Welcome your new Overlord...(also club stuff)

....ahhh, the POWER!!!

j/k just wanted to say for those that were wondering why my name suddenly popped up at the top of the forum that I used to be a mini-mod for the Southwest section back when I lived in LA. I let Robert know that I had moved to the Northeast and he changed my mod status to this section. So, umm, if you need something stickied, I'm your guy.

Also, as an update to my intro and "help me pick up my car" threads, I should be in a new alltrac within a couple weeks. I've made full payment, but there are still a few paperwork snafus that need to be ironed out.

But what I REALLY want to talk about is what we are going to do to make the NE alltrac scene the envy of car clubs worldwide??? :shock: What can we do to make the northeast section so cool that other people outside the area will lurk in our forum just to be near the glow?? :smokes:

Okay seriously, I have a tendency towards over-grandiose ideas. But I figure we could be just a bunch of dudes on a car forum, or we could be a real CLUB. I have plenty of ideas of things I would think were fun/useful, but I would like to hear yours and see if we have enough interest to get something going.

Things I would like to see:
1) Regular fix-it meets. Same social purpose as parking lot meets, without all the standing around in a parking lot. :shoots: Pros: experienced guys can show the less experienced guys how to do stuff. In exchange the experienced guys get free labor/favors whenever they want. Other benefits include sharing of tools/equipment, low-cost part exchange etc. Plus all of our tracs will actually be running rather than taking up space in our garages.

2) Related to the above, since space seems to be a premium in the NE (especially so for us that live in Metro areas) if there is enough interest we might look into pitching in together and renting some shop space in an out of the way location. Then we wouldn't have to rely on people's home garages and could leave tools, engines, parts etc. in a central location. I have no interest in being a business owner, but if some of you do, I heard of a drift shop that started out this way with a few guys that just needed a place to work on their drift cars.

3) Motorsports crew! Although show cars are cool, I'm getting my car to drive it. I'm more interested in drag racing myself, but I wouldn't mind hitting some autocross events as well, or being paddock crew for you road racing guys. Again, general "all for one, one for all" principle applies. We're there to help when you need it, you are there to help when we need it. I think it would be cool to get a general "celica crew" together for drag racing, as there is actually better events and competition in the FWD drag racing scene than the AWD, but you never see all the swapped FWD celicas mixing it up with the Hondas. I think helping to campaign a FWD celica against the Hondas would be almost as much fun as running my alltrac.

4) Although I'm not in to photography/blogging, I've seen some cool grassroots motorsports blogs such as the Risky Devil drift group. I think it would be cool to do something like that focusing on Celicas, maybe MR2s/Toyotas in general.

IDK, what do you think? Am I dreaming here? Are we too spread out? Too busy? Too cheap?

Is there some other fun things we can do with this hobby that I haven't thought of?

Throw your ideas out there and see what we can come up with!

J.

EDIT: IMPORTANT!!! Add yourself to the MAP! http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&m ... 2a747a8cd3

welcome to the largest 165 infested area.

interesting... and how do so many 165's survive this NE climate! augh!



well, im in for whateve festivities come about. I run a speed shop north of pittsburgh. I have 4 bays wide, almost 4k sqft building on a whole city block (butler, pa). You guys could surely plan a meet for here if you wanted, i should have anything you need if you wanted to do some work. i dont know how many people will actually be interested or be close enough to make it worth everyones time. At the least, in for ideas.

Because some people buy more then one of them, thats how. Not that this is confined to ST165's mind you .....

Welcome to the NE!

HAHA...yeah there is a huge number of 165's out here...lol. no doubt about that...but i totally agree with your idea of making us a more active club rather than a couple car owners constantly on the forum

but a couple issues come into play...the vast majority of us are spread evenly through out the area...so consolidating us into one spot is going to be challenging and rare event sadly :/

plus now i work two jobs, so time is a definite issue as well, well for me that is :/

finding time alone just to keep the trac's in good order has become a pain

but yeah...welcome to the NE

For organizational purposes, everybody add yourself to the naalltrac map here: http://www.frappr.com/naalltrac

You don't have to sign up or anything, just hit the "Add Yourself" button on the left. Oh and put your alltrac.net username so we can make the connection here.

/\ it doesnt load

Hmm, I tried the original link in the Newb section and it wasn't loading as well http://alltrac.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28893 although it was loading fine last night. Must be a problem with the frappr site. Maybe give it a day and try again.

I do agree meets or such will be difficult considering the milage between us all, but I am open to ideas as well. I think its a great idea to try to figure out. It'd be nice to get to know other Alltrac people around the NE.

Btw- 165's may make up the consensus in MD, but anyone I know with an alltrac in NY has a 185. Maybe it's cuz we're cooler... :wink:

i think 165's also are the dominant breed in PA as well... 165 ftw.

i know this isnt until the far future, but
http://www.libertybellmp.com/info.html
i certainly believe that would be fun place to have a meet or two, much like we have the meets at Summit point raceway, we can also have ones at liberty motor park.

just ideas...the more ideas the better i suppose.

1st Welcome to the Northeast!!!!!!

