MG Sports Cars

Also, a current mailing address for contributions would be fantastic. Right now it's a pain in the butt trying to find out where anything is supposed to be sent. Jim has his address in his profile but he's technically supposed to be out of the loop on that now.

I would suggest Jim editing the address of the current treasurer / contribution point ( this being public is pretty much a requirement, sorry if the treasurer has privacy concerns ) into the first post in the thread. Given that we're almost to 100 pages in this thread, it should also be in one of the top posts on each page.


Donations to the Roadmaster Project can be made to:

Bill Davidson, Treasurer
7208 W 54th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66202

913 677-0884
Bill74mgb@yahoo.com

Checks should be made out to:

British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society
or
BADASS



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2012 07:13PM by Todd McCreary.

Do you know how to do that Todd? Seems it may be a little over my pay grade, er, I mean, I'm sorta technologically challenged in that area and probably don't have the necessary permissions even if I knew what I was doing.

Bill Young should be the one to address this. The contact information for Bill Davidson our treasurer does not seem to be easy to find. We would get more contributions I think if that information was prominent but there seems to be a disconnect.

Max made a lot of good points. Rather than try to justify any of my past actions as Boss I want to thank everyone for putting up with me. It couldn't have been easy sometimes. What we have achieved is an epic story and I would like to see us go forward with it obviously. Everyone has a different leadership style, we just need a few small adjustments.

It may seem at times like I've created a void but I couldn't help it. It's just the way I roll. I did all I could to make this thing happen and anyone would have to admit that I carried the load and led strongly from the front for a very long time. But there was never any reason to think it could be permenant. At some point you have to slack off on your pace, let someone else lead, and possibly even drop to the rear of the pack. There is no shame in this, it is in fact what leadership should be. So that is where I am right now, probably somewhere mid-pack. You guys are going to have to pick up the pace though, because we aren't getting the job done.

Jim

I could get the car in Mid November and bring it down here. It could stay here for the winter, maybe Max could help do something with it. It would cost me about $400 in gas to get it here.
I would have to drive to Rick's, fix the Ign and drive it back. I think I could talk Tom Caine into going with me to drive one car or the other.
Any thoughts?

Steve

We don't have that kind of cash in the account at present. We are strapped.

Additionally, we should be trying to get the car towards the West Coast.

Max also suggested a storage unit....which would be a minimum of $79/month....plus...I have no way of getting the car there.

Max made some very good observations and suggestions in his most recent post.

There is an assumption being made here that the car will go unrepaired while being stored here in Illinois....which is not true.

As schedules allow, Pete and I will make the necessary repairs/changes to the ignition and possibly replace the air bag suspension with GT coil springs.

But until that happens, it will maintain its status as a doorstop.

Do you know how to do that Todd? Seems it may be a little over my pay grade, er, I mean, I'm sorta technologically challenged in that area and probably don't have the necessary permissions even if I knew what I was doing.


It can be dependent on how the forum software is set up as to whether or not you still have access. Certain forums default to locking posts/making them no longer editable after a given amount of time.

Jim, yours is the first post in the thread and I should think that current treasurer info should be in that post. *IF* this forum is configured to *never* lock posts then you should have access to an edit button when you view the first page of the thread.

If you can't find the edit button, any further edits to that post will have to involve a moderator or sysadmin.


The same thing would apply to whomever has the post at the top of the most recent page. In this case, that's me and I can still see the "Edit Post" option at the bottom of my message:
Options: • Reply via PM • Report This Message • Edit Post

Get me the treasurer info and I will tag it into my post at the top of this page.

Donations to the Roadmaster Project can be made to:

Bill Davidson, Treasurer
7208 W 54th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66202

913 677-0884
Bill74mgb@yahoo.com

Checks should be made out to:

British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society
or
BADASS

I was not meaning to imply that Roadmaster should pay for my gas nor that it would not be repaired there.
I can come get it, if that is what the group wants done.
It probably should go west.

Steve

Max made excellent points. If Rick and Pete are going to rework the ignition and possibly the front airbags/springs, it seems to me, "#3 Car needs PREMANENT source of funds to be maintained" is the most important objective. And, IMO, to do that we have to ask ourselves whether we can reasonably expect to self fund or whether we need 3rd party support. Barring a very generous benefactor or two from the group, I'm personally of the opinion that we need 3rd party support. Now, you might not agree with me, but for the sake of developing the idea, bear with me... If we do go down that path, we have to ask what would cause "uninterested" individuals or organizations to agree to provide funds. There has to be something in it for them. We only have one asset interesting to individuals and that's the Road master itself. For businesses I can think of two draws. One would be showcasing their product(s) and the second would be associating their name with a charitable cause as most bigger companies set funds aside for that.

Now, I'm skeptical that we can sufficiently showcase products to get sponsorship that way - simply too small of a market and # of showings are simply too limited. That leaves the car itself as the asset.

