GRRC Members Meeting 2014 and 2015

I have decided to skip Revival this year in favor of attending the 2015 GRRC Members Meeting.

As you know, 2014 was the first year for the modern iteration of this classic Goodwood event.

Did any FChatters attend the event this year? If so, I would really appreciate knowing your impressions and opinions. Having been to seven Revivals, I think I've done that enough, and I've read some very positive things about the Members Meeting. But what say you?

Also, has it been confirmed that there will be a Members Meeting in 2015?

Many thanks.

Jack

 

By all accounts it was a great success.I take it your a member of the GRRC?
Good write up here;
72nd Members Meeting - Report and Photos - PistonHeads

 

More photos here too http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/holland-belgium/442755-goodwood-72nd-members-meeting.html

They did email some non-members shortly before the event this year to offer tickets

 

If those photos don't make you want to go nothing will.

 

I went on the Saturday and it was a great day out helped by the great weather, very relaxed and quiet. Of course if the numbers climb to FOS or revival levels I suspect it will be much less desirable

pics at Goodwood 72nd Meeting

 

Yes, I thought it was very good, better than the Revival as there were less VIP areas (1 I believe) and limited tickets. So you could see everything and move around easily. As a bonus I was given the tickets- and that looked good as it was a metal / enamel badge.
I'll be going next year- its a must.

 

Yes, I'm a GRRC member and that's one of the attractions....Being in the US it's one of the few events for members that I can take advantage of. I don't care much for the FoS format, and after seven Revival meetings, the pre-1967 restriction (and the huge crowds) is wearing a little thin, especially for the expense involved. I expect that if they continue to limit MM admission to GRRC members that crowd levels will be more manageable.

Thanks for all your comments and fabulous pictures. By any chance was there an F-Chat meet-up? I see Onno (Jazzy-O) was there.

 

I was there for both days and found it reminiscent of the early Revival days when you could get around with out enduring the prawn sandwich brigade!
I do not attend revival any more purely due to these folk whom are there to be seen rather than showing any interest in the racing.
I really enjoyed it and hope they repeat it next year...........and hope it stays with the format.
Graham

 

Thanks, Graham. You and I seem to share the same perspective on Revival...as well as an apparent affection for early series Range Rovers!

 

I was there both days and it was a fantastic event much better than the revival due to the much smaller crowds, and surprisingly good weather.

Oddly I thought it was slightly quieter on the Sunday, maybe because of the Grand Prix and the fact that it was Mother's day.

 

As a GRRC member who lives within 3 miles of Goodwood I was unable to go due to the extortionate cost of tickets!!!!

I think it's an absolute cheek charging members for a members only meeting. It was so expensive that many many members boycotted the meeting and the organisers had to open the doors to the public just to make up numbers.

I have already written a strong letter to the GRRC and filled in their online questionaire as to why I didn't attend, and suggest that any other members on here do the same.

Whats the point of a members meeting if they make it so expensive that you are unable to attend, surely it could be better managed and financially supported by the other public events in the year and their sponsors, thus allowing the members meeting to be free to it's members.
You get very little for your GRRC membership fees. Cheaper tickets to FOS & Revival (but cheaper still to anyone who buys the local newspaper) even the club only grandstands and enclosures etc are chargeable. The "Free" club food hall etc charge more for tea & coffee and food than the public vendors at the events so just what is the advantage?

Sorry to be negative on this, but I feel that its a complete rip-off.

 

Good points, did feel that if your a member you should get in with your membership.
It's not cheap to be a member after all.

 

But surely you realise that being a member merely gives you greater opportunities to spend even more money! That's the whole philosophy behind it

 

Brilliant, isn't it? To be honest I didn't even check the prices since I knew I wouldn't be going this year, and being in the US I would have just made a holiday of it anyway.

I am rather disappointed, though, to learn that they opened up the so-called MEMBERS Meeting to non-members. It seems to me that Lord March could afford to take a reasonable financial loss in the first year just to prime the pump, so to speak. It appears the exhorbitant prices and non-member admissions may have the undesired effect of tamping down enthusiasm for next year's event, if there is to be one.

 

Hi Jack

I was fortunate to go as a guest of an employee and member, I would say that all of the people I encountered there seemed, shall we say, the right sort of people, i.e. Motorsport fans or in certain cases those there for the event's social position. I believe the event may well have lost money anyway but from my experience it's not to be missed in the future, having said that a lot of the pleasure was how quiet it was and if it grows into Revival size it'll become the same i.e. a victim of it's own success


Re membership, I did go on the waiting list for membership and was offered it a few years back but at the time due to distance (hardly an excuse compared to you!) and available time I didn't think i'd get any real benefit

 

Thanks for sharing your experience, Mark. By the way, I didn't mean to imply that I would be somehow offended by mingling with non-members, but if GRRC are going to advertise a members and guests only event, then that's what they should have, as they do with many other events during the year. It's more the number of people, not the "quality" that concerns me.

