New to Ann Arbor
 

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself, hopefully find out some information, and make a few new friends.

I'm going to be moving into the Ann Arbor area at the end of Jan 2014 for a job assignment that is going to place me in the area for either 1 or 2 years. I’ll be moving from Salt Lake City, UT.

A few things that I was wondering:

What is the car scene like in Ann Arbor? I’m guessing that it’s pretty big since its Michigan.

Are there any performance shops in Ann Arbor? If not, how close are nearest ones? Do any of them have 2WD or AWD dynos?

Who are the local people who are “in the scene”? Parts guys, tuners, good mechanics, etc

Are there any track, rally or auto-x events locally? I’m a member of NASA in Utah and have regularly driven at Miller Motorsports Park. Don’t expect any competition, I’m not very fast at the track, but still have a good time out there.

Are there any local car meets in the Ann Arbor area?

What does everyone around here do for fun?

Where is a good place to move to in Ann Arbor?

What other information should I know?

Just to give you some information about myself. I’m an avid automotive enthusiast. I’ve had a 2006 Mitsubishi Evo IX, 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X, 1987 BMW 325is, and a few other boring cars. I currently have a 1986 Toyota Corolla (AE86), 2008 Subaru STi, and a 2013 Scion FR-S.

Thanks in advance,

George

Welcome! I haven't been involved with the local 86 group as much but plan to be more this year. However, I have been living in Ann Arbor for the past 7 yrs and had a 350Z before the FRS so I can help answer some of your questions:


1) Car scene in Ann Arbor is honestly pretty dull. There used to be a group that would meet at a local Wendy's parking lot every weekend or so, but even that became the same thing every time. The local car forum is http://www.xceedspeed.com/forums/forum.php but there are some pretty immature people there so I don't post much. Southeast Michigan car scene is "ok" I guess, depends on what you're looking for. Woodward is always packed every weekend but with a lot of douchebaggery.
2) I honestly wouldn't trust any performance shops around here. I drove 6 hrs down to Kentucky to get my Z tuned. Oakos is about an hour drive away and they give locals a good deal on parts.
3) Once the racing season starts around April, it gets REALLY busy all the way till October. Whether you're into road racing/HPDE's: NASA (Great Lakes and Midwest Region), 3 balls racing, SCCA or autox Detroit Region SCCA. There's pretty much an event every or every other weekend. We try to cram as much racing into the snow-less weather as much as we can haha. One cool thing about AA is that there a bunch of good road courses within a 4 hr drive in all different directions (including the famous Mid-Ohio)
5) Ann Arbor is a good place to live. It's got good restaurants and things to do.


Let me know if you have any questions (including where to live if you're looking for a place). Also what job will you have out here?

Thanks for the reply Aznsky.

I’m moving out here to be a guest engineer working at Toyota.

I’m just curious about what performance shops are around. Not necessarily to get work done by them, but just to talk to them. I just have been having a hard time finding any of them.

What shop did you get your Z tuned at when you had it?

I’m excited for the racing season. In Utah, we only on average 1 track event a month and 2 Auto-x events. I really haven’t done much Auto-x, but I thinking I’m going to try. I looked up the 3-ball racing, and that looks interesting. How busy are those events?

I’ve looked at a few places to live. I’ve been here since Wednesday am leave on Thursday, so I’ve been looking around. If you have suggestions, it would be much appreciated.

Autocross:
Detroit SCCA: http://detroit-scca.org/e107/news.php
NWOR SCCA is fairly close as well: http://nworscca.com
Detroit Council of Sports Car Clubs: http://dcscc.blogspot.com

Council events are much more laid back and less time consuming than SCCA.

Local Tracks:
http://www.gingermanraceway.com
http://www.grattanraceway.com
http://www.waterfordhills.com

Like Aznsky said, if you are wiling to travel about 2 hours or so for an event, you should be able to find an autocross or a track day basically every weekend of the summer.

I am not aware of really any major shops left in the area aside from Oakos out here in Sterling Heights, they are a parts vendor/installer/service shop http://www.oakos.com... You'd think the "motor city" would have more, those that I know mainly only deal with domestic market vehicles and classics. With that said I'm not too up to date on any of it, I do my own work and haven't had a vehicle that has needed tuning in quite some time. People I know who are looking for tuning work typically go down to Toledo, Ohio to Pure Tuning http://www.pure-tuning.com or to Accelerated Performance http://www.acceleratedperformance.com. Livernois Motorsports has an awd dyno.

Welcome to the area! You said Toyota, I assume you mean ttc? York or 1555? I work in the chassis department at York, perhaps I'll see you around.

There's a ton of frs owners at work, and many people do drives, auto cross, track days, etc together. There's also now car meets Tuesday nights at a local dealership. The car scene isn't huge...but you won't be far from Woodward. Welcome to the area and pm me if you have any questions!

Sccabrz192, thanks for the heads up. Do you do any auto-x racing? Are the Detroit Council of Sports Car Clubs just Auto-X?

You are right. I'm working at TTC (York) as a guest engineer. Hopefully I run into you at TTC. I was getting worried that I wasn't going to run into anyone at TTC who was interested into cars.

I'll send you a PM with some additional information.

New to Ann Arbor
 

DCSCC is just a group of many smaller owners clubs, such as corvette club, alpha club, BMW club, etc... DCSCC itself runs an autocross points series from events hosted by the individual clubs. I'm quite sure ECG of the individual clubs also do events like track days, but they may be more closed member only than the autocrosses, I'm not sure.

I don't run DCSCC events personally, but I know a fair number of people tend to prefer them.

I run most events with NWOR SCCA in the Toledo area, then run some events with Detroit Region at the Pontiac Silverdome and occasionally in Oscoda.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Look up A2 Car Enthusiasts on Facebook. Nice group of people that meet every Tuesday. I used to go every week.

Welcome to the area.
I'll add a few things:
DCSCC is more laid back, like Sccabrz192 said. What that means that they start later in the day, their tech inspection is open longer, sometimes they have paid corner workers (so you have to work less). The flip side - is they are more sloppy and inefficient. I'd say they are a good place to start try autox and see if you like the concept. Beyond that - they are good for coming to hang out with your buddies and do some runs.
SCCA evens are more structured, start earlier, have more people, you'd work more, but the competition is tighter. Still plenty of time to chat with your friends, but somewhat less. DCSCC events are typically a lot closer to AA.

On living in AA: depending on your personal sensitivity to noise you might want to rent/buy far away for train tracks that go through AA north-south (look at the line that goes near TTC and track it). If you aren't sensitive to loud train horns around 2-3am every day, you might find living near the tracks quite nice and affordable ;)

In terms of actual locations, depends on whether you want to be able to go to downtown AA often. Traffic in AA can be pretty bad, although you'd be mostly driving against it.

I plan on getting back to autox this season and also planning on doing a few track days, so I guess we'll run into each other.

Oh, so that's what replaced a2sportcompacts forum. How old is the crowd?

lots of asians in wife beaters at most of the parties in AA. That aside...the car scene is decent.