CamaroFest Thoughts

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by layjar12

I had a good time but the over all it fell way short of my expectations. The communication on what was going on when and where was non existent. I had no idea what was going on and because of that I missed out on prob 75% of the events. This may or mat have not been my fault because I did not try hard enough or did not ask the right person.

The link for the entire Camaro Fest schedule has been posted as a sticky under this section for quite some time....the fest section right at the top with all other important info so it won't be missed.

If I wanted to ask I had no idea who to ask.

As with every other fest, you got to the Camaro5 booth for questions. We have schedules. If there's a question that can't be answered, one of the mods that's staffed at the booth/store gets on the walkie and gets the question answered. We are always happy to help and want to make sure everyone has the best time possible.

The road course scared me to death! The communication and execution there was very poor. I understand that this was mostly due to the rain. The lack of instructors was not good. Part of the reason I wanted to do the road course was to have an instructor ride with me, that did not happen.

We were supposed to have 14 instructors come over to our event that were teaching the Friday event. Why this didn't happen, I don't know. The track was under the impression that they were coming over as well. Screw ball thrown at the last minute? Absolutely. But the track worked with us and we had a couple instructors step up last minute (Danny Johnson - Johnsonrod is a BADASS) that did a lead follow for us so we'd at least be able to run as much as we could to the limits that beginners could run. Yes. It was wet. That slowed things down. No, instructors weren't there like they should have been and that slowed things down. I'm sorry that didn't happen. That changed the schedule AND the classes. Which leads to...

Where there classes? they said their were classes but I have no idea where they were if they actually happened.

Did you attend the mandatory drivers meeting? Because all of this was covered in that meeting. I know things were a little hectic at the track that morning, but what time did you get to the track? Drivers meeting was scheduled at 0745 hours. We delayed that until 0755 hours because people couldn't show up on time and kept meandering in when they felt like it. We still had people wandering in until 11am (who need to attend a drivers meeting if they wanted to race...) However, the schedule was changed first thing, drivers were grouped into their 3 beginner classes from the previous two as all of the intermediate drivers had gotten with me before hand already knew their class and print outs of the days schedule was available to all drivers. Each driver knew their group they were running in and should have had a schedule in hand. This was done at the drivers meeting (grouping into classes). While group 3 of beginners ran the track first (the smallest new group), all other drivers then could attend a classroom session explaining the course, running, etc. Everything was gone over in the drivers meeting at 0755. Matt (who was on the platform) asked numerous times if there were questions.

I skipped the first 2 runs because of the rain, loved the 3rd run in the dry and then a 720 deg spin on the 4th run finished it off for me. No real direction other than the guy telling everyone that you could wreck your car and then thrown to the wolves.

There's not much direction to give in a lead follow situation. Follow the driver in front of you as an instructor was leading the pack. The instructor won't let you go any faster than he feels is safe for a beginner. If the track was drier, they would speed it up based off of the feel of the group.

I know things were hectic at the beginning of the day. It was not like we were expecting to have our entire instructor group not show. But even with that, everything was squared away in the morning, groups were assigned, numbers were assigned, the drivers meeting was held, classroom sessions were offered by a licensed and certified instructor, the pa system called groups to the lanes to run. Schedules were printed and offered to drivers. The ability to ask questions was presented. With as short handed as we ended up, you had some volunteers step up who, in my very humble opinion, kicked some major @SS to make this event work with what we were given. I personally LOVED getting to run my ONE time on the track (as this volunteer who was supposed to run in the event was stuck working it....and that's all I wanted to do this entire trip was run the NCM track as much as possible). So I'm sorry if you didn't enjoy your day but we tried our absolute best with the hand we were dealt to give everyone an experience they would remember for some time and this is the first complaint I've heard.

[Blu Ray]

Originally Posted by rdblan2

Agreed...I can't see paying 20 bucks to walk around and look at a handful of tables. I had fun, and this was my 2nd fest but vendor turnout was terrible. If I had to pay 20 bucks to look at the tables that were there, I would have likely asked for a refund.

Hanging out with good people in the evenings is the best part.

What do you pay when you attend a local car show... $20-$25 to look at nothing but the same cars at the last show.

Vendors have said and posted it costs to much to attend such an event, when people are not buying. $20 dollars is Nothing for a 2 day event of this size.

[hammdo]

Originally Posted by Sapphire

Hey Hammdo! I do have pictures of Al signing our cars. He was such a great guy to talk to.

