Just out of morbid curiosity, has anyone out there ever started a Corvette club?

I'm in a smaller town, and there's a Vette club already here, but it's kinda', well, blaaa...for a lack of better words. It's mainly older guys (I'm 32), and they seem to be more into drinking and rubbing their cars with cloth diapers. NOT that that's a bad thing in and of itself!

My '78 had the Silver Anniversary paint scheme long ago....long before it was used by a local farm laborer as his daily ride out to work on the dairy. For those of you that are unfamiliar with a dairy, the REEK of cow poo. So I end up with this car from my wife's uncle, yada yada yada, and here we are today. The car is now in primer, and needs boatloads of bucks and work. Such is life.

So I was toying with the idea of starting up a club, where a guy could actually drive his car, regardless of the condition, and not be snubbed or looked down upon. Just because I don't have tons of mon', shouldn't mean I can't have tons of fun!!

Any ideas here? Or am I for thinking about it? Is this a nightmare? Am I biting off more than I can chew?? Your comments are welcome. Thanks!!

 

sounds like you need to organize a "cruise in" night.....these are a blast....we have them sponsored by local resaurants during week nights in the summer....the local restaurants allocate parking spaces and a small discount 10% to the guys who bring there cars....it draws people to the restaurant and it works out well for all....

 

I have a 78 pace car, and dont belong to any clubs. I will join yours. We dont have to pay membership dues, do we?

 

This forum is all the Corvette Club I'll ever need.

 

Been there, tried that.....

Around here, it seems there are 2 types of Corvette-owners:
those that already belong to the "Mother-of-all-Clubs", and those that are turned-off by that Club, and wish to remain a 'lone wolf'.

We tried organizing a Club as you described:
many of the people who've expressed interest are in their 40's and 50's, having bought their first Vette recently in life, who don't wanna join the older, established Clubs.....

We envisioned attending Saturday evening Car Cruises en masse, taking day-long road trips to local points-of-interest, hosting a Show, participating at the local tracks, etc.....

Everybody wants to JOIN, but nobody wants to help RUN the thing, and currently, we are still in the 'talking-phase'.....

 

Me and my 78 will join too. I don't belong where I live but do attend "cruise-ins" at a couple of local restaurants and have met some good guys with lots of car knowledge. Able to exchange phone # or emails and we arranged for a couple of late summer cruises just for fun. I want to stay away from the politics of "Club" life so I think of the Forum as my club.

 

Nope, I've never started or joined a car club. But, there are a variety of weekly cruise-in's during the summer that I'll go to. The biggest problem I personally have with the local car clubs is that they just don't seem like "fun." They have mandatory meetings (blah, I get enough of that at work), dues (I'm not sure what for as there is nothing you get for it), and mandatory club car shows. Anytime there is something "mandatory" than it no longer becomes enjoyable and a hobby, now it becomes more like work. Plus, from what I've seen, these club members tend to sit in a hot parking lot all day on fold-up chairs listening to some horrid cover band play 50's tunes . I'd rather be out driving my drop-top since we only have a couple of months of nice weather around here...I don't want to waste it sitting in a parking lot. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

 

I had a similar experience. Thanks! Now I don't have to write several paragraphs...

 

Start a "car club."

Just a set time every week or two where anybody that wants to "talk cars" shows up...

Thats the best way I've seen... not enough vettes around in any given place to feed a club. For every hundred or so vettes, my guess is there are 1 or 2 that are raced!

 

We started a local "gathering" rather than a club this year; no dues, no board. I too had a bad experience with a formal club when I lived in CA so I recommend you go this route.

Here's the steps I followed:

I pulled together a list of local Corvette Forum members (found over 100 in a 35 mile radius of my zip code) and shot them all one email to introduce myself and gage overall interest of an informal gathering rather than a club. NOTE: I don't think the "find your neighbors" feature I used to get the email address is available with the new forum format. You could put together a simple website and print some flyers with the web address and an email address that you give to Corvette owners or leave on their car ...we've done this as well. You'll be surprised at how quick the group will grow by word of mouth as you build an email data base

I scouted out an initial meeting place that could accommodate a large number of cars, mapped a short route with lots of right hand turns and no stop lights and then set a date.

