Car clubs, especially in a high school or college setting, can be a godsend. Generally, they give us car people a place to hang out with other car people without boring all the normal people stupid with all our car talk. Tell me about your club.
I didn’t know this until today, but our own David Tracy actually founded the Virginia Automotive Club at the University of Virginia when he attended. And it sounded cool as hell! They met in a room, talked about current automotive news and how cars worked. They also went on car cruises through the Appalachians. They invited guest speakers like Matt Hardigree to come by.
Plus, David was also on the Baja SAE team, but he just liked to go by the shop to wrench.
I didn’t get to experience a car club until I transferred to the University of Southern California during the fall of my junior year. The club was called Imports@USC, but we were open to any enthusiast. I helped organize our first meetup in the Wendy’s parking lot near campus. All kinds of people showed up and we made it a monthly thing. I met two of my closest friends there.
Mostly, we went on cruises. Up through the canyons and ending up at Neptune’s Net for a quick bite and then everyone would head home. We also organized Forza parties by booking an empty classroom and hooking the Xbox up to the projector.
Maybe you were in your club during college. Maybe it was after. Regardless, I want to hear about it.