Nice! That is cool.. Hopefully next year for me...

-Don

[CamaroI]

I was glad to see vendors actually installing there products. Last fest in Houston there were a couple, but this year several more doing bigger installs.

[SharpCapt]

To Whom ever responsible,

Thank you very very much. My wife and I had a blast. Being relatively new Camaro owners, 10 months, we wanted to see what it all was about and get some ideas. Boy did we strike the mother load. We wandered for several days looking and talking to you all and learned a ton. What just a great group of people to learn from. And many thanks to the Northeast Ohio Camaro Club whom we Camarovaned to Bowling Green. Another great group of wonderful people. I knew I had a great car, but now I know what I want to do with it and make it even better. And a whole new family too. Great time for sure. And a thousand thank you's to the organizers, job well done.

[Imdyinhere]

Originally Posted by z28-conv

Something else I decided to do was to install a bra on the front of my car. For the record I do not like car bras. BUT I thought it would be smart to buy one and use it for this almost 700 mile trip to protect the front of the car. Well I know I correctly installed the bra according to the instructions given.

Well the trip started out as a very nice day ,but like most of us we hit torrential downpours between our starting point and Bowling Green. The trip went well considering the rain and a 3-1/2 year old that needed entertaining for 11 hours We made it to Bowling green by 5;30 pm Thursday evening. I was very excited to be there and could not wait for the activities to start. I checked with the hotel a couple of days before the fest to have a hose for us Camaro guys to wash our cars all weekend long. They were more than happy to supply us with a hose and I know all the guys from North? Carolina were very happy. Anyhow I removed the bra from the car that night in preparation of the early morning car wash session I had planned. It wasn't until I started drying the car off completely that I noticed that the bra had left alot of rub marks and scratches ($%^#!*&?!) all over. I was pi--ed as you can imagine.
I was going to enter the car into the car show part of the fest ,but after that,forget it.

Like you I am also not a fan of car bras but for along trip like this, I also invested in the Novistretch car mask for my Camaro.

Also, like you, we encountered heavy rains on the trip there.

I too noticed damage to my paint underneath the area the bra was supposed to protect. I followed the instructions for installation to the letter including a deep cleaning of the area inside the wheel wells where the velcro was attached. I am disappointed that despite following the directions that the bra was unable to prevent the damages I was hoping to avoid. In addition, there were also small holes made in the lower portion of the mask covering the lower grille. I am saddened to hear I was not the only one who had these issues. I know one of my club members also had some minor damage but not to the extent I did, or you did for that matter. I am glad you had Adam's take a look and address 90% of the issue. I only wish I had the same foresight to have them look at mine as well.

Did you by any chance take any pictures of the damage prior to the Adam's guys buffing things out? I would like to compare notes prior to calling the manufacturer.

Originally Posted by Ace0751

If those were the button on bras, should've taken it off when it was raining. I bet all that rain caused the damage, in addition the oil and trans temps went up probably due to not having enough air getting into the engine. I feel bad that your cars got some damaged from the bra though but nothing like a little buff will hopefully get that out. A few of us in our group took ours off after it started raining cause of the temps rising, after taking them off the temps went back down to normal and actually had no chips or damage the rest of the way.

Wish I would have known this prior. Not much in the way of warnings on the label of the box.... good to know for the future though.


I would like to thank MLee, TagUrIt and the rest of the volunteers for putting on a fantastic event. It was a lot of fun and it was great to meet so many people i have spoken to online but never met face to face. I know that organizing and executing an event of this magnitude is super hard and there is never 100% satisfaction. I do have a couple of thoughts regarding the event I think would make it better. I know my opinion doesn't mean much but I will offer them up here.

Some folks have mentioned a price hike to either offset the vendor cost or generally increase the overall profitability of the Fest. I think a separate fee for entering the car show would be acceptable. $20 is a little high for spectators, but $10 for a one day or $20 for a weekend pass would be fine. Then a separate $25 entry fee for the car show which would increase overall revenue for those not participating in the racing events. So basically $45 bucks for the car show and full weekend pass. For the 150 cars in the car show this year, that would have raised an additional $3750.

Car show classes and more awards would also be a pretty good idea. Considering the amount of cars that entered (150) and only 14 awards to give out seemed a bit low. Folks with super clean, stock or slightly modded cars going up against cars with mods that cost more than the cars original sticker just didn't seem fair. I'm not saying it has to be an Oprah Winfrey/Little League style trophy-fest, but give some folks a chance.

