This is a bit of a ramble but I think a lot of you will find it relevant.
A little bit of Australian Perspective on the various elements that have been
proposed in this topic.
We have a "National" roadster weekend every year. It is really an East Coast
weekend because of our geography (we are as big as mainland USA but the middle
half of our country is desert) and it has been growing quite well.
Next year (It will be in the southern state of Victoria at Easter if anyone
would like to Join us) the organising club is joining in with other
Nissan/Datsun clubs for one big meeting. A lot of roadster owners are annoyed
with this and some are talking boycott.
The reason for the annoyance is concern about being swamped by the other makes
(1,300 roadsters sold new, 6000 240/260Z and 10s of thousands of sedans). I'm
not one of the boycotters because I like most of the models that are likely to
be represented.
In the club that I started 14 years ago (membershp varies from 60 to 100 at
any given time) and which has been run on very formal lines with a committee,
proper fees, magazine etc for more than 12 years, I tried to open membership
up to all pre '71, non L and A engined Datsuns. The membership rejected this
even though there will never be enough 310/312 and 410/411 Bluebirds or
Cedrics to outnumber us. We know that from the enquiries we receive that Z
owners would outnumber us within a few years and the people who are hard-core
Z enthsiasts tend to have different view of their cars and what they want from
a club than our members and their would be too many forces pulling the club
apart. Our roadster owner average profile is men, mid 40s or older, restorers
with an interest in racing and tinkering. Z owners are usually younger, more
inclined to modifying and showing their V8 conversions than enjoying a
spirited drive along back roads. There are of course exceptions.
In another club (not one of mine) about 16 years ago there was a somewhat
bitter split when roadster owners felt who had dominated the club for years
found themselves outnumbered by 510/610/710 and Z owners. The roadster owners
went and started a new club. Most of those in the club at the time of the
split have moved on but some are still bitter.
Running a big club is not easy. Ask people like Marty McKinney and Ross Mullen
(plus a few others on this list) who did a great job holding the Datsun
Roadster Association together for many years. That was more than a US National
Roadster club. It also had quite a few overseas members such as myself.
If there are people out there who are prepared to take on the task then our
words of support will really need to be turned into action because it can be
hard, frustrating and often unappreciated work. Like the big British Marque
clubs it will need to be organised like a company. In Britain, the MG club is
so big it has a couple of employees. Since Datsuns in the USA outnumber MGs in
Britain you would think that this could be viable. I wouldn't be surprised if
a few of the big American car clubs have people on some sort of salaries. You
will have to be that big to really have any influence over Nissan and secure
the future of parts for our cars. Management, marketing and PR are time
consuming and expensive. BTW, how many American car manufacturers still make
parts for 35 year old models? I bet most of that is now handled by small
businesses all around the country, similar to Rallye or CDM.
An international club/alliance of clubs has also been mentioned. Several years
ago a US based member of the Japanese SROC was supposed to coordinate such an
animal. Unfortunately it went no where. I was prepared to be the Australian
contact/coordinator for it (and still am) and the SROC in Japan were keen for
it to happen. I would really like to see relations between ALL of the roadster
clubs around the world formalised and the exchange of information, ideas and
parts grow considerably.
This mail group is defacto international roadster club of sorts with about 6
Aussie members and silmilar numbers in Europe/UK and Asia. But we are only
about 400 to 500 owners of the (my rough guess) 5,000 to 10,000 roadsters that
still survive. Most of those owners probably don't even have internet access
and something else to remember, half of them will not join a club regardless
of how attractive you make it.
Yes, there should at least be strong contacts between Datsun clubs even of
they cater to different models. In areas outside major cities where there are
too few roadsters to have there own viable club then a club that caters for
several or even all Nissan/Datsuns is a good idea.
That's enough rampbling for now. If anyone wants to start an international
roadster club, let me know and I'll do what I can to help.
Regards,
Phill Brook
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