On Wed, 26 Nov 1997 20:04:33 -0800 Jim Boyd <ISC@dcsi.net> writes:
>Hey Listers (and Jack & Bob):
>
>I haven't been folowing this thread, but just happened to catch it
>tonight on Thanksgiving Eve. My attention was piqued because: 1) I
>have long range plans of developing a British based Rover 3.5L
>sportscar, to be manufactured in a kit form and 2) I also was a
>co-founder of our local Chico Area BRITISH Car Club (multi-marque
>based!!).
>
>Ok, so I live in the foothills of the Left Coast (that's CA for you
>guys
>in Ohio!), so you know that I must already be an oddball! :>) A
>friend
>and I fought the odds of starting a club almost 5 years ago and now
>boast a regional membership of 155 HOUSEHOLDS (which translates into
>about 600 LBCs of ALL known marques!!) The club is very active, has a
>solid volunteer based steering committee, no elected officers, over
>$6K
>in the club checking account and sponsors a very nice British Meet
>every
>June.
>
>At the time, both of us were MG owners and considered starting a MG
>club
>vs the multi-marque club. But in our innocence, we figured we
>couldn't
>muster up enough MGs to be successful. Boy were we wrong, since about
>half of our members own MGs. But we had seen how single marque clubs
>easily can develop a *tendency* to become cliquish, very political,
>and,
>quite frankly, boring. Nope, I'm not looking for ways to insult
>people,
>just stating my opinion!
>
>FWIW, here are the cars I currently own: '67 MGB GT (this was #1),
>'69
>MGB GT (parts car), (2)'70 MGB GTs, '65 MGB Pull Handle Roadster, '69
>MGB Roadster, '70 MGB Roadster (parts car), '77 MGB Roadster (waiting
>for a V8), '69 MGC GT, '69 Austin America, '60 Austin Mini, '66 Morris
>Mini "Woody" Countryman (RHD), '70 TR6, '50 Austin Devon, '56 Hillman
>Minx, '72 Spitfire (parts car),'59 Hillman Minx, (3) 1970 Rover P6B
>3500Ss, (4) Datsun 510s, a couple of Mazda 626s, a Volvo 245 wagon and
>a
>Chevy Suburban. I'm also eyeballing a '54 Metropolitan Roadster, a
>Ford
>Cortina, another Hillman Minx, a Volvo 544, a '51 GMC COE (cab over
>engine) truck (to haul the trailer!!)and a couple more 510s for the
>collection!!
>
> DIVERSITY IS A GOOD THING!!
>
>Cheers,
>Jim Boyd
>International Sportscar Components
>Paradise, CA (daily tours are .25!)
Jim,
if you'll delete Chico area and insert Upstate SC area, you just
described what happened here about 15 years ago.
A couple of us, like you thought we couldn't draw enough MG's to
establish a viable MG club, so we be came a Multi-marque club. WOW!
I haven't looked at the membership list lately (afraid of the numbers),
but I ran some stats from it a couple years back
Seems the average member had 3.5 cars
at least 2 different marques
over 60 % were daily drivers
Of all marques, MG was highest with a bit over 40%
Triumph second with about 30%
The rest were Healey (strong 3rd) and everything from Aston-Martin to
TVR to Railton.
I'll bet that if the guys ranting about not having a British Car Club
would quite moaning and get out and work at it, there'd be a lot more of
them.
Rick Morrison
"Inter-Marque snipping is nothing more than automotive sibling rivalry"
72 MGBGT
74 Midget
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