Hello Forum Members,
On the 19th November 2006 the VMR Forum was opened and so an anniversary is nearly upon us. Looking at the number of postings to date it averages out at less than one post a day from a forum that can boast 59 members. Why so few? I'm a member of other old car related forums and these can be feisty places but also places to pick up valuable information and also for idle gossip and general car related chit chat.
As I was one of the members that strongly lobbied Ian to set up a forum for VMR members I feel I should at least try and spark a debate as to why our forum has not taken off.
One thought concerned sales and wants. The main website has a Marketplace section and perhaps that is why no small ads appear here. I think this forum is an ideal vehicle to buy and sell our vintage Minor bits. Its immediate and free and the audience are all interested in the parts in question. No sorting through all the Issigonis Minor parts on eBay - all bits on here will relate just to our cars.
A fellow VMR member emailed me today about a part he was having to get batch made as that was the only way he could source the part. That may well be the case but why not try the forum for the part in the first instance and if that doesn't produce a result how about using the forum to sell the surplus production?
Are there other reasons our forum is so inactive? If you have a view post it here - don't let this resource wither on the vine.
Chris
PS Any body know where I can source an original looking Lucas rear view mirror for a Semi Sports.
PPS I am collecting period images of Minors - anybody got any that I can buy. High res scanned images are fine also.
Interesting one this, 28 people have looked at this topic yet no one has chosen to comment.
I have tried to generate several Forum debates, but very few have taken up the challenge and posted a responce.
When the forum was first launched I thought excellent, a way of engaging in debate between summer rallies in a far broader way than can be achieved with email. This broader debate and participation just has not happened with replies being so few that email would have been just as effective. In the end this has resulted in me not taking the time to post on the forum, it being quicker to dash off an email to a specific person whom I know will respond with sound comment and advice.
So why? Are we shy, worried that we can't work it, worried about our spelling in front of others, convinced that we have nothing to offer, worried that our input will be dismissed etc.
It would be a great shame to loose this facility it can work as a vehicle for communication and provide the VMR with an electronic community that can provide significant benefit to members afer all we have the common goal of all trying to keeping our Minors going.
Well, yesterday's first Anniversary of this Forum came and went.
I must echo the concerns about its lack of use. Why is this? It is not the Forum, but the whole Register which is sleep walking. Many of you may have noticed my marked lack of Register activity since the Summer Rally, and I’d like to explain why. In the spring of this year, I made a monumental effort to complete my Semi-sports in time to ship it to the UK for the Summer Rally. This took hundreds of hours of late night effort - often in freezing conditions and cost thousands, as did the shipping. This was done in parallel with keeping up with the quarterly Magazines, getting the monthly e-Newsletters out on the first of every month, chasing up delinquest subs worldwide, organizing the spring pub meets and the enormous effort of putting the Dorset Summer Rally together, not to mention keeping the website up to date, answering e-mails, co-ordinating batches of spares and making literally hundreds of international phone calls and sending hundreds of e-mails begging people to come to the Rally. The result of all this expended energy and time was 12 vintage Minors turned up – not one car more that were at our very first Summer Rally in 2001, and that when we only had 60 members and the Register was less than a year old. Now we have three times that many members.
Also during the spring, I was deeply embroiled in a bruising battle royal with the VSCC to try to get SV Minors eligible for our SV-owning members, several of whom are young kids whose enthusiasm needs to be nurtured. This resulted in a laughable decision to accept ALL pre-Ruby Austin Sevens, but not a single SV Minor – not even the rare and sporting McEvoys. Maybe the VSCC knows something about Minor owners – that even if their cars were accepted, nobody would actually be bothered to join and do anything with their cars. That little epsiode also took a heavy toll on my enthusiasm, not to mention my enthusiasm for the VSCC. Words cannot describe how disgusted I am with them.
Another example of near total Register apathy was when I proposed that the Magazine be distributed in electronic format – to save a vast number of hours and huge expense. I received e-mails from TWO people on the subject. When I reversed that decision because I just could not bring myself to abandon the printed copy, I detailed this in the November e-Newsletter. In order to try to get some feedback from somewhere on the subject I invited recipients to e-mail me back with their thoughts. I got ONE e-mail – from Clive Hamilton-Gould actually regretting that I had abandoned the e-Magazine!
