizing a large meet spanning across all Mazda models is a tough task. Blueshift and I planned the Doug's Mazda meet a few years back, but thanks to their willingness to host they took care of a lot of the planning... But it really is a lot of work and takes dedication, marketing, and word of mouth. It's not going to be easy... If you take on the task accept help and be willing to bust your *** and never want to plan another event
07-16-11, 09:28 PM
#61
Ok, so I'll chime in...
As the founder and most-often-President of Rotary Rockets of Washington - which collected dues, had official membership, was instrumental in the Apple Blossom Festival kickoffs, etc... There are two things that killed it for me. First, was my own personal burnout. Each year we would hold elections and nominations and each year, no one was interested in being big dog (Prez). I could get a treasurer, but that was about it. So, for several years, I did the meeting organization, came up with ideas for meets, did Dyno Day's, Track Days at SIR (now Pacific Raceways), did drives to Mt St Helens, did poker runs, worked with Brad Berger on getting RPNW/RRoW together for ABF, and did my best to come up with interesting activities each month. I think we tapered off during winter months and did something monthly during the summer. All of that was great fun, and I met a lot of nice folks, and I enjoyed being a part of a club that was just for me (e.g. not Cub Scouts, not PTA, not related to work, etc). But at some point, I was ready to be a member of the club, not always running the club.
The second thing that did it in for me was having my RX-7 stolen by some other RX-7 owner. At that point, I had put in 4-5 years of your time building a club and community only to have someone smack me hard by stealing my car because I'd shared information about my passion... So, I bowed out. Kettlman & CodeBlu2 at the time were actively involved and had started coordinating events (Kettlman referred to those earlier in this thread) down at Izzy's and I mostly stepped out of the way and let it happen. Some of the RRoW folks attended the events for a while, I'm sure. But, many of the points here are valid. There needs to be variety in the activities. There needs to be enough time between the activities to let people have a regular life. There needs to be value in attending beyond gawking under the hood of the same RX-7 you've been gawking at for years.
Another interesting thing that has happened is the audience (e.g. rotary owners) has changed over the years. In the late 1990's, there were still lots of nice 1st Gens, 2nd Gens had a strong following and the 3rd Gen guys were spending tons on rebuilds and single turbo conversions. Most of the enthusiasts were actually knowledgable about rotaries. They loved the car for the engine and styling, and it was a great platform to build a community around. As the RX-8 came out, we all hoped to grab a new group of enthusiasts an bring them into the fold. It was not to be. Most all the RX-8 buyers at the time that I talked with had no clue about the rotary or what it was about. They knew they had a different type of engine in their car, but that was about the extent of it. There were lots of 40-something soccer moms that needed a sporty car. There were lots of young couples that wanted to be able to zoom zoom around and put the kid in the back. The RX-8 really did very little to nothing to add to the rotary community for the first few years of it's life. I suspect now, there are more RX-8 owners that bought their RX-8 for the rotary engine, and the trend is changing a bit so that there are more RX-8 rotary enthuiasts out there. Once 1st Gen's got super cheap, young drivers picked them up and once drifting became a 'thang'... 1st and 2nd Gen's were one of the RWD cars available to modify and have fun with relatively cheaply. So, a whole new group of enthusiasts started picking them up for a new reason - drifting. They may or may not care that the car is a rotary. But, the net effect is that the population of rotary specific enthusiasts probably was diluted. There are a few older guys (and by older, I mean 40's, 50's, 60's) that still drive their rotaries, and they (we) are a fickle bunch. Probably not going to drift our cars, don't always use them as daily drivers, probably don't have two 12" subs in the back rockin' some dub step, etc... But, at least in the RRoW days, there were a bunch of us that came to every meet.
Ok, history aside - I think one of the best things that can be done is an annual calendar. Plan out the events, and space them apart reasonably. It seems like monthly works pretty well for most folks here. Plan them ALL for a specific activity (e.g. a Track Day, or having a tuner come up for a Dyno Day, or just a Dyno day in the spring when it's otherwise crappy weather. Or a fall jaunt up HWY-9, etc... Maybe one of those days is a meet up with the RX-8 guys, maybe one is a meet up with the "gasp" Porsche club, or one of the SCCA meets in Bremerton so people can give Novice AutoX a try. Not everyone will agree to the calendar, and not everyone will come to every meet-up, and that's OK. Having it set ahead of time is 95% of the battle. Otherwise, we get threads like several that have gone on here, trying to rally around a specific date/time/location with everyone hoping it'll materialize sooner or later.
