I don’t think I understand them. I joined an enthusiasts website to help getting advice (and discounts) after buying my most recent car. There’s lots of chat on it about ‘meets’ often in glamorous places like a B&Q car park or (prepare yourself) Nandos!

Anyone here willing to admit to attending a ‘meet’? Is it just the equivalent of having a STW group ride but skipping the riding part and going straight for the cake?

Here’s a photo from a Max Power Meet to help 🙂

I went to a Lotus Elise meet once. It was at Knockhill though and involved no cake, and around 600 worth of wear to tyres.

MG one’s are usually at a pub.

I’ve taken my old Autobahn-Barge to a great little event – http://www.swindonweb.com/event/?m=40&s=0&ss=0&c=9323

It’s at a pub. There’s no judging, no cliques, just lots of people in lovely cars! Oh, and did I mention it was at a pub? A very, very good pub, too! 🙂

glupton1976 – Member
I went to a Lotus Elise meet once. It was at Knockhill though and involved no cake, and around 600 worth of wear to tyres.

Track day meets I get, they’re just the car equivalent of group rides. Standing in a random car park looking at Renault Clios, not so much

There’s a couple of secluded car parks down near the beach. Often do late night meets there, doesnt matter what you’re driving either, all are welcome! Usually finishes with a **** through a half open window.

Why is a car one more sad than a motorbike one ?

Strange this… i often have attended the equivalent ‘meet’ for motorbikes, however no-one ever says it’s really sad, just a bunch of bikers meeting up ?

weeksy – Member
Why is a car one more sad than a motorbike one ?

I don’t think anyone said they were, in fact motorbikes haven’t been mentioned at all. Is the meet still outside a B&Q in Dundee?

I use a Nissan Navara forum for useful info about my vehicle. They are all pretty seriously into their trucks including modding, however all agree that a meet is a massive no-go.

I went to one for Hyundai Coupes. I’d joined the forum for advice and just ended up enjoying the banter on the forum. The meet was at Rivington not far from me so I thought, what the hell.

First off, hyundai coupe owners are, on the whole, a bit odd it turns out.
For a start they were nothing like the people I’d been having a laugh with online. They were generally the Lancastrian equivalent of a hillbilly. We started having a chat with some guys obviously knowing each other for some time but the conversation quickly took an alarming turn into misogony with some unveiled racism thrown in. Before we set off for a drive there was a joke about knocking cyclists off their bikes.

I felt like leaving at this stage and wondered how I could make my excuses. It turned out the path would be laid out for me. The plan, they said, was to drive over to some cafe in Blackburn. We would begin by heading up over to Belmont.

Now it should be noted I had a standard MK2 2 litre coupe. 0-60 in about 8 seconds. All these other lads had tuned their cars extensively and they were invariably the MK3 2.5 V6’s to begin with. Within about 5 seconds of setting off, I had lost them all. By the time I’d reached the top of the hill I had no idea where they had gone.

I never went to another meet.

went to one – all they talked about was their cars for 2 and a half hours. Was in a pub, but we were all driving so didn’t even get a beer out of the deal

Also went to a track day with them once – that was great; ded friendly, loads of advice on the track layout etc, offers of goes in their nicer cars and then somebody posted me some photos of me driving round. Oh, and some normal chat too

I think it depends a lot on the car wether or not the meet ups are or make you cool or not.

A supercar owners club meet? Bunch of playboys and models tanking round the resorts of the med.
Old British car owners club? Drive to real ale pubs where they serve brown beer with bits in by the 3rd of a pint.
Big German car club? Drive to the nurburgring and back via the most efficient route, maximising autobahns.
Small hatchback owners club? Drive to McDonalds. Park. Turn up stereo.

And so on.

Never really understood them.
Just because we have the same car does that mean we’ll get on? Maybe not.
I’ve had a kit car for the last 15 years but never felt the need to discuss them in a pub somewhere. Maybe I’m just an anti social b*****.
That’ll be it.

richmars – Member
Just because we have the same car does that mean we’ll get on? Maybe not.

just had a vision of the Orange Five owners meet 😯

I regularly attend a meet of other local Doblo owners.

