MM Car Show & Autocross Weekend! - April 11 & 12

[*insertusernamehere*]

The autox has me extremely pumped for car season this year. I'm too ready. It was great seeing everyone I hadn't seen in a while tooo. Wish I could have made the show but the autox was good. Weather was phenomenal this entire weekend. I'm so glad MM show always happens on beautiful days.

[Senor_Taylor]

You idiot. You've jinxed it.

[Jake]

Weather was great, had a blast seeing everybody and just enjoying the weekend. The autocross on Sunday really helped tie the weekend together and I think that's something that should be kept up in future years - big incentive to keep alumni in town overnight, and makes everything feel like more of a "big event" if you will.

The show had a good turnout but I can't say I was impressed with a lot of it. It's over now and the turnout was good, but take these points as "how to improve for next year" instead of "Jake thinks you're all horrible people" because the former is why I'm even bothering to sit here and type.

• Date was finalized three weeks before the show, and the flyer was finalized two days before the show. Entirely unacceptable. Future officers: when we say you need to start this show planning the week you return from winter break, we mean it. Do not drop the ball again like that.
  
• Only two "sponsors" and frankly, I don't know who they were or what they did for the show. There was that guy from Tarmac with the hellastanced E36, and he had some hats on the roof of it, but otherwise I didn't see any sponsorship type of things. Was Tarmac even a sponsor?
  
• Printed materials... you need them. Signing in and receiving a paper slip with a hand-written number on it was a big letdown. We've had printed slips with "number/class/mods" that got handed out every single year prior. Where were they? I know we've heard grumbles about "we don't know any SMAD friends to do this work for us blah blah" - well guess what, guys... you can make a LOT of things in Word and PowerPoint that will print or export to PDF and look alright.
  
• The class "winners" didn't receive anything notable. Certificate? Ooooh. I know JMU said you can't do a raffle, but they never said you can't give things away. And frankly, who was there that would have policed it anyway? Use your sponsors, get prize packs together, and give the winners of the show something of value. We gave away car care buckets with some basic cleaning supplies, we gave away NASA Hyperdrives (did anyone ever contact Laura?!), we gave away branded apparel and car accessories (Subaru hooked us up there), etc etc. It can be done but again, you have to reach out to people SUPER early.
  
• You need an announcer/emcee. I heard through the grapevine that the DJ bailed on you guys and thus you had to scramble to get speakers at all. So, good on ya for being resourceful and having music in the first place, because it's really nice to have. We didn't have a dedicated announcer when I was there, but us officers would take turns with the mic and keep the show moving.
  
• Don't do the awards when you have 2 hours left in the show. People go home after awards. Honestly, you could have kept the timing more condensed and still had success - we always did 10:30 or 11 AM to 3-4 PM and that worked very well. 9:30 to 3:30 is just a loooong day.

Overall it was a good show, it just didn't feel like it was being run by anyone in particular. Past shows have had some very defined "oh, these four are the ones who made this shit happen" elements, and once I got there, I didn't know what was going on beyond chatting with my friends and bleeding my cooling system (thanks, Dan, for the help!).

Cruise was a fun time and I'm sorry I didn't get to stop and help with the BMW - my phone didn't get all those missed calls and texts until I was at dinner. Sounds like y'all were able to be resourceful and with a bit of help, got things rolling again. Glad it was just a minor incident with no real "issues" to speak of beyond rocks in the sidewall/caliper.

Autocross was, as always, a riot. Great riding with a few folks, and having riders in my hooptie that somehow held together. Thanks to Taylor, Matthew and Scott K for all being "Johnny on the spot" with zip ties and helping hands when my fan shroud elected to re-interpret how it should be shaped.

I made it to work today, somehow. I'm 100% wiped out, and I think that's indicative of a damn good time. Well done, gents.

[Senor_Taylor]

Jake, I promise we won't let you down next year. We'll take note of all of your tips and we're going to do a kickass job next year. I agree with everything you said.

The only thing I can say is the decision to do the awards early was my suggestion because a lot of people were starting to leave and I could tell it was dying down soo. I think it's a good idea to start it later next year.

[ispoonwithmugen]

Nice job guys! From reading all of this it looks like you all had fun, which really is what matters. Bummed I couldn't have made it out. I would have much rather been here than packing my house into a million boxes!

[Riice Cooker]

Thank you for the feed back Jake, they are good points. I'll be sure to refer future officers to this thread for advice on shows they do. Other than the auto x are there any other positives that you would like to see continued for future shows?

[Goodspeed]

I had such a good time this weekend. It was definitely one of the best times I've had at JMU, period - so good to see so many MM faces old and new, the weather was perfection and the events had a great atmosphere and were just tons of fun. The show was leaps and bounds better this year which was really great to see - reminded me of the good ol' 08'/09' shows (loved being back in C4!). With the steps Jake mentioned, after this year you have a solid foundation to build from I think. Better awards and earlier communication are the big takeaways IMO - the photo booth thing from last year was an awesome idea. But in all, props to everyone involved for really re-invigorating the MM show...it was very, very welcomed to see.

