<VV> Recruiting younger members

[Lanning14 at aol.com]

Ken and All,
 
First of all I read most of the postings to <VV>, but rarely respond.  This 
topic is close to my heart; so here's my take. Twenty-five years ago, I  tried 
Ken's approach to recruiting new members and it didn't work for me either.  
When my son turned 16 I bought him a really nice 65 '500' coupe and fixed it up  
to attract his interest. He drove it, but I could never get him interested in 
 fixing it when it needed something done. Eventually I sold it when he went  
off to college.
 
I'm taking a new approach to recruiting younger members and many 'old  
timers' will probably hate my idea since it involves altering a stock  vehicle, but 
I think it has merit. If you think back, interest in the Corvair  waned 
because young folks at the time wanted sporty and faster cars. The Corvair  
attracted many because it was sporty, but the advent of the  Mustang, GTO, Camaro and 
such took them in another direction. It did  the same to me. It was simply 
easier to buy a 'muscle car' than to make a  Corvair competitive. Today, young 
folks are still attracted to the  latest 'muscle cars' like the Mustang, new 
Camaro and 'Rice  Rockets'. We need to give them what they want if we expect the 
young  generation to take an interest in our hobby. Here's what I have done to 
attract  my son again, who is now 40 and my two grandsons who are 6 and 4. I 
bought a V-8  conversion and plan to use it for vintage racing. The two young 
ones love to  ride in it and my son is impressed with the performance. I 
invited my son to  attend the upcoming Performance Workshop in Indy with me and I 
invited him to  enter the Vair in local autocross events. I'm taking the two 
young grandchildren  with us to watch until they are old enough to drive too. At 
some point I hope  they gain enough interest to both enjoy the performance 
and restoration side of  our hobby. For most, the restoration side of Corvairs 
has  no appeal to the young at first, but performance does. Once you get them  
hooked, who knows what happens next. This is my approach and I hope it  works. 
 
Best Regards,
 
John Lanning
Member-CORSA, Derby City Corvair, V-8 Registry, PCG
1965 Corsa 4.5L coupe
1966 Corsa Conv 140  w/AC
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