I used to be guilty of being one of the Maccys hang out crew – we even got as classy as hanging out at Aldi and Currys sometimes though.

At the time it was mint, talking cars, different girls all the time and spending every day deciding what modification or polish to buy.

We used to travel all over meeting loads of interesting people with different cars to us and in the winters, we used to meet in a multi storey car park.

Oh the time when VOSA turned up and blocked us all in to check our cars out was the best because these men where very interested in our modifications so much that it was 2am when we got home.

Yeah it is written sarcasticly because I look back now and think what the …. was I doing ? Wish I had all the money back I wasted on knackered old rust buckets and petrol.

Been to 3 or 4 maybe. All attended by a diverse and interesting bunch of people geeks. Non were in B&Q. One was for charity, one was a car show, and another was a kind of open day with a specialist tuning company.

As above, I think a large part of it depends on the car. Obviously Audi meets would just be a bunch of people from STW and boring middle-management types, and a Corsa meet at McDonalds would be full of spotty little scrotes with lazer beams and chrome-effect gear nobs.

A bloke I know has a mint 1979 Escort RS2000. Seen some pictures of his meets on FB and they look a bit more interesting than your usual Max Power chav fest

Bit of an ironic thread no ?
Isn’t a forum just a virtual enthusiast meet. ?

It probably is, but I’m happy to keep it virtual

I’ve taken my ’32 Morris Major Six to the Glamis Vintage Extravaganza. A really eclectic mix of vehicles and owners. Everything from Veteran De Dion Boutons to Fergie tractors. It has a huge autojumble where you can still find elusive parts. Originality is highly prized so its a nicer bunch of exhibitors than the Pebble Beach style rallies.

No beer, more of a flask of tea and a picnic day.

I met a guy who told me my grandfather had owned but refused to sell him one of these.

Used to go to loads of classic mini meets with the local club. Included trips to events all round the country, great fun. Sold them when we were expecting our son. Will get another one, one day.

I’m pretty sure most people who go to these are very sad individuals.
But I go mountain biking, so i’m being a hypocrite.

Been to a few. Tried a few Volvo ones when my T5-R was looking good but it was very much standing around chatting, no driving.

Go to others to catch up with a mate who does car photography, usually events with rare and exotic machinery (or Hondas!) but don’t catch up often so get a wee drive to them then a good chat.

Best was a Pistonheads meet, met in a comet car park then drove some beautiful Scottish roads with quick coffee and lunch stops for car chat. Cost a load in fuel but would never have driven half of those amazing roads if someone hadn’t organised a route.

I go to organised offroad meets. Dont really fancy te rivet counter rover enthusiasts meetings

There can be odd people there but on the whole its good fun .

Made better by someone rolling their 4×4

I was that man in years gone by. I did have some near concours standard examples of the RS marque though which make me feel better about the whole thing.

I have sworn to myself never to attend another until Im in one of these doing this kind of thing.

Went to a 306 meet once… They took some photos and went for a beer. I went home early

There’s a car park near me where a load of orange Ford Focuses (Focuss? Focui? Focii?) get together. The cars look pretty cool in a big group, but I can imagine the sort of “lad” who drives one to be a bit of a knobber and definitely not someone you want on your tail on a country road.
I’ve looked, but there doesn’t seem to be any meetings for Ford Mondeo Estate owners, so I’m out 🙂

There are pics I’ve seen on a forum somewhere of a bloke taking a top of the range brand spanking Range Rover up some serious tracks in the Peak – fair play to him. Can’t find ’em though.

I used to attend Honda S2000 S2KI meets fairly frequently when I had one.

Dez,
I’m sure there’ll be something in here for you http://www.talkford.com/forum/619-events-shows-meets/

I went on the North Yorkshire MG run a few years ago. It was actually quite enjoyable. Drove some nice roads, got to see bits of countryside that I’d never visited before, and saw plenty of wildlife (alive, I mean, not roadkill).

I seem to notice orange foci driving around on sundays only up here.

It’s like it’s their sunday best car.. but at the same time,far from a sunday best.