If you didn't catch the links on facebook here are my pics from the weekend:

Show/cruise - http://bit.ly/1yj6r5o















Auto-x - http://bit.ly/1I5FHWu

[95SVTCobra]

I had a fantastic time this weekend! It was awesome meeting some of you alumni, and being around cars for a whole weekend was a nice bonus as well. Sadly, the Cobra decided it wasn't going to cooperate, but you win some and you lose some :dunno:. Hopefully she will be fixed by Friday, and I can perhaps make it to Summit! Anyway, lets make next year's car show better than ever, as always :thumbup:.

[Jake]

Oh, another thing to consider - we've done variations of this in years past and it has been a good time.

Consider planning some sort of cookout/party for post-cruise fun. I know there was the "MM party" on Saturday night, but that didn't get started til 10ish and wasn't a huge turnout. I think having the cruise, leaving some down time for people to check in to hotels and so on, and reconvening at someone's house around 6 or 6:30 would help get folks back together for the evening. Grill some food, play some beer pong or cornhole outside, have some drinks and hang out a bit.

The weather typically holds out and what better way to enjoy it than shooting the shit in someone's backyard? Ask alums to each bring a six-pack of beer to share, and a side/dessert, and boom! party. Sure, some will want to head downtown later in the evening, but the party can keep rolling into the night as well.

That all assumes that you have people willing to host, and space to host. We did it my junior/senior years in Pheasant Run - the grilling/shenanigans at my house and the nighttime party at Andrew & Chris's up the street. It worked out really well and the party kinda naturally expanded to be "more than MM" later in the night which was a lot of fun.

Those parties lead to photos which then make you realize how young you looked only a few years ago, too.

[D_Eclipse9916]

]

Whew, that thing is pretty. I had lots of fun. Lucked out with beautiful weather. I was really happy to see all the excited students in the show and autox. I saw lots of huge smiles during the autox! I was also impressed with a bunch of the students/even alumni getting their autox on with anything they had. IE you have no excuse when even Ryan took his company car Fusion out!

Edit: damn you Jake

[Senor_Taylor]

Jake. That sounds like a great idea. I'm sure we can arrange that at my house next year. If we can get a year without some mishap on the cruise, I feel like the after cruise shenanigans will be much smoother.

[95SVTCobra]

Jake, I promise we won't let you down next year. We'll take note of all of your tips and we're going to do a kickass job next year. I agree with everything you said.

I agree as well. We will all work together as a club to make next year's show more organized and better prepared than ever! I also think the after party could be planned a little better. Great suggestions. Loved the show though, and thank you to all you alumni who came out!

[Beej]

I think the show/autox combo thing is a great idea, and probably would've been the final selling point for me if I didn't already have plans this past weekend.

Looks like everyone had a great time! :thumbup:

[rherold9]

I was happy to see how many turned out and how the weather turned out. I see a lot of people liked the Autocross the next day which is something we can work on and for again. Cookout after the show sounds good, but it would have to be different than burgers and dogs imo. All great points to where we can improve. I learned a lot this year as an officer. I can see where we can improve and what people liked. Definitely gave me a new insight about things. Hopefully we can make it even better of a car show for next year! (starting things earlier)

[Gordonovski]

Seconded just about what everyone else said. My brother had a great time at the show and autox and I can't wait until I have that car in my hands for an extended period of time.

And those are some damn nice shots, Goodspeed! Hope you enjoyed the ride :thumbup:

[davej]

nothing new to say here, great weather, turn out, and had a blast. didn't seem to see the large crowd of mustangs/off road as last year, but maybe the show just didn't get marketed to the same level? Getting an autox for the same weekend was perfect to complement the show, even if I wasn't able to make it down.

All of Jake's comments above are on point, save, print, staple to your foreheads...whatever you need to do to remember these for subsequent years.

• The class "winners" didn't receive anything notable. Certificate? Ooooh.

[Goodspeed]

And those are some damn nice shots, Goodspeed! Hope you enjoyed the ride :thumbup:

Dude. That car is insane. Thank you for letting me grab a ride! Better high than a PB&C sandwich

[D_Eclipse9916]

I really had a lot of fun. Thanks Goodspeed for the photos!

I was looking forward to both, showed up a little too late to really enjoy the car show, but the cruise and going downtown was a lot of fun. The autocross as usual was my favorite part. Verona I feel like is one of my "home" autocross sites from when I really started doing a lot of autocrosses. Was a great chance to open up the Z06 with it's setup almost completed.

Results are up.
http://www.brr-scca.org/Results/20150412.htm

[BLINGMW]

Results are up.
http://www.brr-scca.org/Results/20150412.htm

What do bold red numbers mean? Disqualified? Did you break the timing equipment?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Results are up.
http://www.brr-scca.org/Results/20150412.htm

What do bold red numbers mean? Disqualified? Did you break the timing equipment?

LOL, I think you are playing with me, but means Fastest Time of the Day and Fastest Pax of the Day. This car....moves. FTD by over 2 seconds, and FTP by 1.2 seconds.