Santana Row meet 06/10/06

I've said my piece numerous times...don't want to say it again...

Peace out!

 

It would be great if Santana *did* join in the fun. However, if we're going to pitch it to them as a source of morning sales, it'd be helpful if we actually DO buy stuff! I think the majority of people who are bringing their cars are doing so to be with friends, and have the car out for the morning. When they're done, I see 99% of people leaving...not walking down the Row to shop.

Now...if you were referring to potential shoppers from the "spectators" that will eventually come, I stand corrected.

Best regards.

Aaron

 

alvin, i'll help you drive the GT3, afterall, i have been names as the GT3 boy by SF rennlister. thought about acquiring my 4th GT3 yesterday ;-)

freds in the gray cayman is indeed a cool car enthusiasts who tastefully mods and tracks everything he's owned. i think he'll pick up a CS when he's bored with inbound 997GT3 (do call me when you are dumping the car, fred).

i'll try to make it next time, if alvin let me take his F355.

 

This places the group in the business of deciding what is and what isn't "exotic," an exercise that can only end in tears.

Various Porsche 911s are okay, but the Corvette Z06 isn't? A Mondial is okay, but a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing isn't? What about a GTV6? Any attempt to define eligibility in subjective terms such as "exotic" is going to get ugly.

I suppose if the goal is to coax Enzo owners to show up, it would be easier to ask them directly what cars they are and aren't willing to be seen with.

You can probably get 75% of what you want without offending anybody by limiting entry to Italian cars only.

 

I would obviously prefer to see a bunch of exotic cars, particularly vintage and supercars. Knowing that a McLaren or F50 is going to roll into the parking lot would motivate me to get up early on saturday and bring an exotic as well.

I think the goal is not to exclude people and their cars but to try and persuade more exotic car owners to bring their nice cars. As long as the number of exclusive and exotic cars grows, then the common cars will not command as much attention. If there was an Enzo, McLaren and a F50 there on Saturday, nobody would be complaining about the Porsches and other cars.

I will tell you what needs to be done (but I wont do it, sorry). (1) Santana Row needs to support the event and provide security. (2) It needs to be organized by volunteers to setup each week a "show" area for the display cars to enter. (3) Then we can persuade more exotic owners to come out and bring their cars to a secure and well organized event. This will fully maximize the potential of this weekly event.

But I must caution that N. Cal owners are much different from LA so I do not think this will take off like CC. First, most owners here seem to shy away from the attention. They get enough attention at the pumps and valeting at the restaurant, why go out of your way at 8am on Saturday for more?

Second, in LA, as we all know the area is full of traffic and it is a pity for exotic car owners -- so getting up early on Saturday to drive down PCH in your exotic car on the way to CC is the perfect excuse and an absolute joy. If I lived in So. Cal, CC or no CC, you would find me cruising up and down that PCH Sat/Sun morning. The location is perfect for exotic cars.

 

I believe that it's important to recognize that we're not trying to exclude anybody. It's my belief that most of us would wholeheartedly welcome Ferrrai/Lamborghini enthusiasts to join our gathering. Before I acquired my 360, I would've loved to come to the meet, view all the awesome cars and mingle with the owners. Now that I finally have a 360, I think that it would be great to share it with owners and non-owner enthusiasts alike.

The issue here is how much we want to encourage other car makes to join our gathering. If we're going into the Lotus/BMW/Porsche community chat rooms to promote this thing, we're naturally going to get rows of those types of cars. Personally, I think that would be kind of fun once in a while since I love Sports Cars in general. (In fact, perhaps we could arrange to do this for the first or last Saturday of the month.)

However, my preference is to really promote within our Ferrari community, since that is really the "Target Market". Other types of cars, Lambos, Porsches, etc would naturally flow in and that's perfectly fine, as they add variety. To me, there's a significant distinction between promoting and encouraging vs permitting.

The last time that I looked, this was a "Ferrari Chat Room". Isn't the underlying purpose for this club to promote, meet, discuss, share and enjoy Ferraris? If it is, then I believe that we've lost a little focus.

Bottom line: It's a Ferrari Event and other Sports Cars are welcome (especially Lamborghinis and Saleens); I just wouldn't promote heavily to others.

 

Only if your insured my friend =-)

 

You're missing the point. THIS IS NOT A FERRARI OR FCHAT ONLY EVENT! Hence the name "Santana Row" meet.

We are trying to mirror this meet to Crystal Cove. Please check the socal section to give you a better idea...Also check out www.supercarsunday.com

As I said before, we ALREADY have Ferrari only meets.

