CAR CLUBS and the FUTURE

BIGRR

BIGRR

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Fellow Frogger
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North Rocks, Sydney
I don't know what car clubs are going to do, they are dying! Full of old grey headed people (Me included) they need some new blood. BUT HOW?

We should start a survey here on what thoughts are on how to improve the situation and attract new blood.

I have found that most of the better performing clubs carry out a fair amount of club level/type motorsport, however even these clubs appear to be faltering. I attended round 6 of the NSW State Motorkhana series last Sunday week. Run by the Mini car club (One of the better performing clubs that I know (Yes I am also a member of this club as well as Peugeot). The event only attracted 19 starters (13 entrants from the Mini club), in years gone by we would have had 35 to 40 starters at least.

I bet if you could text as you competed in a motorkhana test we would get more starters! :wink2:

Most clubs these days are doing a lot of multi-day drives around in the bush and weekday events. This is good but how can the young people compete?

Anyone want to comment (With constructive criticism) on how to attract new blood and improve our car club's futures? Or is it too late????
 
It is too late.
Many young people do not even have a car licence these days
Bike, the pedal variety, is the in thing for Gen Y.
The sports are now Mountain Bike Racing, CYCLOCROSS and the old velodromes are being revived.
Try and get an entry, the events are swamped.

Young people do no car repairs so why would you wreck your only vehicle on motorkhana

Motorkhana is dead, go and get a bike and ride down Beach Rd in Melb where the Grey Set cycle now
 
Not sure what the answer is, but my observations is that many young people today don't place the same importance on getting a drivers licence as my generation did. All my mates got their licences asap after turning 17. Watching my daughters friends (both male and female) as well as other young people I have some contact with, there does not seem to be the same urgency to get the licence as there was in my day. Some are well in their 20's with no apparent rush to get a licence. I assume that is a result of a shift in attitudes. When the young generation get their cars, I don't see them going for drives for drivings sake like we used to. I realise that increased requirements to get licences (& increase in one parent families make getting the hours difficult due to time/money) can have an impact as can cost of fuel, but I don't think that is the full story. I cant say I understand why the change in apparent attitudes, but understanding the basis for that change may be helpful.

Could older drivers volunteering to help young people get their hours up, building a relationship with them during the process and introducing them to cars/knowledge/club events be an avenue to start building the interest in the younger generation??
 
Back in the 60's and 70's, all the current grey headed old farts were in their late teens to mid twenties and apart from the movies, tenpin bowls, grog and sex there was not a lot else to do other than cars. So they did cars. Enthusiastically.

Nowadays the competition for a young person's attention is enormous, and with the late development of drivers it's not surprising that the intense love for the automobile that was around, like long hair back in the day, has diminished somewhat.
 
Don't think it's just car clubs.

ANY organisation/society/club/CWA/Masons etc etc is having exactly the same problems. The causes:


  • Social media
  • Bucket lists
  • Too much other stuff to do - internet, web TV
  • Don't want to belong
  • Did that once or twice - time to move on
  • Disposable society attitude
  • People waiting until they are 35+ to have kids - therefore losing the community of belonging to something
  • Emphasis on owning a McMansion leaving no interest for anything else
  • No one cares about "vintage" unless you can wrap "steampunk" around it - try selling a piece of antique or retro furniture

To bring it down to car club level:

  • People being twats about the age and "classicness" of a car. Should be "it's our brand, it's new, but welcome anyway"
  • Period or model specific car clubs
  • LACK of engagement in social media
  • Club hierarchies who strongly resist change - "that won't work", "we tried that once in 1974 and only two people showed up (on a wet, mid week winter's night, in a muddy paddock near Penrith)
  • Turning clubs into lunch and coffee groups - DRIVE the bloody cars people
  • People afraid to drive in current traffic
 
As a young person that loves cars, Motorsport and tinkering, it baffles me why there is not more young involvement.
I'm short of time due to work, family and other hobbies, but the PCCV has so much going on that even the few things i get time for make it well worth my while.

My take on the issue is this, Un-official online based car "clubs", these are rife, they are merely chat-room circle-jerks and keyboard battles, no events, organisation or benefit really...