A related situation is the Magazine CD. These CD’s which I have produced since M 111 are really neat and unique to our Register – they include the complete Magazine in full colour, with all high resolution images, they can be printed, word searched, uploaded to your hard drive so you can word search the entire series of issues, and also include all the images which were gathered during the previous three months, and from which the Magazine images were chosen. They also include up to date Registers and a snapshot of the entire website at the time of publication. The cost of these CD’s is a paltry 50 pence per CD. So how many CD’s do you think I produce for each Magazine? A hundred? Fifty? Nope – just four. Four members out of 180 think them worth an extra two Pounds per annum. It is just not worth my time to collate all the files, burn the CDs and design and print the labels.
As a result of all this, my family has been horribly neglected over the last few years, as has our house which is in desperate need of maintenance and redecoration. Most of my energies are currently going into organizing a Silver Wedding Anniversary cruise on QM2 next April for my long-suffering wife who doesn’t wholly share my enthusiasm for ancient automotive machinery – which is not surprising seeing how much time and money it drains from our life for so little return.
Some days I think I will sell my Minors and buy a couple of Austin 7s. I know that if I did this, it would be like a fish jumping out of a rockpool back into the ocean. The Seven has enjoyed 85 illustrious years of unbounded enthusiasm. There are still plenty of lovely unrestored cars to be had, they exude charm, there is an enormous, enthusiastic and highly active Seven fraternity, cheap spares are everywhere, eBay has pages and pages of chassis, engines, gearboxes, axles – I’m sure I could build an Austin 7 with just a few clicks of the mouse.
I have sold my tourer (to pay for the cruise), and the Semi-sports and the McEvoy I bought earlier in the year are still in the UK, so I don’t actually have any cars to work on or drive right now.
I wonder what response I would get if I were to announce that I was winding up the VMR. Would I get more than a handful of replies? Would anybody notice it was gone? After seven years of mouth to mouth, am I trying to breathe life into a corpse or should I carry on a little longer? Am I doing anything wrong? Is there some magic formula to running a Register which I am missing?
I am in fairly regular contact with a handful of members – the Register isn’t completely dead – we do have a core, albeit a tiny one – of enthusiastic members and I am very grateful for their input, e-mails, friendship and support - you know who you are.
Chris Lambert has kick started the 2008 Summer Rally for me, for which I am also eeply grateful, and I think I can just feel the old enthusiasm gasping into life once more. I abandoned plans for hiring Prescott for a third time – I just couldn’t face months of begging people to enter again. We would need 150 cars to break even and if I couldn’t get them, the shortfall would come out of my own pocket – the hill costs GBP 4,500 plus VAT to hire for the day, and that has to be paid in full a month before the Rally. I’ve had too much of paying Rally shortfalls from my own funds in the past - it isn’t going to happen again. Next year’s rally in East Anglia will be based on events which don’t involve fixed costs, so it matters not financially how many – or how few cars turn up. This approach severely limits what we can offer, but so be it.
M 129 has taken an eternity to write – it should have been in your hands in September. I am hoping to get it in the post at the end of next week.
Maybe when I get my cars over here and the spring comes around then I’ll see things in a better light, but for now I just need to get my head down, get M 129 out and then get an M 130 done as fast as I can after that to try to catch up. Any input for M 130 would be greatly appreciated and I promise to return to the fray as soon as I can find it within myself.
Having just read Ian's posting I totally understand his sentiments. The real danger for the rest of us is that we will loose this fantastic resource called the VMR. It is not just the magazine, website pub meets and rallys but the network of contacts and knowledge sources that go with it. Ian binds all of this together for the benefit of the rest of us.
I'm not sure how we can help Ian through this other than to show our support and if ever there was a time to do so - it is now. What happened within the VSCC was disgusting and the exclusion of the s/v Minor from the revised PVT list was a deliberate and very conscious slur by some (in my humble opinion) embittered old f**** sitting on a committee in Chipping Norton. I can only say to Ian that he won the argument and that the fate of the s/v Minor is much more likely to be affected by a vibrant VMR than a comatose VSCC.
I am not going to speak for the rest of you but I want to keep our club alive and healthy - apathy never achieved anything!
Chris
Despite Chris saying that he wasn't speaking for the rest of us I think that perhaps he has done just that !
The problem with our club is that we have been spoiled !
When Ian formed the club a few years ago it was with such enthusiasm and determination that none of us are surprised by the phenominal success that it has been. Solely down to one very hard working person.