I would really relish a sort of low key Revival, if you will, with less crowding and fewer distractions during the track events. Revival has really become difficult to enjoy to the extent one could in the early years, and FoS really isn't my cup of tea, especially considering the effort, time and expense involved for me.

Anyway, I'm hoping there will be a 73rd Members Meeting. If so, I will plan to be there!

 

I attended the 72nd members' meeting with a couple of friends and enjoyed it very much. Nonetheless, I find myself agreeing with Darren and Mark.

I joined the GRRC in 1998, when it was founded, at an annual sub of £50. At that time, the discounts on a couple of 3-day tickets for the Festival of Speed and subsequently the Revival offset a large proportion of the sub.

I recall free access to the cars at the Festival, costly Snap On tool kits left unattended and John Surtees sitting on a Merc wheel chatting to a bunch of bikers In other words, to coin a phrase, the Right Crowd and No Crowding!

Fast forward a couple of years, and I was amazed to see a long stream of cars entering the car park - and even more so, a mother standing idly by as her toddler heaved himself off the ground by the Perspex window of a P3, kicking at the aluminium door to support himself!

Soon after, the barriers arrived and there were countless near misses as unknowing visitors walked in front of racing cars with in/out clutches and virtually no low speed braking. Followed by the F1 circus and numerous sponsors' guests with minimal interest in the cars or sport.

I gave up but rejoined in 2009, when I was caught for a £200 odd fee in addition to the sub.

this year the sub is £200, the member's meeting was £120 for 2 days (+credit card charge) - I can't confirm the other event discounts as their site is down!

I appreciate that there are several other members' only events but these are mostly impracticable for someone living at the other end of the country and inevitably incur extra costs.

The setting is wonderful and the general standard of presentation at the circuit is excellent but the costs are now outrageous.

The 'traditional' events are seriously overcrowded, to the extent movement is often difficult, and the Festival is dominated by the F1 encampment, with it's predictable fortifications.

I was amused to receive the questionnaire about the Members' event. One question asked recipients to compare prices with those of Wimbledon, a premier league football match, Lords etc. No mention of the Silverstone Historic Festival or Donnington!

 

I became a GRRC member in 2001 and have renewed every year even though I only attend Revival, and only in alternate years. I have kept the membership active just so I won't be without when "my year" comes up. I will go to the Members Meeting if there is one in 2015, but if it's abandoned or becomes nothing more than a replica of Revival with newer cars allowed, I'll simply start going to Le Mans Classic or Donington instead.

 

I agree that's the MM was expensive but when you compare it to a premiership football match it's not bad value. Premiership football games can be £50-60 a ticket for 90 minute game of football so £120 for two packed days of racing ( and the Saturday evening event which I didn't go too) wasn't bad.

The latest Octane indicates that some tickets were given to car clubs (the Bugatti Owners club was specifically mentioned) but not offered to the general public.

 

When you factor in the two days racing and the Saturday evening entertainment then it was not really that expensive.
The evenings entertainment was as usual for Goodwood, highly polished and plenty of it.
The best/funniest of all was this crowd THE DUKes BOX - Home. Absolutely brilliant entertainment.
It was a great night.

 

A limited number of tickets have been released today for fans of the Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival and these are available to purchase on a first come first served basis.

Quote from the email - not just selected clubs it would appear

 

Cost like beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder.

Think of it this way. My GRRC membership is for me and my 16 year old son. It is the equivalent of 1 1/2 weeks pay or 60 hours of working for me.

The members meeting is ill timed as it follows the membership fee direct debit.
A weekend at the MM for me and my son would have been another weeks pay. If we'd had Grandstand tickets, meals each day and evening entertainment that would have been another weeks pay.

So if you look at it in my perspective, consider your own salaries and think would 80 hours of your working time be expensive to attend a members meeting; just after you'd paid out the equivalent of 60 hours of your pay for membership???

Food for thought

 

Jimmie, can you clarify? I did not quite understand....Are tickets for the Members Meeting or for FoS and Revival being released? I did not receive an email from GRRC about this,

Thanks.

Jack.

 

They sent an email out to people(non members of GRRC) who previously purchased tickets for FOS/revival offering them tickets to the MM.

 

OK, thanks. He was referring to the 2014 Members Meeting, then.

Jack