Outlaws eXtreme

I was wondering what other owners thought that may make SS9 (if there is one) better if that's possible.

It was good this year, but it did seem less people showed up... wonder why that was. I've been to the last 3 SS.. and this one did seem like less people showed.

For the heck of it, what suggestions would you like to make, no matter how much money/man power it would require to make it better.

I personally would have loved if somehow El Toro base would be incorporated, and have a SS8 + Rev it up type of day with Rotary vehicles. :P <Expensive I know>

XDEEDUBBX

el toro would be a good idea. I think SS9 should also have a dyno setup, better variety of food, better entertainment better looking girls, ...hmm, i'm making it sound like hot import nights...haha

rotarygod

They've already discussed the difficulties of using El Toro although that would be a cool idea. Wasn't concerned about the food. Variety would have been nice but I was so busy looking at things and talking to people that I wouldn't have eaten except for the fact that I was getting weak from not eating. It wasn't hard to leave, ok for me it wasn't hard to leave to get food, and it wasn't hard to pack a cooler if you wanted different food. Didn't bother me though. Didn't really care about the girls but that's not why I went there. The ones that were there posing weren't all that though. I wish it was longer than just 1 day. I'd like to see 2 days but that would be difficult trying to round up all those people 2 days in a row and get them all back in. You'd also have to monitor all those people all over again and you can bet law enforcement will be watching harder on a day 2. I'd like to see more of the people who show up be more respectful of the event. Being purposely obnoxious on the road and getting the attention of the cops only hurts us for a next event. Running straight headers, revving it up and down the street and parking lot, and then flaunting www.mazdapolluter.com on your car isn't the best thing to do. This is why RB didn't have an open house like last year. The public reason was that the shop was too busy but in reality it was because there were people tearing up and down the road there last year and peeling out. They don't want to get in trouble with their landlords, neighbors, or the authorities. A few people last year ruined the RB open house for everyone. Ok not quite everyone as I and several others still got the behind the scenes but you get the picture. Let's not see that happen with SS9. I'd also like to see more people actually care about their trash instead of littering up the streets and grounds there. That really makes Mazda look bad when it comes to events.

I'd like to see the raffles prizes actually be based on what kind of car you have. I think that when you enter a raffle, they should enter you in for a specific type of vehicle so you can't win something you can't use. Obviously other things are not related to any specific vehicle. Last year I thought it was really disrespectful that people won some great prizes and then just tried to make a buck by selling them on eBay. That's not what the raffle is for. It's not for personal profit. If I had donated those parts, I'd have thought twice about doing it again. We didn't see quite the outrageous raffle items that we saw last year. Probably because of this.

XDEEDUBBX

I've read all about that polluter guy on the 7 forums. What an ***. He's probably the most hated guy in the rotary industry right now just for doing what he did. On another note, sumo wrestling and a rock climbing wall would be cool too! hahaha

kwescott

good point about the raffle RG...I know that I wasn't all that into winning replacement parts for an FC and FD...and good point about the fools that ruin it for others. Reving engines, driving like an idiot in front of the event ealry in the morning...that damn blue FC. It does make everyone look bad, and makes that one guy a frickin idiot. I don't think one person said, damn, look at that cool guy doing something we cant do in a car no one has...what was his reason for "showing off"...who knows, who cares.

phee

Being a first-time rotary owner and a noob at SS, I have to say I was amazed at how much was given to us for free. I'm in awe of you all putting this together so well, even with the few years of past experience you have in doing so. So I guess I don't have too much to throw in for suggestions. I agree with RG about the raffle. the littering, and the idiots who feel the need to show off on the streets around the event. They don't realize how much this hurts the event itself. I can offer up the things I was grateful for: the vendor representation and how much they were willing to discuss, and, in my case, educate; no gouging on food prices and they got us through the line PDQ; the people who brought in all the special vehicles to show us; the folks they lined up for Tech Talk and banquet speeches. Last but not least, the opportunity to meet some of you folks on the board. Between Ajax and RG, I learned a heck of alot last weekend, and I was glad they let me tag along with them much of the day.

bern

EL toro is shut-down and not accessible anymore! The insurance issues are a huge challenge here too.