I also don't remember cross posting to AMG, BMW or "ricer" forums...

 

Supercar sunday is a great event. Always great cars there, and well mixed with a lot of avg cars, too. Put on and promoted by the coffee shop there (village coffee roaster). Great to see many CGTs, SLRs, Fcars, etc, etc.

Even with the success of CC, supercar sunday (last sunday of the month) is such a great success. There is no security that is set to monitor the event, nor is there any type of show area, but it is "suggested"/assumed.

Being rowdy was an issue before over there but it was taken care of (in particular a large pickup truck that had a horn that could blow your hat off). All cars welcome, more the better.

 

Hey Alex,

Don't get your panties caught up in a bunch! As I believe you quoted earlier, "Peace Out". No need for the "You're missing the point".

When I look at the originating thread, it refers to an "Exotic Car Meet". Your statement of "Hence the name Santana Row meet" is misleading as it is labelled that simply to identify the specific meeting place. As you might recall, we discussed a variety of locales for our meet. The Exotic Car Meet just happened to be at Santana Row and was referenced as that for simplicity sake.

The event that you mentioned at Crystal Cove is referred to as an "Exotic Car Show". If you google the site, you'll see that the event is predominantly exotics. Sure, there are other "nice" cars, but they are sprinkled about. The main focus there is "Exotic Cars". I would think that the CC meet is primarily the way it is because they label it "Exotic". Quite ironically, you refer to Supersunday, which is open to all cars and happens once a month....exactly as I had suggested!

You also stated that there already are Ferrari Only meets. I thought that the dearth of Ferrari Meets was what started the "Exotic Meet" in the first place. If there are Ferrari Only meets, please let me know where they are.

Lastly, I never said that this was posted to AMG or "Ricer" forums. It was, however, posted on the Lotus and Porsche boards. Other than that, Peace Out brother.

 

I'm sure glad I didn't bring my Viper on Saturday. I wouldn't have wanted to see a SUPERCAR pull in and turn around and leave because my lowly Viper was in attendance.

It's hard for me to take your post seriously when you begin by surmising that if cars other than Ferrari, Lambo, or top tier Porsches attend, then owners of supercars won't attend, but then close your post by justifying the actions of the owner of the Porsche Cayman (not a top tier Porsche either) and assume that those actions would not have any bearing on the perceived atmosphere of the gathering. Personally, I don't know many people who own what you classify as supercars. However, the few that I do know also own Vipers and they'd be much happier parking next to one than to someone who is going to be revving their engine to the limiter in a venue like Santana Row, no matter what car they own.

I came and brought my family because I thought the point of this gathering was for "enthusiasts". I admired all of the cars there and would have loved the opportunity to display my GTS. Unfortunately, we weren't all going to fit in the GTS and I would have preferred to detail it a bit more to show it.

I do hope this event continues as an "enthusiasts gathering" and I hope at some point I might be able to bing my GTS and share it with those who might appreciate it as well as the other wonderful cars which choose to attend.

 

Too bad I don't wear panties!

The folks here know where I'm coming from, some of them will agree, and some won't.

I won't even bother responding to any of your points. I've said enough in the past and I don't want to repeat myself again.

Here's the thing....if some people feel this meet is not for them - then don't go. If you feel it's for you - then go.

Peace out, spidey!

 

A key problem with "exotics only" is who gets to decide "what is an exotic" (for instance some think Acura NSX's are exotic and others don't). Another problem is that ownership does not correlate to enthusiam, I've met plenty of car owners of so-called "exotics" who bought the cars primarily as a status symbol and don't really know or care that much about them as cars.

We don't own Santana Row and there's no way, unless a self-designated leadership group develops a relationship with the SR management, for us to dictate who does or doesn't get to park where. For our purposes, it's a public lot for the most part.

As far as how this event is being broadcast, I agree it's a fine line between broadcasting and word-of-mouth, but so far it seems it is being done as thoughtfully as possible.
If you want some Lotus Esprit Turbo's to show up, the fastest way to do that is hitting the Lotus boards and you're also going to get Elise's (BTW, when Elise's where first released in the US, they were at CC also). If you want the GT2's/GT3's/RS's/TT's/C-GT's to show up, the fastest way to do that is hitting some Porsche boards and you're also going to get the Cayman's and Boxsters (BTW, a Cayman with a 3.8L upgrade would be interesting to a lot of car guys). If you want some classic 50's Vette's or the latest Z06's to show up, there will be more common Vette's in the mix.