Regarding the Tech Day idea. RRoW did some tech days in the past, and it's pretty simple - pick a system of the car, and let that be the focus for the discussion and activity. People are generally happy to share what they've done, and others can easily learn from that. It will actually serve to attract a varied crowd. If folks meet in some shop's lot, it could be great to get some work done. But, anything done there should be SUPER focused. We once did a "DIY alignment" Tech Day - where one guy who was really good at doing front end alignments explained the whole thing, soup to nuts, and along the way, we did a front end alignment on one car. That worked well for everyone, and we got it done in about 2 hours. Tech Day's can be hard if you don't have all the tools and parts available, but a lot of times, the value of the tech day is not in "fixing your car" but getting new ideas about how something can be done. Maybe you were considering the direct fire ignition for your FB, and just never saw it in person -sure, you can read all day about it, but the touchy-feely part is the real benefit to a tech day IMO. Tech days can be about fuel, spark, cooling, electrical, audio, interior, glass, tinting, bodywork, paint, suspension, gauges, etc.. Tons of opportunities to make an intersting tech day. If it's organized with a specific shop, ask if they can give the group a 10% or 20% discount on something related - like if it's a speed shop, maybe some gauges, or maybe if it were at a rotary shop, they might have some "rotary trinkets" like the oil caps, etc, that they could offer for a discount. It's to everyone's benefit to coordinate something like that. And, even on the annual calendar, it could be simply set aside as "Speed Shop Day" - and as the day gets closer, someone can step up and organize a trip to some shop.
I've kinda rambled on a bunch, and I hope some of it has been helpful. I'm interested in attending some of the activities as they materialize, as is my son who also drives a GSL-SE.
Thanks for tuning in....
TurboGSLSE
As the founder and most-often-President of Rotary Rockets of Washington - which collected dues, had official membership, was instrumental in the Apple Blossom Festival kickoffs, etc... There are two things that killed it for me. First, was my own personal burnout. Each year we would hold elections and nominations and each year, no one was interested in being big dog (Prez). I could get a treasurer, but that was about it. So, for several years, I did the meeting organization, came up with ideas for meets, did Dyno Day's, Track Days at SIR (now Pacific Raceways), did drives to Mt St Helens, did poker runs, worked with Brad Berger on getting RPNW/RRoW together for ABF, and did my best to come up with interesting activities each month. I think we tapered off during winter months and did something monthly during the summer. All of that was great fun, and I met a lot of nice folks, and I enjoyed being a part of a club that was just for me (e.g. not Cub Scouts, not PTA, not related to work, etc). But at some point, I was ready to be a member of the club, not always running the club.
The second thing that did it in for me was having my RX-7 stolen by some other RX-7 owner. At that point, I had put in 4-5 years of your time building a club and community only to have someone smack me hard by stealing my car because I'd shared information about my passion... So, I bowed out. Kettlman & CodeBlu2 at the time were actively involved and had started coordinating events (Kettlman referred to those earlier in this thread) down at Izzy's and I mostly stepped out of the way and let it happen. Some of the RRoW folks attended the events for a while, I'm sure. But, many of the points here are valid. There needs to be variety in the activities. There needs to be enough time between the activities to let people have a regular life. There needs to be value in attending beyond gawking under the hood of the same RX-7 you've been gawking at for years.
Another interesting thing that has happened is the audience (e.g. rotary owners) has changed over the years. In the late 1990's, there were still lots of nice 1st Gens, 2nd Gens had a strong following and the 3rd Gen guys were spending tons on rebuilds and single turbo conversions. Most of the enthusiasts were actually knowledgable about rotaries. They loved the car for the engine and styling, and it was a great platform to build a community around. As the RX-8 came out, we all hoped to grab a new group of enthusiasts an bring them into the fold. It was not to be. Most all the RX-8 buyers at the time that I talked with had no clue about the rotary or what it was about. They knew they had a different type of engine in their car, but that was about the extent of it. There were lots of 40-something soccer moms that needed a sporty car. There were lots of young couples that wanted to be able to zoom zoom around and put the kid in the back. The RX-8 really did very little to nothing to add to the rotary community for the first few years of it's life. I suspect now, there are more RX-8 owners that bought their RX-8 for the rotary engine, and the trend is changing a bit so that there are more RX-8 rotary enthuiasts out there. Once 1st Gen's got super cheap, young drivers picked them up and once drifting became a 'thang'... 1st and 2nd Gen's were one of the RWD cars available to modify and have fun with relatively cheaply. So, a whole new group of enthusiasts started picking them up for a new reason - drifting. They may or may not care that the car is a rotary. But, the net effect is that the population of rotary specific enthusiasts probably was diluted. There are a few older guys (and by older, I mean 40's, 50's, 60's) that still drive their rotaries, and they (we) are a fickle bunch. Probably not going to drift our cars, don't always use them as daily drivers, probably don't have two 12" subs in the back rockin' some dub step, etc... But, at least in the RRoW days, there were a bunch of us that came to every meet.
