Not Ranked
Duane,
Thanks again for hosting a fantastic event! Made some new friends, but ran out of time to meet more people. Here are my comments:
1. Scheduling: What I liked was the excellent balance...time to visit AND time to enjoy our rides! Excellent; not over-scheduled. We need to keep that feature next year.
2. Track Time: Almost to a person, the high point seemed to be the track time at Fernley. What a treat to rip around there. Maybe an additional Thursday separate event for those who want a HPDE? Keep the Saturday Parade lap. Keep the 118 mile cruise; same places, etc.
3. Attracting More People: There was room for another 50 roadsters, GT40's and Daytona Coupes. I believe the success of the first year will get around verbally and more will show next year. Plus you are already planning for 06; that will help more people schedule for WSCB for 06. Plan it: people will come.
4. Location: Reno was a great host and the Pepermill facility and people were excellent. No hassles, good room rates, excellent overall.
5. Awards:
Just an idea, but maybe each club (For example NorCal, Bay Area, LA, Reno, Portland, Seattle, etc) gives out an award to cars from clubs other than their own. For example, the Red SPF with Webers and chrome pin drive rims owned by Terry Brown was an absolute knockout!
Also, the long distance rules maybe we should look at. The "High Plains Drifter" couple who drove from Surrey BC is pouring down rain...wow! Whatever you decide is fine; not to take anything away from John in Tucson who drove perhaps further, top down in the sun. Also, the car with Maine license plates: what was the deal on that one? Maybe long distance should be just that? (trailer or no trailer...long distance counts!)
I liked the overall idea that the cars were not "competing" for show awards; made it a very friendly afair. "What works and what does not" was a good enough reason to get together. For example, the Lobak mufflers on my car attracted Ray Shepherd with the green original CSX 427 street car who wants to quiet his ride this year so he can go long distance without deafening himself and Cathy. We had extended conversations on that and his very interesting car.
6. Attendance List: Normally at a "convention" people have name tags (excellent by the way) and there is an attendance list so people can stay in contact. I exchanged business cards with several people, but several others I forgot to write down email addresses, so it might be hard to stay in contact. While I realize most people may wish to retain their privacy, perhaps those who wish to share their contact info could be put on a list and the list handed out with registration. Then on-site registrants would have a separate list as an addendum. Not a big deal, but if feasible, would be nice.
7. Cars of Interest How did you get that "Dragonsnake" and other very interesting cars there? That added greatly to the event; please try to repeat if possible.
8. Barbeque vs Banquet I rather liked the Barbeque setup; informal, low key, people can come and go as they liked. Several of us got together and made a run up Mt. Rose Highway to Lake Tahoe afterwards, so the timing worked out great. Whereas a "banquet" would have to be sit down, one room, one time, a pain for the sponsors and a hassle for the suppliers to have 180 hot meals served at one time.
9. Calendar: No one time is perfect for everyone. The 3rd weekend in May worked this year (close call with Mother Nature) so why not retain that?
10. Funding: Whatever you decide seems good. If you keep the schedule simple and let the "chemistry" do it's part, a similar event next year is fine with most of us. Bumping the cost or hitting up a few select sponsors for a few hundred seems ok too, although we realize you can not "make money" here as it is primarily a "friends" event, rather than a commercial event.
I bet the Hotel and Casino saw more traffic as a result of the attraction on Virginia Avenue of nearly 100 "exotic cars" in their parking lot. Maybe they advertise next year and increase their revenues and give us a break...???
11. Security: perfect, change nothing.
12. Music: Can we take over the parking lot sound system and play all the old car tunes? Little Duece Coupe, 409, Hey Little Cobra, Little 40 Ford, Deadman's Curve, Hot Rod Lincoln, etc? Just a thought, as we were competing with those parking lot speakers and the way they have it set up is perfect as the volume is not too loud and one can still maintain a conversation; whereas with the giant speakers at the North end, the volume was way up, so if you were parked up there, no talking. Not a big deal, just a tweak maybe.
13. Shirts: I like the idea above that denim shirts would be available. I have too many T-shirts now and seldom wear them all. Prefer golf shirts, but the collared shirts the host team wore were very attractive!
Duane, everyone I spoke to was very pleased. I heard no grumbling what-so-ever. Keep it up.. maybe a tweak here or there but overall, it worked great!
Congrats, and thank you again!!
Larry & Shirley Johnson
Milwaukie, Oregon
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