[tp351]

Hi Bernie,

Firstly, I know exactly who you are and did meet you many years ago when you were campaigning for support for your Wings Wheels & Water and we as a club actually helped you with distribution of promotional material.

Ok, I'll admit that the opening line was a bit harsh, but after being around the forums for quite some time you get used to people posting stuff that they wouldn't be game to say in the person. I can tell that you would be more than happy to repeat what you wrote, so that comment was a bit provacative.

I didn't call you a liar, more I was pointing out that you left out some important facts that gave a distorted view of the event.

The way your post read, to summarise was "Hey Cobra & GT40 owners, don't ever go to this event again because it was crap and there were no cars there". That idea that a car show that doesn't have a large contingent of Cobra's & GT40's is automatically crap is simply not right. Different shows mean differnt things to different people. I actually remember that certain sections of the car fraterity gave your show a wide berth also, but thats their personal choice whether to go or not.
I'm sure if someone had of publically bagged you after the WWW show, you would have been defensive as well and wouldve expected to be able to have a right of reply.

The reason I pointed out that it was a charity organisation, is that I do remember the general banter at the time was about your event profiting a single entity, ie: you. (whether true or not, I can't comment as I don't know the facts).
I can't understand if it was such a success, why it didn't continue.

We actually worked with our contacts from the Cobra and GT40 clubs for years reserving space for you guys to park, and making allowances for the fact that some had to travel from large distances. But only a few of the reserved spaces were ever filled, leaving huge gaps in the show. We introduced the pre-entry system to help manage the reserved areas and to alleviate the huge queues that were a major issue. We haven't had those lines for the last 3 years. Pre-entered cars drive straight in without delay. In 2010 & 2011 the Cobra & GT40 clubs declined having any interest in reserving space, the reason given was that "the owners would decide on the on the morning whether they would attend or not and would take their chances on the day". Most people don't mind taking the risk on the weather and paying the $20, since it goes to charity. (We have people ringing to cancel their registration and refusing refunds). So, yes we would love more of your cars at the event, but there needs to be some flexibility.

Having the entry fee slightly higher than the average public parking does stop most people bringing their everyday sh!tters onto the arena, which was issue that was getting more prevalent a few years ago. Having said that, I don't necessarily agree with the pricing structure, but I get little influence in that area.

On the volunteer thing, you missed my point. What I was trying to say was that the majority of the organisers are not "car people" so they have no idea on what constitutes a show car. Rather it is open to anybody who owns a Ford to bring their car along.

Your feedback, coming from somebody with event history, would be much better received as constuctive criticism directed to the committee, with some suggestions on how you think the event could be improved rather than a public bagging. This thread was bought to my attention by a friend who googled the event looking for some photos, so what you write here is very public.
Or better yet, I would invite you to become involved in some sort of consultancy role.

Cheers,
Tony Porter