Ok, history aside - I think one of the best things that can be done is an annual calendar. Plan out the events, and space them apart reasonably. It seems like monthly works pretty well for most folks here. Plan them ALL for a specific activity (e.g. a Track Day, or having a tuner come up for a Dyno Day, or just a Dyno day in the spring when it's otherwise crappy weather. Or a fall jaunt up HWY-9, etc... Maybe one of those days is a meet up with the RX-8 guys, maybe one is a meet up with the "gasp" Porsche club, or one of the SCCA meets in Bremerton so people can give Novice AutoX a try. Not everyone will agree to the calendar, and not everyone will come to every meet-up, and that's OK. Having it set ahead of time is 95% of the battle. Otherwise, we get threads like several that have gone on here, trying to rally around a specific date/time/location with everyone hoping it'll materialize sooner or later.
Regarding the Tech Day idea. RRoW did some tech days in the past, and it's pretty simple - pick a system of the car, and let that be the focus for the discussion and activity. People are generally happy to share what they've done, and others can easily learn from that. It will actually serve to attract a varied crowd. If folks meet in some shop's lot, it could be great to get some work done. But, anything done there should be SUPER focused. We once did a "DIY alignment" Tech Day - where one guy who was really good at doing front end alignments explained the whole thing, soup to nuts, and along the way, we did a front end alignment on one car. That worked well for everyone, and we got it done in about 2 hours. Tech Day's can be hard if you don't have all the tools and parts available, but a lot of times, the value of the tech day is not in "fixing your car" but getting new ideas about how something can be done. Maybe you were considering the direct fire ignition for your FB, and just never saw it in person -sure, you can read all day about it, but the touchy-feely part is the real benefit to a tech day IMO. Tech days can be about fuel, spark, cooling, electrical, audio, interior, glass, tinting, bodywork, paint, suspension, gauges, etc.. Tons of opportunities to make an intersting tech day. If it's organized with a specific shop, ask if they can give the group a 10% or 20% discount on something related - like if it's a speed shop, maybe some gauges, or maybe if it were at a rotary shop, they might have some "rotary trinkets" like the oil caps, etc, that they could offer for a discount. It's to everyone's benefit to coordinate something like that. And, even on the annual calendar, it could be simply set aside as "Speed Shop Day" - and as the day gets closer, someone can step up and organize a trip to some shop.
I've kinda rambled on a bunch, and I hope some of it has been helpful. I'm interested in attending some of the activities as they materialize, as is my son who also drives a GSL-SE.
Thanks for tuning in....
TurboGSLSE
07-19-11, 05:29 PM
#65
as convoluted as it may be, Tweak does have a real point- RX7 people dont drive their cars. They have Taco Time circle jerks. I drive my car, and I don't go to meets. Why? Because I don't care what you plan to do with your car, how cool it would be to do whatever, etc. I built my car for driving, not looking at. While 240 idiots do the same, at least a lot of them also attend drift events. (I don't drift, can't speak for rx7 presence at those).
I would be tickled pink to see more RX7's at autox's! The ONLY person I ever see driving is Jared (jkstill), and as you may of noticed, he also rarely posts. Dunno if he goes to meets or whatever. Maybe you all too scurred to turn at a brisk pace?
BTW, I'm the guy that got FTD at the autox portion of the v8 rx7 Portland meet :-)
I would be tickled pink to see more RX7's at autox's! The ONLY person I ever see driving is Jared (jkstill), and as you may of noticed, he also rarely posts. Dunno if he goes to meets or whatever. Maybe you all too scurred to turn at a brisk pace?
BTW, I'm the guy that got FTD at the autox portion of the v8 rx7 Portland meet :-)
07-19-11, 07:17 PM
#66
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And these past few posts are supposed to be bringing the 7 community together...? If you are going to whine about something how about working towards improvement instead of bitching about how awful it is when clearly you are a minority. I see two or three posters just whining while everyone else is a go for shaking things up.
Just saying...On that note the yearly calendar is a good idea I can organize that and even put up maybe a facebook page specifically for this area's meets or everyone can check the boards more often. I did get my degree in systems theory so I have no problem being the "secretary" if you will. We just need to line up some events to go on the calendar. Do we want these to be in addition to regular monthly meets or replace some of them? Also what kind of ground area are we covering here? All the way up to Seattle? I was under the impression that the Oly Izzy's meets were just for Tacoma/Olympia area.
Kettleman, did you get a date from that garage about the detailing thing?
Just saying...On that note the yearly calendar is a good idea I can organize that and even put up maybe a facebook page specifically for this area's meets or everyone can check the boards more often. I did get my degree in systems theory so I have no problem being the "secretary" if you will. We just need to line up some events to go on the calendar. Do we want these to be in addition to regular monthly meets or replace some of them? Also what kind of ground area are we covering here? All the way up to Seattle? I was under the impression that the Oly Izzy's meets were just for Tacoma/Olympia area.
Kettleman, did you get a date from that garage about the detailing thing?
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