BVD

Hi all,

Anybody else found good local groups to take their RX to?

Here in WA there are not enough RX8s yet for a dedicated club, but I've discovered a few others that will suit.

One is called "All 4s and Rotaries" and who seem to have quite a performance and competition focus. I've been invited to go to a meeting in a week or two and check them out.

But the local MX5 club has also agreed to take on RX8 owners as affiliate members. The advantage of this is they they already have a well organised structure with social events, runs, charity support days, autokhanas, motorkhanas, rallies, competition teams etc.

E.G. In January they have a Driver Training day for members which sounds good. A morning practicing advanced driving and accident avoidance skills on wet and dry tarmac. Then another in the afternoon practicing driving Autokhana layouts. Very reasonable prices for members too. They also keep numbers small so that everyone gets plenty of instructor and driving time.

I went along to a meeting last night and met a very pleasant bunch of people who were very welcoming and tolerant of my weird rotary contraption. So I'll probably give both clubs a go, as they have quite a variety of activities.

BVD

Hey, slow down everyone... :p

I can tell by the mad rush of posts, excited chatter, off-topic banter, etc that this post has attracted since yesterday, that this is a red hot topic .

Has nobody joined a Club? Taken their car to one they already belonged to, or whatever? Is ++Dez's Night Drive invite the only attempt at an RX8 group outing that's around yet?

I've never been a club joiner before, but the benefits and fun to be had by taking the RX to various club occasions seem too good to pass up.

Disagree? Agree?

hostile

I'm sure all mazdas are welcome at seven of clubs www.sevenofclubs.com.au

BVD

Thanks hostile. Good link.

Here's some links to the WA ones I found. They give a bit of an idea of the variety of things on offer.

WA Sporting Car Club

WA MX5 Club

All fours & Rotaries

pepe

Yep, joined up with the local Rotary club here called REACT

Great bunch of guys, and a great place to go to have people drool all over your car

Dez

I wasn't really considering my Night Drives as a club per se, happy to form on if we do get regular folk taking part I guess, but hey, it's currently just a drive I do at night for fun as it stands, but who knows I guess!

I can just see the site URL now:

http://www.renDEZvous.com * grin *

Register it and die!

++dez;

ps: 0:40:3 seconds and counting !!

takahashi

Well A local RX 8 club will be perfect but we will never get enough number... how about getting a group of guys together with rotarys?

Take someone to organise.... I search the MX5 site and found the president named Bill Campbell ... it is not happen to be a Vascular Surgeon who is 6'5" and who is an ex-Wallaby vice captain???? I can't imagine that Bill can fit in the MX5!!! D

I will ask him when I see him in OR tomorrow

Dez

of course there's jc20b's efforts, and [ although blank now ] web page [ TBA ] at:

http://www.mazboys.tk/

++dez;

Dez

speaking of clubs.. [ well, you were! ].

if we get enough folk along for a few weeks regularly for the old Night Drives, I'll do my best to schedule, plan and co-ordinate with y'all a day drive in Jan 04 from say Newcastle ( D.G.W., jax8 .. ), Sydney ( pricer01, pappy, winning, msydd, dez, kev, tanaka, jc20b, thklam, dmrh, emack, Titanium RX-8 .. ) with a cruise through the country roads south to berima etc, then down to Canberra ( you know who you are! ) - eat and drink, then out to Harden, Young, back up to Sydney and yay!

Thoughts?

++dez;

Maestro

There is a big difference between a MX-5 Club and a Rotary Club.

Join a rotary club they will respect you and your car alot more.

