how was your gathering?

[stealthstylz]

It would take me till the next Gathering to write out a list of positives. Easily the best weekend show i've ever been to, very much reminded me of the NATS before it grew up and went boring.

As an aside and an example of what sort of place retro rides is - Me, James, Mark and a couple of others were talking to the owner of the Lotus Sunbeam/Avenger pickup. He said he was amazed at the mixture of cars, and that all the owners get on. He'd come from a classic car background and had generated a lot of anger/derision in the Avenger and Sunbeam Lotus owners clubs by building it. He only came to the show by chance, and was absolutely stoked by the sounds of it.

Matt

[MonzaPhil]

Yeah it was awesome, my only complaint is that I didn't have a fridge in my tent and not enough room/weight capactity to bring all my home brew with me......

More trade/tat stands for me to spend all my hard-earned but aside from that, perfect....


oh, if you could flatten the whole area out a bit as my legs are killing me...........

Thanks again for the organising skills.

[dubmonkey]

Does anyone else have the Godfather theme music in their head still?!?!??!!!

[Ratdat]

Personally, I'd say the current formula work fine. Friday and Saturday camping gives you plenty of time for the socializing, drunkenness and random silliness that you wouldn't have time for on show day alone. And of course if you are a bit shy, getting lathered on the camping field really helps to break down those inhibitions! Not something you could do on show day.

10 years ago, we used to go to JAE every year. That started as a relatively small event, primarily for older cars and was much more a social thing than a car show. By 2004 it had become a full blown car show, with trade stalls etc and the folks running it seemed more interested I how BIG they could make the event rather than how good it was. Quantity over quality. When it moved from Billing to Peterborough the next year it died for us. The friendly social side was gone and is was just a vast sea of largely uninteresting stuff with little to look at and traders selling overpriced tat. Because it had grown to such a huge scale, the vast majority or people didn't know each other at all and as such there were plenty who were there only for their own enjoyment, who couldn't care less about the show organizers or other people. Donuts and stupid driving on the camping field around tents, bouncing engines off the limiter in the small hours and rubbish everywhere etc.

RRG mustn't go down that route and IMO the social aspect of it is by far the most important bit. The Sunday show is just the cherry on top. It should be a chance for all the folks on this forum to get together in person each year and have fun, not become another vast anonymous car show. If you are looking for an event where all the food and entertainment is laid on for you then there's other events that do that. I feel RRG requires a little more input from attendees than other events and I'm happy with that.

[skinnylew]

Aug 21, 2012 7:31:56 GMT Robinxr4i said:

Had an awesome time, camping and show spot on. Only problem I had was a cold shower, but as I found out later it was my own stupid fault for rwisting the lever too far

Aug 21, 2012 7:02:56 GMT HoTWire said:

We are considering (if we can find a suitable venue, or another date at Prescott) running another track session of some sort at a different point in the year.

This sounds like an excellent idea

I'll second that, a small track like Castle Combe maybe?

As for cold showers, I had one in the middle of Saturday the fact it was cold was 100% bonus!! ;D

[cianha]

'

Does anyone else have the Godfather theme music in their head still?!?!??!!!

Yes. Accompanied with the Vroom vroom of a Nissan Prarie Bozofied exhaust. Though the looks on the kid's face as KFW lamped it up the hill just summed up the entire experience for me…


First chance to get to a conmputer since we got back to Ireland yesterday evening. We were the second last to leave the campsite, with only the RRG gazebo left to come down. I'm shattered, but it was absolutely worth it!

It's true what they say, a stranger is only a friend you haven't made yet.

We've had a wonderful weekend. RRers are the most welcoming bunch of luncatic petrolheads I've ever at the pleasure of meeting. You took the two of us, complete strangers, under your collective wing for the 3 days, we've made so many friends it's unbelievable.

I opened my tent door on Saturday morning, and was greeted with an Olds, a low low Honda Shuttle, and a pink Hello Kitty trike. Where else would you get it?

Big big thanks to the Area 52 crew for being the Awesomes! And to the RRG team themselves for running such a tight ship, your dedication and effort really showed, gracias!

Right, better get back to these emails… Maybe there's just time to browse a few classfieds for next year's steed first…

Cheers again to everyone

Cian and Edel.

[gotwood]

My son and i had a wonderful time , definately the highlight of the show season for us . I don't have any negatives to add . It was quite funny turning up in the one the tallest vehicles there ( hightop T4 camper ) and we had the lowest vehicle there ( bagged Esprit ) parked directly behind me ! lol

[bstardchild]

Aug 21, 2012 9:09:55 GMT cianha said:

We were the second last to leave the campsite, with only the RRG gazebo left to come down. I'm shattered, but it was absolutely worth it!

