I can put my misreading of comments down to old age. What's your excuse?
We need to get a few people on here with twingo GT's/Rs's, Clio 197's/200's and Megane 230's/250's and get them to tune thier cars way beyond what anybody else has done and show them that this club has more and better knowledge than cliosport or meganesport or what ever other RS clubs there are.
If we can make a name for ourselves as the best when it comes to building fast renaults ofold and new then I think we'll start getting more newbies joining up.
I agree the name renaultTURBOownersclub does tend to put off the twingo and clio lot quite abit but with even just a few well tuned examples getting out there saying they were built thanks to the RTOC.
New generation of Renault's, like the GTT back in the day were rinsed out by 'tuners' first, THE only place to take your 5, the hype, the shpiel. Only to find out further along the line what actually was going on.
Cars nowadays aren't built to be hands on, spanners in the toolbox,micro drill bits with a fettle
Unfortunatly I think your right, I'm also a member of the Renaultsport forum (just to show how its done) and out of all the members on there I can only think of 3 that have actualy done any serious work on there cars, the rest are happy with just getting a remap, airfilter and bitching about the warrenty, I hope that in time more proper car nuts get hold of the newer models and see that the true path of hot hatch fun is here.
These RenaultSport models nowadays are fantastic out the box from the showroom, if i had no worries about work, a decent wage i'd have a Megane R26 fully caged etc and leave it be.
Like you say bar a replacement filter and remap that's as far as i'd go personally, it's hard to compete when Renaultsport already run their own trackdays IMO
Nowadays RTOC is more preserving the fact these hot hatches aren't getting any younger and is switching more to restoration and remaking key parts to keep them going
I dunno if having nice shiner new cars therefore new members would b good for THIS club.
It would change and not neccisarily for the better.
As said us lot are very mechanical and hands on whereas a most of the new lot would b all about cleaning and shifty styling mods.
The boards would change and a lot of the people who are here now would become quieter.
As for generating more money through adverts, the only way would b for universal things like tyres, brakes...
No companies would pay to sponser here cos there's no money to b made from old renaults.
National day and pod days and the like should(and I think are) b for members/old reno turbos 1st and then opened up to all renaults to make up numbers.
Not sure really why people seem to think we NEED more members anyway ..
More the merrier is always a winner, but at the end of the day we have our 2 big days that are paid for through club funds and although we do make a loss on these events it does'nt cripple the club and we always have the money to pay for the next year .
Sure the amount of members will dip and rise from year to year , possibly growing as the older Turbo'd models become more collectable ,
I think this thread has been a good thing and bought a few points across that are going to make things better , communication being a big part of it , but as far as radical changes needed..... i really dont think so.
And for those who think we dont do enough events, this one has been up for a few days and see how much interest i had
https://www.rtoc.org/boards/showthread.php?t=13368
, the club is lush , most of the peeps on it are lush , the people behind the scene are lush too, i love the club...we are ace, as an active owner and "member"....i can say i feel clee has hit the nail on the head , some more input and prescence from its club president and some more committee updates/info/communication would be lush too..., i dont feel we should be seeking a new name etc , we are allready attracting new people from cliosport and other clubs via our trackdays , events etc , im all for encouraging more peeps but i dont want to change all my hoodies , stickers etc..., i only feel there are too many GTA`s on the site........, well done all concerned for getting us thus far.....
ps no one go to daves events he decorates your cars.....
I'll be going to that as it's local .Might even pop out on track but it is a bit steep so maybe only one session .
I also don't see the need to grow the membership vastly .Seems a lot of cry wolf going on .
I'm all for more stuff in the shop but it needs to be manageable and I need to be told what you all want ,I don't do 5s .......
Well we're 4 pages in now, i was wondering what the person who started this thread has to say about what's been discussed in those pages?
Wow, after all that I'm now fine again and I know all is going to be well in the world of RTOC.
