Feedback Thread - Please let us know how we can improve..

[Narfy]

i felt that this year's autoX was a well organized event, with a fair turnout, and lots of excitement...

the track:
high speed... large, full of twists and turns... however, could have been better labeled... i felt that instead of using ONE pointer cone, TWO or more should have been used to guide or direction... it's really easy to see when you're walking it, but when you're going 60+ km/h charging at it, it's difficult to make out... unfortunately, the sweeper at the back end was off cambered, and bumpy, otherwise, the track would have been MUCH better...

the timing:
great timing staff... excellent

the track staff:
again, great... communicates well, works well...

room for improvement?! yes... definately... pricing was extremely high... i realize that booking room for this was not cheap, but dollars with students and not so wealthy individuals is tight... the ones who could afford to autoX, don't like doing so... the ones who autoX'd, some couldn't afford to do so...

the track was a tad too spaced out, and too "loose"... i felt the track could have included more... more twists and turns... slow the track down... the top speeds achieved were waay waaay too high... i nearly hit 100 going down the straightaway... far too fast in my opinion...

that's my opinion... otherwise, it was a great event... i was disappointed with me and my car's performance... but otherwise, it was great...

a big thanks goes out to the executive commitee... great job... expecially the track designers, and ALL the ladies and gentlemen who volunteered their weekend time to make this event a success...

[adam]

I thought the events were awesome, the drives were a little unorganized, and the Sammy J. Peppers' girls weren't exploited near enough, I'm not even sure who they were.

I'll be back, I had a blast !

[RePete]

Not sure how expensive or technically feasible it is but a large digital readout of the track times at the auto-x would have been pretty exciting. That was a great course, size was excellent and the staff was on top of it to keep it safe and fun.

[MR2WSN]

We thought the drive (Saturday) was great.

While it was possible to get lost if you tried hard (there were 3 guys in our "group" who turned around when they shouldnt have despite FRS warnings), we noticed that turns were clear and quite a number at T-intersections. This made it a lot easier to find where we were going, and for the drivers without navigators this must have been a real help..

Hey, last year we got lost by the airport due to funny road names. But, this year it was a right-on accurate description drive.

Only possible way to improve on the drive would be to give ballpark estimates of how many Km's on the longer stretches.

Don

[blueroo]

Just a little nitpick. Don't put the stopbox right on top of a big slick painted arrow.

[Guest]

I had a great time. The poker run was a great drive and a lot better than last year.

As far as increasing attendance, better date planning might help so the Cascade Run dosn't happen the following weekend as it is this year. Another possibility would be to run BC200X every second year and then have To The Beach or the Cascade Run be the big Northwest event of the year on alternate years.

How about inviting Corolla GTS and All-Trac owners to future events?

[blueroo]

I had a great time. The poker run was a great drive and a lot better than last year.

As far as increasing attendance, better date planning might help so the Cascade Run dosn't happen the following weekend as it is this year. Another possibility would be to run BC200X every second year and then have To The Beach or the Cascade Run be the big Northwest event of the year on alternate years.

How about inviting Corolla GTS and All-Trac owners to future events?

The BCMR2 BC2005 Toyota Festival. Woot!

[Narfy]

i'd be there with my GTS and my MR2 and my GTS and my... no wait.. i'm getting carried away... lexus?

[n2mymr]

This was my first event and I must say that it was great. Kudos to everyone who made it possible.

Personal favorites of the weekend include the S&S (and not just because I picked up 2nd place in the MK2 stock category either ), the poker run and just getting to meet everyone.

As for improvements/options for the next one... I'd say a second run sometime in early evening to a populated location such as White Rock beach to show off the cars would be cool and an opportunity for a good group shot of all the cars organized into color... similar to some other MR2 events I've seen abroad.

Definately having the event seperated from the Cascade run would help numbers in my opinion. Again, thanks to everyone who made it happen and it was good to finally meet all of you!

cheers,
j

PS: cool video RePete!

[drscam]

These were some excellent points and I am sure the board will consider all of them when planning BC2005.

Definately having the event seperated from the Cascade run would help numbers in my opinion.

This was unfortunate; however, BC2004 was planned first. BC2005 has been tentatively set for August 19-21, 2005 (This is subject to change) The board has not had time to discuss this yet.

[TWBarrett]

I've had two weeks to simmer down, so this should be more of a critique than a vent, but here I go...

