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Sept 5, 2018 18:13:51 GMT
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One thing that always infuriated me when I was in the club.... they hold an archive of every single promotional poster ever produced to advertise the event going right back to the first year. Original prints off the press.
They OWN those... full rights.
They are things of beauty. Even the years when money was tight and the quality had to be lowered... they're still beautiful because they ooze the visual language of the era.
They always lose money on the event and they grumble and groan about that. They have this HUGE archive of stuff they could reproduce and sell.
They don't bother though because "We tried that once before and it was too much hassle and not enough sales to make it worthwhile".
Well they might have tried it once before, but undoubtedly it was not done very well. probably not with the right processes and procedures and the ability to promote and sell merch online all year round with some kudos behind the event. people would buy a beautiful and faithful reproduction poster, or the poster on a teeshirt, a mug, a ruddy keyfob if you like.... but no... can't be bothered... so it's just a pile of gold sat rotting away in their damp store room. Slowly mouldering into cylinders of clammy pulp.
DAMMMN. DO SOMETHING SOMEBODY.
*Panics*
*Flounces*
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 5, 2018 18:46:18 GMT
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True story
One of the most perspicacious and depressing summations ever written on here *hat doff*
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Sept 5, 2018 19:46:37 GMT
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Never been. But then I do live in Ireland. However I'll say this. I always used to know it was coming up. And I'd never be watching out for event reports, as they were everywhere. This year I didn't notice its arrival and had to seek out event reports!
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 5, 2018 19:52:33 GMT
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Would a Dodge Demon plenum go any way towards cheering things up a bit? 840bhp supercharged Hemi and street legal. Is there anything not to like? Demon plenum by Nick Liassides, on Flickr
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Sept 5, 2018 20:12:08 GMT
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Not sure. Maybe a supercharger on top of a supercharger could lighten the tone though...
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 5, 2018 22:29:06 GMT
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Ahhhhhhhhhh, right I see now. I thought it was just a random picture dropped in to correct the downward/negative and bring us back to the RR upward positivity vibe.
=)
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mfrv1
Part of things
Posts: 267
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Sept 8, 2018 17:46:16 GMT
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I too have some issues regarding the Speed Trials: There was a "Marshall" stopping cars just before the pits until the drivers wore their gloves. Why not tell them before the vehicles leave for the pits? Now bearing this in mind, how were some of the 34 people (yes I did count) allowed to stand next to motorcycles during burnouts? My last moan is that during announcements promoting donations for charity, they said "those of you who got in for free..." Why are people getting in for free when the rest of us paid £15? Oh, and I got sunburnt
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 8, 2018 19:33:22 GMT
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Now bearing this in mind, how were some of the 34 people (yes I did count) allowed to stand next to motorcycles during burnouts? It's to stop you* from being able to take any worthwhile photos of anything at all. Ever. Also see "the eleventy zillion ignorant fools who think having a hi-viz tabard declaring them to be MEDIA entitles them to stroll arrogantly around the 'wrong' side of the barriers and stand right in front of anyone trying to see the action, doubly so if that said anyone is obviously trying to take photographs" *otherwise known as "the paying public"
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Sept 12, 2018 15:15:52 GMT
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Quatermass, very wise and poignant words you have there.
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Sept 12, 2018 22:23:19 GMT
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Quatermass, very wise and poignant words you have there. *Curtsies* You should read my progress thread. Just to be clear... nobody should ever have to read my progress thread. There is no progress for one thing, and for another... there's not much of a thread.
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Last Edit: Sept 12, 2018 22:46:27 GMT by Deleted
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merryck
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 477
Club RR Member Number: 9
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Sept 17, 2018 19:48:10 GMT
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Let's do it. Save the Brighton Speed Trials!
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Sept 18, 2018 11:23:01 GMT
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Let's do it. Save the Brighton Speed Trials! Honestly, I'd be up for trying. With a team of people. It could be great, and at the moment it just ... happens.
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Sept 18, 2018 13:42:39 GMT
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The problem you'll come across trying to "fix" this is getting through the club.. They have ownership of the event, and its history. They will guard that jealously I imagine. Sure I (or someone like me) could stride in saying "hey your event needs saving and I'm the man to do it!", whilst they are probably aware that it is struggling I don't think they would take kindly to that. Regardless of who it is.
Moving it works as an idea to keep an event going, and certainly it is something that big events have done before. However I'd suggest being the oldest motorsport event in the world you still need to use Maderia Drive. You'd actually want to go much larger though, close the length of Marine Parade, have the whole of it from Arundal Road down to the round about as event and event parking. Go in huge and make it an event that bring in manufacturers (as you say those companies are important), bring in electric/alternative fuel classes for pushing a green agenda. Bring in the heritage that is has but also make it big enough now that the local businesses are hugely positively impacted now, so it isn't just playing off it past.