And what did we all do in the face of this enthusiasm. Yes , just stand back and let him carry it all himself. I certainly count myself in this category I am ashamed to say , along with 90% of the rest of the members.
Perhaps now is the time to share the burden and although I am not a devotee of "committees" it may be a way of ensuring that certain activities , be they articles , events or ideas are generated and fed through to Ian to formulate into the VMR newsletter. Additionally it would be of tremendous help to Ian to have UK organisers sorting out venues and arrangements fot rallies etc.
Now. Let's have some volunteers come out of hiding and enable this excellent club keep on going forward in the manner that Ian has initiated.
Dear Ian and fellow minor owners. I joined the VMR about two years ago when I resigned from the Morris Rigister. I have owned my minor for three years and drive her daily to the golf club, shops and visits to relatives. I found the VMR a hands on club and early on when I was rebuilding the engine and gearbox I fould quite a few of you very helpful. I attended the National Rally for a morning in a modern car and was dissapointed in the turnout. I was in a modern as I was in a Golf competition at Perbeck and Scottish Dancing that evening at Epsom! I am not computer literate and woulod not look at ebay unless one of you says click here - I cannot understand why someone would sell a minor on ebay BEFORE trying via the club, same with spares. What little spares I have sold via the club went overnight (still have 4 18inch wheels) I have over a period of 50 years belong to many one make clubs - what little I have seen of the VMR you are one of the best. Do not loose it. If it makes you feel any better Ian, most clubs, not just motor clubs, suffer from lack of members who do not want to do anything - liker the old saying if do dont use it you will loose it. Yours, Aye, Alister (Highlander)
Dear Ian.
I was saddened, but not really surprised when I read your recent letter on the Forum. Apart from the disgraceful eligibility affair with the VSCC ,I wonder if part of the trouble is that we are such a small club, spread over such a large area. We have 160 members, and say 20% are active. 30 people, some of whom are active only in their area. What is the membership of the Austin 7 club. 5000? So immediately we have potentially 1000 active members. Added to that, if one enters a competition and breaks the car, with an A7 it is a simple matter to replace the parts. With a Minor, you may be looking at a costly bill, and a protracted search for the elusive parts. I would not be prepared to enter my car in an event which might result in breaking it. Its cost me too much in time and money to get the car to its present condition.
We have all been very lucky to have the advantage of your organisation of the VMR. To me, ownership of the car has been greatly enhanced by your enthusiasm and the friends I have made through the club. But the fact remains that perhaps your expectation of the VMR membership has been too high. There simply are not enough of us who are active with their cars, and financially able to attend such large events as you have organised. Particularly for those living some distance away, and have to organise stays before and after the event. Perhaps a turnout of 12 VMR members is as much as could be expected. I had always hoped that some of the articles I wrote would generate correspondence. But it was not to be. I assumed from this that most members did not carry out their own serious servicing. It would be a great shame if the VMR were lost, but perhaps it should be tailored to what the membership are able to respond to and not what would be ideal if it were a lot larger. This should be reflected in the magazine as well as the Summer Rally. If the only way in which the magazine is to continue, is by receiving an emailed copy, then so be it. I was not initially in favour of this, because you cannot read an emailed copy on the toilet very easily! But I could fully understand your reasons for wanting to publish it in this way. My lack of correspondence on the matter was because I did not want to burden you with my opinion on the matter. It had to be something you decided yourself. After all, it is not me who has to do the work. Finally, I believe that it would be worthwhile if every online member were sent a copy of your letter, so that those who choose not to make any contribution to the club can realise what they might soon loose. Thank you for keeping up the good work for as long as you have. My apologies to Jayne for being a Minor Widow.
I agree that Ian has done a sterling job with the VMR and should be congratulated on all his hard work; he really has gone beyond the call of duty!
I however do not feel that the VSCC can, or should be blamed, because they would not fall in to line with Ian's proposals.
I was pleased with the revised PVT list. They now accept all OHC Minors which is good - as these are the same as 1930 specification Cars. I do not agree that they will be accepting the Family 8 LWB cars as to me they are NOT OHC Minors!
I have to admit that I like the VSCC a lot, especially the LC&E Section and love to do events such as trials and driving tests. I do not however derive much pleasure from navigation rallies, probably because I am pretty crap at them! Hence, I have shown little interest in the VMR annual rallies except when Prescott was involved in 2005, when I spent one of the happiest days in long time going up and down one of my favourite places in the motor sport world. I thank Ian for putting that on and was hoping to have a repeat performance in 2008.