My belief, then, is that if we want 3rd party funds we have to be prepared to use that asset. Consider something like setting a timeline for when we will auction the car and donate proceeds to a charity*. We then solicit support/sponsorship from a couple of companies. I know the CIO at AutoZone as an example and could see if they have funds set aside for marketing in a charitable context. We could then use the charity plan to try and market our story to some magazines or Speed/Velocity channel TV shows (I also have a connection who would share the story with Jesse James as an example). With publicity would come a bigger auction price. We would then want to ensure we had a professional looking way to collect email addresses of folks at shows who express interest - with the promise that we'll notify them as the auction gets close. That would help us ensure there is a lot of buzz during the auction itself. A web site or page set up to let people sign up to stay informed would help too - Curtis Road master page could be used for that.

There could be several variations of this sort of idea - I'm interested in what folks think of the general idea recognizing that the details would likely evolve as we put something like this sort of program in motion.

Respectfully submitted,

Rob Ficalora
VP, BADASS (hey, you guys voted me into the job while I was out getting gas; maybe there's justice in the world after all) ;)

*We could decide (and make clear up front) whether we would donate 100% of the proceeds and effectively dissolve at that point or maybe donate a portion (maybe 1/2 or something like that) and use the rest for BADASS 2.

The budget required for Badass-2 would be substantial. No major contributor to Badass will be able to make that kind of contribution the second time around so if we are going to entertain this idea we need to approach it as if we are fully funding a new build. If we manage to get National coverage and attention at an auction there might be some possibility at that point af some sponsorship for the second car but that should be put into place before we are locked into an auction if possible.

I never bothered to keep track of the hours on this car so I can't make an accurate estimate of build cost. I think Terry estimated the paint and finish body work at about fourteen grand. Terry once told me he had well over a hundred grand in his GT. I have no idea what Dan has in his or anybody else for that matter.

So the portion donated to charity would need to be negotiated, perhaps as part of the sponsorship agreement with an eye towards funding Badass-2. I would guess that we would need somewhere between 50 and 75 thousand to duplicate the effort and should probably lean towards the higher number. If we could get half of that from a sponsor and get enough publicity about the auction to get the other half there while still generating enough surplus to make a sizeable charitable donation then it only remains to determine the charity añd line up the sponsor(s).

I don't see a problem with this approach. It satisfies the requirement that we provide for the beneficiaries of BADASS which is itself a charity.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2012 11:48AM by BlownMGB-V8.

Quote:

Donations to the Roadmaster Project can be made to:
Bill Davidson, Treasurer
7208 W 54th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66202

(913) 677-0884
Bill74mgb (at) yahoo (dot) com

Checks should be made out to:

"British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society" or "BADASS"

I've just amended the very first message in the thread with this information.

I know the CIO at AutoZone as an example and could see if they have funds set aside for marketing in a charitable context. We could then use the charity plan to try and market our story to some magazines or Speed/Velocity channel TV shows (I also have a connection who would share the story with Jesse James as an example).


Two thoughts on marketing:
1 - The MG Road Master is powered by a Buick 455 topped with a highly distinctive oem Buick air cleaner.
2 - It's a British car. The only remaining 'British' manufacturer is Jag / Rover.


Would there be any possibility of cross-promoting with Buick at some of these Brit car shows? "Fast with Class" and all that?

Jag / Rover market share is so small ( and not directly relevant to the MG anyway ) that I doubt you can get much enthusiasm from one of their dealers.



Also, auction? You'd prefer not to do a raffle? It seems to me that most of the charity car promotion things I see are of the raffle variety.

If the Road Master were actually gotten up and running and did a full tour of car shows next summer, I wonder how many raffle tickets could be sold.

Also, a raffle offers a lower expense way for a company to donate funds. Prospective corp donors could buy blocks of tickets and then give tickets away to customers or high performing employees. I would suggest coupling this with a company party held in conjunction with a Brit car show at which the Road Master was making an appearance.

Could also be fun for the Hot Rod tour next year.



This all presupposes, of course, that the Road Master will be fairly reliable ... *facepalm*

Since Roadmaster has a Cobra Kit Car front suspension, don't they make various springs for it?
I would think the kit car people would have a choice of springs for the car, from track to street and including big block cars.

Steve

(I'm sure PJ would have *loved* to have only had to pay $100 for His time with Roadmaster! Frickin bargain.. :-/ ) It only cost me about a dollar or two a mile.

A local club here just cleared $15 K for a TR6 auction. 300 tickets at $50 ea all sold over a six month time period in NC.

A publicity committee might be able to get us more exposure, I'm not a writer but with some help would be willing to try to "sell" the right story to the magazines or potential corporate sponsors. Good ideas there Mr. VP

From the lack of responses to my offer to pick up the car, I assume it is a bad idea and therefore with draw the offer.


Steve

Todd, I don't think it is time to be sticking a label on the car. Not just yet. We've barely had any sort of shakedown and it is rare for even the most basic conversion to avoid any teething problems. What issues we have had with the car have been curable defects that almost entirely stem from the ultra low budget nature of the build and the limited manpower to get it done. If you would like to assist in that effort I am sure that there are one or two of those small defects that you could easily cure and this would undoubtedly make the car more reliable.

