I've had my Corvette for a year or so now and joined the local club last year. I was hoping that there would be some exchange about the cars and local parts vendors, discussions about oil, wax or whatever, but it seems that it is mostly a social club. We do sponsor a car show that has been going on for years and the club will try to go to a few other car shows during the season, but outside that it is all about trips or parties. Those are good things too, but we could do all those things in minivans. So, my question would be, "is this the way Corvette clubs are?" If you're in a club do you have technical discussions, or is it strictly social? Do you have speakers, experts, or club members giving a talk about corvette things? Am I expecting too much? All my technical info has come from the forums. Interested in your experiences.

 

Hi

I also joined a corvette a couple of years ago and was not thrilled! It was mostly a group of people who took their vettes to car shows and met once a month to discuss up coming events (shows)

This was not my idea of a vette club. The last time l was in a so called corvette club we would meet every saturday in a garage and work on somebodys vette and tell tall stories and laugh all day long.
We also had a SCCA B production vette that we raced.

Now that's a club!

 

Pretty much all we do is plan cruises, our car show, go to other car shows and have picnics. Yeah same as yours.

 

I belong to a Corvette Club. We put on 4 Auto Crosses, a Record/Bracket Drag event and a high speed event each year and yes, there are parades and car shows, cruises and social events.. We have a road trip planned to Bowling Green for the museum and factory this year. We have had seminars on Dyno Tunes, paint and car care.....We have a member with a large building with a lift. We have done exhaust upgrades, tunnel plate installations, brake jobs and CLB installation days for other members. A car club is only as good as it's members...and you have to have a group of people willing to work to make things happen. As a result of hard work, our club has won the NCCC National Championship 5 times, which included back to back in 08 and 09. This is a result of accumulating the most total points of any club in the nation. Points come mostly from speed competition, so you can see our club is as much for racers as it is waxers. As far as age is concerned....sometimes along with that grey hair is a lot of Corvette knowledge you can have access to.
Having said all this, next to a well functioning club, there is nothing better than the Corvette Forum....

 

The last several car clubs I have belonged to were pretty much like yours - more tuned into the social events rather than talking about the cars, mods, tech tips, etc.

 

No club for me. It seems they are pretty much a social club. Meet once a month, go eat and go eat, and argure about the color T-shirt to order. Take a Crusie in October. That is pretty much it. On the other hand we have a group of us that hang together and all have the same interest. Turn a few wrenches, go cruzin together and attend every show we can. We eat when we can but not an necessary event. We will from time to time throw a party and chill but it's all about the cars and being with friends.

 

 

They all seem lame no one wrenches or anything. Its more of a social event and everyone is twice my age and really aren't insterested in doing much.

 

Almost immediately after purchase, I joined a big Corvette club. At first, it also felt like most members were considerable older and frankly, I didn't feel like I fit in very well. But over time I've come to know more folks about my age or younger and made some good friendships. Bummer for now is that my work shift prohibits me from attending meetings....that's been almost two years now and therefore also haven't attended many cruises or events. But I remain a member just in case and get the newsletter for events I really want to make...cruises, autocross etc.

The best club I've joined so far is this forum. In particular, the folks in my regional corner....we've gotten together for some of the best cruises ever with great participation.

But, like said, it depends upon who is most active in the club that steers it in particular directions. If you are bored with your club, you must not be willing to work to shake it up with something new. Clubs take work if you really want to enjoy them.

 

I haven't found one I want to be a part of in Seattle and North. I'm too far away to make many of the events. The Oly club is full of good, fun people.

There is a group near Seattle that gets together occasionally for mod parties, but i haven't seen any this year. Check out the PNW regional forum for local stuff.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/pacific-northwest-127/

 

Well I have owned several corvettes for years and never joined a club until a few months ago when I found the perfect club. Other clubs I researched and I found out most just ate at the same local diner did a local show and like most said eat and party. The club I joined has a car care day where one of the memeber invites all those that want to attend to his auto shop for a routine inspection, and oil change. They did a brake job too. This saturday there is habitat week and some members are helping with a housing build. We have a track day coming up at the michelin test track, there are road trips several, parade group for all local parades, car shows at lowes motorspeedway, local cruise ins, we had a dyno day last month at total performance, had zaino day waxing cars,few saturdays ago, meet once a month for guys luncheon on Monday at Concord Mills, maggie valley end of the month for vettes in the valley memorial day weekend, meetings are always held at different locations throughout Charlotte and dinner is always at different resturants afterwards, even had meeting at auto barn in concord, now all this was just in the past few months so I am like constantly checking the website to make sure i do not miss any events. Bottom line Generations Corvette Club is the most active and down to earth club I have found and I am truly glad to be a part of a great group of men and women. Please take a look at their website its very informative with all events posted for the entire year with a month by month calender, go to Generations Corvette Club then hit the section that says Drive -In, Enjoy the music too.