Attachment 736448

With regards to the Club Participation award, ask for club affiliation during event registration and then again at the gate for last minute entries. This will true up the actual numbers as I know that the H-Town Camaro Club has at least as many attendees as the 5th Gen Camaro’s of the Carolina’s club, if not more. Not to take away from their award mind you... Congrats & Kudo's to them for bringing so many. Hard to gather that many for that long of a trip.

Dedicated "parkers" for the car show all the way up until registration closes. A couple of us got there late and the only direction we got was just ahead of where the vendors where. Someone just pointed and said "somewhere down there". MMMmkay. It got really jammed in at the end of the parking area and very confusing. Not too mention wide areas left open to accommodate pop up tents. There should have been a separate area for those. We couldn't even have our doors open where we parked as the cars were too close together.

Lastly, I think a pre-fest post on C5 for anyone who wants to volunteer their time at the Fest to help out with specific events. I am pretty sure there would be no lack of volunteers, especially those folks with multi-fest experience. Not sure if this has been done before. If so disregard this paragraph.

Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily criticisms as much as my thoughts on what might make the Fest better. Since I didnt participate in any racing events I cannot comment on those. I really enjoyed watching the drag racing especially and was impressed on how smoothly that ran.

@MLee, I know I am not a moderator nor a member of the "Circle", but I will post up right here and let you know that you can count me in as a volunteer for next years Fest. I would love to be involved and no matter where it is I will be there.

Overall I give it 7 .5 out of 8 golden pistons.

[z28-conv]

Originally Posted by Imdyinhere

Like you I am also not a fan of car bras but for along trip like this, I also invested in the Novistretch car mask for my Camaro.

Also, like you, we encountered heavy rains on the trip there.

I too noticed damage to my paint underneath the area the bra was supposed to protect. I followed the instructions for installation to the letter including a deep cleaning of the area inside the wheel wells where the velcro was attached. I am disappointed that despite following the directions that the bra was unable to prevent the damages I was hoping to avoid. In addition, there were also small holes made in the lower portion of the mask covering the lower grille. I am saddened to hear I was not the only one who had these issues. I know one of my club members also had some minor damage but not to the extent I did, or you did for that matter. I am glad you had Adam's take a look and address 90% of the issue. I only wish I had the same foresight to have them look at mine as well.

Did you by any chance take any pictures of the damage prior to the Adam's guys buffing things out? I would like to compare notes prior to calling the manufacturer.



Wish I would have known this prior. Not much in the way of warnings on the label of the box.... good to know for the future though.


I would like to thank MLee, TagUrIt and the rest of the volunteers for putting on a fantastic event. It was a lot of fun and it was great to meet so many people i have spoken to online but never met face to face. I know that organizing and executing an event of this magnitude is super hard and there is never 100% satisfaction. I do have a couple of thoughts regarding the event I think would make it better. I know my opinion doesn't mean much but I will offer them up here.

Some folks have mentioned a price hike to either offset the vendor cost or generally increase the overall profitability of the Fest. I think a separate fee for entering the car show would be acceptable. $20 is a little high for spectators, but $10 for a one day or $20 for a weekend pass would be fine. Then a separate $25 entry fee for the car show which would increase overall revenue for those not participating in the racing events. So basically $45 bucks for the car show and full weekend pass. For the 150 cars in the car show this year, that would have raised an additional $3750.

Car show classes and more awards would also be a pretty good idea. Considering the amount of cars that entered (150) and only 14 awards to give out seemed a bit low. Folks with super clean, stock or slightly modded cars going up against cars with mods that cost more than the cars original sticker just didn't seem fair. I'm not saying it has to be an Oprah Winfrey/Little League style trophy-fest, but give some folks a chance.

Attachment 736448

With regards to the Club Participation award, ask for club affiliation during event registration and then again at the gate for last minute entries. This will true up the actual numbers as I know that the H-Town Camaro Club has at least as many attendees as the 5th Gen Camaro’s of the Carolina’s club, if not more. Not to take away from their award mind you... Congrats & Kudo's to them for bringing so many. Hard to gather that many for that long of a trip.

Dedicated "parkers" for the car show all the way up until registration closes. A couple of us got there late and the only direction we got was just ahead of where the vendors where. Someone just pointed and said "somewhere down there". MMMmkay. It got really jammed in at the end of the parking area and very confusing. Not too mention wide areas left open to accommodate pop up tents. There should have been a separate area for those. We couldn't even have our doors open where we parked as the cars were too close together.