I know this will get me blackballed from STW but i was a member of the Porsche club until last year and used to go to a few meets. They were either decent runs or track based things. I had a lovely 993 and used to enjoy looking at other peoples funkin expensive exotica to be honest – that was why i went. Some extremely nice chaps and a good cross section of society – not at all what i expected. I also got stupidly cheap insurance and to drive some nice vehicles. Since i sold it i haven;t missed it though.

Used to do it all the time in my late teens, hanging out at maccies in my mg metro turbo with mates who had similar 80s hot hatches.

Mainly it was nerdy blokes talking about dump valves and polished manifolds, with the chance to check out each others cars. Although we would cruise around playing loud music and revving our engines there was no proper racing, and in fact most were pretty well behaved.

But like most groups of people there were idiots who always took things too far and often ended up crashing, getting nicked or killing someone.

When max power magazine started featuring cruises in their mag, which mainly involved dangerously young girls getting their baps out, I just realised it wasn’t for me.

Back then I would fret over what colour HT leads matched my oil cap, nowadays I worry will my nukeproof stem look good with my ragley bars.

Not much has changed I guess

I’ve been to a few car type “meets” over the past 20odd years of driving, some are better than others and they are a good way of gaining knowledge and tips bout suspension set-up, engine management tweaks, cam timing etc…etc…in order of the sporty cars i’ve owned i’ve done the following “meets” :

Lancia Delta Integrale, first proper car aged 21 but i did work in a garage and bought it with bodywork damage and restored it to glory and enjoyed track day meetings and got to meet a few very good drivers etc.

Alfa Romeo 75 Twin-Spark 2.0 Turbo Special, Italian LHD import and absolutely immaculate in red with black leather interior/red piping, again Alfa track days and Alfa meet n’ greets where i gained a helluva lot of help and experience from folk regarding the initial set-up, mental car and fun to drive also handled really well due to the di-dion rear suspension and gearbox over the back axle, perfect weight distribution. A ditzy **** female driver rear ended me on the motorway as i sat in roadworks and wrote it off as she was applying make up whilst driving, i was on my way back up to scotland after attending one of the prestige alfa shows and i came so close to punching her lights out but the driver in front that i was pushed into thankfully stopped me.

Mk2 Scirocco 1.9 8v on twin 40’s, Corrado 2.1 16v on GSXR carbs and Mk2 Golf ABT tuned 2.0 16v (current car) All VW meets and track days in the past 10years, usually the Nurburgring every year and Knockhill plus a few others inbetween dependant on funds and time available, All good fun and some really-really quick cars that put many a supercar to shame.

Audi RS4 ABT tuned, got an invite from a mate to attend an exclusive Audi meet a couple of years ago as he’d been invited by ABT tuning having got his RS4 and Q7 tuned by them, sitting at 200+mph in an ABT Audi R10 is a surprisingly calm place to be after some of the MK2 Golfs i’ve sat in as they bounce around the track.

A friend bought a Lotus Exige S with full factory track kit earlier on this year and i’ve done a few track days this year wi him, scarily fast but it does have a V6 supercharged engine producing 370bhp, i’ve been physically sick with the force of the acceleration using launch control, and gave myself a headache behind the eyes with the force it can brake at but i still jump at the chance to drive it – not really a car to do car park meets in but the Lotus track days are a hoot with driving tuition thrown in for free by their test drivers.

when I park my BMW in the work car park, it may as well be a meet.

I used to do motorbike ones all the time. But I got asked along to a mondeo one and I ran a mile 😆

I’ve looked, but there doesn’t seem to be any meetings for Ford Mondeo Estate owners, so I’m out

Dez, there’s a couple of car parks in the new forest that you might try. Estates seem to be all the rage.

Done a couple. Sometimes it’s just pub car park then pub lunch, sometimes a bit of a drive before/after, sometimes it’s a bunch of idiots trying to outdo each other on the open road. Not keen on the 3rd kind.

I’ve found them helpful for exchanging info moreso than you get on the forum itself, i.e. getting someone else who knows more than I do to sort out that niggling issue I’ve been having whilst I toddle off and have a look at other cars.

Current owner’s club guy has sorted me out for headlight wirings, fuel system upgrades and even gave me free ECU map. 400-ish bhp beastie parked on the drive as a result and I’m still trying to work out how I can repay the man.