Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone involved for todays’ spring rally, this was our first MX-5 event and I was hugely impressed by the organisation, everyone we spoke to was extremely friendly and helpful. It was mind blowing to see so many MX-5s in one place. Wife has only been a 5 owner for 2 weeks and she loved it too we spent ages just marvelling at the modified cars, truly inspiring, I had to reign the wifes ideas back a little with so many goodies on display! We joined the OC today and I was also very impressed with the club magazine.
May I suggest… (I apologise in advance if this has been suggested before, we are new to this, and please don’t take this as anything other than hopefully a constructive suggestion), but I have attended single marque shows/rallies before, (Mini, VW and Triumph) and they have set aside a show area for other classic marques with usually a cut off of 1985.
All entries were chargeable with the money either going to charity or to subsidise trophies, organisation, hi viz jackets, insurance etc.
Reason for bringing this up is that we are a family with only one MX-5, 3 people into one MX-5 doesn’t go, so I came along in my Mustang, (carrying folding chairs, picnic, fishing shelter etc)
If there was such a separate show area, I know of at least 7 or 8 people with other classics who would have come along, (18 people minimum all paying a fiver each as they wouldn’t have been members.
Is this a possible way for the owners club to make a little bit of money?
Tony - Good to hear you both enjoyed the event, and that you both have joined the Club. Rather sorry to see the Mustang parked in all it’s loneliness on the far edge of the event, but worse things have happened in the past.
Over the years we’ve had a varying policy to ‘other cars’, but it’s not a norm at our events to get classics on display, though I won’t say it’s not a good idea. Our past events at Gaydon for instance, (because of it’s association with Brit Classics) have seen various classics in the visitors car park.
Most forty somethings previously owned a Bit car (like me, some with not so good happy memories) while a few do have classic and vintage cars back in the garage., reserved for those type of events. However, the MX5 Club is a unique one, you either like them or you don’t, and I can’t see us attracting other classics at our events, though you suggest some will. Fact is - I would love to see some good old classics and vintage cars at our events, we do have some happy memories and it would be good to see well restored and preserved examples at our National Events. They tend to be shoved to one side though, sometimes in a different parking area away from Club cars, so they would get missed by most attending. That might also tend to leave those owners with a sense of "Why did I bother?"
Additional funding is debatable, with 6,000+ members and an increased membership fee we can cover our events now without loss, so an extra £50 or so is a drop in the ocean, though it’s not up to me to decide one way or the other. As members, you now have access to the members only part of this forum, so may I suggest you post an inquiry in the ‘Ask the Chairman’ section, where hopefully someone will reply on behalf of either him, or the Committee, which also means it should come to the attention of Iain Fleming, who is our current Event organizer. There you will get an official answer, one way or the other.
P.S. - sorry I didn’t attend this event, I usually only attend National Rallies these days, so I missed the chance to hear that 351 running! - Hope you’ll bring it to Donny - out National in October this year?
Gerry, many thanks for your detailed reply, I now understand a bit more about the club, it’s nice to see a club so healthy financially they can do this.
When we get our full membership details through, we will ask the question of the chairman.
I can only speak from experience of other shows, other marques do seem to be a welcome distraction at single marque shows, it would be interesting to see the results of a poll of members to see how they feel about it.
I hope people don’t get the wrong idea, just trying to help.
An afterthought - a couple in fact! We held a National at Gaydon in 2007, many members took advantage of the reduced fee (we used to charge members then for special events) and looked round the museum, probably thinking about cars they used to own - or their Dad or Grandad did! The next year we had the spring rally at Haynes Museum; some members moaned “Not another car museum” - but many went round anyway and there weren’t any complaints after, not about the event anyway. (The Saturday evening entertainment didn’t go down well, though not everyone moaned about it).
Haynes is better from my point of view than either Gaydon or Beaulieu, in that it’s an international museum, and cars are better presented than at either of the other two, however I’m sure someone will disagree with me. Haynes buy their cars so they can write the Haynes manuals, and keep them afterwards in the museum.
So there is an interest in older cars, which I offer as some credence to your suggestion.
At Gaydon, I was confronted by two MG owners - I assume their cars were in the visitors car park, who wouldn’t shift from their stance that MG’s were the better car, despite me suggesting they try an MX5 for size. Some you win, and some you lose, but apparently they were interested enough to come and pay the normal entrance fee to see what the fuss was all about, and I would like to believe they were impressed, regardless of our friendly banter. We’ve even had sign-ups on the day from non MX5 owners who were sufficiently impressed to want a car, and to join the Club, so it works both ways.
Andy - where do we draw the line? - we’ve had MX’s powered with V8 engines (the Olds block licensed to Rover IIRC), and in the States cars powered by S200’s, Chevie and Ford. To name just a few mods. If we had more adventurers here, then the list would equal Stateside mods. Didn’t someone here shove a Cossie in?
On the related list, there’s several, the one you’ve turned up, plus Caterham, the NZ MGA (which I quite fancy!) and others which don’t come to my mind at the moment. And, of course the coming Fiat 124 - no comment!
The NB has one small feature pinched from the MGB, which few seem to have noticed, and we are aware of the origin of the car anyway. That it took two to make one is understandable, as anyone owning a post war car can testify. Me - I love V8’s, and some others do too, so I’m not alone in the Club in that respect. So - should we turn away V8 cars, of any make? just because they aren’t Mazdas?
I have a pet theory - the Mustang came from an idea in Detroit to ape the UK Capri, we’ll never know as inspiration is one of those things designers don’t talk about generally, they prefer to be thought as ‘original’. The Fastback copied the rear quarter vents from Ferrari, though they won’t admit that either.
So it’s interesting to see Classics especially as they were the design forerunner for many modern cars.
YMMV - - - !