Lastly, I think a pre-fest post on C5 for anyone who wants to volunteer their time at the Fest to help out with specific events. I am pretty sure there would be no lack of volunteers, especially those folks with multi-fest experience. Not sure if this has been done before. If so disregard this paragraph.

Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily criticisms as much as my thoughts on what might make the Fest better. Since I didnt participate in any racing events I cannot comment on those. I really enjoyed watching the drag racing especially and was impressed on how smoothly that ran.

@MLee, I know I am not a moderator nor a member of the "Circle", but I will post up right here and let you know that you can count me in as a volunteer for next years Fest. I would love to be involved and no matter where it is I will be there.

Overall I give it 7 .5 out of 8 golden pistons.

As a matter of fact I did take some picks before The guys at Adams worked on them. Sorry they are upside down but here you go. I thought it was only me that had this issue. At least now I know something is up. I had no idea that I should have removed the bra when it was raining. Did not notice anything in the instructions?

[Ace0751]

It wouldn't be in the instructions at all, when it starts raining the material that they use will get a little thicker and shrink due to it being wet and that will start causing problems and your temps will go up. Was talking to someone in our group and he had the same issue with the temps rising so we both took them off and never had an issue after that. On the way back we put them back on and temps were back to normal. But I'm glad that you got it buffed out now that makes me want to go back out and see if there are any rub marks lol. I may not be correct but hearing the issues when the rain came made me believe that might have been the issue.

[TAG UR IT]

^^^OUCH!

[z28-conv]

Originally Posted by Ace0751

It wouldn't be in the instructions at all, when it starts raining the material that they use will get a little thicker and shrink due to it being wet and that will start causing problems and your temps will go up. Was talking to someone in our group and he had the same issue with the temps rising so we both took them off and never had an issue after that. On the way back we put them back on and temps were back to normal. But I'm glad that you got it buffed out now that makes me want to go back out and see if there are any rub marks lol. I may not be correct but hearing the issues when the rain came made me believe that might have been the issue.

Actually Ace0751 I had no issues at all with rising temps. Car was running cool as a cucumber It was a Novistretch Bra? I am going to contact them and see what they have to say.

[Imdyinhere]

Originally Posted by Ace0751

It wouldn't be in the instructions at all, when it starts raining the material that they use will get a little thicker and shrink due to it being wet and that will start causing problems and your temps will go up. Was talking to someone in our group and he had the same issue with the temps rising so we both took them off and never had an issue after that. On the way back we put them back on and temps were back to normal. But I'm glad that you got it buffed out now that makes me want to go back out and see if there are any rub marks lol. I may not be correct but hearing the issues when the rain came made me believe that might have been the issue.

I had no issue with temps either. Just damage from road debris that became lodged in the bra and rubbed on the paint.

[Heaven_is_inferno_orange]

Lack of vendors was my biggest complaint. I wanted to purchase the rest of the IOM powder coated engine bay accessories for sasuke and no one had any. :(
I am appreciating the car show portion feedback as my club was the one that hosted that portion and feedback allows us to improve things. I will appologize for the parking. The area we wanted to have the show was not the same area the mods wanted it so we had no control over that guys. But I do feel like that area was just not good for the show. Not enough room, it was difficult to get the racers in and out plus I just wasn't comfortable having all that traffic coming thru the vendor area where there were lots of people walking. I'm hoping that in the future if fest comes back to bowling green the mods will consider placing th car show in the same location LS Fest uses to make it a little easier for he participants. over all though I had a blast and hope you all come back to kentucky. The NCN track was a great addition!

[hammdo]

Originally Posted by z28-conv

As a matter of fact I did take some picks before The guys at Adams worked on them. Sorry they are upside down but here you go. I thought it was only me that had this issue. At least now I know something is up. I had no idea that I should have removed the bra when it was raining. Did not notice anything in the instructions?

Mine did the same thing -- I'll be getting it buffed out, but heck, how is this (novistretch) any better than driving 'naked'? Didn't know about the rain either...

NOT putting it back on to have this happen again...

-Don

[hammdo]

I sent NoviStrech a comment, my contact info, and a reference to this forum post to let them know there is a problem. Let's see what happens...

BTW, I had the mirror covers and they did the same thing...

-Don