I wasn't that far behind you but finished helping Keefy to get all the signage in from the local area and gathering in all the remaining gazebo's etc

Shame it rained for most of the early morning not so nice to break down the tent

[gotwood]

Oh , and I'd like to say a big thankyou to Bigperm for taking me up the hill in his Benz on his last run !

[carlb1970]

i gotta agree with Lawsey and was thinking the same my self... the weekend was amazing, i enjoyed the camping and meeting peeps as much as the show, if there was a camping meet of some sort even without the show that would be ace, (not instead of the gathering, at all ) just a chance to meet more of the guys we see on tinternet but don't actually know.
also agree 100% with Datman.. i used to go to Jae, went to billing a couple of times, it was fantastic, venure changed to peterborough, east of England show ground and grew too big, attracted a lot of people who were not of quite the same mindset, became bodykits and neon chav city. havent been back for 4 years now... might go this year as venue changed again.
Prescott to me is the most perfect venue, not only because it has a track, but it is just a beautiful place, its far enough out in the country just so relaxed, felt like you were somewhere special.... whilst some where like peterborough show had a chainmail fence around it with housing estates on the other side. Please don't change the Venue... ever.

its quite a trek for myself,about 400 all round not as far as for a lot of others, but i realise ya need somewhere thats kinda central for everyone.
the trip down this year was enjoyable tho as i convoyed dow with KFW and Roalmoat so my weekend began when we left Abergele!
if you are looking for a venue fo a second meet, with a track, Ty croes over on anglesy is great, i know a little far for some of you, but they do club days as far as i know.

only way it could be improved is a change of Date.... how about next weekend? i feel like one of those wimin that has a baby and then after the event goes a bit sad and mental. I'm having post RRG depression.
cant wait for next year

[lemmingzappa]

Aug 21, 2012 9:00:46 GMT Ratdat said:

Personally, I'd say the current formula work fine. Friday and Saturday camping gives you plenty of time for the socializing, drunkenness and random silliness that you wouldn't have time for on show day alone. And of course if you are a bit shy, getting lathered on the camping field really helps to break down those inhibitions! Not something you could do on show day.

10 years ago, we used to go to JAE every year. That started as a relatively small event, primarily for older cars and was much more a social thing than a car show. By 2004 it had become a full blown car show, with trade stalls etc and the folks running it seemed more interested I how BIG they could make the event rather than how good it was. Quantity over quality. When it moved from Billing to Peterborough the next year it died for us. The friendly social side was gone and is was just a vast sea of largely uninteresting stuff with little to look at and traders selling overpriced tat. Because it had grown to such a huge scale, the vast majority or people didn't know each other at all and as such there were plenty who were there only for their own enjoyment, who couldn't care less about the show organizers or other people. Donuts and stupid driving on the camping field around tents, bouncing engines off the limiter in the small hours and rubbish everywhere etc.

RRG mustn't go down that route and IMO the social aspect of it is by far the most important bit. The Sunday show is just the cherry on top. It should be a chance for all the folks on this forum to get together in person each year and have fun, not become another vast anonymous car show. If you are looking for an event where all the food and entertainment is laid on for you then there's other events that do that. I feel RRG requires a little more input from attendees than other events and I'm happy with that.

This!

[stealthstylz]

Forgot to add a massive thanks to all the crew for organising the show, and also to the Prescott staff. For some reason I was expecting a lot of turned up noses and scoffing but they were all really friendly and obviously got that we were just having a laugh, and the guys in the paddock were all up for a bit of banter.

[luckyseven]

I find it slightly funny there are people who have complaints about the venue tbh. I realise rutted fields aren't great if your car's low but having a gripe about the hillclimb/food/location/etc is odd. Has no-one ever been to, for example, Silverstone (not necessarily for the wallet-evaporating circus of something like F1 but just for any "normal" show)? Twenty-foot fences stopping you going anywhere or seeing anything; security guards stopping you doing anything; food that is expensive enough to be gold-plated yet tastes like someone already ate it once and leaves you waiting for the botulism to start; massive queues getting in and out despite having it's own road system; huge amount of money for "track time" that equates to about 1 1/2 laps.... if you want negatives, Trax is in a couple of weeks. I guarantee you'll come out thinking Prescott Hill is the best venue in the world, despite being someone's front drive as opposed to a multi-million pound purpose-built complex.

