AutoMob - a new idea for GTGs

[Chapel]

On the eve of my 29th birthday, I was struck with an idea. Car shows and GTGs are becoming far too organised. Shows and GTGs are put on by specific marques, certain companies, cliquey clubs, etc...
I long for the days when I first started into cars. We'd tell a few people a date, place and time and tell them to show up and pass the word around... No real organisation, just a parking lot full of enthusiasts of all makes and types.

One of my favorite shows of last year has been abandoned because the previous organizers are focusing on one BIG annual show instead of one monthly show. This was an all-makes show that you'd just show up, park and walk around. It was a lot of fun, but since they got very large, the organizers sorta gave up on them.

So, I thought of the old way of doing things and thought about how people do 'flash mobs' and thought about applying the concept to a car gathering.

We used to do this back in the late 90s and early 2000s... we'd all show up unannounced to a food joint and give them a ton of business and just disappear. If they were cool, we'd come back later and do it again.

We had one rule: don't be stupid.
Define stupid? ok: burnouts, revving engines, racing, driving recklessly
You break the rule, you go and you don't come back

I figured Facebook would be a good way to start this, so here's my New England AutoMob
I was thinking of having random organisers... someone offers a site to go and a date and time and we go.

So, who wants to start their own regional chapter?

[drecian]

I like the idea and would probably support it by being there and seeing what else rocks up.

Don't know if the cops would think the same way as us though. I know it wouldn't work here and we'd probably be accused or organized racing and start ticketting cars for illegal modifications (little stuff that's not dagerous like pod filters and aftermarket gauges).

Perhaps at least call up the cafe/venue you're going to meet at and let them know so they don't call the police. That's how we usually organize our 'cruises' here but the police are also notified and they *usually* just sit around in the corner and leave us alone as long as no-one does anything silly.

Post pics if you can get it up and running though.

[Chapel]

It depends on the people, I guess.
In all the shows I've ever done in this style, I've only had problems with the cops ONCE.

[JettaGT8V80]

awesome idea jared

[Achilles]

Just joined up. Great idea! ....now I just need to get a car running.

[deucestudios]

[urogolf]

in for when I finally get my car finished

[TheDarkEnergist]

Great idea.

I think maturity and responsibility are afterthoughts at a lot of car shows. Sure there's an unspoken code that says the d-bags doing burnouts are just that - dbags, but I like the idea of putting it out there as all makes, all models, all grown ups.

Good luck with it

[IHateSpeedBumps]

We used to do this when i was younger in Louisiana. It was a lot of fun. We had a few places along the lake we would hit up once a month or so. I miss these types of meet, they tend to be more relaxed events.

I would look in to your facebook thing but i dont have one so never mind.

[konigwheels]

We had one rule: don't be stupid.
Define stupid? ok: burnouts, revving engines, racing, driving recklessly
You break the rule, you go and you don't come back

This is what's wrong with the whole idea, at least in my town(San Antonio). You can't have any kind of meet anywhere for more than a couple weeks without getting over ran by idiots. It's just not worth it here anymore.

I hadn't been to an unorganized meet/show here in over a year and a couple weeks ago a friend of mine told me about one really close to where I live. When I showed up there was one FD RX7, pretty clean, but that was the end of nice cars. Everone else started rolling in in "I live my life 17 seconds at a time" kind of rides and then the baller rim crew showed up on thier freshly rented rimzos on $750 craigslist beaters.

San Antonio does suck though. Lots of good entusiasts, but they won't bring anything to a non-organized event because all the thives and hoodlums come out, then you have to fear for your stuff all the time. Not fun, and that happens a LOT.

[Chapel]

well, that's why you make the event locations random.

[WolfGTI]

Great idea - hope no idiots ruin it for you.

[Brickx3]

also we are no longer 17 years old anymore and can proabibly afford to spend some money at the the establishment we choose to meet at.... Im going to guess that will help with the no cops thing....

[Mcstiff]

Denver has a Euro monthly somewhat like this and, IMO, too many "cars and coffees" every weekend.

[Chapel]

also we are no longer 17 years old anymore and can proabibly afford to spend some money at the the establishment we choose to meet at.... Im going to guess that will help with the no cops thing....

having a receipt helps

I'm expecting the events to be smaller than something you'd see at a cars and coffee.
My only thing is I need to get a 'street team' of people to push the idea to other people and sites.
I'm going to try to force it through Facebook before I start spamming every forum.