Then actually advertise the damn thing. Also reduce cost of entry and make kids free.
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 18, 2018 13:45:41 GMT
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To be fair, the one thing that's commendable about it is that the entry fee is still cheaps. Compared to any other motorsports event, anyway. Certainly cheaper than being raped for the cost of anything Brighton Pier
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Sept 18, 2018 13:56:44 GMT
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The problem you'll come across trying to "fix" this is getting through the club.. They have ownership of the event, and its history. They will guard that jealously I imagine. Sure I (or someone like me) could stride in saying "hey your event needs saving and I'm the man to do it!", whilst they are probably aware that it is struggling I don't think they would take kindly to that. Regardless of who it is. Yes, absolutely that Hotwire. Nail on the head. Any approach would have to be along the lines of "Look, we realise this is a very important and significant event and the BMHC have been doing an amazing job of putting it on every year. Often outnumbered, under resourced and fighting many battles with very few soldiers. We want to help BMHC continue to run the event by helping you with your efforts in order to update the awareness and perhaps the pre-organisation and running of the event. You are the owners of the event and we are the younger crowd who want to chip in and make sure it's around for another 100+ years. So we're here to help, with some new ideas and the knowledge/experience and sheer numbers to make it happen". It would really have to be a cavalry of enthusiasm rather than some kind of brutal levering of ownership. It would need to start by offering to be a plug and play event booster, not a new management team. === Honestly, if you dropped in to their clubhouse on a Wednesday evening you'd get a feeling in five minutes of what a challenge it is for them to deal with. I don't mean that in an insulting way... it's just the way it is. In fact, does anyone out there in the Brighton area fancy agreeing to drop in one Wednesday evening on the pretext of being potentially interested in membership? We could make it an informal RR meet-up and also chat to some of the key members there.
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Last Edit: Sept 18, 2018 14:16:45 GMT by Deleted
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Sept 18, 2018 14:12:53 GMT
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I know the BHMC (<I'm deliberately putting the letters in the wrong order for the sake of it not coming up in a Google search by the way) put ut calls for help every single year. What they get wrong with that though is that they put the call out for any willing individuals who might be able to give them some of their time to help them do the things as they've always done them. They're begging for random people to donate a few hours. That's not going to get the boat moving, it's only going to prop up the hull and plug the holes.
The event is, to all intense and purposes, a drag racing event.
It's also, in some ways (bear with me here) a horizontal hill climb.
It's also an historic motorsport event.
I wonder if the cavalry that steps in to help lift the BMHC onto a greater event could be a combo of
1. The youthful, 21st century adept, skilled and experienced organisers of RR Gathering/Weekender 2. Goodwood as an endorser and supplier of some crowd-drawing talent 3. NSRA as a source of some 1/8th and 1/4 mile showmanship
RR helps with the promo and organisation. The RR community does some runs, takes care of the crowd pleasing static display stuff Goodwood adds its name and gravitas to the event, and maybe uses its muscle to get something genuinely exotic and exciting down the track NSRA gathers members to run some Outlaw Anglias, Gassers, etc.
Between each group in collaboration, the thing gets promoted like nuts for the 8 months preceding. Major exposure, PR that talks up the history, the sexy, the power, the awesome unmissability of a premier motoring event.
And we all turn up in our cars, giving it broad appeal across all car sub-cultures, and camp in a field and drive everybody nuts with TenaciousD on a bluetooth all night long.
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Last Edit: Sept 18, 2018 14:22:28 GMT by Deleted
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Sept 18, 2018 14:20:27 GMT
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I'm sitting here waiting for that "I am Spartacus" moment to happen where we all get emotional but in a totally manly way and its a beautiful scene where each of us gets that "coalition of the willing' glint in our eyes that says we know what needs to be done and we're the people who are going to stand up and be counted.
Then we all go and get matching tattoos and hug each other.
*Flicks over to facebook. Goes to kitchen for more crisps. Watches a kitten on YouTube*
Eh, I'll slink back to my own thread now.
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Last Edit: Sept 18, 2018 14:21:05 GMT by Deleted
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Sept 18, 2018 15:02:40 GMT
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You are welcome to have a chat with me about the NSRA.....
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Sept 18, 2018 15:26:46 GMT
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Honestly, if you dropped in to their clubhouse on a Wednesday evening you'd get a feeling in five minutes of what a challenge it is for them to deal with. I have a mental image of it being like going into the Slaughtered Lamb pub at the start of An American Werewolf in London
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