While I definitely enjoyed the camaraderie and company driving to the Speedquest event, I did walk away with some mixed feelings about the drive up. I say that not to fault anyone, but more to establish a dialog about how y'all as a group have managed multi-car drives in the past. We obviously had some miscommunication or confusion around the route, and even had a few scary moments (yee in the red car - did your eyes go wide when you got stuck having to wedge in behind me and i took it into the leftside breakdown lane to give some breathing room on the altima that was braking in front of me?)

Please - are we supposed to be "reserved gentlemen" drivers, or is it acceptable to be throwing the car sideways (guilty!)

Just want to fit in....

-Scott

 

Drive Smart and be Safe.

Always let another S in line when needed.

Don't drive above your driving skills.

Don't hit the car in front of you and leave enough room just in case you need it.

Drive according to Traffic conditions.

Don't peel out and throw stones at your fellow S drivers. (Stonechips Suck)

Use common sense and give the Bird to Idiots that wont get out of the fast lane j/k on the bird, some of those idiots have cell phones.

Have Fun!

 

A couple of things:

I understand your point, but I want to address Sunday's drive specifically. Typically on Group drives there is a designated leader. There really wasn't one on Sunday. This caused a lot of confusion, some of which was over the fact that some people thought I was leading the drive. I do feel bad that the group got all split up, and that some people got lost. I feel at least a LITTLE responsible for that, and I do apologize.

When I do a group drive I try to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the route, and when possible a route map. With this group, it has resulted in mixed outcomes. Some people don't want to talk about the route, or look at the route sheet, they just figure they will follow the guy in front. This causes problems. People get behind and drive WAY past their limits and do REALLY crazy things just to keep up. I have heard tale of people running red lights, etc. To that end, I am VERY reluctant to lead drives anymore as I don't want to be responsible for someone getting hurt, or hurting their car trying to keep up with me.

Overall, I think we SHOULD have some posted guidelines for drives, and this seems as good as time as any to start them off.

Here are some that come to mind:

1. The group leader is responsible for planning a route and providing route information to ALL particpants.

2. There will be a desginated sweep driver who will be LAST. No one will get behind the sweep. The sweep and the leader need to have a way to communicate (FRS radios, Cell phones, carrier pidgeons, whatever works.) The sweep MUST be 100% familar with the route.

That is just a beginning, how about more suggestions.

 

Don't speed off from the tollbooth when the guy stuck there has no clue where he's going (just given ya crap)


It's part my fault for not printing directions, but I was under the impression we were going to stick together throughout the route.

The thing with group cruises is that you have a wide range of drivers and drivers' skills. Naturally the more aggressive drivers (we know who we are) are going to "press" a lot harder than the guys that are just there to, well, "take it easy".

I agree with all the above suggestions. But me not having an S2K anymore, I will leave it upto you guys to suggest the best solution(s).

 

Don't worry fresh water tour was a joke for this.

If we do another tour next year, that is a caravan. There are going to be some ground rules about people who want to drive like they want to be arrested, and those who want to be apart of group drives.

I don't know how many fuking times I got seperated from group drives. I don't mind driving fast, but when I can't keep up going 100 MPH, I am sorry that is complete and utter disrespect for a group drive concept.
We need more track day get togethers, so some of the group can keep this shit off the streets.

If you have a group of people who dont know where they are going, you should have a few people who do know, and are willing to hang back with the others.

 

Not that my opinion matters much around here, but being that I've "Followed/Observed" 2 S2000 Tours now (and been on countless drives for fun), I've learned a few things about the group drives (especially with the UMW *cough* Chi-town people ).

I've learned that it's best to have my own directions and to go over them VERY carefully before the drive, and to form a "Pack" of people who are going to drive like I am. Let the "spirited" do their thing, but preparation and communication before the drive is everything.

my .02

 

If I'm leading a drive, I keep it sane. If people want to speed passing me by, then I tolerate it.....however, if I choose to change routes with the majority of the group following me mid-tour, I tend to do that.

However, if I'm following and the leaders and others want to speed off, they do so, without me. I keep the pace I want to keep. If I lose the group, so be it, even if I don't have directions. I don't generally get lost anyway seeing that I am a man.....and men don't need no stinkin' directions.

If we ever have a group drive that I am leading, I will rally the drivers and go over a few simple rules before departing. We are all grown and can choose to abide by them or not. If mistakes, accidents, or tickets happen, the offender just has to pay any of the assoicated consequences (that being said, if a participant in a drive speeds past the group going 100+ mph while the rest of us are obeying speed laws, and that action gets the group pulled over, you'd better believe that I'll have a lawyer in waiting to get everyone but that one driver off!).

 

A little more to add about group drive rules:

In the past prior to the current owner's group, we had no need for any particular rules. Drivers typically brought their significant others, fiances, girlfriends, or a child.

Drivers found no need to hotdog while putting these people at risk.

Maybe a set of rules is what the UMW-S2KOG needs

 

In Ohio we normally set the cruise control at 100.This avoids any questions later on.

 

I know that there have been times where the leader has gone faster than 100mph on a drive, but it's not quite a common as you might think. I have led drives and when we got to where we were going, people were bragging about 100-120mph runs at points in the drive. These were on drives where no one passed me, and I did NOT get to 100MPH.

Keeping a large group together is very difficult. With traffic, intersections, stop lights, etc the groups can get broken up VERY quickly. It can be VERY difficult for the leader (especially in an S2000) to see anything behind him except the car DIRECTLY behind him.

I have been on drives where the leader stopped constantly to make sure everyone kept together. This was nice for the people trying to keep up, but WAY boring for 80% of the participants.

I led a drive in the rain one time driving my Full-Size pickup truck. I turned on the cargo lights (mounted next to the rear brake light on the top of the cab) so I would be easy to spot in traffic. We went about 6-7 miles with minimal turns. I never exceeded the speed limit, and spent a fair ammount of time BELOW the speed limit, and I STILL had people complain that they couldn't keep up with the group (and they were driving S2000's.)

The point is that as a group drive leader it is a no-win situation. No matter what you do, someone isn't going to like it. This is one of the reasons that I don't lead group drives anymore. Someone is always going to be pissed at me no matter what I do.