Corvette clubs........oh boy........

[road pilot]

I am a old geezer. I have been around cars all my life. I have always
had fast cars, I have raced them, shown them, and always enjoyed them.
The truth is there are alot of cool cars out in the world, corvettes are
just one of the many cool cars to be enjoyed.
Well some where along the line I decided to join a Corvette Club. I
thought that the club would have alot of gear heads just like me. In
the early 70's I belong to a corvette club and it was great --a whole
bunch of gear heads. My illusion of corvette clubs was shattered.
The folks and mostly old folks that are members of my present club
are interested in eating and driving----mostly eating.
They know nothing of the automotive history and other cars much less
vettes. Mechanic's? They can drive and that's it. Speed and how you
get there, I get blank looks. They kind of know what a stock vette is
their own but I get stares if I talk about anything other than a C-6.
So here is my problem.
Should I just give up on these non-gear heads, or try to educate
them??
So far within the club they are not gearheads so we talk about the
stock market or politics. There are alot of gearheads that are informed.
The only folks that I can talk to are outside the club, and I know they
don't want to start a club.
Have other forum members experienced this?
One other thing I have noticed that the youngsters are more interested
in computers than cars. OK, there are acceptions but in my neck of
the woods there are not many kids with cool cars.
Thanks for helping me---- Corvette Clubs ....................oh boy..............

[MRS. XTREME]

that is too funny....

Yea I can understand where you come from on this. I have heard this conversation more than once ...

There are a lot of garage queens out there, and a lot of people who have the "POWER" but they have it just to say they have it ,they never use it....

the world has def changed.....gearheads are few and far...

Sucks the other guys dont want to start a club...maybe you can join another club that isnt specifically for Corvettes but all kinds of hot rods who do like to talk "power" and engines and such....

good luck I know it must suck !

[Z06 Rocket]

The problem is that you can't just pull the cars now a days into a garage and tinker with them. They require so many different COMPUTER functions that being a gear head and fiddling with your car has been a dying skill. If you want to tinker then the thing to do is buy an older car and fix it up but most people don't have the time, money, or patience to do that.

[Ms. AntiVenom]

To me a car club is Friday @ the shop when my Grandfather, Steve, Chris, Casey..ect and Greg are swapping race stories, and laughing their butts off.

[floridaZ]

Best advice that new school can give old school is to try to educate them, and then move on. I doubt that you will be able to transform the group into a bunch of gearheads. Even if you did, they probably wouldn't want to change the club's goal that much.

By trying to educate them, some stuff is sure to stick and maybe one or two of them will move towards becoming gearheads. If so, though you may not belong to a Corvette Club per se, but you would have some Vette buddies to talk to occasionally.

[Mannings]

Originally Posted by floridaZ

Best advice that new school can give old school is to try to educate them, and then move on. I doubt that you will be able to transform the group into a bunch of gearheads. Even if you did, they probably wouldn't want to change the club's goal that much.:

I believe being a gearhead is a God given trait. 5 gearheads in Venice, including myself, started a club a few years ago. We went to the races, talked Hot Rods, enjoyed an occasional Chilli Dog and just generally had a ball. Well today the club is probably pushing 200 members sitting in parking lots with a polish rag, driving in packs to amusement parks and heading out for $100 meals. I pay my dues, just because, but haven't attended in 4 years.

If I need a GEARHEAD fix I head up to see Tracy and his gang at RevXreme and hang out for an hour or so. Great therapy after a week at the office.

[als2052]

I am not a gearhead but I feel your pain...shopping, eating, cookouts and parades are not for me either...I doubt that I will be part of another "Corvette Club" anytime in the future.

Not to beat this horse to death,but is seems that most of your gearheads belong to Mustang and Z clubs...just my opinion

[Rich427]

Road Pilot,

I guess I missed what king of Vette you have, but I am assuming it is a vintage Vette or you have a newer Vette and have automotive computer skills that most people don't have.

I don't agree with the comment that most of the gear heads belong to Mustang or Z clubs. The newer Mustangs and Zs are just as computer sophisticated as a newer Vette, which makes them just as difficult to truly work on them in your garage. As said previously, this is becoming a dieing art.

I have an appreciation for both the vintage and the newer Vettes, which is the reason that I own both. But to be honest, I am getting to the age that I no longer enjoy laying on the floor of my garage and bench pressing the 4 speed back into my '69. I still enjoy tinkering under the hood, but the big mechanical projects are behind me, ...I think, ...I guess you never say never!

As far as clubs are concerned, it sounds like the current one is not right for you. The personalities are very different from club to club. Personally, I am sick of waxing and shows. I am showed out! I only do a couple a year to help my local club. I do enjoy a little track time, but more with my '04 Z16 than my '69 big block. I try to pick club events that both my wife and I enjoy. That maybe a cruise to a restaurant, an autocross, an occasional HPDE, a weekend cruise to party in the Keys, St. Augustine, or wherever, etc. I think if a club only concentrates on one type of event, it will quickly weed out the people that do not like those events.

If you are interested in clubs that have gear heads, I would recommend looking for a club in your area that is primarily a street rod, muscle car type of club. Most of these guys are building older cars and have the same gear head personality that I think might be what you are looking for. I would not let one club spoil the enjoyment that you can get from a club that has similar interest as yours.

Good luck finding another club!

Rich

[Rich Z]

Well, actually I think working on Corvettes has become a two-pronged effort these days. The mechanical labor is done by "wrenchers" and the electronic/computer level stuff done by "tuners". Most will try to do both, but some will specialize in one or the other. Generally it's a two step process anyway, with all the wrenching being done before the tuning step can begin.

I got most of the "wrenching" out of my system many years ago but still like to tinker with the minor stuff. I've to the tools necessary for the tuning stuff, but there is really a stiff learning curve involved where some errors can cost you your engine because of a mistake in logic on your part. Those programs (HPtuners and EFIlive) won't try to handhold you with multiple levels of "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THAT?" If you want to destroy your engine, then they will certainly allow you do that. Of course, higher level wrenching has it's own pitfalls as well, such as forgetting to torque the crankshaft main bolts or something silly like that. But errors are EASY in tuning that have drastic results.

So the problem is that computer tuning is just not something that many people want to tackle with their new cars. When tuning used to be done with a set of wrenches, screw drivers, and feeler gauges it was just fun to do. And since computer tuning is pretty much the only game in town for the new vehicles, gearheads just haven't had much interest in making the leap to "tunerheads". Because, let's face it, if you do anything even moderately related to performance, with you are going to have to learn to do the tuning part, or get someone else to do it for you. Which, honestly, is probably a big drawback for a lot of folks.

So yeah, unless you are working on the older vehicles, or are willing to toss your new car and extended warranty into the trashcan, you are probably pretty much leaving things well enough alone with your car.

So realistically, based on the average demographics of a typical Corvette club, yes, you are going to run into mostly a "shine and show" crowd. They will be able to talk your ear off about the best polish to use or what works best for removing lovebugs, but when you get into what size primaries are best for your headers, or asking if you should change out the first gear ratio to go taller if you go to a 410 differential, well, you'll probably just get blank stares most of the time.

[9T8Vette]

Did the Club thing in the late 70s early 80s Today's Clubs are just not for me Rather do my own thing with my Buds