Daft comments aside, I've been a little reticent to air my thoughts as I'm such a comparative nube but as a newcomer I can also see what a great forum this is, offering much more already than any I can think of. Lets not forget that in all the hubbub.
All depends on how you take the question doesn't it? Ok so Steve's started a genuine thread about how to 'Shake' things, move the club forward etc etc. I'm just merely saying that there's been 4 pages of worthwhile comments about the club and wondered what he thought of the comments and suggestions made by the committee members etc?
Not really, he's started a thread asking for a discussion about it, not really offered any ideas or solutions and then hasn't been party to the discussion he started.
Its like being at work and asking everyone to attend a meeting then fecking off to do something else whilst they all sit round wondering what its all about.
Just like old times
[quote=Ian S;132570]Errm, you did! Who did you push?
If you came to meeting at National Day in 2008 & 2009 you would have heard all about it? Nothing got done between then (2008) & ND 2009 so I brought it all up again. This is now being organised (thank you to everyone behind the scenes who are making this happen and putting in their time and effort, the club really appreciates it)
Did you know that club had area reps back in the '90's and never stopped having area reps and a Senior Area Rep? Did you not see the way it worked on the old site?
Yes I did hence why I thought when it was running properly it worked well and should be implemented again. There were alot of poeple who were reps that weren't even members of the club anymore for example. I think it can be a great feature if run & used effectively.
I don't think anyone feels the need to increase/maintain members in a now-time frame, but as Ian said previously, it's possibly something that needs to be addressed in the future if we're to run rtoc & its events in the way they currently are.
Apologies, I have never seen that there before untill now maybe this could also be linked in the members section (which is where I was looking)
The list doesn't actually seem to match who displays as a 'committee member' or who members think are committee members? for e.g. penfold (sorry to use you as an example) - he is a committee member (according to his profile) but he is not on the list, so is he a committee member or not?
Clarification on little things like this is useful i feel, especially for new members?
WOW how things change on a thread over the last day and a half (jokes)!
To me it does seem everyone is arguing about the same thing doesnt it? The committee feed into the members more, members run with what ever it is, the club prospers?
Or members feed into the committee with an idea (how this happens i dont think is the problem), it is acknwledged publicly that the idea is with the committee and being discussed, regular public updates are given as to the position of the idea?
To me its a small thing and would love to help anyway i can
I think there are a few points well made in his thread, but it now seems to be going round in circles. Personally i like the current set up. It would be good to include a couple of the suggestions too though. I also appreciate the time people spend behind the scenes.
I've been on the R5 scene for nearly 9 years and although quiet at first (5 years lol) i was regularly helping people out when i lived oop north behind the scenes. A lot more so over the last 5 years in Devon.
Since i started having more time in the UK i have offered to help with the club a number of times on the old site and this one, both on the boards and via PM (I recall Chris Hebden has done also). I have never been taken up on it though.
Also if the club wants to stock any Devil or De Carbon decals i can still get them made.
Right then guys & girls, sorry for not replying sooner but I HAVE been keeping a very close eye on this thread and am really pleased in the direction that the thread has gone!
Keep supplying the good ideas
Only Joking
I started this post to encourage a debate on the points raised about the club. As the post originator I thought it best for me to just sit back & see the responses.
I’m REALLY pleased with the comments that have come out of this post and I think we have all learnt more about how this club works and the effort going on in the background. Hopefully some of these points will be implemented in the way the club runs in the future?
Let me just explain to you some of the things that have been on my mind for a number of months now.. As you are all aware there is another website called the www.renault5gtturbo.com which caters for the 5GTTurbo enthusiast like we do here at RTOC. There is one big difference between us and them and that’s the membership fee.
YOU PAY HERE & NOT THEIR!
