Event now closed: WE NEED YOUR CAR at The Fast Car Festival

[shakotan]

I'm 'almost' glad I had car issues which meant I had to pull out of the Saturday stand (although I note on my info it insisted my car was needed in attendance for both days, whereas the original posting by JJ was for the Saturday stand and I couldn't be there the whole weekend).

Sounds like I wouldn't have had much fun!

[LotusOmega375D]

General view on the event from an outsider here, so nothing to do with the PH organisation.

I attended on the Sunday as a regular punter because I was kindly provided with free tickets. I too was told in advance that any exhibiting car would need to be on-site for all of both days, which was out of the question for me, so we just parked in the public car-park. Once inside I noticed cars coming and going in/out of the paddock area security gate all the time, so I could have exhibited for a shorter time after all.

As an event it was barely worth the petrol to be honest (apart from the AM Vulcan!). I would have been doubly gutted if I'd paid at the gate (I don't think many did!). We ate our picnic, watched a session of cars on track, looked around the paddock displays, had an ice-cream and then headed back home. We were barely there for 2 hours, so actually spent longer travelling.

Personally I would not recommend the Fast Car Festival if it re-appears on next year's calendar.

[e21Mark]

James Drake said:

Hi everyone,

I can clearly see that you (rightly) want PH to stand up and take the blame for this monumental cock up. That's fine, and we're happy to do this - there are certainly many lessons that we've learnt from the weekend. So please do take this as a genuine apology - we can't really do or say much more than that.

One thing I would say though is that if you take a step back and consider all the events that we run (about 30 odd this year) you'll note that not a single other one has left people wanting, been a disaster or left people with a bad taste in their mouth. Ironically, the Sunday Service we ran at the very same event has had some great feedback and - whilst not perfect - almost everyone left happy.

The reason I mention this is that many of you seem to be insinuating that we don't know what we're doing. Given the fact that this is an isolated issue I hope that you can see that we clearly had several unusual and unexpected issues on this weekend that were unable to respond to due to being short staffed. One thing that does stick in my throat is the fact that some of you are insinuating that I'm being disingenuous about certain elements and passing the buck. All I can do is assure you that this isn't the case and we were genuinely let down too.

Anyway, that's all I can really say; I've apologised, I've agreed PH is ultimately to blame, I've agreed that we made mistakes and I've agreed that we need to learn from this. Oh, and I offered to compensate some of you with some goodies... and if that still isn't enough then I'm all out of ideas as there really isn't anything else I can say or do.

Best wishes

JD

As the other thread has been closed, I will take my opportunity to respond here and hope that others do not mind? I shan't bother mentioning it again thereafter.

I have been fortunate enough to attend a few Sunday Service and am certainly not saying that you (PH's) do not know what you are doing. What I am saying though, is that when you ask for volunteers to travel far and wide, in an effort to represent this forum, I think the very least you should do is be there to say hello, thank you etc and not rely on a third party who is in no way connected.

I appreciate you had problems, what with Ollie leaving, but had you simply emailed the list of people you'd sent passes to, all of this could have been avoided. You knew 2 days in advance, that the Sunday Service would be held on the infield and this piece of information alone would have meant a) my car wouldn't have been left unattended b) I could have moved to the infield and c) I could have gone on track. You made a point of stressing the importance of being there all day, on both Saturday & Sunday but I am still at a loss to understand why?

The thing that pisses me off the most though, is that come Sunday morning when you rock up with the PH banners etc you don't give a second thought to those people who'd driven up 24 hours earlier. Even then, a quick email (or even a bloody note on the windscreen!) could have told me why my car was abandoned? Instead, one of the chaps in Hi-Vis had to give me the good news. Thanks for that! Did you even go over to the ''Pistonheads Stand''? Seems unlikely doesn't it?

So, thanks for the explanation, although the lack of consideration for the very people you said you needed to attend isn't something you can blame on someone else.

Oh and the offer of some merchandise was made weeks ago as a sweetener for being willing to attend and represent PH, so not quite an offer of compensation.

I realise some are probably reading this and wondering what I'm going on about? The fact is this weekend cost me 2 days and well over £300 so you'll need to excuse my being somewhat miffed.

Anyway, I'm genuinely glad others had fun on track and hope I'll get to join them another time.

