yep, though i belong to and love the MSRA, its high time a low profile group like this formed up, just about cars, brotherhood and DRIVING ,NOT shiny show cars w $2000 wheels and power parking trophy hunting trailer queens though they are a part of the hobby as well.MSRA to some extent + NSRA in particular have left the low buck builders in the dust.
and a lot of us agree on that...I think I should just put together a mission statement so I don't have to keep repeating myself... I want this to be grass roots...always...bringing as many people from as many local car clubs and surrounding states together to have fun, not to be outnumbered by the 10,000 other vehicles none of us could afford... it's about friendship, helping each other out, good times with good people...not about showing off your 5 thousand dollar IFS on your '29 Model A "rat rod" that used to be a show car last year...it's about showing off what you built with your own hands, or the vehicle you're learning with...I won't turn down those people for showing up if they want to get to know everyone, but chances are they're going to feel out of place unless they drive the piss out of their show car...I don't know how to put it any clearer than that...we're for the people, by the people...not for the money so we can put on an even bigger and more expensive to attend show next year...
Awesome Johnny... I was just going to post, and tell all the locals to check out the new forum over at www.traditionalsmn.org, but looks like you've got it in your signature. Yeah, hopefully we'll be able to get a couple of low key get togethers going. I'm more of a behind the scenes guy than you and Scott, but that's cool... plan away, and know that there are guys like me out there who will participate and help as much as we can! One quick thought (and I haven't researched this, so flame away if I'm wrong) is that MSRA and NSRA are necessary (even if they sometimes seem evil). Those groups have the power to lobby for our interests, and have helped raise public interest. On the flip side, now a clapped out, crappy, un-safe jalopy goes for crazy money on ebay. Oh well. Ben
I'm absolutely not against what the MSRA does for us, I just don't feel that their events are a good fit for most of us...they run their group how they want to, there's nothing wrong with that...the issue of money is what really starts getting under my skin though, admission and parking spaces and vending spaces and all that jive...sure, they throw HUGE events at good locations, but most of the stuff that shows up these days isn't hardly worth looking at...I spent more time hanging around the HAMB meeting area at Back to the 50's than I did walking around the grounds, because most of the cars out there aren't anything special...but the cars that showed up around the HAMB meeting area were something else...absolutely amazing what these guys can do, and we should be able to talk to those types of guys who build it themselves without having 20,000 people standing around, or them having 80 things to do while being at the show...just us, our vehicles and lots of fun...
The Jalopy Journal
