The future of the NCRS
 

I posted the same question in the C1/2 section but thought it would be interesting to hear from this group as well....

Now, that the founding member number #1 is "retiring" and the with latest announcement that Eric, his son, has decided to part ways, what is in store for the future of the club? Things are a changin.....:lurk:

I went to NCRS headquarters couple months back and was quiet surprised as they operate out of an old garage in the country .Eric was very nice and took time to talk to me not so with his dad .I also just had my experience with a judge and seem to be a very political organization . I do agree there organization has helped the Corvette over the years but maybe needs to be restructured such as the judges should not be involved also with pre purchase inspections .Just my 2c worth.
Wes

"Dear Members,

As previously announced in my Winter Restorer column, Gary Mortimer retired at the end of his current term, which was effective on Thursday, March 17th. Gary's retirement was a Board decision, taken as a first step in addressing NCRS's financial situation, which is discussed in my Spring Restorer column.

The Board's plan was for Eric Mortimer to take charge of operations in Cincinnati, and we had offered him increased responsibilities. Unexpectedly, late Thursday afternoon March 17th I received an email from Eric announcing that he is resigning effective March 31st.

The Board spent Thursday evening and much of Friday putting together a plan to handle the various tasks formerly handled by the Cincinnati office. This plan will take some time to implement and there will undoubtedly be some bumps in the road, but with your patience and understanding we will get through this.

Best regards,

Mike Ingham"

Sounds to me like there is a financial problem and the current president was "excused", not retired and the son said the hell with this...

With the knowledge learned by the manuals, articles, along with "those that were there", I don't see a better group for inspections? Now, how this knowledge is used by these members, is an entirely different thing!:thumbs:
Thanks for the post:cheers:

I am fairly close to them if there is anything I can assist with please let me know ?
Wes

OMG! For real?

I have been a NCRS member since 1992 and sorry to hear this.

While I sit many thousands of kilometres away in Australia, I have found the NCRS documents, web site etc invaluable to help me with my Vette.

I have attended NCRS events in the US a couple of times and found them very informative as an observer.

However I have wondered how the organisation was going to renew itself over time as the memberships average age increased and the membership possible decreased.

I think there is a place for the NCRS model going forward but possibly it needs to look how it can bring in the owners who are not as committed to the 100% correct restoration.

There are many hobbies that have had to go through a near death experience to be revised, reborn etc given their supporter age demographic. Some survive others don't.

PS: I am a paid up NCRS member.

:iagree:
That`s a LOT of people!

To survive it sounds like, all seriousness aside, they will need to become
the "Not Correctly Restored Society".

There are too many Vette fanatics that will step up and hopefully not let the NCRS fail. I wish all the best to the organization

As a rookie I am sorry to hear about the problems of NCRS. I hope management works things out/maybe even consider offering some minimum acknowledgement-acceptance of "Modified Titled Vehicles" that otherwise would be in a salvage yard somewhere "picked to pieces".
That Minimum classification alone, would bring in more "operating funds", as other Forum members have already stated.

I admire those who put so much time into a "correct" restoration, and I DO understand the desire to maintain the "Purist Goal".

Gary Mortimer is/was not the NCRS president. He was membership chairman, ran the online store, and put together the NCRS Drive Line magazine.

Non-stock Corvettes and what could/might be done with them has been an NCRS discussion point for quite a while now.

:thumbs:

This was written many years ago by Dr. Rebuild...Maybe even 15 years ago?

I think he did a very good job of summing up why NCRS might not be for everybody-

"Over that past 20 years these are a few of my observations.

Judging has evolved considerably. Cars that were tops years ago are now second rate. Others are now “over restored” - they are too nice. Today, others should not be restored, they are considered historically significant i.e. survivors. Today one can not merely achieve Gold or a Top award. Apparently in an effort to maintain owners involvement and the accompanying judging and convention fees, new levels of achievement are instituted. Now the achievement levels are Performance Verification, the Duntov, the Bowtie, the Founders, the 5 Star, the Triple Crown. Where does it end? How can you keep the same owner attending events? Keep on raising a new pinnacle.