Dyno was on Sunday... you should've stopped by!

Food was addressed this year, but the food vendor we contracted with, was diagnosed with bladder cancer two weeks before the event.... so we had to go back to last years vendor.. it was a tough choice but we didn't have much recourse.

BETTER ENTERTAINMENT?!?!? Nothing better than hundreds of Rotaries, vendors, tech sessions, RC cars, etc... and don't forget the RAFFLE... this part is something we have no issues with.

Girls... well if you would bring a few then maybe we can get this party started right!!

Yea, it almost sounds like you PAID or something, eh? :D How much is a HOT IMPORT NIGHT SHOW now-a-days?


-Bern

bern

We tried this one year, and it didn't work at all!!! Only 3rd gen guys got great stuff from vendor donations and no one else bought tickets... so this does not work for us, because we rely on the vendor donations for the raffle. There weren't many RX-8 donations this year, so why would RX-8 people buy tickets.. or FB, FC, FD.. etc... since we have no real control on the prizes donated by the great vendors, then we can not really split it up... doesn't work.

On selling specific model RX stuff on E-BAY or at the event that you can't use, we are not to worried about this...

when I mentioned the E-BAY stuff, I was refering to posters and books, that had been auto-graphed by the VIPS. I saw guys last year getting 10+ posters or books autograhed then put up on E-BAY. Something that was FREE at SS to all. The prizes from the raffle, we are cool if you sell them, because you can't use them, but for all the FREE stuff we give away at the event to end up on E-BAY is just wrong.


-Bern

AZ-RX8U

Im sure I'll get hell for this but i would pay to attend SS,it might lessen the attendance a bit but it would cut down on rif-raf and young "punks" tearing their FC down the staging area like a friggin a$$hole!!! Damn he pissed me off.
More girls would be nice, I showed at HIN this past weekend (BTW $55 to show, $25 to attend) and they had a lot of girls- always nice when they pose on/by your ride :-)
You guys did a great job of getting everyone set up fairly quickly. One issue I had was getting parked right next to the stage and when the 3pm ceremony started people were all over my car; leaning on it, bumping in to it etc- have some damn respect people!
All in all i was extremely inpressed and am really hoping we get SS9.
One of the best parts was meeting people that we chat with here and realizing we actually have real names (not that I remember anyones)
I did buy a lot of raffle tix but it was for a good cause so Im not too concerned with that.
Like I said, I was very impressed and even if nothing changed I would definitely come back.

Phil's 8

iTrader: (3)

SS8 was my first so I have nothing else to compair it with. A free event like this is unheard of and I wish to thank good work of So. Cal RX Club, Rotary News and Mazda for this event. I will attend SS9 if the powers will again put it on. I was a little disappoited at the vendor turnout. The only things that would have made it better for me was to meet some of the forum guys, not to say that I did not meet some great people. Next time I'll stay at the Host hotel.

Outlaws eXtreme

One thing to note... this event should NEVER be like HIN. It's not exactly a "Pimp your ride up" type of show. More like a gathering of all things Rotary. Besides, how many fixed up cars did you exactly see at SS? I would say about 30% at best... most of the other cars are just cleaned up stock cars.

Just check out the very first car going into the main parking lot... a bone stock red RX-8. I was watching this guy detail the car right before he had to drive up into the main lot. But I can tell how much he loved the car, and that's all that mattered.

I agree on the vendor part. It seemed a bit less this year compared to previous years. In the last row, it was basically a mini staging area for the other cars.

Berny, were there less vendors this year than years past?

XDEEDUBBX

I just hope we have SS9...I wouldn't mind making a 5 dollar donation only if the money went to something usefull. I'm glad ss8 was not like HIN cause that gets annoying really fast.. All in all it was fun. The best part about it was meeting up with the caravan, driving down to irvine, and conversating with other members before we rolled in. =)

Outlaws eXtreme

Caravans are usually pretty fun :P

Hope we have that long drive one that was delayed due to weather/road damage. Gas prices seem to be dropping slightly.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

First time attending SS and I must say I had lots of fun.

