Originally Posted by 4DGS

Just so everyone knows, pick somewhere warm as I am going to probably fly out and hang out. Anyone want to lend me your couch for a couple days? lol




*Cough, CANADIAN, Vegas resident. Let me sleep on your floor and drive your car.

Originally Posted by DaveB

I'll chime in with my experience and recommendations. Over at Maxima.org, they put on a thing called Maxus, which obviously is a large Maxima gathering. There is a HUGE Maxima following with far more owners than what we have here on Driver. They do the annual Maxus event throughout the country. One year in Dallas, then Chicago, then DC, etc. Even large member base, the vehicle turn out is only around 200 cars or so. To even put on event like that takes serious planning and most importantly money.

Money. That's the driver here. You've got to get people to pay some sort of fee up front to lock in a site for the event. Then there's catering, tents, mobile restroom facilities. A lot of these annual events include a 1/4 mile facility rental which is usually $2500-4000/daily. Sometimes a mobile dyno is brought in, tents/areas setup for parts installs, etc.

You'll basically need some sort of commitee to get the ball rolling and manage the event. Here's what I'd recommend.

1) Event centrally located such as Kansas City, St. Louis, or Dallas. Yes, it's a haul for the CA and NE groups, but their member base is huge and they have meets all the time. It's up to them if they want to make the drive. Keeping the event centrally located would keep most travel times to within a really long day. I can get to Atlanta from Kansas City within 14hrs driving the speed limits. That's really not that bad of drive. Anything within 900 miles is a day drive, IMO.

2) Designate a planning/organizing commitee using respected and trusted members of this site. You'll need to have people looking at hotels, event sites, catering, facilities, permits (possibly).

3) Get sponsors to provide some event funds and let them sell products/services at the event.

4) Keep the event simple and to two days. I'd suggest renting a 1/4 mile strip for 2 days (9am till 8pm+). Have a car show at the same time and then coordinate with a nearby dyno shop so that people can leave the strip and dyno, then come back. Get a mobile dyno if possible. The strip will have food so catering won't be needed. Rent tents. With a track rental, you'd most likely need to rent it on a Sunday/Monday or Thursday/Friday. That means people will need to use a day or two of vacation, but traffic shouldn't be as bad plus your weekend won't be completely wrecked. Renting the track for 2 days plus other event costs would probably require an event fee of around $80/per G owner and maybe $20 for a spouse/friend. Assuming 200 G owners plus 60 spouses/friend, you're looking at $17,200. That should easily cover the track rental, tents, and awards.

5) Make sure the event is in the summer so it's easier for college students to attend.

6) Design a t-shirt and use some of the sales to support the event.

Again, keep it simple. I've attended events where they try to cram too much crap in and it just doesn't work. They'll have drag racing, auto-x, scenic drives, late night bar hoping, amusement park stuff, etc. What most people really want is a place to gather, hang out, set out a chair, and geek-out about their cars. Renting a drag strip for the entire event is probably easiest way to do it and many strips would jump at the chance to have a full two day rental.

I can't speak for STL or Dallas, but I live in Kansas City and I know my track (Kansas City International Raceway) has daily rentals. It's large enough to hold well over 800 cars if needed. The strip is also within 30-45 minutes of 3 good performance/dyno shops. Driving across Kansas City is easy thanks to having the most miles of highway in a metro area. There are plenty of hotels in southwest Kansas City (Johnson County area) which is extremely safe and is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. At night, there is no shortage of night life, espeically in Kansas City's Power & Light District. Then there's the BBQ.

And no, I'm not planning this event I've got way too much going on with my job and family.

Originally Posted by Law to the Rence

WOW, but listen to the guru!

He has a point...to pull off a meet of this magnitude will require much more than a thread with 5 post ****** or so arguing about the location
It's gonna have to be much more serious than that. Just look at some of the big local meets such as leftcoastlow, stillen day, etc etc. Those meets have sales, sponsors, a committee to plan the events, money money money. Definitely not easy and those aren't even model specific meets.