I thought the Gathering was excellent in every way. Not just in comparison to other shows, but in its own right. Well done you ;D

[compass]

Aug 21, 2012 7:02:56 GMT HoTWire said:

No, what he is saying is that people can give us feedback, but something like venue change won't be happening before next year as we are booked in already. Also we as organisers are very happy with the venue, both in terms of lay out and dealing with the venue owners, which if you ask anyone that organises shows is the hardest part of it all.


We collect all the feedback (what worked, what didn't) go through it and see if we can improve things, we also have our own list of things that went wrong (which already included things like public parking etc.).

The guest car feedback is interesting.

The trade stand/swap meet feedback is frustrating, we try really hard each year to get more traders and we've experimented with swap meet style things before at the show, it seems like we get no where, so if you see a trader at a show and you think they would do well at RR Gathering PLEASE tell them to contact us. We'll take trade booking from now until the show next year!

The modern car in club stand bit is a bit skewed by us having to move the low stuff from public parking into club field because of the car park. I don't accept that the Alfa155 stand didn't belong, because it was straight up awesome.

In terms of more 'suitable' cars going up the track, it is a RWYB, the idea is to get people that don't usually spend time on track out and on the track, so you'll get a range of machinery, we hope that it is 95% retro at least due to only letting stuff from club stands and retro parking on the track. If it isn't all fast, then that is what it is, same is true for Pod RWYB.

The track is a victim of its own success, it gets over subscribed very quickly. The session sizes are what they are, we're all trying to think of ways to keep everyone happy on that score. Using it on the Saturday isn't the answer for us, not just because of the limited number of days it can be used (although that is a pretty hard thing to change!), but also because of the fact we don't want to kill ourselves trying to do a two day show. We are considering (if we can find a suitable venue, or another date at Prescott) running another track session of some sort at a different point in the year.

For food stuff the Clubhouse is/was open all weekend and served food from morning until night... it is good food, well made, reasonably priced, and a nice place to be. We can put on more food vans in the show field, but last year we had too many.

For those that say camping makes the show, less than 15% of the people that attend the show camp,.. I'm hoping the other 85% of people that come don't think it is rubbish.

What we can tell you is RRG 2013 will be better than RRG 2012 thanks to the feedback we get and our extra experience this year.


Obviously we don't want this to be a thread of all negative feedback, I guess some people enjoyed themselves?

Thanks for this. Looks like I read too much into Keefy`s reply!

Either way, my minor negative points were just that....minor! The overall show was superb.

[Dez]

Aug 21, 2012 5:33:06 GMT Keefy said:

Thanks for all your feedback guys, and most of all thanks for coming! You guys really make it what is is!

Just to answer a few questions to stop people repeating the same kinda question which will always have the same answer ...

1) Prescott Hill Climb is a driveway for 3 houses. The agreement is that is can be used for twenty-something DAYS a year. When you take out race weekends there isn't a lot left. We are exceptionally lucky to have one day there!

I thought there must be some other mitigating factors, which is fair enough.

I like the idea of another weekend some other time in the year to get more track time somewhere though.

in regards to the demo cars, yes some were disappointing, but i supect that is down to the owners/drivers more than anything.
lets not forget as well how awesome cars like the napier were- and that the owner has taken the effort to bring it to an event really not aimed at that kind of car to 'open peoples eyes' to that kind of car and that kind fo motorsport, which can only be commended. the majority of people i spoke to said it was car of the show for them- i think he should be told as such!

[The Transplanter]

Aug 21, 2012 7:02:56 GMT HoTWire said:

No, what he is saying is that people can give us feedback, but something like venue change won't be happening before next year as we are booked in already. Also we as organisers are very happy with the venue, both in terms of lay out and dealing with the venue owners, which if you ask anyone that organises shows is the hardest part of it all.


We collect all the feedback (what worked, what didn't) go through it and see if we can improve things, we also have our own list of things that went wrong (which already included things like public parking etc.).

The guest car feedback is interesting.

The trade stand/swap meet feedback is frustrating, we try really hard each year to get more traders and we've experimented with swap meet style things before at the show, it seems like we get no where, so if you see a trader at a show and you think they would do well at RR Gathering PLEASE tell them to contact us. We'll take trade booking from now until the show next year!

The modern car in club stand bit is a bit skewed by us having to move the low stuff from public parking into club field because of the car park. I don't accept that the Alfa155 stand didn't belong, because it was straight up awesome.