I would definitely be interested in joining a serious Alltrac car club, and guys stop wining about time and distance please . In my efforts to build my trac I have traveled 1000s of miles, as have many of you. We have to really get a true sense of community and get our $hit together. I don't have the funds, but I have the know how, and I have learned quite a bit about Alltracs over the past year, and I would be more than happy to share what I know with anyone who will take the time out of their busy schedule to meet. Honda guy's have 500 Northeast car clubs Celica's have???? Alltrac's have???? My point is that if we are really going to do this I'm all in 100%. Jeez a guy just offered the use of his 4 bay shop what else do you guys want :shrug: :shrug: :roll: . I'm sorry if I sound angry or upset, I'm not. I'm just surprised that we can't get off our butts and get it in gear. So please contact me lumbercis & gearhead313, if we have a 3 member car club today, it will be at least 1 Alltrac car club in the Northeast tomorrow .

Thanks
Lamont

Hi~ I like that you have lots of ideas for things... All are great ideas. I, too, like the feeling of having a "club" rather than just merely a forum. With us, however, it's not that hard to do, since our cars are rare and not many of us own it so our small #s make this "club" feel like one...

However, we are definitely a bit dispersed geographically in this region. One thing that I noticed in my few years here is that I wouldn't even know if anyone in my area (NYC-area) has an AllTrac or not, and accidentally stumble upon people on the forums. Of course I never see another one on the road here... So having a more well-known "club" could help bring people together, so I like the ideas being thrown around.

I think the trick to meets around here, then, is to do a few very big ones throughout the year. (On the top of my head, I can think of: Mafix's annual meet (MD), Bear Mountain annual drive (NJ/NY), Colt State Park annual Toyota meet (RI)...-- most of these are not-AllTrac-specific) I think regular bi-weekly type of meets would not work as well. Unless it's 2-3 guys in one area/city getting together to work on cars or socializing, etc...

Another idea is to have some sort of directory of members that you can contact for help or if you are in their town, etc... Clubs usually have this.

Also, you can use something like Facebook to connect more people together too. Although "groups" on FB aren't utilized to their max, but it has potential. At least socially it can "put a face" to some of the people here...

And what I say is for our region, but I think it can work nationally (or North America or the world, for that matter) too. But that's quite ambitious... Start small, then replicate and grow into something bigger later.

Well, one thing you can do to combat the distance issue is use the "sleeper cell" organization method. 3-5 guys in a local area are more than enough for fix-it meets to happen. Then if you have another 3-5 guys within a couple hours you can all meet up for track/photoshoot days...whatever.

And of course a couple times a year have some big "regional" get togethers probably around a particular track event.

My big thing is that as nice as it is to meet new people, I don't think standing around in parking lots really motivates people over the long term. I mean are you really going to bust your ass to get your car in top shape just to make it to a parking lot meet? I went to plenty of those in LA and they got boring really quickly to me.

But when you have a goal such as making it to the track, getting ready for a show, doing a cruise or photoshoot, everyone is more motivated and willing to pitch in to help each other out. My idea is to get people out really enjoying their cars, learning new things, and maybe helping each other save a little money here and there.

Basically, I want to DO something with my car, make it a real hobby. And I want to encourage/support others that want to DO this hobby as well.

How do you guys feel about it? What would be your "vision" for a NE Alltrac/Celi club?

J.

PS: Mike brought up a good point that we desperately need a club calendar. Should we use some fancy web app for it or would it be better to just sticky a thread with events updated in the first post?

turf stomper!!! j/k.
i know rockville area seems to be the heavy populated alltrac nest in MD.
oh and the summit point meets are not mine. they were originally the hooters meets set up by gt4play. i seem to have taken over the basic planning while esracing uses his connections to get us some fun at great prices!

i'd be down for a couple hour drive for a once a month. between annapolis and baltimore might be a little better than rockville. that way delaware, southern pa, all of md, northern va could all meet up.

i agree with willie.

I'm loving all the ideas. I'd definitely be down for a "club" type of assossiation. It just makes more sense to me. lol. Just need to find more people around my area with alltracs & we'll be set. :shoots:

I'd be down for infrequent meets around md, too. I hve family in Baltimore so they'd love it if we just so happen to have to make the trip once or twice a year. Win/win- I'd become they're favorite relative & I get to chill with you guys! :smokes:

let me know if you need help setting stuff up lumbercis.
BTW side note, road race tires suck balls on cold roads. burn outs at 50mph anyone?

Welcome to the NE

Great trac community. Meets are always a good time.

Hopefully things will start working out for me and I won't have to sell my car.

I vote yes for meets at gearhead's shop. As much as I love meeting Dan in his forest or fox alpha on his busy dangerous street to tear alltracs apart I think I'm ready for a change.

I demand better working conditions the next time I'm asked to work on one of these god forsaken scrap heaps

Gearheads shop is also just awesome. Not only is it big and from what I saw well stocked. He's bound to have some other odd or rare cars (read: nightmare projects) lying around. When I was up there last year to get a transmission from him he had a pair of s12 200sx's. Yeah s12's.

Oh and did I mention he's local to me. People should come to me, I'm much more likely to show up that way.