I wish I could have met up with more forum members but the Cerritos caravan was pretty cool.

Here's to hopefully having an SS9.

As for improvements:
We need more Rx-8's to show up :p

Other then that, I think you guys did a great job considering it was a FREE event.


Keep up the good work Bern :D

P.S. I was the guy who gave back that 3rd gen clutch line. WTH was I gonna do with that thing?!

raspyrx7

I wonder if the gas prices had anything to do with attendance... not that us rotary guys aren't hardcore but well... ya know. Anyway we could get a parade lap or two around Laguna Seca? Its Mazda's track n all eh? Maybe make it the kickoff deal on Friday then we cruise to SS?

StealthFox

bern can you give an approx attendance to ss8 of regular people/vendors?

bern

Yup!! This will never be HIN or anything like it... this is a FAMILY picnic and we are going to keep it that way. If you want a lot of girls and that kind of stuff, by all means hit HIN, or one of the many other show out there. Not that we are against the girls and stuff, but we don't want that to be the focus of SS, and either does Mazda .... next thing we'll have 8s with gold-fish in the headlights!

This deal is still our come-together for all things ROTARY... next thing folks will want me to ask all the old peeps to not come anymore. :p

and yes, unfortunately we had 5-6 vendors just "not show", for various reasons. All apologized and promised to make it up next year.

-Bern

bern

Thanks AZ-RX8U... if we do it next year, we have a game plan to change it up some... and our apologies on the folks leaning on the rides... we'll take that into consideration for next year and try to minimize it.

Maybe next year your ride will be tuned, and we'll get it up on the dyno

-Bern

bern

Big ups to Jedi for returning the part he won in the raffle.... ya we definitely need more 8s to come out... ALSO more 8s to try and stay past 2pm. Most of the 8s I saw were in the street, because none of them wanted, or could, stay past 2pm. We still had about another 10-15 spots in the main-lot for 8s.


-Bern

Loaded8

\

LOL... please tell me you haven't really seen that on a car. It's pretty funny though... maybe I can put some goldfish stickers on my headlights for next year.

There were a lot of 8s there, but as you said most of them decided to park on the street for whatever reason (couldn't stay or didn't want to park in the lot). I loved seeing all the SoCal 8's drive up together, that was cool!!!

Moostafa29

It seemed like there wasn't enough room for all the 8s that came. 1/3 were parked near the stage, 1/3 were stuck in a corner, and 1/3 were out in the parking lot. Didn't seem like much you could do though, because the lot was pretty full. But it would have been nice if we could have all parked together.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

The reason most of us from the Cerritos caravan (approx 15 guys) didn't park in the main lot is because we figured there would be more modified RX-8's that wanted to show.

Most of our cars were pretty nice but we just didn't think they were worth showing.

Don't really think the 2 p.m. was the problem.

XDEEDUBBX

same reason why i didn't want to park my ride inside..i don't even have my rims yet! haha nothing to show...gets kinda boring to see the same red rx8 over and over again..but maybe next year when my car is more complete...

agoodcave

Sunday, Oct 2, British car show in Fallbrook (I got a 69 Triumph GT6 too!)
Sat. Oct. 8, SS8 in Irvine
Sun. Coronado SpeedFestival

Helluva a past 9 days!

More vendors would have been nice, especially the "junkyard" dealers that deal only in Mazda parts. Don't know if that level exists as they do for british cars.

Looking to restore a gen1 (not trailer queen level) for my son. It was good to see some there and decide which kind I want.

Looking forward to next year.

Was it me, or were the "street rat" cars so ill-tuned, they only made you laugh (and shake your head in disgust.). Most of the ones I heard started missing at about 4K rpm, backfiring and smelled of unburned gas.

Mike

bern

There was still the whole front row in front of the 8s parked next to the stage... we only got one parked there.... on the red curb directly in front of all of these:



And no, there wasn't enough room in the main pakring lot for all the 8s that came, but we still had 10-15 more spots, but a lot of 8 owners chose not to stay. Btw, there also was not enough room in the main parking lot for all the RX-7s either...

But the street is still a HUGE part of the show!

-Bern