IMO, the only way this works is if it's self-organizing - meaning the event attracts the kind of people that we're hoping to interact with, by behaving as the type of people that we hope will come. If some jackass happens to own an Enzo, I don't particularly care if they never come; if some friendly, knowledgeable car enthusiast happens to be driving a Boxster or Elise that day, I'd rather they come and bring what they're driving that day, than miss out because they're between "exotic" cars or still working up to their first "exotic".

 

AMEN!!!

 

Ditto.

 

Okay,
Here are a few of my past and present cars...let me know when I would and wouldn't have been welcome:

1968 Triumph TR250
1959 Porsche 356A
1964 Corvair Monza
1968 Shelby GT350 clone
1975 Porsche 911s Silver Anniversary Targa
1979 Pontiac Trans Am big block
1979 Ferrari 308 GT4
1970 Camaro RS


For those that don't know me, that was sarcasm. I am a car nut, period, and I will show up in whatever I'm driving and admire whatever is parked in the parking lot. I haven't been around for a few months but I find it hard to believe this conversation is still taking place.

I think it was established long ago that on a specific drive or gathering the person calling for it could be as inclusive/exclusive as they wanted...a large event like this was going to be for gearheads. I can't wait to see someone standing at the parking lot entrance behind the velvet ropes deciding who can park and who can't.

 

Robert,

Nice to see you back here. To be honest, I am not familiar with a lot of the cars on your list. This is the reason why I personally feel this meet should be for "true" enthusiasts. I would like to learn more about the cars you have on your list. May it be American, German, Japanese, Italian, British.

I remember when I first met Aaron (Perfusion) at Alice's, he was with is Vette group then. I enjoyed looking at all the crazy mods those Vettes had. It was nice talking about boost pressures and torque numbers, instead of just talking about how a Capristo and Tubi sounds like.

I personally was never into "American Muscle", but I would love to see your "new" baby when it's all complete. It would be nice to learn new things.

I would like to see and know what type of work people put into their "toys" regardless of make. It's about the creativity and passion of people that I appreciate. Not how deep their pockets are.

Like what Yin said, not all exotic owners are enthusiasts. They buy exotics as a status symbol more than anything.

I for one used to drive a Civic when I was younger. I even used to work for a performance shop that caters to imports and German cars. I do not want to alienate anyone because I used to be the outsider looking in.

Hope to see you on the next meet. I'll make sure to be there this weekend

 

I want to be the first one to make someone with a "supercar" leave.

Perhaps my 63 Corvair Convert will do the trick.

If that doesnt work, I'll keep showing up in rattier and rattier cars until they do.

exotic means NOTHING.

RARE means nothing.

if you can buy it today, from a dealer, it is neither.

it may be EXPENSIVE... but that does not equate to exotic or rare.

 

LOL!

 

Alex,
I'll bring the Camaro as soon as I can (done or not). With Little League, school ending, kid's birthdays, sleeping...it's been a little difficult to make it out. But soon.....

I've been missing the red cars.

 

SWEET!!!

 

Phhhhttt!
'63?
Don't you know that if it isn't a '64 with the revised rear suspension it's nothing?

They won't let you in the parking lot with that.
I'm sure you could sit at the freeway off ramp and hurl insults though.

 

Plus consider the crowd you are inviting here on F-Chat...

How many boy-racers with 600hp Supra's are there?
And if they do show up one weekend? so what? If he/she a worse person that the Ferrari owner?

Whats next? only Red Ferrari's made between this year and this year can attend?

if someone shows up with one that is out of those specs they risk driving off the other owners?

puuuuuullllll-leeeeeeeeze


if you want to look at CARS only, go to a dealership.

if you want to meet PEOPLE, have a car meet.

the cars arent nearly as interesting as the people.

 

Yeah, it surprised me that this issue popped up again too. But WTH, it can be re-addressed.

I took the liberty of borrowing some of Nocturne1's pics from his 6/10/06 Crystal Cove blog.

Interesting. Pic#1, we have some vintage Chrysler's adjacent to some Lambo's. Pic #2, looks like a purple Charger next to a Lotus Elise. Pic #3, an F40, Corvette then a Porsche coming into CC. Pic #4, an F40, with Ford GT and Ford Mustang convertible in the next row back. Pic #5, "just" an Alfa Romeo Sprint.

What a shocker! Chrysler's, Corvette's, Mustang's, Dodge's, Lotus Elise's at Crystal Cove. Oh sure, the cars that get the most photo time are the F's, L's, Spyker and so on; but it seems like many sorts of interesting cars show up and enjoy the event.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

You'd better!!!!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login