From a RX-7 owner and RX-8 Dealer

pepe

This is very true... the local REACT guys here are great, it's always a good day out when I take my 8 out to play with their older cars

Dez

A bit of web-home-work and I've found the following AU clubs of interest:

Mazda MX5 Clubs in AU:
http://www.mx5.com.au/

Mazda Car Club of Queensland:
www.sevenofclubs.com.au/

Qld MX5 owners club:
http://www.miata.net.au/

Vic MX5 fan club:
http://home.mira.net/~redback/mx5/

MX6 Owners Club:
http://www.ocm.com.au/probe.html

Also found an all round "Australian Car Clubs" link:
http://www.speedywheels.com.au/car-clubs.htm

A hellish furball of links for Car Clubs of the world under:
CAR-CLUBS World Wide:
http://carclubs.com/carclubs.htm

CAMS have a hellish links page:
http://www.cams.com.au/Content.asp?PageID=Links


I have to say two things:

1) what a frigging ordinary show on the Mazda car clubs front!

and

2) where the hell is the RX8 AU car club!?


That does it - time to form one!

Anyone here ever formed a club per se - I'm on a mission now.. this is crap.. we've been talking for a life time if feels like and I feel like I've been asleep at the wheel for some reason.

Mazda will sponsor the bloody thing I'm sure - they sure will once I get off the phone with 'em tomorrow!

Who's up for forming a national exec commitee thing'y and then breaking out to state levels too!?

Turn your fog lights on to say "aye"! ( perhaps PM me too..

Christ knows how this will turn out, but ****, I don't think I can do worse than the current effort ( oh, there isn't one.. so I'm already ahead ).

... hmmm ...

after some web homework, and comparing notes with the MX5 club's web site [ club history ] - this isn't going to be a walk in the park..

but it's got to be done.

voulenteers PM me!

++dez;

Saru

Dez,

Check out www.ausrotary.com's General (Cars) section for the thread on "RENEW" - some Sydney guys are in the process of starting a club for all rotaries.

Ah - see here: http://ausrotary.dntinternet.com/for...er=asc&start=0

and here: http://users.bigpond.net.au/adamreid/renewmeeting.html

Thanks for the kind words, Pepe!

Maestro

I have a really good idea.

What don't you guys make a Aussie and NZ RX-8 Club ????

Solve ya problems !!!!

pepe

Not sure we'd get a great turn out to club meets that way... might be slightly expensive :D

Saru

FWIW, there are existing rotary clubs in NZ. I'd imagine you'd get a good reception if you showed up in an '8.

Dez

Car might run a little rough after the drive over there through - and seats might take days to dry out!

You know what a bitch it is to clean and dry leather.

Why doesn't a cow shrivel up and suck like my leather jacket then I wonder * grin *

++dez;

ps: I don't own a leather jacket ok - just jivin!

Dez

ANNOUNCEMENT !!

WE'RE STARTING A NATIONAL AND STATE LEVEL RX8 CAR CLUB !!

guys, I've found it very frustrating that although there are some very well managed clubs for rotaries or specific cars like the MX5 [ aka Miata in USA marketing speak ], I've really failed to found an RX8 club either for Federal level [ Australia ] or State level [ NSW or any other state frankly ].

I will admit that frankly I've never, in my 36 years of life, been one for clubs, but of late I've wanted to meet more RX8 owners and drivers and trade info, experiences, and the like, and outside of this forum, and to date having met one of you in person [ 'lo kev ] and having two friends [ taknaka for one ] who also own RX8's, I've seen more RX8's on the street than I've met drivers or owners!

So, I'm looking for expressions of interest here an now, to have a meeting to form an official RX8 club that will both form the foundation of a national RX8 club, with local chapters to be formed from the national structure, so that we have one country wide club, with local chapters run in their own right supporting local members fully.

I'm interested in expressions of interest for both the national roles as well as the state roles, as I have some names I'd like to see step up the mark, but running a club isn't something to take on lightly so if you're into it, please make sure you're willing to invest the time and effort to see it through - but then again nothing tried, nothing gained so don't be afraid to try and fail, be afraid of not trying at all ok.

I'm planning to incorporate an official national association, I'll fund the initial setup but I'm going to ask new members to ante up a basic share to cover the running costs and from any funds we do raise, we'll prepare a web site, news letter, the relevant legal and financial supporting infrastructure etc. and seek support from not just Mazda AU and JP, but from other vendors of RX8 kit, parts etc. without becoming beholden to any third part et al.