So what do you get with the RTOC for your membership fee? A private Track Day, A private RWYB, Nurburgring Jollie’s, Curry Nights, Club Shop etc, the list Truly does go on!! Do the RAOC, Cliosport, Clio16v, Williamsclio, and various other Renault/Peugeot/Citroen clubs do this? I very much doubt it! I think they must be crazy NOT to pay our membership fee! So why do people not pay it then?? Are they not aware of the benefits? Do they have a bad experience of us? I really don’t know?? Surely they can’t be THAT bloody hard up to pay out £25 for the first year??
For what we offer I think we should be limiting membership numbers and not making a small loss on the events that we do hold. However as I pointed out in the original post I think we are still considered to be the 5GT Turbo Owners Club and we need to think about doing something different to try & expand this club. At the moment there are 2054 members of this club but only 726 of them are “Active” which means we have 1328 INACTIVE members?? Why is this??
In 5 years time the 5GTT will be 30 years old and most of the neglected examples that members are battling with to keep on the roads at the moment will have long been turned into the next miserable Kia or a tin of beans. A reduction in the cars available WILL result in a reduction of members of the RTOC. Therefore in the future the club will not have the funds to do all these activities that we all enjoy at the moment and I’m someone who doesn’t want to stop doing it!!
What we do now whilst the club IS in a great position to grow and move into new areas will benefit us in the future and allow us to continue this club for years to come. If we do nothing then the club will just keep on shrinking and turn itself into nothing more than a forum for a few old farts who are reminiscing about the cars they used to own in their youth.
I was chatting to my Uncle at the weekend who has got some old classic cars (Jaguar E-Type etc) and he was telling me of the difficulty his car club has in attracting new members. Why is this I wonder?? Well I for one think that one of the biggest reason is that we the new generation are not hankering after the cars of HIS youth but the cars of our youth. Few of us remember getting excited about the Jaguar E-Type doing 150mph on the M1 in the 1960’s because we weren’t born so as a result wouldn’t think of buying one because we have no link to one.
If we do nothing now to attract new members & new cars we will end up in just the same position!
So what CAN we do??? Well I’m not the Wizard of Oz and know the answers to everything but some suggestions could be:
- Try not to be so car model specific and be more events focused to attract people with different cars to keep the club going?
- More Press Releases about our events
- Free coverage/publicity
- Promotes the club
- Encourages new members
- Regular Updates of the homepage
Problem being is renault stopped doing the sporty turbocharged cars for quite a while from 1991 onwards, until they bought out the megane 225 / laguna / twingo( not counting the diesels), not many of these owners will look at this club as something to log on knowing that they are going to get a lot of knowledge from us about improving the cars. Without trying to get the clio owners onto the site we are very limited on numbers due to the fact we are a renault "turbo" owners club. And im guessing a lot of us doubt really want to drop that word from the club.
If we could get the megane / clio / 19 on board this club will go from strength to strength, maybe persuade them they need to turbo their cars
I know Renaultsportsclub ceased as a club a while back, then there's Retro Renault. I think with this day and age with the internet you can belong to sooo many clubs either as loyal to 1 or belong to many. It's like telling all the retro club members to 'merge' or defect to us
Like i said earlier,the Clio 197/200 and Megane 225 boys have the might of RenaultSport and Renault UK and cater their own trackdays, do we try and take a piece of their pie?
We could always up the membership fee to generate more income...
I pay £25 for RAOC membership and all I say is that we very little for that in the way of subsidised events.....But I still pay it
I've just asked for a breakdown of the RAOC's expenditure on events ,it makes somber reading .
I did post that tongue in cheek, but on reflection, maybe it is something the Committee could look into then?
Mind you, I also remember the right feck on it created last time I posted about raising the fee on the Committee board, which, after months, literally, of to'ing & fro'ing, did eventually get implemented
I dont beleive upping the membership fee would help RTOC, the main reason why Cliosport,megan owners club etc is so big is purely down to the fast they have a very low membership cost.... Clio Sport £5 for example....
The question is does RTOC really want 50,000 member's? Do you want ND to be 2000+ attendance? Track time limited to 5x 20mins stint's....