We are all different, and I suppose I am an old car VSCC enthusiast who likes to participate in mildly competitive events, who happens to own a vintage Morris Minor. Many of the other VRM members are Morris Minor enthusiasts who probably just like to own old car and possibly rebuild it to a high standard, but not really use it much.
I'm afraid I don't seem to receive much of the electronic communications mentioned by Ian so have not replied to any!
One make clubs are notorious for being problematic! Perhaps someone with spare time (possibly someone retired) in the UK could help lift the burden a bit, and give the club a UK base for its activities
I think that the VMR is a beacon in the small car club world. It punches well above its weight, and shines bright. (indeed too bright?).
Its existence and the energy it contains has transformed the fortunes of the OHV Minor in particular. e.g. LC&ES events have gone from seeing 2 or 3, to now ten plus on occasion of this now popular and worthy little car. Pretty well all of this is down to the passion and doggedness of Ian Grace.
It was the direct result of the VMR and its support that I went out and bought one, now campaigned by my brother Colin, and haven't looked back since. Thanks Ian - good call.
However ...
Has the VMR hit the maximum realistic size as a Minor register? Anything more would require a gigantic effort. And Ian seems burnt out.
Shame, but I suspect most of us could see this coming. The cracks were showing at the summer rally...
A small single car club with under 200 members cannot possibly expect to have colour magazines, a summer rally of 150 cars at Prescott, pub meetings, CD's, an active web site, a forum!, a technical register etc... ALL run by one man! Forever? A man that works hard full time - oh, and lives abroad! I know and am a member of car clubs many times the size that don't do half of these things.
This was bound to end in tears, with Ian now seemingly blaming people around him, including slagging off the VSCC which is not to blame in his disillusionment. All because others don't live and breathe vintage Minors as he does and can end up rubbing people the wrong way when they don't share his passion (read Side Valve Minors). Given time people may well come round to SV Minors in the VSCC, but this will need patience and persuasion.
Ian should be managing his expectations and be happy that he has swept so many along with his enthusiasm as far as he has. Not unhappy that it isn't now turning into an LC&ES or Bean Car Club centred around Minors.
The LCES has a healthy 750 membership - some 150 of which I'd guess are active, but their best showing is about 120-130 cars at the annual Welsh weekend. Yet Ian is bemoaning he would struggle, from the USA, to get 150!! cars to the Vintage Minor Registers Summer rally. There is also a very good reason why the LCES only appoints its Comp Secs and editor for 3 year stints.
I have huge respect for Ian, his energy, his passion, and his unparalled knowledge of all things 'Minor'. Without doubt the world expert on the subject. It would a terrible shame, a tragedy, if due to unrealistic ambitions, and unrealistic time-scales, the VMR were to implode.
I think the only way the VMR can now survive is to scale down to a more manageable level with Ian delegating some of the tasks. This would be a good thing. This would be OK.
Ian, Please, let go a little. Take time to enjoy these great little big cars, and delegate!!
Hmm, tricky. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the 2007 rally, I thought it was a good turnout;- see how many minors turn up at morris register events. As for the website, e-newsletter and forum;- I don't have a lot of time for sitting in front of computers, I don't work with them so it can only be done in my leisure time, I'm not very good with electronic technology-the only reason I have a computer is that I couldn't get ribbons for my typewriter. Are these excuses? I don't know! I try to use my minors as much as I can, going on Morris reg. runs and noggins. I would love to support the vmr meet at eversley but it always seems to be on a morris reg. run day. I would rather not get the magazine electronically as it is lovely to have such a well prepared tome in the flesh, if thats not possible then e mag it is but it wouldn't be the same. I have already thanked Ian for his running of the club and have always been impressed with the genuine help he offers fellow minorists. I love this club as it gives more to minor owners than the morris reg can and it is not looked down upon to have a sv. I wrote to the vscc about the minor discussion, (how many others did?) not because I want to join up but because the situation seemed skewed and unfair. I don't know what the way forward is but it seems that we could do a good trade in reproducing parts and attract more members if we advertised in cmm or elsewhere? Obviously this would mean delegation as it would be too much for one man. Maybe staying as we are but relieving ian of some of the burden? How about linking with the morris reg. minor sig to share resources and increase e participation? As for apathy, I have attended meetings in the minor involving 45 minutes driving yet others closer come in their modern rather than use their 1940s car. I don't know why, I love driving minors, I want to use it not polish it!!! Looking forward to the rally in 2008, long way from Reading though, clashes with Woodcote steam rally but then I've been to that for the last 10+ years and this year it wasn't what I hoped for as the people I used to go with don't do the whole weekend anymore. If I can do it from Reading then there's no reason why others can't, besides I'm looking forward to meeting Chris, Trevor, Roger and partners again. I've been to other club meets where if you're not part of the clique you get ignored and I definitely feel welcome amongst vmr members I've met. I'll try to visit the forum when I can to support it. Now, wheres my trailer... (that can be a hot topic too!)
