Here's the problem. With the outage, people have been turned away, thus the Facebook group. There are hardly any old school members left. And with the influx of all these newbies, they're all here for the problems their cars bring. There's no passion in building what the car really is. And this is why the group is dwindling, and why Spring Zing will never become even close to what it used to be. It sucks because I haven't even been to a SZ event yet, and there were a ton of old school members that I wanted to meet, but they're no longer around. The non existent passion just makes it a poor attendance, because let's face it, there are more people who drive the car because its fun for transportation that they got for the cheap than those of us who mod it and try to make it our own and post on CEG
And on top of it, a lot of CEG is stingy with taking their car long distances due to their high expectations. (Kinda like me) I just don't wanna show up with 7 other contours.
Ramble over, my allergies are kicking in from this stupid cat.
This is exactly why there has been a lot of talk over the last few years of combining the events, because they keep getting smaller and smaller every year for this very reason. Many of the "old school" members on both forums have moved on from their Cougar/Contour to new platforms. Many do stick around because of the friends that have been made, and stay active and come to the events (just look at the "trolls" this year, THOSE are some of your "old school" members who stick around because they are still a part of the community). Many of the newer generation members are exactly as you mentioned, not so much wanting to build 400hp 3L monsters, but more learning from the ground up about the platform, keeping their cars running, and figuring out problems that may arise.
I have to say, I had a conversation with someone on Saturday at the show this year about how far the group has come, at least from the Cougar side. Back when I joined in 2004, it was all about body kits, SVT stuff, 3L hybrids, and legitimate SHOW cars (i.e. Crispy's orange/gray Cougar, and James' widebody). When I was walking around making my picks for the awards, I couldn't figure out just what was "Mild" and what was "Wild", because there was only ONE car that had a wild body kit. All the others, while some had kits, they were very subtle and looked like something that COULD come from the factory. There weren't outrageous stereos, full diamond-plated interiors, strobing neons and flashy underglow everywhere, etc. There would be a box with a 12" sub, maybe a couple 10's in others, relocated battery here and there, aftermarket HU's in a few cars, etc. There were probably half a dozen or more cars that looked like they could have just rolled off the assembly line, had hardly been "molested" at all.
The reason I'm saying all this? Both of these groups are dying in terms of the general population. Sure, you've got crazy bastards like me who drive 3,700 miles with no A/C in a rattle-canned gutted car, but that isn't a very good perception of either group as a whole. How much of a percentage are the members who have joined in the last 3 years, and ask questions like "why does my car lose power at 3500 rpms" or "why does my mechanic want $500 to replace my alternator"? They're not doing turbo'd 3L build threads, they're not building cars for NOPI Nationals, etc. If we insist on keeping the groups split apart, I can promise you that in 5 years, neither event will draw more than a dozen cars meant for the event (i.e. not counting the people who move on to other cars and bring those). The car enthusiast community as a whole is dying rapidly. Younger people are just kinda "meh" about cars now. They're not excited about them, many kids don't even care about getting their license anymore. And if those of us who ARE truly passionate about our cars, and this platform specifically, don't band together to keep the passion alive, and try to instill that passion in the younger members and younger generation, then both groups will just fade away into nothing.
There, off my soapbox, feel free to throw tomatoes as seen fit.