 

Ditto, my shift, I would miss all the Friday and Saturday night meetings, plus it cost $95 to join, so why pay to not show up. Now I attended as a propect, they sold raffel tickets, I purchased 10 at $1 buck each. I won some nice prizes (not even a member yet). They were very nice folks. One good thing is viewing others corvette, what mods they have done, getting ideas for my ride, etc. That is worth it. One of the guy had his vette in Vette magazine, a 69 restored from a barn, that was nice seeing how he did it. For now, I'm not going to join until I change my shift. One thing is for sure, I have never met a A$$hole at these meetings. I have at my motocycle club, Harley Davisons (won't say what chapter, that's another story)..

 

Our club falls somewhere in between!! We do lots of cruises and displays,,but also organize trips to lots of events like Bloomington,Fun Fest,,, Branson Mo.,, Eureka Springs,,Black Hills, Vets in the Rockies and even Texas Motor Speed way and more!! We have a big annual party at reasonable cost for the members(use treasury money to pick up bulk of the expense). We have a "REFLECTION FUND" that uses 50/50 drawings and stipends we get from some display and or parade appearances,,that goes to a LOCAL charity that can use a small boost. We do our own version of toys for tots,,,again for local charity. When we can get Gateway International to cooperate we USED to organize vet nights on test and tune nights,they have new management,and aren't to responsive to average enthusiast anymore. Several members have lifts and hold "TECH NIGHTS" for any thing from oil changes to mods. There IS a fondness for some beer and some wine consumption,,but meeting nights start out in the parking lot standing around talking about THE CARS,,and headers or a new motor draws a crowd!! We DO have a lot of gray hairs,,but SOME of them have the quickest reaction times at the strip,,I hold a time slip with a .001. Getting older doesn't ALWAYS mean you loose interest in cars or being a gear head,,my wife is STILL waiting for me to grow up!! And our club only cost a one time initiation of $15 and only $30 a year!! Guess there are lots of different types of clubs,,this one,they were helping me diagnose a belt squeal problem on my old shark when I just met them,,and wasn't even a member!! I'm proud to be a member of the Lookingglass C.C. of Southern Illinois!!

 

Sounds a lot like our group. Frankly I like the social stuff and the autosport stuff we do (not a lot, the hard-core track buffs have the SCCA to rely on). The show stuff can be a bit much (it's "life" for a few members) but all the local clubs' shows support many charities with the proceeds so it's all good.

 

The club you belong to will be as good as whatever teambuilding efforts or club activities you can manage and lead. You would be surprised as to the creativity you can bring to your club. You will need to have people that are energetic in taking the ball and running with it to start new events. Some of the bad tactics in any club are the ones that make people do things. Most clubs are social, some are working clubs and do a lot of charity work. I think you need to balance it all out and not have too much of one thing except to have fun.

 

Our club is also somewhere in between. While we do runs with the vettes. the often end up at a restaurant and sometimes even include outlets malls for the spouses. We also do vette related events. Our last meeting had a speaker from Meguiars and our next meeting we are scheduled to have a speaker from a local corvette restoration shop. We are also planning a run to a corvette custom house who does custom painting, wheels, etc. Another run is being planned to a performance vendor. We try to make all happy. The club is like another family.

 

hey marc,

you might want to check this out - if you haven't already...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/paci...n-whidbey.html

i'll be there along with a few other vette guys from the area. our host for this BBQ says he has a lift, so i'll be wanting to throw my C5 up on the rack and check out a few things while i'm there. it's very, very close to where you live.

look for other threads in the PNW forum too - we call ourselve the GTG gang (get together gang). no rules, no dues, show up if you want.

we're a good group of guys (if i do say so myself)

jeff

 

I agree that club events that are no more that hanging out in a parking lot to show off your shinny car is pretty lame

 

Ours is basically a social club. One of our members had a lift and we tried to hold a Shop Night once a month, it was a terrible failure.

We do have a couple of wrenchers, and advice gets asked sometimes.

 

Had a pretty bad experience with a vette club myself. I thought it was something it was not. It ended up on a very sour note. I did meet some great people and a great LS mechanic who is one of my best friends. So some benefits I guess. For me, there not worth the headache!