When the cars showed up I gave everyone a dash card with a number on it and a 3x5 card to vote on - one car equals one vote. After everyone showed up we drove the short cruise to a Sonic drive-in. I had previously contacted the manager and he gave us a food discount. Then everyone looked at each others cars and voted for the "best of show". I put up a $25 gift certificate from a local restaurant as an award. I counted the votes "survivor style" one vote at a time...it turned out great.

We have since met four times and merged with another loosely formed group for the Veterans day parade. We did a Toys for Tots cruise earlier this month where the Marines choose the "best of show". Other members of the group have stepped forward and donated additional gift certificates as well. Besides the best of show we recognize, high mileage, low mileage, newest, oldest, etc.

Plan on rain - in fact, it's rained on every event I've planned this year. The die-hard drivers will show up. Several drivers have attended every event, others only one. Our lowest turn-out was 17 cars, we topped off at over 30 cars for the Toys for Tots run, had two C6s, a mid-year and even a straight axle '61 show up. Our next gathering will be in the spring.

Two last things....keep it short, 2~3 hours max. Ensure everyone is invited, daily driver, showcar, rolling resto, whatever. The '61 that showed for our TFT's crusie almost didn't come becasue he had a bad experience with some other crowds with "perfect cars". I assured him this crowd was not like that. I'm glad he came and so was everyone else as his car completed our 6 Generation Display. Good luck!

I'll show off a few pictures from our events.

Sonic Cruise



Summer Cruise



Veteran's Day Parade...check out the Vettes in my mirror



Toys for Tots...we pulled off a six generation display!

 

Our Club web site may give you some ideas.

http://www.capitalcorvetteclub.ca/

 

You might follow 2tone82's suggestion. Here in the Atlanta area, there are several "clubs" and one "posse". The clubs have dues, officers,etc and the posse is a no dues, officers, etc group of corvette owners. The posse works from a web site that the founder set up. Any member can post an event in the event section and see what response they get. Around here a lot of owners are in several clubs. You could give you group a cf name connection and use this forum's events as your posting area. If you look in it you will see several sub groups already exist there. You cam post shows, work on the cars day, cruise ins, etc.

Good luck.

 

Thank you all so much for the helpful words of wisdom. I agree that club dues, officers, meetings, etc, can be a drag. All I'm after is to find a group of guys that are enthusiatci about their cars...a lot like this Forum!!

How many guys out there drive "primered" project cars? I'm just wondering how many, and if any of those go to car shows? What is your reception when you show up? Not that I really care what others think, but it sucks to have someone laugh or turn their nose up at you. Especially since they are supposed to be fellow enthusiasts.

 

 

Starting a club is easy enough if you have a few friends with the same inclination. When I was into british sports cars in Chattanooga several of us got together and formed Southern British Car Club of Chattanooga. We had an indoor car show each year, we had a monthly newsletter and we were always doing things that involved driving our cars. Had loads of fun and was honored to be their club president for the first three years of its existence and also write the monthly newsletter. You can get burnt out on these types of activities but you can also have loads of fun and meet lots of nice people; just like here on the forum. Good luck with your club if you choose to persue it. It is just like marriage, you get out of it what you put into it! And to succeed you will put a lot into it!

Bernie

 

Mine is near show condition, but I see no problem in a work in progress car. If you want to spend the money for entry or it's a no cost one, go for it. The true vette people aren't likely to snub you, can't say the same for the lookers. If any one asked about the paint tell them it blew off when you ran at the drag strip. In other words, have them laugh with you not at you. Here's another ice breaker. "you should have seen it before I cleaned it up."


PS: I was in a mini truck club in 1989 and one member had this wreck of a truck we used to haul all the show stuff in. He would enter it right beside our trucks to boost club member participation. He even had a information board that leaned on the front bumper and said "I haven't spent as much money as the other guys yet."

 

I'll join with my 78 also, kind of far though, but I know what you mean, I have started restoring mine and have gotten to the point where all the body work is done and it is half primered, but I still drive it around and still get some good compliments. can't wait til it's complete .

 

well said, short and to the point

 

See there you done went and got yersef involved with those "All the Money None of the brains" clubs! I was officially banned from my first club in 1976 when the VFW said to me; "We aint takin none of them "Vietnam cry babys", ' Vietnam was just a police action"...I hit him!
I ain't been much of a joiner since then, Hey its a life style. But I love C3's!
For those of you who live in caves, the VFW stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Sorry I'm ensessantly explaining myself.
Call me a dog.

 

I started our club. Click the link in my signature for our clubs web site.