GS Nationals Dying

Re: GS Nationals dieing

I have raced at the "tri power nats" in Ohio, how are those guys doing with attendance? just curious..

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

GSCA is slowly going to go away. Part of it may be their fault and I'm not jumping in and pointing fingers anywhere, enough has been written about that already. The problem lies with the fact we all choose Buick as our musclecar.

How old are the GN's now? How long has it been since the GS's were made? Face it guys, Buick has not made a musclecar in quite a long time. I would guess for every ten guys moving away from the Buick as their choice of musclecar we're lucky to have one filling the ranks.

We are a dieing breed, plain and simple. Look around at car shows how many young guys are driving a GS or GN? I look at all the white haired guys with their 55-57 Chevrolets and think most of us are not to far from looking like that.

The GSCA heyday is long gone, I hope you all have great memories as I do.

Face it our numbers are dwindling, that is the biggest problem. Here at V8 we have 29k members... How many have logged in this year compared to 5 years ago. There just are not as many of us as their were.

Banding together with the Olds and Pontiac folks might be the best way or only way to survive.

Just my two cents...

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

i've been atending the nats for 27years.i no it's hayday is long gone.but the club has always had this one problem.we make the nationals in participating and bringing our cars to this event.without the car count there would'nt be one.yes the friends we meet each year are priceless,but less of them are there each year.it takes time and$$$ to build and maintain a show or race car.without something in return for winning or doing well shows no respect for the particapant.the business part works both ways.thank you steve for stepping up next year on sponsoring race classes,but i think it's too late.hopefully not,but??? time will tell.but one thing is for sure;the newsletter will read "this years nationals was one of the best ever!!" lol. i no i had fun,great racing weather,food,driving times..

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

speaking of the tri power nationals... pontiac isnt even around anymore but i went to the tri power nationals this year, norwalk was packed. both sides of the track.and there was nowhere near the amount of newer pontiacs compared to the old true pontiacs with pontiac engines. the swap meet was also packed. and there were alot of younger guys there too, so i really dont believe the whole "our sport and cars are dying" so all the cars in the show werent the nicest, they dont care, every pontiac there wasnt running 9's or faster they dont care about that either, but they all showed up anyway just to be there and because they like pontiacs. not everyone can make it all the time but if people dont show up to events like this the events will eventually end and people will have no reason to build buicks and no one will bother making parts for them anymore and there wont be much point to this web site either. im not rich but i manage to make it down there every year. so i say get the problems fixed and start participating again. ive never met bennet but it sounds like he needs to go and obviously the payouts need to be fixed.

Cody

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

Here is one difference in the Tri-power nationals.

Total GTO Production 1964-74 515,797

Total GS Production 1965-75 ~135,000


Do you think the Tri-power gets about 5 times the attendance?

They also have newer cars to keep people interested. I love Buicks but when I started looking for a new daily driver I started looking at the GTO, Camaro and C5 corvettes. I drove a 1998 regal for 10+ years and even though it was a nice car it was not a street brawler.

my 2 cents.

Mark

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

I am not exactly sure why this is true but I noticed 20 years ago there were a lot more 65-69 GS's that came. There were also several 73-75 cars, Riv GS's and all types of cool stuff like that. It seems like very little of those cars come now. Is it just the age of the cars?

You also see very few "casual" racers. Most the folks that race are more hardcore. I remember in 1988 the staging lanes were full of daily drivers and regular cars. Even a lot of GS's that were not restored. It seems like most of the cars now that show up are either race cars or restored cars. You see fewer and fewer drivers. I know that is to be expected over 25 years. It is hard to keep a car on the road for 40+ years. That is just the way I see it.

I think a BOP event would be cool. I like all the A-body and you may be able to get more grudge match racing between brands. Sounds like something I would go to.

I also think larger national events like Muslepoluza take some of the cars away from the brand specific events. I know I have done both types of events in the past. I like the fact that there are thousands of cars at an event and I can respect all brands of muscle cars.


Mark

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

I think its funny they still call it the GS Nationals. It seemed like there were as many turbo cars (or more) as there were GS's. if the turbo guys would have stayed home, there wouldn't have been an event. They are going to need to change the name to the GS/Turbo Nationals.

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

When you can get in a car drive it across country with AC and get 24mpg, yeah a lot of them will always show up. ou:

The GS's aren't slightly used $2500 cars anymore, and most of us don't rely on them as our daily driver like we did in the 80's. Still, I've driven to BG 750 mile each way and plan on it next year! Especially since it's in the beautiful fall weather now!

DL

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

ACHEM! Buick makes a pretty damn nice daily driver ! And more importantly they are appealing to a Much younger buyer. We should be so lucky we haven't gone the way of olds and pontiac...

DL

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

Awesome photo!! Thats my car! My fastest pass of the week. I'm crushing the wheelie bars.. I would love a copy just PM me what you want. Thanks for posting

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

but you cant run any of buicks new cars at the nats.................

scott

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

Don't shoot me but.......I think it should be opened up so that Buicks with Chevy motors can run in any class they can. Might see some quick Roadmasters. Why not? A killer SBC in a Roadmaster wagon running in Q16? Would that be the end of the world?
And what if someone hopped up a Lucerne with Northstar?

Hell, I'd even have no problem with an 80s Regal with a SB Chevy in it since they were available. Might make things more interesting which is one of the reasons people aren't showing up. They think they've seen it all.

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

just wondering what happened between Mike at TA and the gsca. He stopped advertizing in the xtra years ago. How often do you see the gsca talk about TA. To me they act as if TA doesn't exist. The only time you see TA mentioned in my opinion is when it is attached to a part. When you fail to mention TA as even a reputable vendor???? Yet they sure do blow sunshine up wildcats behind. I don't know Mike but I've heard he is a stand up guy from people like chris skaling and others. Maybe Mike figured it out long time ago. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

just wondering what happened between Mike at TA and the gsca.

1999 Sherri vs the Bennett, it was over before it started

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

Being discussed here http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=238519

I'd probably be against, as I assume most others would as well, having non-Buick powered Buicks run against Buick powered cars, but if it ever opened up to non-Buick powered Buicks I would bring my SBC powered Skylark. From what I've read so far, I seriously doubt if it's ever going to happen.

I love my Buick and I have all the respect in the world for Buick motors but I also love my little Chevy motor. Most importantly, to me anyway, it's well within my budget and if I blow it up I can find another one in an hour.

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

I find this thread very amusing. :laugh: :laugh:

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

Care to elaborate? I don't belong to any clubs, but I don't find this amusing at all.

Devon

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

It is amusing. Nothing is like it was in our world as it was 20 years ago. And some car event dieing off is not that big of deal in the big scheme of things. If people want wine and cry about how someone slighted them and not come to the Nats. anymore than fine, dont come. Or, grow up, move on, and come and have fun with us who are having fun. So yes its amusing to come here and see the next post about how someone didnt get a refund and lost a couple hundred bucks because something happened and there never coming back. I hope the racers can get their payouts figured out and the event continues on cause its a great time. If not, we'll do something else.

 

Re: GS Nationals dieing

What a great way to entice new people to belong to the clubs. Kudos to you!

I've been looking in from the outside since the early 1980's. Is it no surprise that fewer and fewer people want to participate now because of all this BS, and you aren't helping ONE BIT.

The BS has been happening for a long time. I've got thirty years of reading/hearing all this crap. If you people who have any good reason I should join a club after all of this, I'm all ears.

And by the way, the word is "dying". Spell it right for posterity's sake, please.

Devon