I like the idea of having some fun random awards. Gives those of us who don't expect to get a traditional 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place award something to maybe look forward to.

Also, I'm sad to see that people didn't feel very welcome. That's one of the things I love most about this even is getting to meet people and make friends from all over. I've never noticed a problem with people being unwelcoming.

This. I have always walked away thinking how great our crowd was with talking to new people versus some of the others; Honda guys come to mind right away, thus my pension for mocking them :) My wife was very impressed with this, and many people made a point of talking to my son; Robert and David Hayes especially.

As nice as it would be to have their sponsorship, I doubt Mazda will. They seem to only go with things that were their ideas in the first place. The biggest example of this was at the 24 Hours of Rolex in Daytona. IF you were to go by Mazdas coverage of the event, you wouldn't even know that there was a team called Racers Edge running a 20b Rx8; in fact that car being the ONLY Mazda to actually finish the race. No pictures or mention at all on any of their sites, even after many of us pointed this out. I was more disappointed by that than watching the speedsource cars fail at the beginning of the race.

:iagree: oh yes...there will be blood....

my only complaint of DGRR in the 2 years i have been able to attend is the lack of parking...but the area just doesnt cater well to that large of a crowd and it is not an easy fix, the microtel has a huge parking lot...but no other facilities...just one of those things we have to deal with i spose...wont stop me from coming back:driving:

this event is what you make of it IMO, you can either follow the crowd strictly or do your own thing, if you didnt feel welcomed by the rotary community its likely because you didnt talk to anyone, hell they still talk to me and i have a v8 now :D the rotary community is collectively one of the coolest of all, there is very little ego and a lot of smart people in general, and are always willing to give and accept info in the interest of getting better.

and yes i have to agree...a PA would do wonders but...the bullhorn has a certain...charm to it...

Yep, :party:

Amen to V8s lol...and this is why I've been with the rotary community for so long. Collectively has made me some life long friends.

i still think the raffle thing takes way too long. just keep it to the big ticket items and car show awards, and add in the new categories mentioned earlier. maybe at the end just through the t-shirts out radomly. 30 min tops

and registration fee is too expensive, what exactly is the $30-$40 paying for?

If you don't feel $30 is worth registering for this type of event...then why come? If its too much, Phil tries to help with that if its a true financial hardship. Judging by your mods, money isn't an issue.

Even if the shirt was free and not included in the cost...the hours spent by Phil and the volunteers on organizing this isn't even covered in registration.

So when you decided not to register, you basically said you were paying too much for an orchestrated rotary gathering run by volunteers...?

I agree the banquet is long (and I've only been to one)...but I do see it as one of the few times the entire group is together. Also...everyone is free to do what they want...just leave early if its too long. Now having a buffet there..that's a suggestion lol.

im sure the village doesnt mind a few hundred people and cars randomly showing up and taking over their property for free either...just saying...

Drives a modified FD...bitches about paying $30. Irony much?

hopefully next year the owners of the village will be settled in and know what to expect, all in all it was ok, the cost is minimal IMO to have a nice place to have the show and gather at will, a shirt and some misc goodies, the weather cannot be controlled and other than a slight lack of parking is about all you can hope for.
although...having to drive through that small mud puddle in the corral parking was a very painful event for me....i sucked it up and did so very slowly so not to splash...:D
methinks ill win the most OCD award...

The person complaining about the price has never been to a good guys event! This event is reasonalaby priced and fairly well organized.

i know im cheap lol.. i just think it would be cool if it was free to hang out, but you could buy a t-shirt if you want, or pay to enter car show also, or raffle ticket etc. just a suggestion

I am totally aiming for the OCD award!

Quoted for truth!

Here's an idea. Organize your own event and don't charge for it. Please advise us of time and date.

So what you want is to come take advantage of the event without contributing to what it cost to put on.............

The most important thing you get for your registration fee is not the t-shirt, raffle ticket or car show entry, but the right to participate. It is not fair to expect someone to go to the trouble to gather all the cars and people together just so you can come hang out and get the benefit of their presence. I think such an outlook is rather selfish.

2 cents
Robert

:smilielol5: crickets chirping while we all wait for this guy to take action and organize something....

Well said Robert. This guy is just another symptom of the entitlement mentality that is dragging this country down.

from the other forum it sounds like a select group was a pain in the ass...next year register!...its pretty simple.

Sounds good

nicely put Robert
I think one year we did a farthest driven award
some guys from Canada won I believe
did we do that this year?

Nope, but the guy from California would have won... lol

If your talking about Glen then yeah, especially since he drove from cali to Florida and then to NC

We did it in 2011 and a group from Canada split the money. Not sure if it was done 2012/2013.

I second the comment about newbies feeling unwelcomed. After trying to talk to several people my wife and I mostly got the cold shoulder before giving up. We hung out at the car show for a while and then hit the dragon and went home. Didn't even stay for the pic. I'm glad we went to see the cars...I love my FD, but needless to say, we will not be returning.

Sorry that happened to you. I have made many good friends at DGRR and others. Now I go to try to catch up with people.

You must've not talked to the Mid-Tenn crew... We are the most welcoming group and most rowdy. Don't let a couple non-sociable people determine if you are or not going to attend the best rotary gathering in the nation. Hope that can somewhat change your mind.

What Vinnie said. Most FB and FC owners are very sociable :D

Hell, you could have stopped by my car and had a beer and a cigar, I was the OCD waxing his car guy

I could've smelled that stogie all over Nantahala.

