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

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..............

:lmao::lmao:

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 !

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.

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.

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.:thumbsup:

floridaZ said:

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.:

Click to expand...

:iagree:

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. :shrug01: 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. :thumbsup:

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

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

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.

Did the Club thing in the late 70s early 80s :crazy03:arty: Today's Clubs are just not for me:nonod: Rather do my own thing with my Buds:thumbsup:

road pilot said:

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..............

Click to expand...

Yep. I have. But not since I have been with the Tampa Bay Posse. This is the only so called club that I belong to now but we are a very loose group with no dues, president or meetings. We have a great group of people. We just get together to ride out.

The Posse embodies one word-Diversity.

Some of us like myself do our own work but others are just as knowledgeable about Vettes and other muscle cars and have experiences with them. And um, oh yea, we drive damn hard too.

Stu (Stuzvette) from over in your area is joining up with us and may make a ride to Perry, FL for a parade there we are in October 24th. If you are interested shoot me a PM with your number and we can talk.

As far as trying to educate Vette club members, ha good luck on that. Been there done that, in my opinion most of these so called club members are 1) sadly misinformed and 2) believe every thing they read on the internet. I find it better to let people believe what they want to believe and keep quiet. Less headaches that way.

Good luck finding what you are after.

Brad@TheCorvetteShow said:

The Posse embodies one word-Diversity.

Stu (Stuzvette) from over in your area is joining up with us and may make a ride to Perry, FL for a parade there we are in October 24th. If you are interested shoot me a PM with your number and we can talk.

Click to expand...

Hey.... Im still planning to join up with the Posse...:thumbsup:

I need to verify your cell phone though...
...so I can record it properly THIS TIME :banghead: and make certain I can rendezvous for the ride up...

peace
Stu

The Posse is a good group of guys and gals:thumbsup:

They definately ride hard (might want to watch that with all the revenue enforcement going on now).

I did have the good fortune and honor and good pleasure of meeting several of the members and getting to know a couple of them fairly well. As I said, great people.

Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to ride with them when I had my vette. With my next one, you can count on it!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

As for clubs, I think I may stay away for a while and see where the future take them.

I fell for you bud I am feeling the same way. I have owned several corvettes and tried the central florida club scene. You meet once a month talk about someones husband or wife or what resturant just opened or closed. But when you ask for help or advice you are told of a shop that can do the work. No one wants to help me resolve the problem. I understand times have changed but there are still plenty of things we still can do together. I used to belong to a club that met at a fellow members gas station (now a quick mart) we used to shoot the bull and if there was a problem all of us would put the car on the lift and we would try to fix it or enhance your car. We would meet on weekends to help other members out. Now if you ask someone to help, you get that are you kidding look, oh I've got dinner plans and can't make it look. I've just given up and do my own thing. Go a few shows but usally do my own thing in my own garage (no lift just jacks). I now own two vettes a 66 and a 04 and still looking for a good group of guys who would just like to get together and shoot the bull (maybe drink a few beers) and if needed we all need we would pitch in and help.

als2052 said:

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

Click to expand...

Zs and Mustangs do have in common, if nothing else, one important quality. They are cheaper than a Vette. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to insure (unless you are me), and cheaper to modify. There's some weird mental block that makes people who spent a lot of money on their car to want to avoid pushing it's limits, or modding the piss out of it. :hehehe:

Fortunately, as I am also a Z guy, I don't suffer from that mental block. My psychiatrist called them "sensibilities". More contagious than swine flu in a slaughter house, apparently. Anyway, to the point... I do not see the computers as a limiting factor, only as a new skill to be conquered.:thumbsup: Tuning an ECU is no harder than tuning a carburetor, put somebody who doesn't know what they are doing to work adjusting the A:F, and they can still lean it out and blow it up. If you don't know what the knobs do... you get what I am saying.

There are many extremely complicated tuning programs out there. There are just as many simple, yet capable ones as well. If you can't tune a single carb, don't go out and buy a triple Webber setup. Also, you car has pretuned aftermarket chips (again, unless you are me) that are both affordable and capable enough for most applications anyway.