Many thanks to Chris for the kick in the pants to some (all?) of us pointing out our lack of support for Ian's efforts in keeping VMR 'on the boil' I don't think any of us really appreciate what an effort it must be to keep things going from X,000 miles away.
I owe my own personal debt of gratitude - Ian located my Minor (DX 8826) after I had 'lost' it for over 30 years. Restoration has been slower than I would have liked, but it will be in attendance next summer - I live in Reading but my spiritual home is Suffolk - so I have no excuses.....
As a Skoda owner I also subscribe to the Briskoda forum and there is no doubt that regular postings on all sorts keeps the interest going.
I am going to try a New Year's resolution - to make a posting at least monthly - anyone else?
One practical suggestion - could the Members' forum button be on the home page so it hits you in the eye on logging in??
It would be a desperate shame if VMR was allowed to fade away.
Looks like Chris Lambert has been busy on both the Forum and the e-mail. Apart from the postings here, I have had a flurry of e-mails on the future of the Register. Thank you Chris and thanks to everyone who has responded with posts or e-mails – which have been universally positive, supportive and encouraging.
First let me put everyone’s mind at rest – the Register will go on – shutting it down is not an option.
Having reviewed all the most valuable feedback from you all over Thanksgiving, here are some suggested changes. First the Summer Rallies. These will in future be somewhat simplified and be based as far as possible on activities which do not incur fixed costs to the Register. I will also be asking members in the area of the rallies to lend a hand in the planning, as was the case for the 2007 Rally where Ronald Hogg provided invaluable planning input, laiasing with local venues, checking out the navigation rally and tour route several times and generally offering the benefit of his local knowledge. The 2008 Summer rally will be held in East Anglia, and Chris Lambert has already put some great work into the early planning stages. This certainly is a great help and dramatically reduces my workload. One or two members pointed out that the cost of the Rallies is perhaps a factor in entry numbers and I will do what I can in future to keep entry fees to a minimum and search out accommodation options at the best possible rates. I would also like to emphasize to members that the series of events and activities laid on over the weekend should be viewed as a menu from which to choose – there being absolutely no pressure to enter everything, or indeed be present every day. As for the Prescott situation, I wasn’t suggesting that I expected 150 members to turn up! We had about 100 cares at each of the two Prescotts that we have put on, and in both cases, the majority of entrants were non-members without whom we could not have contemplated hiring the hill. However, although Prescott climbs are uniquely enjoyable, I must say that I have enjoyed the smaller, more intimate summer rallies just as much, if not more, than some of the larger and more ambitious ones. The two Bath area rallies were both particularly enjoyable for me.
For the 2008 Summer Rally, how about someone who intends to come along starting and maintaining a Rally Roll Call thread on the Forum where those who are planning to enter or are considering entering can make themselves known and the event can be discussed and a roll call list of entrants can be maintained and posted periodically. Topics for discussion could include car preparations, information on the places to be visited, accommodation planning and so on. This could help increase entry numbers with little effort expended.
Then there are the spring and autumn pub meets. I invite three members – one from each meet – to volunteer to run these meets locally. Their responsibilities will include, but not be limited to selecting spring and autumn dates by liaising with each other and their local members, making arrangements with the venues, alerting local members and myself in time for me to publicise the meets and providing reports with photos for the Magazine after the meets. Perhaps if planning is done at the local level, then those who run these meets can work more effectively and directly with local members to encourage attendance.
