Thread: 2008 Convention

If there was an event in the SE area, I would attend it, I have been patiently waiting...

Just to throw it in the hat of ideas; there is a place about an hour outside of New Orleans called "No problem raceway". In close proximity are the guys at Corrperformance and they commonly hold Nissan dyno days at there shop. In the fun department when the sun goes down, well, it is New Orleans.

As for No problem raceway; it hosts the Ferrari French Quarter Classic which is one of the larger exotic car events that has the cars on the track rather than parked.

I'm sure TX can provide such things as well but thats a far drive for all the FL guys.

I've been a SERCA member since 1999 and have attended most of the conventions. If FL would ever host one I would totally be there!

But please don't separate yourselves from SERCA. For the same reasons many of you have listed are the same reasons why we should stick together.

This forum is a good example of people letting their emotions get the better of them in my opinion. I mean no disrespect by those words either. I just mean that we should ALL remember why we are on this or any other forum, for our COMMUNITY. These cars are just what brought us together.

SR20's til I die! Please PM on the regular forums if you guys do hold a convention, as I dont frequent here much. I will be your local SoCal pimp.


PS: the edit button works here LOL!!!!

I with Rob on this one. I to couldn't make it to the conventions due to money myself. It's not exactly the cheapest event. Especially if you would like to bring your car. I personally know for a fact there is no reason why it can't be done in Fl. And on top of that, sponsors are here. We have Murray's, GoFastDepot...etc. It can be done. But like said before it is all about making it happen and getting the people in charge to make it happen.

Just make a note, SERCA seperated them selves from us. They did so with greed and nasty comments.

If people from SERCA want to come thats cool. Having a FL convention is in no way there to help revive a complete defunkt organization. The FL does not want to work with SERCA, just remember SERCA did not want to work with us. It was SERCA way or the Highway. SERCA kicked us to the curve it was not the other way around.

Exactly... That's why this is the forums now. Delete your bookmarks to that site and come here.

I don't know anything about SERCA or some of these other topics, but in searching for a tentative date or even month/region for 2008, has any consensus been reached?

Thanks.

I too love HPDEs and think the SE-R can be made into a fine car for it... but quite honestly, that's not what our cars were designed to do and only a small fraction of us use/build our cars for that purpose. My impression is that far more of us owners use our cars for DD duty, weekend AutoX or drag racing events, and perhaps the occasional car show.

It's also been my observation over the years that the fixation most car clubs (including ours) have on trying to tie in a HPDE with a national convention keeps the events from happening in the first place.

How many of us are really interested in the costs associated with attending and participating in the HPDE portion of a convention? We can always organize one if there's enough interest, but to put it in perspective, here's what I'm planning on paying for another car club's national convention later this year (one that *was* designed for track days I might add and thus requires less money to make it track worthy).

The driver's fee for the HPDE portion of the 2008 Integra Type-R Club of America's convention this year is going to be $360 *per driver*. Now add in hotel costs (my '07 cost was around $245 and it was only 5 hours from where I live) and travel expenses (food, gas, ect)... and finally, track day wear items (rotors, pads, fluid, filters, gas, and tires) and you're looking at a SE-Riously expensive weekend.

http://www.itrca.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9094

The entry cost for the average SE-R owner to attend/participate in an AutoX, Drag Race, or car show as a focal event are significantly less expensive. Those type of focal events also provide far more flexibility for event planners to find a suitable location and date.

Well, we disagree...the SE-R is more at home on a track then in the parking lot in a car show. Even DDs. Even if I wasn't driving, I'd rather watch SR20s go by on a track then do burnouts and pump stereos.

And as far as I remember SERCAs track track even has never gone above $200. Not the ones I've done, anyway.

The point is moot until someone steps up anyway. If someone organizes an event, I'll try and make it. If its got a track, I'll try harder.

My gawd, do we really suck this bad at event promotion and organization? I am new to the SE-R community and only because of a conflict in my vacation schedule did I not attend the event in 2007.

I agree to disagree, too, on track being part of a convention. The SE-R is capable for fast laps nearly right out of the box. I may be a bit biased given my B13 is a barely street legal track car first.

Example - 2003 ZCCA convention - held in NH of all places, we had people from all over the country. Obviously more from the East and Midwest than West Coast, at least those who brought their cars. We had a fantastic track day with ~20 Z's in each of 3 experience-graded groups, and room permitting, if you had the experience, you ran all three 20 minute sessions in the morning, again in the afternoon. You had at bare minimum 40 minutes of seat time, and the cost was < $100. Convention car show was great, Steve Millen came out and drove a Bob Sharp racing C production Z (right in my rear view for an entire lap, eek, the guy can drive). We ran the road course at Louden, NH - not bad, very fun to drive, kind of hard to pass, so ideal for fast laps vs. competition.

Sponsors were few - we had some help on track day costs from Toyo Tires, but our car show cost us nothing, really, other than the usual prizes. People who had experience as judges did the work (a great way to really go through a lot of cool cars). We had people who came to show, and people who came to go. The 350Z was new that year and older Z's came out, too, it was great.

No matter where you go, the "getting and staying there" costs usually dwarf the added (optional) cost of a track event. That convention was 5 hours away at most for me, and I spent far more on Hotel, gas, and yes, I took a serious chunk out of the life of the brakes, tires, etc. which I would gladly do again to run about 80 miles worth of laps, that was great.

Then again, I just drove my B13 from Orange County to CT, 3000 miles last April, for about $350 in gas, very little for food, the main cost was the flight out to pick up the car. Crap, I have a wife and 2 kids and a job I'm lucky to manage 2 weeks away from a year, my bud and I took that one from Friday AM to Monday afternoon including flight time. It took some planning to fly out, get a car, ensure we had a smooth trip back and we pulled it off w/o a single problem of any sort (well, there was an unmarked Charger State Cop in MO who followed us for about 5 miles, and unexpected snow and ice in PA while running track wheels with MX's and very stiffly sprung car). Basic tools, zip ties, duct tape, 2 radar detectors (one backup), binoculars, a lot of water, and a pretty brisk rotation in drivers. 46 hours for 3000 miles, not bad considering we crossed TX at about 80-100 mph the entire slice

Rather than expecting one person to "step up", don't you usually have a group of people? Granted it is most often a single person who really drives these things, but that's a lot easier when there is a small group who back each other up.

I'm also biased because my recently retired Mother worked 35 years in Event Promotion in Oregon, included SCCA/Camel GT/IMSA weekends, Historic Races, Trans-AM, 20 years of CART races in Portland's PIR, ALMS, besides a long list of civic events. They all had the same basics in common - early start to the planning, good promotion getting the word out, and a lot of legwork for logistics from year-round track improvements to how many port-o-johns where on race days. Their tasks were pretty hard, but in reality, and very small handful of people put on all those years of events. On average, maybe ~6 core people, with 2-3 constantly there for every year, most of the events, and they knew how to put on an event.

What structure have we used in the past? Right now it seems like a cross between Democracy and Balkan Ethnic Cleaning and Regional Conflict...until that hatchet is buried, this isn't going anywhere. I'm not looking to offend anyone, please, and being a relative newbie to this community, not looking to step on any toes. But I can't offer any help until I know something, ANYTHING of substance.

All great insights...Usually it is a small group who gets things going. I know for 09, unless something happens, we have a small group rallying around Joe (happynole).

Its Savannah GA in 09 and I'll be in the novice run group.