Jim

Steve, et al:

It's an idea, and probably a good one. I think we're just moving slow on the current "impasse"-- an out of place, inoperative car! Please leave the option open? :-)


I'll play Devil's Advocate on Rob's charity idea-- okay, so we sell the car. Jim is right that we couldn't repeat the car for anything close to what we'd auction the car for (Seriously, even WITH a big hoopla-- $30k?)

And then-- we have to look ourselves in the mirror and figure this problem out AGAIN-- only this time wiser, but also (admittedly) with likely less enthusiasm!

(We certainly can't sucker... er... "persuade"... JIm into leading the next one! He's just NOT that dumb! :-) )

I think the problem exists, whatever, whichever, and whereever we have this "group" car. This one is actually "done"...

As the Devils Advocate, I always fall back on... BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW. :-)

Let's figure this one out. This is first major setback (sort of..). Likely won't be last. This group has FAR too many resources of knowledge and savvy to be stuck on a simple problem of insolvency... :)

Cheers all,

M

So guys, the Road Master has hit a few bumps in the road. So what? I for one don't think that it's time to abandon ship.
Some creativity is required. The pay for use idea is plausible. Who gets to drive something like that for free?
The story of the car needs to be written and advertised. Perhaps some one will twig on the idea of something being built cross continent and become interested in the whole saga?
Is there something outside of our automotive focus that is feasible?
The car is viewed as an asset, which it is. But I think it's value in a monetary vein pales in comparison to it's value as a sign post of cooperation and mutual respect.
Once sold it's gone and the story ends.
A group of people who will likely never meet one another in person, constructed a vehicle over the internet!
How cool is that?
But how many people outside of BV8 know what went on?
The Road Master needs to be a solid reliable vehicle in order to continue. In that regard I would be happy to take over the reins and complete the vision. I have dry heated storage for the winter and the resources to deliver a finished product.The only hitch is that I'm on the west coast of Canada. Can anyone get the car here? If even that is the wish of the group.
As last note, to the people who actually, physically had anything to do with the car.
My complete admiration and respect.
Cheers
Fred

While we are kicking around ideas....

The car is pretty much finished, it's just broken and needs fixed. Finishing the car was the initial mission of the organization, so now the mission needs to be redefined, in keeping with the BADASS, LLC mission, promoting the sport, educating the public, etc. From here on out, what is the mission?

The car could be used to "drive away cancer" like Grace, or some other worthy mission that would take it around the country. My opinion is that something like that would be much better than just pay for use, but it would also be dependent on donations.

This car is an enigma. It is not a traditional hot rod because it uses a sports car and not Chevy or Ford. It is not a traditional sports car because it is spurious. Quite a good representation of this group! Not mainstream by any stretch.

People outside of this group will not be inclined to provide support to this car as it stands. If we decided to use it for a mission, such as Grace was, people would donate to the cause. The car does attract attention. When I had it at the WV International Auto Show, we had pretty good crowd around it most of the time. If it had a pink ribbon on it or a red cross or whatever, we probably could generate some income. Operational expenses could be taken from the donations with the rest going on to that charity. We could use a slogan like "they said we couldn't build it, but we did, now they say we can't beat cancer..."

It seems I've been misunderstood by at least a few people. Let me clarify a couple of points:

1. I never suggested that the current difficulty is too big for us or that we should abandon the car. In fact when I said "Consider something like setting a timeline" I was thinking in terms of about 3yrs. I believe it will take us that long to accomplish several things but most importantly sorting it out & then gaining the public visibility that was always a core objective in addition to ensuring those that contributed to it get a chance to enjoy it.

2. The suggestion of planning to auction the car at some defined point wasn't the only option, just one I thought was a good one & I'm trying to get concrete ideas that we can ultimately agree on & then act on. The main idea behind it was that tying it to some form of charity is, IMO, the best option we have for securing reasonable & recurring funding as well as mass media visibility to the cool thing the group did. Dan's suggestion could also be made to work. To make it work I think it would require some form of monitary support to whatever the chosen cause is. But, bottom line is if you don't like that idea, propose your own tangible idea along with suggesting how it could be implemented. Remember "Vision without Execution is Hallucination."

Getting the car to Fred sounds like it could help on multiple fronts - one could be expediting getting getting it sorted & the 2nd would be getting it closer to some of the left coast folks who made significant donations.

There seems to be a new development in the works. Steve D suggested that the car should be in the southern states during the winter which makes sense as that will keep it in circulation and allow more testing and shakedown. Bill seems agreeable to the idea so if it is OK with Rick and Pete, Steve and Tom Caine have volunteered to run up to Sydney, get the car driveable and head back with it. They plan to stop by here on the way and we will see if we can equip it with the 3" diameter air bags and see how that works out since I have a set here. We can also look at the crankcase breather to see if we can't equip it with an oil separator of some sort.

Now this could potentially delay getting the car out west a bit, and I think there is much merit in taking Fred up on his offer to sort the car out as well. So I suspect the question should be, do we have a viable means of getting the car to Fred? And even if we do wouldn't it make sense to put that off until the great white north thaws out a bit?

What do you guys think? Good idea? Anyone else want to step up to campaign the car about the south over the winter?

Jim