So I think a key would to get into the spheres of young car enthusiasts and let them know how much is on offer for members of well run clubs, a similar issue I guess is the marques that have the good clubs, they are generally long established, less "hip" and a little harder or less common for young'uns to get involved with, how many of my friends have Pugs? none, Frenchies in general? none, Alfas, Minis, MG's... None

My brother has a couple of performance Volvo's and even he struggles to find a place to turn too, ends up tagging along with me.
As for the rest of my buddies interested in cars, they are in mid 80's Toyota's, 90's Nissan's, 00's Subies and the conversations endup in the black hole of the internet...
 
I don't think young people are not interested in cars or driving. I was invited along to a weekend social drive by a friend of a friend who organised the gathering. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was surprised that most of the drivers were born in the 90s (i later realised the event was part of a 21st birthday celebration weekend). There were about 20 cars of all different makes and models but the common theme was that all the drivers were passionate about their car. Contrary to common perceptions, along the drive (NSW central coast) all said youngsters drove responsibly (it could even be said that it was the older folk that tended to push things along). The aim of the day was simply to get out of Sydney early on a sunday morning, enjoy driving one's car, grab a bite to eat somewhere nice, talk about cars with other like minded people and return home early/mid afternoon before the wife/girlfriend noticed you had left (some even came along for the drive or drove their own machines).

When motoring clubs meet mid-week in obscure locations, organise events that are mid-week or require you to go away for the entire weekend, it is not surprising that young people don't show up.



 
I blame the internet and sites like AF. Car clubs use to be a depository and wealth of information. They were also a place to form and bond friendships. Now you can do it all on line. I can even dislike someone without actually meeting them. Golf is the same. You can't actually fix it. You just need to blend along with it. Car clubs needed to have an online presence 15+ years ago. AF has essentially become a car club.
 
All very valid comments, I belong to two 'single marque' clubs, only attend the regular meetings of one as it's in an adjacent suburb & I can just about summon the energy after the days work. I'd say you have to have a social-media presence nowadays to get younger people involved.
Maybe also what's needed is the occasional off-road (circuit or airfield) event where owners make examples of the given marque available for a supervised drive (takes a level of trust I know). Might fire an ambition in a youngster?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
With the exception of football and cricket clubs, I agree that clubs in general seem to have problems attracting new members. So far as car clubs are concerned, it may well come down to the make. French cars always had a, more or less, small sector of the market and old french cars now appeal almost solely to us oldies.

On the other hand, my understanding is that car clubs that cater for old American cars, XY/XW Fords etc, old Holdens and some other makes are doing well. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of interest out there in old French cars and, with the possible exception of a 205 GTi, this is reflected in the relatively low prices.

It's difficult to see a resurgence of interest in French cars or French car clubs which means either amalgamate with other various car clubs or eventually wither and die.
 
Its also because the brands we drive today are to be frank, shitty compared to other brands that have made better cars. As Peter has pointed out other clubs have grown greatly. Some motorsport events are bursting at the seams in certain categories.

We love our cars, just not the new ones.
 
Good orgniser imaginative event and cheap no frills. or vice versa!!

Anything that is free is o.k. these days, thus the internet style car drive days, but you do need to have something that will bring them along to events, whatever they are. The trick is to get commitment for events that must not be missed.

In the far off days when I was organising events and border runs that the majority turned up for, it helped to identify a few key people that liked to have all their mates at events, as an organiser I would ring them and get a commitment that they were going and then used that to tell their mates, So and So (their social mate) is going. Now even that sort of commitment is hard these days unless you can use facebook for the same come along purpose, and that too needs some one to organise the events and us old guys just aren't around to make things run smoothly these days.

In the United States, they got around this a bit by having random (Good weather predicted lets turn up for an event) Show and shine things in Supermarket car parks, where anyone can roll up and show their treasure of new find, almost an Ad Hoc event, with hopefully local trade outlets benefitting with the casual food and beverage trade.

Other than that it seems clandestine events, secret phone trees, and big brother waiting to pounce on illegality is another draw card for the young and feckless.