Then we have the Magazine, the website and the e-Newsletters. Composing these is a bit like composing a symphony – it just cannot be done by a committee. However, members can help enormously by providing input and news snippets – I am always short of good Tailpiece articles and there never seems enough material on individual owners’ experiences or rebuilds. Many of you already do this, for which I am very grateful.
Here’s another proposal. First I should say that I have tried, perhaps with some success, to expand the Register by including SV Minors and M Types (we have over forty of each in the Register at present), and I hope I have managed to do this without vintage Minor owners feeling that the Register has been watered down in any way. I believe that both of these cars have so much in common with the vintage Minor that the benefits of association easily outweigh any drawbacks. I therefore invite two individuals to step forward to lead the SV Minor and M Type membership. I have already created online Registers of these cars, but it could be enormously beneficial to have two Lieutenants who would maintain these Registers, actively seek out new members and be proactive in looking after the affairs of these two sub-marques within the Register.
Similarly, is there any VSCC Light Car Member who would be willing to actively co-ordinate and encourage VMR entries for LCES events? We have had up to twelve vintage Minors entered in past LCES events, but numbers have dropped off again more recently, and this is possibly due, at least in part, to my not having had time to co-ordinate this myself.
Just as importantly, we need to find proactive and imaginative ways of including the silent majority. Every member has access to the online Members’ List. Why not therefore make direct contact with another local member (or members), arrange to meet one weekend and take a look at each other’s cars. Then take some photos and provide some input for the Magazine. Or alternatively, why not find yourself a more distant contact? We have many very keen members in Australia, New Zealand and other countries who would be surprised and delighted to be contacted directly by a UK member other than myself.
To sum up, I am deeply grateful for and heartened by all the encouragement sent my way in the last few days. The Register is in good health and with your support and by spreading the workload in the ways described above, I believe its best days are ahead!
I live in New Zealand and built my 1929 Fabric Saloon from parts of several cars in 1971 and have driven it continuously since then. Until I heard about the formation of the VMR there was no club that catered for vintage Morris Minors other than the NZ Vintage car club. The VMR has been a wonderful club to belong to even if the annual sub is more expensive than most other car clubs in NZ. I enjoyed meeting most of the more enthusiastic members at the first Rally in England and have been able to supply lots of spare parts to UK and Australian members since then including a full chassis to Ian in Michigan. Congratulations to Ian for his sterling work. I think the emailed magazine is essentail to ease Ians workload and the cost of the annual sub. I also feel the magazine could be reduced in size by leaving out much of the detailed technical stuff which can be found elsewhere. I also think direct emails between members is the best way to communicate as I have never bothered to use the forum but respond to all emails with enthusiasm. Greetings and happy motoring from the Antipodese.
How about trying to get members of the Morris Register minor sig to use the forum? they already use the sig for technical queries, if they went through the vmr forum and only had access to that it may do several things. First it would open up the forum to more use. A byproduct might be more involvement with other topics etc. in the forum. They may realise there are a lot of minor enthusiasts who use their cars and then take part in events and meets. They would have a greater area for advice. I came to the club because i needed advice and because I like minors, the byproduct has been that I no lo9nger believe what i was told about minors:- that at over 70 years old they were no longer capable of regular use. Going to the 2007 rally has given me the confidence to use the cars and in October i went from Reading to Oxford, to Bourton on the Water and back to Reading in one day, I probably wouldn't have tried that 2 or 3 years ago. Anyone interested in meeting up on new years day some where near Reading? Wallingford, Henley, Eversley, Newbury, for a drink? take some photos for the magazine?
A year or two ago I contacted John Dewar who runs the Minor SIG with the same idea. I offered SIG members free e-Newsletters and invited them to our meets. I also sent free VMR Magazines to John and he promised to send MR Journals in return. I never received the Journals and only two SIG members asked for the Newsletters. So I stopped sending Mags to John.
I subsequently found out that there were only about 20 members in the Minor SIG - and 13 were already VMR members!
The New Year's day gathering idea is a good one - maybe best to gather at one of the VSCC New Year's pub meets as many local VMR members will go to those anyway - there is a very busy one at Adstock which Clive Hamilton-Gould initiated years ago, and also a good one at the Phoenix, Hartley Wintney. Anything to get more miles on our cars would be a good thing! Then there is the Royal Oak, Barrington New Year's Day meet for the East Anglia contingent.
I'm a member of other old car related forums and these can be feisty places but also places to pick up valuable information and also for idle gossip and general car related chit chat. 
