Event Envy
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:18 am
Event Envy
Being the director of a single marque car club doesn’t mean only going to Ford events. I find it refreshing to sometimes go to a show for cars that I find interesting, but don’t own – it’s kind of a “Beginners Mind” experience. And to some extent I can see myself in the busy event organizers.
Last weekend Judy (E-Ford Lines editor), her husband Kevin and I went up to Issaquah, east of Seattle for the annual Swedish Car day at the auto themed Triple X Drive In (the sign on the door says “Nothing here is good for you”). There were about 200 (which is hard to believe) Saabs and Volvos on site. Interestingly enough, the vast number of cars were from the 80’s and 90’s, with maybe 10% being from the 60’s and 70’s. I kind of wanted the check out the Triple X as I have thought it might be a good venue for a Puget Sound Region Euro-Ford gathering. In order for it to work, the Merkur folks would need to show up in mass, as there just are not enough other Euro-Fords around to reach a critical mass (maybe I’m wrong about that).
Seeing the Saab and Volvo clubs cooperating in an event got me thinking – how about a “Captive Import” show teaming up with the Opel people? Actually the Opel people already have an annual Puget Sound gathering near Tacoma in July. I checked it out last year. It was kind of a parallel universe. There were about 25 Opel GTs, a couple of Kadetts and a really nice 1900 Coupe (Manta). I was talking to one guy from California who was a super Opel nut and I told him that I collected European Fords and he looked me and said “what are those?”
Michael
Being the director of a single marque car club doesn’t mean only going to Ford events. I find it refreshing to sometimes go to a show for cars that I find interesting, but don’t own – it’s kind of a “Beginners Mind” experience. And to some extent I can see myself in the busy event organizers.
Last weekend Judy (E-Ford Lines editor), her husband Kevin and I went up to Issaquah, east of Seattle for the annual Swedish Car day at the auto themed Triple X Drive In (the sign on the door says “Nothing here is good for you”). There were about 200 (which is hard to believe) Saabs and Volvos on site. Interestingly enough, the vast number of cars were from the 80’s and 90’s, with maybe 10% being from the 60’s and 70’s. I kind of wanted the check out the Triple X as I have thought it might be a good venue for a Puget Sound Region Euro-Ford gathering. In order for it to work, the Merkur folks would need to show up in mass, as there just are not enough other Euro-Fords around to reach a critical mass (maybe I’m wrong about that).
Seeing the Saab and Volvo clubs cooperating in an event got me thinking – how about a “Captive Import” show teaming up with the Opel people? Actually the Opel people already have an annual Puget Sound gathering near Tacoma in July. I checked it out last year. It was kind of a parallel universe. There were about 25 Opel GTs, a couple of Kadetts and a really nice 1900 Coupe (Manta). I was talking to one guy from California who was a super Opel nut and I told him that I collected European Fords and he looked me and said “what are those?”
Michael