In terms of more 'suitable' cars going up the track, it is a RWYB, the idea is to get people that don't usually spend time on track out and on the track, so you'll get a range of machinery, we hope that it is 95% retro at least due to only letting stuff from club stands and retro parking on the track. If it isn't all fast, then that is what it is, same is true for Pod RWYB.

The track is a victim of its own success, it gets over subscribed very quickly. The session sizes are what they are, we're all trying to think of ways to keep everyone happy on that score. Using it on the Saturday isn't the answer for us, not just because of the limited number of days it can be used (although that is a pretty hard thing to change!), but also because of the fact we don't want to kill ourselves trying to do a two day show. We are considering (if we can find a suitable venue, or another date at Prescott) running another track session of some sort at a different point in the year.

For food stuff the Clubhouse is/was open all weekend and served food from morning until night... it is good food, well made, reasonably priced, and a nice place to be. We can put on more food vans in the show field, but last year we had too many.

For those that say camping makes the show, less than 15% of the people that attend the show camp,.. I'm hoping the other 85% of people that come don't think it is rubbish.

What we can tell you is RRG 2013 will be better than RRG 2012 thanks to the feedback we get and our extra experience this year.


Obviously we don't want this to be a thread of all negative feedback, I guess some people enjoyed themselves?

Well I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, so a big thank you to those who made this happen

I do have a couple of observations and that have already been mentioned:

1. the guest cars were a bit lame apart from the Napier. Do we really need them??? I mean there were limited runs for those RR'ers who signed on due to the the guest cars having multiple runs that were frankly pretty to look at but boring to watch! And I would much more prefer to see RR'ers "on it" up the hill anyway.

2. How about having the camping Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon?? Most people have to work friday and Friday afternoon traffic is generally curse word, so most arrived on Saturday anyway! Also come lunchtime on Sunday I was Jaded & Tired and left at about 3:00. If we had the option to camp on the Sunday you wouldnt get everyone rushing off early knowing they have the drive home!

3. It was nice having plenty of room in the campsite, but even with the bottom of the field being like a swamp on Friday it felt half empty!!! I'm sure you could sell a lot more weekend tickets without it being over crowded, thus making the atmosphere more cosie

4. I don't come on this forum as much as I would like (and some don't at all), and finding information about the show meant trawling through several posts to try and find answers to my questions! How about keeping all the info in one place (the RRG page) and updated with things like, campsite opening times, club house opening times, I for one didnt know this was even open on the Friday! Hill Climb signing on times, I'm sure many missed out because they were hung over or jaded on the Sunday morning. How about giving some allocation to those camping on the Saturday night???

5. Club stands need to be policed better, I wont mention the vehicles, but some can be seen anywhere on any street! (And I'm not talking about the 155 stand, as that was the best turned out IMO so hats off to you guys).

6. Keefy mentioned its not possible to use the hill on the Saturday, so how about organising a show and shine or other activities near the club house on the Saturday afternoon/evening, as well as killing some time it will create business for the club house

Not negatives, just some ideas

Keep up the good work

Al

[HoTWire]

Re:Guest cars, I think last year most of our guest cars were hillclimb cars (because of the venue change and the Berg cup car), this year they were mainly specials of one form of another. I think we may have a no non-MOT'd (track built) cars on the hill unless it is a guest car, as they took up a fair few spaces and the idea is to get people that aren't usually on track up the hill.

We've got a couple of Guests semi-booked for next year, whilst booking the rest we'll keep it mind the feedback we've had.

[dbizzle]

I'm very jealous of you all. I meant to come this year and pop my RRG cherry, I really did - but the combo of having a five month-old and preparing for a mate's wedding in a few days time (that is a real excuse, I'm the best man) meant that it just couldn't happen. Sorry, I am rubbish. Sounds and looks like it was frickin' awesome, though.

I WILL BE THERE IN 2013. AND I WILL CAMP.

[stealthstylz]

That excuse is poor biz, could have been a perfect stag do lol

[PandaSelecta]

Usually with the Gathering I spend the afternoon visiting local museums or scrapyards and miss out on most of the chilled out camping, but this year I realised that the highlight of the Gathering really IS the atmosphere at the camp site

The Show and hillclimb is just the icing on the cake

Also i can see why people are questioning why the guest cars are there, especially as alot of the cars RRers have are much more interesting (FrankenHealey, the yellow Kitten and Nightmares Escort to name just a few).

Maybe also cap the number of runs people can do, thus allowing more of us a chance of a run (not that i could of had a run, as i forgot my mot cert )