If you're wondering about the roles etc, let me know and I'll email you the PDF that outlines what I'm about to undertake.

I'm really hoping that you guys will get behind what this hopefully will do for us, because I really want to see it succeed and be atleast as successful as our dear cousins in the MX5 club(s) from whom I'll certainly be seeking advice and support if possible.

Cheers,

++dez;

Saru

Interesting... Having just started a club (REACT only officially became a club on 4 August this year) I have some questions.

You're certainly keen, Dez. Why are you so keen on a single model car club (ala MX-5) when there are already Rotary clubs in some states and Rotary clubs are being formed (as we speak) in others?

Wouldn't it be less paperwork to just join of the existing rotary clubs and encourage them to attract other '8 owners?

What would the relationship be (if any) between the proposed '8 club and the existing rotary clubs?

Ben

pepe

Dez

Good luck, I hope you can stitch it together, but my word of caution would be that if you're trying to form a massively distributed club, apart from a few small local get togethers, you're probably going to spend most of the time congregating online to discuss things/issues/rants... kinda rings a bell

But hey, if it gets off the ground, I could be keen

BVD

Good on yer Dez, and good luck with the venture.

I don't think that there would be much interest in WA just yet, simply because of the lower numbers here, and the sheer distance involved in trying to participate in any across states stuff.

I haven't yet come across any other RX8 owners here involved in any of the clubs I've contacted, so I imagine that it will take a while for there to be enough sold to throw up a group of club minded people over here. Maybe by mid to late next year.

Maestro

Our car club the FD Kai (FD Kai we had this coversation a while ago reguarding RX-8 owners wanting to join us.

We said we would be more than happy for FE owners to join us as the RX-8 owner is more FD RX-7 than say the old school owners.

The out come was simple run the combined until...

A) Conflicting interests, then the RX-8 owners can move on to start there own club with database etc. and just run events together etc.

B)Owner base become big enough to start a FE only club as the FD Kai is run.

Hope this help you guys.

P.S. Our club is International with members from NZ, UK, Aust, USA and Japan

Based in NZ though.

Dez

hey guys,

thanks for the feedback and thoughts - yea - I know that I'm probably crazy.. time will tell..

as for the fact that there are other mazda, and car clubs out there, indeed there are, and I don't have any weird or strange need to form a niche club per se, I didn't get beaten as a child [ well I did but thats besides the point ] or such, I just think that with the focus on the rx8 in particular, we might be able to do good things for owners.

I'm going to approach almost every other car club I can find for help, advice, and with an open invitation to form aliances and such so that we can do things like bulk lobying, and all that jazz.

the idea I have is to setup a really simple model, make it easy for others to get on board and run local "chapters" as it were, and with a single goal in mind - benefit the car owners, in particular, rx8 drivers, with a bent towards actually meeting up, getting to share ideas and such and learn more about the darn cars we dirve every day!

easy huh?

I'm sorry if this seems to be hijaking the thread, but I've created a specific thread for the formation of the club at at:

https://www.rx8club.com/australia-new-zealand-forum-37/formation-national-rx8-club-15938/

Cheers,

Dez

Maestro

My advise it to exactly like you said keep it simple.

Open a e-group at yahoo and base the club around that.

Simple effective and do part swap and stuff through there thats what we are based through communication wise.

Saru

Me again

Why is it frustrating? What would an RX-8-specific club offer that a rotary specific club not offer?

From my PoV as an earlier rotary owner [0], and I've only had my car for 3 years, many of the rotary specific things that you all talk about on here (oil, fuel economy, lack of support from Mazda, warming up & down, flooding, I could go on) are existing issues with rotaries in general.

Re bulk lobbying - I'm pretty sure there are Councils of Car Clubs [1] in each state (seeing as there is a national council, I'm assuming there are state bodies) that are for exactly that purpose.

If you've got any questions about how REACT did things, just email me, Dez: ben.kraal@ise.canberra.edu.au

[0] 1982 series 2 RX-7. significantly *unmodified*
[1] In the ACT the body is called the Council of ACT Motor Clubs.