Tom B. from Waterbury, Connecticut is the original owner of a 77. After achieving a certain level in judging he decided to pursue the higher levels and traveled all over the USA to have his model judged and re-judged. Every few weeks between events, he would purchase parts to comply with the deficits enumerated on the judging sheets. He confided that a number of the parts he replaced were merely to conform to those required by the judges, even though as the original owner he knew the part he was removing was in fact the correct original part. He stated that he had come so far, that he felt compelled to finish his journey. He also added that once that pinnacle was reached, he would never ever do it again.

Another fellow borrowed a friends original gas cap and jack when his 62 was judged. That helped him achieve the points the judges were looking for. Fair?

Several years ago at Corvettes at Carlisle a gentleman in his fifties asked me for a part. In our conversation he stated that he had traveled from California and was only looking for a few bolts with a particular stamp on the head. That was all that he needed to finish his car and have it re-judged. I could not help him. After he left I could not help but think that somewhere a judge had turned this mature successful businessman into a blithering idiot in search of nirvana.

I was an authorized distributor for the now defunct Wittek Hose Clamp Co. for over 15 years. After they went bankrupt, there was allot of hullabaloo about the correctness of the different Wittek hose clamp reproductions. I my remaining inventory of original Wittek clamps, I found the following. The number 28H radiator hose clamp had 13 different variations with regard to the “Sure Tite” character size, font style, hyphenation and orientation on the band of the clamp. Some are “SureTite”, others are “Sure Tite”, others are “SURETITE”, or “SureTite”. Some are all caps, others are italics. They vary in point size; orientation on the band. The placement, size, font and orientation of the 28H also varies. - So which one is “correct”? They were all made by Wittek.

An original GM blueprint for 5/8” heater hose (circa 1960) show 7 different authorized suppliers. Each had a different pattern of ribs for identification purposes. Some judges pronounce that only one rib pattern is acceptable. Apparently they must believe that just one of the companies was the exclusive supplier. The 3/4” heater hose blueprint also show 7 different authorized suppliers.

A restoration book states there were over 10 shades of Black paint on a Vettes parts. There are probably even more, when you consider all the different companies that supplied GM with Black parts. I wonder if anyone could reformulate all the different shades? Do you think they would sell?

When you make a repro, it is often judged to a higher standard than the original GM part. If you repro a Chrome part, it has to have flawless Chrome. And we all know that the original GM parts all had flawless Chrome - right?

I was the very first vendor to offer white stripe vacuum advance hose. Several years ago I saw it on a 5,000 mile 63 coupe, measured it and had it reproduced by another company. Months later I had a judge telling me the stripe was too wide. Now we own our own printing machine for hoses and it can prints hundreds of feet per minute. The weight of the machine actually rests on the hose and as you run it the stripe can actually vary slightly in width.

If your ultimate goal is a trailer queen with all matching dates and numbers - please pursue such parts elsewhere. Remember, the only truly original parts for your car - are the part that came on the car. All others are truly replacements."

Who even cares about all of this insane nonsense ? I sure don't , I just enjoy mine ! :toetap:

Hold that thought for a couple of months...

Regards,

Stan Falenski

^^I agree..certainly not for everybody!

Hopefully for the people who are "into" it, it survives.

Financial problems, then excused, son says forgetaboutit? Need more info, something smells fishy.

Ncrs
 

I joined NCRS years ago for 1 year and could not believe how some of its members treated new members I was told I was funny in a ignorant way because I said that the cars should be driven. This was about a group that set up a little drive on a nice Sunday afternoon and one of the group said most member showed up and were not even in Vettes. I have owned and worked on these cars since the mid 70s it was tight group then it did not matter if you had a custom or just a tacky driver it was a Vette that's all that mattered. This hobby has changed and a lot of the fun is gone to now more of a competition.
Just my 2 cents

I would join if they had a drivers category and a modified restored category. Im in this to drive my car. I'd love to see more of these old cars being driven around.