North American FR-S/BRZ Owners Club

[bambbrose]

How do we start this?

I'm thinking something similar to ITRCA.

Not a website, but a group.

-Once a year national meets at a racetrack
-Direct ties with the manufacturers for discounts on OEM maintenance parts, etc.
-Owners registry

-Hopefully eventually leading to an SCCA/NASA sanctioned auto group in time (thinking Spec Miata here)


How does this stuff start off? Who takes the first step?

[Guff]

This is kinda the direction I wanted to go with the TX2K thing for FT86Club, but like you, I wouldn't know where to start...


Probably starts from deep in the wallet....

[Longhorn248]

I'll step up and be social coordinator. We can have the first meet in Flower Mound. I hear there's a guy that will let us play around in his Supras.

[Dave-ROR]

Well I'm one of the guys who runs ITRCA and ITRExpo so I'll help with parts of it.

We certainly lose money (we have no interest in profit, rather it's a support group for those of us who enjoy the car lol) but it's not like we lose a lot. We lose our web hosting expenses and legal expenses, but that's about it. The ITR Expo basically breaks even (by design).

This year the event is likely to be at Mid Ohio in August, I'll probably drive the BRZ instead of the ITR (going to Cedar Point and other stops afterwards, BRZ = no theft concerns/worries) in case anyone wants to come out for a fun track event

[bambbrose]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Well I'm one of the guys who runs ITRCA and ITRExpo so I'll help with parts of it.

We certainly lose money (we have no interest in profit, rather it's a support group for those of us who enjoy the car lol) but it's not like we lose a lot. We lose our web hosting expenses and legal expenses, but that's about it. The ITR Expo basically breaks even (by design).

This year the event is likely to be at Mid Ohio in August, I'll probably drive the BRZ instead of the ITR (going to Cedar Point and other stops afterwards, BRZ = no theft concerns/worries) in case anyone wants to come out for a fun track event

If I own one at the time I'll be there as well. It may be a great place to organize the first event, and get the real followers out there and see who really puts in the time to come to such an event.

Maybe we can work with the ITRExpo guys and see how it was formed at the early stages in the late ninties. I would certainly want to avoid stepping on any toes or overlapping such a great community.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by bambbrose

If I own one at the time I'll be there as well. It may be a great place to organize the first event, and get the real followers out there and see who really puts in the time to come to such an event.

Maybe we can work with the ITRExpo guys and see how it was formed at the early stages in the late ninties. I would certainly want to avoid stepping on any toes or overlapping such a great community.

You won't step on any toes. Half of us are involved with other events anyways. There have been at least 2 events that I know of that have used us as a base for how they run their events.

Expo was initially formed kind of as a joke on NSXpo and it lost a huge amount of money (5 figures). After that it was moved from the West Coast and has done well since. I've been involved since 2003 (which was probably the biggest year, Mugen brought some cars out and flew staff from Japan to the event, we had about $23,000 in raffle prices for the banquet, the largest overall turnout, etc).

The one thing I will say is not to bother with the West Coast. We've tried to bring Expo out there many times and it never gets supported. 50% of the registrants will be from the east coast of the US. I'd love to see a successful car specific track event out there as I'd love to drive across the country, track the car for a few days, then take a nice drive up the PCH and back through the mountains, etc. I have no qualms about doing a 7,000 mile road trip.

That is assuming you intend to have a track event. If you plan on a car show, the WC should easily support that. Different cultures in my experience.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Well I'm one of the guys who runs ITRCA and ITRExpo so I'll help with parts of it.

We certainly lose money (we have no interest in profit, rather it's a support group for those of us who enjoy the car lol) but it's not like we lose a lot. We lose our web hosting expenses and legal expenses, but that's about it. The ITR Expo basically breaks even (by design).

This year the event is likely to be at Mid Ohio in August, I'll probably drive the BRZ instead of the ITR (going to Cedar Point and other stops afterwards, BRZ = no theft concerns/worries) in case anyone wants to come out for a fun track event

I wanna come play! Mid-Ohio is only about 2.5 hrs from me, and It's a great track, I did a track day there once.

[Zaku]

Sounds pretty awesome, let me know if I can help in any way I've always wanted to be part of something like this... something BIG and fun and Auto related!

[merlin2111]

I am also very interested in this. I would love to have a support group to enable my addiction. Gotta love 12 step programs where all the steps are in the wrong direction.

[bambbrose]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

You won't step on any toes. Half of us are involved with other events anyways. There have been at least 2 events that I know of that have used us as a base for how they run their events.

Expo was initially formed kind of as a joke on NSXpo and it lost a huge amount of money (5 figures). After that it was moved from the West Coast and has done well since. I've been involved since 2003 (which was probably the biggest year, Mugen brought some cars out and flew staff from Japan to the event, we had about $23,000 in raffle prices for the banquet, the largest overall turnout, etc).

The one thing I will say is not to bother with the West Coast. We've tried to bring Expo out there many times and it never gets supported. 50% of the registrants will be from the east coast of the US. I'd love to see a successful car specific track event out there as I'd love to drive across the country, track the car for a few days, then take a nice drive up the PCH and back through the mountains, etc. I have no qualms about doing a 7,000 mile road trip.

That is assuming you intend to have a track event. If you plan on a car show, the WC should easily support that. Different cultures in my experience.

Thanks for the great info Dave!

Do you know if ITRCA is a legal non-profit entity? How do you garner that professional image enough to present yourself to manufactures, etc for sponsorship.

What are the going rates for a weekend at the track dedicated to your group specifically?

We can call it "NABFOC" Seriously though, this damn dual manufacturer thing is annoying.

[Bob]

^^^ I agree, we should just start referring to the BRZ/FR-S as the AS1.

[Zaku]

I thought it was ZC6 and ZN6? o.o

[Guff]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

I'll step up and be social coordinator. We can have the first meet in Flower Mound. I hear there's a guy that will let us play around in his Supras.

Really?!?!?



I would love to meet him!

[Guff]

Originally Posted by Zaku

I thought it was ZC6 and ZN6? o.o

And yeah, it is. Apparently AS1 was not official... T__T


We can call it ZN6ZC6FT86BRZFRSOC!



Edit: I just realized that if we kept AS1, we could call it NAAS1OC. That'll get the Nasioc guys pissed!!