The bottom line is there needs to be leaders and drivers of events, and avoid big expenditure in organising as sometimes no one turns up, almost turning the clock back to the bring a plate social get-togethers, where you make your own must not be missed event.

On that note sometimes older or vintage ideas work, like dress from your local opportunity shop appropriate to your vehicle with limits on spending and some stupid and inappropriate prizes.

Helps to have an organiser or two with imagination..:D
 
In my case I used to be heavily involved in the lotus club. I haven't been to a meeting in a couple of years mainly due to working bigger hours.

It costs a lot to live in Sydney and you have to do the hours to stay afloat.
 
Some valid points especially about the Internet cutting out contact with the clubs. I'm no youngster, also I'm not a grey beard yet, but I am new to this scene and viewed as a younger guy by quite a few of the Peugeot club guys I've met.

In saying that when I landed in aussiefrogs I didn't search out the PCCV as I was networking here and didn't really get to know anything about the club until I met two club members indirectly through the forum. (Yes I could have looked for the club but I didn't)

So my point here is that the clubs could have a more active role here on this forum especially knowing the network and how well it is used.

I've also found in the past with car clubs that they have been a bit lazy with welcoming new people and promoting new people to get involved in the running of the club (bit of and old buys club mentality) I'm not commenting on any clubs affiliated here, but I did experience it a few times with other makes of car clubs prior to my 205 days.
 
I competed in a motorkhana the other day with 80 entries, lots of young people in MX5s and 86s. Also, the Alpine Rally had 300 expressions of interest and entries were closed at 145 which was reached in the day entries opened, so not everything is going bad.
 
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We need more young people like Codman and Michael Ozzie.

Codman said:
As a young person that loves cars, Motorsport and tinkering, it baffles me why there is not more young involvement.
I'm short of time due to work, family and other hobbies, but the PCCV has so much going on that even the few things i get time for make it well worth my while.

My take on the issue is this, Un-official online based car "clubs", these are rife, they are merely chat-room circle-jerks and keyboard battles, no events, organisation or benefit really...

So I think a key would to get into the spheres of young car enthusiasts and let them know how much is on offer for members of well run clubs, a similar issue I guess is the marques that have the good clubs, they are generally long established, less "hip" and a little harder or less common for young'uns to get involved with, how many of my friends have Pugs? none, Frenchies in general? none, Alfas, Minis, MG's... None

My brother has a couple of performance Volvo's and even he struggles to find a place to turn too, ends up tagging along with me.
As for the rest of my buddies interested in cars, they are in mid 80's Toyota's, 90's Nissan's, 00's Subies and the conversations endup in the black hole of the internet...
Click to expand...
 
Someone mentioned it earlier, but car clubs have simply moved online.

Why would I want to sit in someones cold shed, drink warm beer and try to be polite to some guy who's a dick? I can do that all online, and then pick and choose the events I want to go too ;)

They are different to what your generation did, and that's fine.

Check out the Nulon Nationals, or even the Might Car Mods National meets to see 6 thousand plus P plater's, car enthusiasts enjoying their cars. ;)

And then I suppose come to the CMC meet and see the older generation doing exactly what the P platers are doing now, standing around, talking sh1t, and being proud of their things. :headbang:

Er.. perhaps they haven't changed.
 
G'day,

maybe a couple of the answers to the questions are here....
CarClub

cheers,
Bob
 
Nice article bob!!

bob said:
G'day,

maybe a couple of the answers to the questions are here....
CarClub

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

Love that Bob, could have written parts of that myself, must be the "Feral in me" humour coming out!!:D so many truths!:D

Anyway I was pleased to attend the inaugural meeting of the "Skipton Feral Car Club" recently, a great honour, pity it was such a damn cold day with that bitterly cold wind that just doesn't go around ones body, just bites through and such interesting machinery and characters :wink2:

You can find both in abundance in the country, just have to ask around!!

A "fun" shared experience is an excellent start to any car club and that bit about entrenched stuffed shirts who dedicate their lives to frustrating that fun as petty dictators, does ring a bell, but it is hard to get rid of that element that stuffs up car clubs. Very predictable

Hopefully our OP will get some good ideas in a quest to shortcut the way to formation of a new all encompassing car club.:D
 
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