Would we want to see threads about "went to K-Tec, Prima" & brought the "group A/N" bullsh*t threads?? I know the club can educate people but alot of the new Turbo owner's want other's to do the work, want bragging rights down the pub, want a bling bling engine bay and overall couldnt give a crap about what other people think...
This club has members that easily jump down the neck of noob's & people who pay stupid money to get car's fixed etc...
Simple fact is RTOC is mainly about R5's & has been for the existance of RTOC, if 5-10 years time there will be less members who have cars & maybe less members on the boards... so perhaps then will become just a website club rather than a club who has 2 major events a year etc... Or pehaps in 2-5 years time clio Turbo's & megan Turbo's will go down alot in price and tuner's have a bullsh*t stigma attached to them and perhaps its then that RTOC could help them out and really attract these car owners...
I think the club runs great.
The clicky lot do seem to alienate noobs by picking them up on thier spelling or pushing thier dump valve conformist beliefs on people. Generally though with the exception of a total lack of respect for our resident conspiricacy theorist the club is a great place to be and hang out.
The fee for renewal of RTOC membership should I believe be put up and thus allowing the commitee to do even more for us. The mallory park event is the highlight of my year.
My only suggestion is that area Rep positions are distrubuted by county. Ie Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Linconshire
Thats all very well for some of the bigger counties, well apart from yorkshire, wouldn't like to be their rep, but places like essex its a small county and not many cars to cover thats why its split up in more even areas so can cover a larger ground without the need for near 100 area reps. How about including in the area reps, and country rep for the other countries where there are not many members, maybe to promote the club so more or try organise meets between the two countries
I would step up to be Leicestershire Rep if it gets decided to go that way.
LOL I wouldnt offer advice to people unless Ive checked it with Marky, Sparkie or Dunc LOL
Well according to cliosport they have Members: 40,758, how many off them are paying is not revealled on the site, although the admin claim its around the 2,000 & membership costing £10 it works out they have an income of £20,000.
Now they claim the majority of that goes on hosting & membership packs but dont puplish the exact cost's, dont have a ND or an AGM.
There are 2 main guys in charge and they own the rights to cliosport.net and could close it down at a moments notice (and take the money no doubt), now whether or not they would do such a thing i dont know but its not a club owned and run by the club like RTOC.
two ideas,maybe not the best but who knows?
1:trial membership? £3ish for 30 day's membership,an oppurtunity for people to see what the club is about & then hopefully they join up permanant with the £3 fee deducted from the £25 if done in the 30 day period.
2:semi merge with other clubs,ie if you're a member of rtoc you can join x,y or z club for a reduced fee & vice versa,this gets clubs promoting each other & would help with getting larger numbers to events as the clubs could hold joint track day's/events,wether other clubs would be intrested in this though i really dont know.
Firstly, I've only seen spelling being picked on when it's been amid a proper conversation and has been careless to the point that it's unintelligible and/or needlessly chavvy, it has nothing to do with being a noob. Sometimes however it's been new faces that have come belting onto the boards without consideration for other people, giving it the big one, that get chided. And rightly so, hence why it's so great here, as you say; there are rules. The quality of this thread being one of the obvious resultant benefits.
As for respect for our consipracy theorists (there are two), we could all see that the disrespect was multitudinal. Only one person had to apologise if you remember. It seems to have calmed down now and I notice both are still in the club.
Lastly, I don't know what dump valves have to do with anything.
Nayls, those suggestions are excellent btw.
And how many Clios are out there compared to what primarily RTOC is known for (R5GTTs)? Quality and quantity
Clio phase 1
172 phase1
172 phase 2
Cup phase 1 and 2
182 and cup
197
200
Would i also be right in saying that turbo technology is making a comback now due to emmissions, keeping green, the environment? VW going back to a 1.4 but incorporating a turbo and supercharger to gain decent power output but keeping the cc's down too