Yes, I was banned from rangerovers.net for a stupid reason by RRToadHall. I posted a thread about rear brake lines and rust, and he objected to my question about rust treatment.
It seams like more than a few here dealt with the same. So, why can't we make this site into a more serious competitor to that one. I'm not a rabble rouser, but that guy really pissed me off.
Any details about your motor and location?
I think Gordon has the storage capacity and bandwidth to allow it to cope with far more users so it wouldn't be a problem. What would be is that all of us on here, except for a couple, are P38 owners so that is what we know and have experience with so expanding to cover other models wouldn't be a lot of use or interest. I suppose all that would be needed would be a bit more publicity although that could take away the personal feel of the site. It is a virtual pub, you wander in, sit down and talk about cars. If the conversation wanders off topic, who cares? The tag line for the site dates back to when the Defender first came out on coil springs after years of the Series Land Rovers being on leaf springs. It was using that phrase when people were talking about converting a P38 to coils springs, that got both Gordon and me a ban from RR.net and started the idea for this site in the first place (that, and considerable quantities of alcohol).
What has always got to me about RR.net is that it is a site that was started by a New Zealander, dedicated to a British car, now owned by a Canadian company but Admin is a narrow minded redneck Yank who judges by his own standards and sets his own rules.
Well, as a long time P38 owner, I am just glad to find out there is an alternative to that other side (which seems to be full of a lot of dead links and outdated vendor info these days). I don't know if I would have found this site if I wasn't banned for arguing with him via PM.
My take on it is that this site is growing slowly but surely and keeping the original spirit. If we were to put an effort into growing, I'd like to see us organising some events. We've been very lucky that Marty has let us use his workshop twice now and we've achieved some good things - I certainly wouldn't have had a new headlining if it hadn't been for the production line we had going. We also learnt a lot about how to do headlinings, the first ones were not great but the last ones were pretty much perfect IMO. Perhaps if we do something like that again we'll have to allow time/materials to totally fuck one up as a learning experience and re-do it at the end.
It's really hard to make sure everyone comes out happy from a meet like Summer Camp. There will always be people who haven't achieved all that they wanted because time is limited and people work at a different speeds. Or they just sit around cooking stuff :)
Don't get me wrong, I thought Summer Camp was fantastic and I hope we can continue to do group maintenance meets, especially if Marty is happy for us to come down and bother him again. Or maybe we look for another venue and give him a break for a year - or at least the opportunity to come and see some different countryside :)
Apart from Summer Camp type meets, maybe we could organise an off road trip, or just a day at an off-road site? or perhaps form a group at a broader Land Rover show? I wouldn't want our USP to be "We're not RangeRovers.net", I'd rather see something a bit more positive and see membership grow because we're enjoying our vehicles and we're helpful.
Just my 2p. :)
I personally don’t think we need to ramp things up, word of mouth seems to be doing the job, we’re getting new members every week without fail.
I like the idea of maybe an off road day, or invade a show and show off our cars,, it’s about time the p38 was more recognised, especially at shows.
Last year a trip abroad was mentioned, I’m up for that as I’m sure many others are.
I'm happy to host things at the workshop - it seems (somewhat) central to people from the group, though I'd be happy to travel elsewhere too - whatever is best for everyone.
In some ways (I know the logistics/cost of it are more involved) it would be nice if we could do a long weekend to make it more worthwhile trying to get things done, and maybe we could then undertake somewhat bigger projects for people too. (Like ball joints, radius arm bushes etc?)
I would also be interested in trying to get to some Land Rover shows... between us all we have some nice P38s that scrub up pretty well, and it would be good to show them off and give them some good press!
got both Gordon and me a ban from RR.net and started the idea for this site in the first place (that, and considerable quantities of alcohol).
The Devil made me do it but it WAS my idea :-D
Have you realised that this site will be celebrating it's 2nd birthday on Friday? Member number 2 hasn't posted much though......
Sadly member #2 is no longer with us, having been knocked down by a car earlier this year (despite the roughness of the farm track some people seem to take it as a personal challenge to get up through all the gears before hitting the tarmac road).
no10chris wrote:
I personally don’t think we need to ramp things up, word of mouth seems to be doing the job, we’re getting new members every week without fail.
I like the idea of maybe an off road day, or invade a show and show off our cars,, it’s about time the p38 was more recognised, especially at shows.
Last year a trip abroad was mentioned, I’m up for that as I’m sure many others are.
I would be very interested, Swindon is good location about 2 hours drive for me so should be good. Might bring the caravan and stay local or get a hotel if we do more then one day. I have quite a list to do on mine but happy if we are doing something else. Shall we look into some dates in the future? BH weekends are usually off for me as I got to motorsport events when I can.
I've just finished reading Ben Fogle's book, Land Rover, The story of the car that conquered the world. It was bought for me by my daughter as a Christmas pressie and was bunged in my bag on Wednesday when we set off. Admittedly, it is about the history of the Series/Defender and written from the perspective of someone who is an owner rather than a historian but other models get a few mentions. The P38 gets one mention where it is referred to as the unreliable, unloved Land Rover that was dropped as soon as possible.