You mean this guy :)
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...53552982_n.jpg

must have only talked to other FD drivers :lol:
all the FB, FC, and 8 drivers I have meet have been very chill
I personally have never had a negative experience at DGRR
everyone has always been very welcoming and socialable imo :dunno:

I would have to agree that it's not the greatest event to make friends. Still managed to find a couple rotor heads talk with, people tend to stay in there group I found it to be very true when it came to the car show part of the show people in the in parked up in paved lot at lodge every one else well, it still was ok event. So the next year ended up at a full campground at fontana full of Minies there rally ended up being on same weekend, this was about two years ago they were so cool invited me in to share there site had greatest time that weekend only rx7 convert at there event they even insisted I pull up to there car wash area and clean up my car. Learned a lot about minies that weekend witch was really cool they are good little handlers with there little corky problems. What's really kept me away from DGRR event is the car show part of the event, just feel show would be better if all cars were shown in same paved lot.

I really don't understand how people can say that it's not a friendly place or it's difficult to make friends. I really think some of these people are socially inept or just give off bad vibes or something. I've been attending DGRR since 2009 and every year it seems to grow more and more and people honestly get friendlier and friendlier. Every year I meet a few new people either by them walking up and talking to me or me commenting on thier car or something.... I've always found it to be the most welcoming of events

That's because it is a car show and there is limited space. If you arrive in a broken down rusting our hulk, or a non rotary car, you're going to be asked to move the car for others. I know this sounds harsh because everyone loves thier own car and thinks it's the greatest, but it is a show after all and there is limited space. I arrived to the show late this year and parked way off to the side mostly sticking out into the street.... my own fault for showing up late. Usually I'm there @ 6:30 in the morning....

With 300 cars and spots for what, 50? that's not going to happen. Logistically it's an impossibility.
However, this is why there is the Damn Dam photoshoot which I've missed every year up until this one, and yeah, even though I spent most of my time directing cars and yelling over the mic and calling DJ a freakishly tall yankee... I still had a lot of fun there.

^what he said...

hey wait...technically I am classified as "non-rotory" now...but I was there on time so :P

speaking as an eccentric, OCD, anti-social, mad scientistic and somewhat grumpy machinist type...I say if you cant talk to people at DGRR....:dunno:

hell not to toot the ol horn, but I am sure there were a lot of people with questions for me about mine...but I was too busy talking to others about theirs to stand by it all morning...that is why I have a build thread hehehe

anyway, lets focus on important ideas rather than non-negotiable terrain limitations..

An idea i had today..and someone please alert me if its exists and i missed it, was to maybe have some sort of sign up sheet for various "runs" to different roads and the times and leaders of such groups, be nice to have the ability to see a persons car and face that you may not know that has volunteered to lead a group of cars to X road at X time so that someone new or old can find that person and get a run-down and status and be ready when time.

I am still learning that area and get lost a lot..but hell i will still take a group out if they want lol i drive slow too :suspect:

for me this year i had my friends with me in their truck so i mainly just went with them at the pace they could run, there was no point in them trying to keep with the pack of 7s, kept me out of trouble too hehehe, but really i did miss some good group runs but oh well, next year.

communication was the biggest failing for me and a lot of other people, our phones wont work, the wifi at the lodge was garbage so even savanadan couldnt get a hold of me, and we rode up together, if we werent within eyesight it was hopeless, not sure what to do about that, that is a landscape issue with service providers...so having perhaps some experienced members organizing drives at designated times so as to sync up everyone out of communication would be nice.
perhaps a marker/chalkboard or series of clipboards for use in this.

the itinerary for the show and the photo shoot and all that is all good and works, but it is the "free time" that falls apart if you dont know specifically who is going where and when(especialy for new people that dont know anyone personally) like i was in 2011, but i just followed the smell :smilielol5:

I'm a bit surprised by the comments of the DGRR newbies who said they got the cold shoulder from folks they tried to strike up convos with. Maybe they just had the bad luck of meeting the few snobs first, and first impressions carry a lot of weight. I'm not the most extroverted & socially talented sort of guy, but that's not my experience at all. My 1st year at DGRR was 2010, and I've been attending every year since mainly because everyone I've encountered here is so friendly and I always have a great time.

Don't give up so easily!

Yes!

I see what you did there...lol

I'm not a machinist so I don't know who you're talking about ;)

That is not a bad thing.... in 2011 I wanted to go and talk to others, but kept getting pulled back to mine to answer questions and chat, which I am always more than happy to do....

That is a double edged sword. The free time is just that and totally seperate from DGRR because of liability... that is about the simplest way to put it.

If someone wants to take the lead and organize something, and Phil please stop me if I'm wrong here but we've had a very similar insurance/liability driven conversation in the past, it needs to be seperate from DGRR.... correct?

That.... absolutely that.... I lvoe it, I consistently say it's the highlight of my automotive year

I hate to say it But if you didn't enjoy DGRR....... It's your own fault.

right since i suck at quoting i will just respond in order...i cut metal...not html...

:troll:

as for taking the time to answer questions about the car...there is never enough time...we all need to just get in one big circle and play spin the bottle for tech questions :biggrinjester:

as far as the liability aspect of organized "tours" I admit my ignorance on the details of such matters, just throwing it out there.

I personally don't have much trouble meeting people there to go places, other than when I am off somewhere already because of no communication hardly...but for less independent folks...might help.

anyone have any luck with CB radios in those hills? something with range? who has the best cell service that works in all the areas?

not even worried about using a scanner or radar/laser detector, those guys up there know just where to hide if they wont you they get you.

just want to be able to communicate...or call for help...

I've thought about using a CB, maybe next year.