My only beef with the entire weekend was the judging. I know that judging is a very opinionated thing, and that there is no way to please everyone, but I didn't really like the method. From what I saw, different cars saw different judges, so your score was based on how your judges liked your car. I am sure that there was some sort of agreed-upon scoring template that everyone stuck to, but there will always be bias. For instance, Mario and Kerri's MKII got a 2/5 in the "originality" category. It had parts on it that I had never seen, let alone heard of, and there were FIVE parts in front of the front tires that no other car at the show had.

It was nice of the A&B guys to donate their time to judge the stereo competition (and space to park our cars), but honestly we would have been better served by a consensus vote. I followed one A&B guy to one of the cars in the Sound Off, was approached by a second judge who wanted to evaluate my car, and was eventually scored by a third guy. Different ears like different sounds, so this was a terrible way of judging the Sound Off. The judge that was in my car listened to it for 45 seconds, got out of the seat, asked me what brand my amps were (installation profesional?) and walked away. My solution here would be to have a different area for the sound-offers, or atleast a spot for them to park while they were being judged, and have some sort of panel give a consensus, with some weight given to audience feedback. That way, you have the same ears judging all the cars based on the same test. I got a ballot as part of my registration packet for SE2004. While most of the awards got snagged by Jim Griffin and Brian Hill, every award was based on consensus.

My second beef was with the categorizing. Both cars that took home the top prize for "modified" cars were almost completely stock, outside of a mis-matched body kit (mkII) and stereo (mkI).

Outside of this, the weekend was absolutely awesome. I really enjoyed the drives. Some of them seemed a bit disorganized, but I enjoyed finding my own way around. The poker run was a lot of fun, and had awesome directions. I really liked that pretty much every event had some sort of drive connecting it to the next event. The hotel was nice, the AutoX was fun, and the Strip Club was top-notch All together, I had an awesome time. Hopefully I can make it next year, but I fear that I will be down in Atlanta. Maybe I'll fly back and ride with someone.

Oh, and did anyone else stick their head into the Prelude that A&B was showing off? It sounded great from 40 feet away, but every single speaker was distorting, and you could see the wood screws they used to install the fiberglass. Ouch.

[camshaft]

Thank you for your point’s guys they are all welcome....

pricing was extremely high... i realize that booking room for this was not cheap, but dollars with students and not so wealthy individuals is tight... the ones who could afford to autoX, don't like doing so... the ones who autoX'd, some couldn't afford to do so...

the track was a tad too spaced out
...

That is a shame because the track and insurance alone for the lot was more then 50 dollars per autocrosser. So any reduction in prices would require more people to sign up. Or someone to find a better location for a cheaper price.

Randy and Kevin did there best setting up the track on the location they had. With the limited amount of cones etc they had.

Not sure how expensive or technically feasible it is but a large digital readout of the track times at the auto-x.

Great idea Pete but unfortunately would require autocross fee’s to be raised. People where complaining 50 bucks was to much money.
Not sure where a sign like that could be borrowed or rented ?
People Ideas ?

... I'd say a second run sometime in early evening to a populated location such as White Rock beach to show off the cars would be cool

Another great idea but White rock isn’t a good place to cruise. As it is heavily populated with cops and you can be ticked for cruising the strip. As well pay parking ;(
Other ideas and drive routes are welcome

My only beef with the entire weekend was the judging
It was nice of the A&B guys to donate their time to judge the stereo competition (and space to park our cars), but honestly we would have been better served by a consensus vote
My second beef was with the categorizing. Both cars that took home the top prize for "modified" cars were almost completely stock, outside of a mis-matched body kit (mkII) and stereo (mkI).
.

Good point TWBarrentt problem is no body wants to be a judge. The executive board is open to anyone submitting written guidelines for different judging criteria.
As well finding impartial judges for the event…

[immorality]

The judging is very difficult. I think that it would be good to have a (slightly) different judging criteria sheet for each class (stock/mod/mk1/mk2).

[Narfy]

The judging is very difficult. I think that it would be good to have a (slightly) different judging criteria sheet for each class (stock/mod/mk1/mk2).

full heartedly agreed

[Guest]

Good point TWBarrentt problem is no body wants to be a judge. The executive board is open to anyone submitting written guidelines for different judging criteria.
As well finding impartial judges for the event…

Make everyone be the judge. It will take a little extra time to tabulate the scores, but I think overall people would be happier with the outcome.