From that point of view, I definitely think we should try to attend as many shows as possible to prove that they really aren't unloved and as unreliable as people think. I'm at Dina's parent's house in Latvia watching mine slowly disappear under a nice layer of snow. We didn't do it in one hit this time but had an overnight stop in Warsaw but even so, it's done 1,520 miles and the trip computer shows an average speed of 64 mpg. It hasn't missed a beat, used no coolant and the oil on the dipstick has dropped by maybe 1mm below the full mark. Pulling into the hotel car park in Warsaw, found the covered VIP parking area and what did I see? A P38, that's what......
On Warsaw plates so local, presumably a V8 from the presence of front fogs, no badge on the back but black leather interior so either an SE or HSE and likely to be a pre 99 from the 16" wheels, amber indicators and lack of factory sat nav. But sitting next to a Bentley and a Porsche is where it really belongs. I doubt the owners of any of these were resident in an ibis budget hotel so suspect that for a fee locals can park their cars in the security of the hotel car park
At one point on the journey I looked at the odo and decided I was getting close to another dash photo opportunity but next time I looked it was showing 345, 722.4 so I'd missed the chance of a picture of it showing 345,678.9, Unloved and unreliable my arse. Dina told me I'll just have to wait until 456,789.0......
Excellent nice to know they still crop up all over Europe, a 4.6 HSE in blue passed me on the M4 today while in my hire car. Felt envious of them in the comfort that is.
Just looked a we could register p38oc.org there are the usual .com and .co.uk but looks messy when you have a oc at the end. A quick google found a p38 owners club on BookFace but I couldn't find anything in particular.
With regard to shows, I would look at the agricultural shows not the big county ones but the smaller ones that we could in theory attend as part of the event. Also classic car events, were not quite classic yet but not far off. Silverstone has the Classic each year, plus there are countless motorsport events that allow club areas to be set aside.
Once mine is running again, hopefully tomorrow there are only a few things I would want to sort before being happy to show it.
I am a member of the North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club (NNCVC) and. Have been for a few years now. We show our car regularly during the season and I always get nice remarks and quite a lot of interest in the car. I would certainly be up for doing car shows.
Rob.
This appears to be a rather comprehensive setup.
http://www.rangeroverp38.com Get google to translate it from the French and you're good to go.
p38ownersclub.co.uk sounds ok. A couple of paid sponsors for approved/reliable parts sellers on ebay and wot not and the running costs would be paid for too.
We wouldn't need another website, we've already got a pub, all we'd need would be somewhere to post any local shows we might be attending and see if anyone else fancies coming along. A pub outing if you like. I live 3 miles from the East of England showground where the LRO show is held every year. Hundreds, if not thousands of Defenders and Discoverys but virtually nothing for the P38 owner. I found a display for the Range Rover Register there a couple of years ago but why would I want to pay £32.50 a year for a magazine and members discounts from places I never use?
All I'm suggesting is we attend a few shows, both ordinary classic car shows and dedicated Land Rover ones, to show that not only do some of us love our P38s but with a little attention they can be reliable too. Between us we've got a wide range from the super shiny ones of Orangebean, BPSM and Robbo (to show that somebody loves them) while I've got the workhorse that started life thrashing up and down the M6 towing dead vehicles off the road and now spends it's life thrashing around Europe more often that not with a couple of tonnes hitched up to the back (to show that they can be reliable). Then we've got Rutland Rover who takes his to off road trials. When I did an off road course at Land Rover a few years ago they reckoned that a P38 with EAS can go to places a Defender can't. So between us I think we can show that they don't actually deserve their reputation.
Super shiny? Mine? I think not!
Here's what it looks like this morning, and I probably won't clean it again until Spring
I agree with Gilbertd that we don't need another website, URL/ name or anything like that. I'm not even sure that "ramping up" the site into just another of the P38 sites already out there is needed.
I like the fact that this is a small community of knowledgeable P38 people, growing organically, and think it should continue on that path.
Doing the odd show or whatever is a good idea, and a chance to meet up. I'm personally not into evangelising about the P38, addressing any reputational issues it might have (I don't care about what others think of the car) or trying to put more people behind the wheel of a P38.
It's just a car, that I like- a lot, and it's nice to share that element with like minded people in the virtual- and when the opportunity arises- the real world
True point we don't actually need a new website I guess.
There is a tractor show on at Malvern Showground in February, mostly indoor. Includes commercial vehicles and may have some classics. Its about an hours drive for me so basically local.
I think it's good to get the p38 or the mote. Not necessarily to promote it and get more people behind the wheel, but I would like to try and start dispelling the myth of unreliability, EAS is crap and whatever other stereotypes people want to throw out there.
Mine is going to get a wash once I'm back from Yorkshire, as I'm sure the underside will be a bit cruddy - something tells me they use more salt on the roads up there...
Martyuk wrote:
but I would like to try and start dispelling the myth of unreliability, EAS is crap and whatever other stereotypes people want to throw out there.
My thoughts entirely. All cars have their faults but it seems that the P38 has got a bad rap for a couple of fairly minor, easily fixed, problems. With the number of us running LPG we could probably start to dispel a few myths there too.