So the computers aren't to blame. But gearheads have been disappearing from the face of the Earth, and I think I know why. Back in your heyday road pilot, manual labor was respected. You work hard and people respected you. Now... with so many people going to college, college has almost become a prerequisite for that same respect. So we are kind of biased against doing work. Everyone wants to be successful, and getting sweaty/dirty/greasy is seen as "beneath" a lot of people. You are poor unless you can pay somebody to do the work for you, so why learn how to? Couple that with cars that have less room in the engine bay, skillsets that are more difficult to learn, and more complicated designs... The moderately obsessed and hardcore types of gearheads are all that are left. The other types traded in their sports car for an Escalade and are going through the drive through at McDonald's.:thumbsdown:

Some people just aren't wired the same way. So find a group of gearheads to hang with, there's sure to be a few Vetters in the mix.:thumbsup:

I am fighting with something similar. I am a member of a club, but I just don't know if I want to continue with them. I would love to find a group that likes to do more with there Vette than go to a restaurant or plop you butt down at a car show all day.

I am still new to the Vette (had mine about a year now) and with a wife and 2 young kids, my funds are usually limited as well as my time. But I would love to do some autocross, drags, cruzin, tinkering, etc...

Hmmm... maybe some people here should start something up. Anyone interested?

I agree...we need to start out own thing....

We go to track events often and we do car shows and such.

But Chris LOVES to go to the track and let it all out...its a stress reliever more than anything...

I think a lot of people are in the same boat with not having enough time and money:shrug01:

VetteJedi said:

I am fighting with something similar. I am a member of a club, but I just don't know if I want to continue with them. I would love to find a group that likes to do more with there Vette than go to a restaurant or plop you butt down at a car show all day.

I am still new to the Vette (had mine about a year now) and with a wife and 2 young kids, my funds are usually limited as well as my time. But I would love to do some autocross, drags, cruzin, tinkering, etc...

Hmmm... maybe some people here should start something up. Anyone interested?

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in joining up to some gearheads

I guess it's all in what you want?

For the record, I/we've tried

Although this began as a website, the forum has transformed itself into an "un-official" club of sorts. No dues, officers or BS, just vette people hanging out, doing what it is that vette people do best

Come to any get together and you'll find good food, drinks, and most of all, a family friendly atmosphere, conducive to making new "vette related" friends.

You'll see the gamut from gearheaded hi-performance, to trailer/garage queens, and the beater daily driver:thumbsup: As well as all those in between.

Thor has organized more than one cruise in the beautiful Manatee County area, usually culminating at a local beach bar and grill.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

There was the cruise to St. Augustine that is being repeated again this year as well.

I know Curacao and some others have tried to initiate cruises, usually ending up at a local performance shop for dynos or ???

And of course there's the shows and charity fundraisers (which I like for the giving back aspect of them).

There have been DYNO days put on by various supporters and members here, autocrosses, etc...

I've asked on many occasions that when we register for shows/autocrosses, track days, etc, that we include the Corvette Florida web site as our "club" affiliation. I've done that while a member of Tampa Bay vettes. I'd list both as my affiliations. If I wasn't "allowed", then I chose the site:thumbsup:

The reason?

To spread the word about the site, get more traffic through here which would (hopefully) result in a much better turn out at these events:thumbsup:

But it seems we can't get past the kingdoms, and as such

Everybody's stll worried about membership numbers and forget the big picture...

Clubs can be great!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Or, if improperly or too heavy handedly run, can be:thumbsdown:

When/if I ever get another vette, I'll probably run alone, choosing instead to align myself with informal groups like the posse and this forum for my for solidarity:thumbsup:

Yeah, I think all you need to do is to look at the club forums section I set up here for FREE and offered to every Corvette club I could find in Florida. You can see how well it has been received and even those clubs that took me up on it, how much their forums are being frequented to even try interfacing with the rest of the world.

Hey, I've tried to pull things together for ALL of us with this site, but it is falling on deaf ears. Clubs shouldn't be limited to a central clique of founding members and treating everyone else like outsiders, but it does happen. Then they put on functions and scratch their head about why they don't get more participation. Well, hell, Corvette owners will drive hundreds of miles if you give them a good enough reason to do so. And generally all that reason needs to be is to make them feel welcomed and appreciated. Give them the feeling they are travelling across state to visit with friends or family.

Hell, go to most shows these days and watch how the demographics work. Everyone from particular clubs not only park together, but none of them will generally congregate with anyone other than their own local club members. Rarely will you see the folks with the yellow or red "gang" shirts mingling with the ones with the green shirts. When Connie and I would go to the shows, we didn't have the matching shirts so we would generally be ignored completely. So we just stopped doing most of them. Why bother? When we would go to the local club cruise ins, unless we tackled someone physically, most wouldn't utter two words to us the entire time.

So really, if that is most folks' idea of how to run a Corvette Club, then count us out. I will just abandon any effort here to pull the clubs together and give them all a common ground to cross fertilize members and ideas. They can just stay on their little islands with their own natives and we'll motor around them in our own travels.