Regards,

Mark

[James Drake]

e21Mark said:

James Drake said:

Hi everyone,

I can clearly see that you (rightly) want PH to stand up and take the blame for this monumental cock up. That's fine, and we're happy to do this - there are certainly many lessons that we've learnt from the weekend. So please do take this as a genuine apology - we can't really do or say much more than that.

One thing I would say though is that if you take a step back and consider all the events that we run (about 30 odd this year) you'll note that not a single other one has left people wanting, been a disaster or left people with a bad taste in their mouth. Ironically, the Sunday Service we ran at the very same event has had some great feedback and - whilst not perfect - almost everyone left happy.

The reason I mention this is that many of you seem to be insinuating that we don't know what we're doing. Given the fact that this is an isolated issue I hope that you can see that we clearly had several unusual and unexpected issues on this weekend that were unable to respond to due to being short staffed. One thing that does stick in my throat is the fact that some of you are insinuating that I'm being disingenuous about certain elements and passing the buck. All I can do is assure you that this isn't the case and we were genuinely let down too.

Anyway, that's all I can really say; I've apologised, I've agreed PH is ultimately to blame, I've agreed that we made mistakes and I've agreed that we need to learn from this. Oh, and I offered to compensate some of you with some goodies... and if that still isn't enough then I'm all out of ideas as there really isn't anything else I can say or do.

Best wishes

JD

As the other thread has been closed, I will take my opportunity to respond here and hope that others do not mind? I shan't bother mentioning it again thereafter.

I have been fortunate enough to attend a few Sunday Service and am certainly not saying that you (PH's) do not know what you are doing. What I am saying though, is that when you ask for volunteers to travel far and wide, in an effort to represent this forum, I think the very least you should do is be there to say hello, thank you etc and not rely on a third party who is in no way connected.

I appreciate you had problems, what with Ollie leaving, but had you simply emailed the list of people you'd sent passes to, all of this could have been avoided. You knew 2 days in advance, that the Sunday Service would be held on the infield and this piece of information alone would have meant a) my car wouldn't have been left unattended b) I could have moved to the infield and c) I could have gone on track. You made a point of stressing the importance of being there all day, on both Saturday & Sunday but I am still at a loss to understand why?

The thing that pisses me off the most though, is that come Sunday morning when you rock up with the PH banners etc you don't give a second thought to those people who'd driven up 24 hours earlier. Even then, a quick email (or even a bloody note on the windscreen!) could have told me why my car was abandoned? Instead, one of the chaps in Hi-Vis had to give me the good news. Thanks for that! Did you even go over to the ''Pistonheads Stand''? Seems unlikely doesn't it?

So, thanks for the explanation, although the lack of consideration for the very people you said you needed to attend isn't something you can blame on someone else.

Oh and the offer of some merchandise was made weeks ago as a sweetener for being willing to attend and represent PH, so not quite an offer of compensation.

I realise some are probably reading this and wondering what I'm going on about? The fact is this weekend cost me 2 days and well over £300 so you'll need to excuse my being somewhat miffed.

Anyway, I'm genuinely glad others had fun on track and hope I'll get to join them another time.

Regards,

Mark

Mark, in response to this I'm not sure what else I can say as I'd simply be repeating myself.

JD

[bob1179]

James Drake said:

Hi everyone,

I can clearly see that you (rightly) want PH to stand up and take the blame for this monumental cock up. That's fine, and we're happy to do this - there are certainly many lessons that we've learnt from the weekend. So please do take this as a genuine apology - we can't really do or say much more than that.

One thing I would say though is that if you take a step back and consider all the events that we run (about 30 odd this year) you'll note that not a single other one has left people wanting, been a disaster or left people with a bad taste in their mouth. Ironically, the Sunday Service we ran at the very same event has had some great feedback and - whilst not perfect - almost everyone left happy.

The reason I mention this is that many of you seem to be insinuating that we don't know what we're doing. Given the fact that this is an isolated issue I hope that you can see that we clearly had several unusual and unexpected issues on this weekend that were unable to respond to due to being short staffed. One thing that does stick in my throat is the fact that some of you are insinuating that I'm being disingenuous about certain elements and passing the buck. All I can do is assure you that this isn't the case and we were genuinely let down too.

Anyway, that's all I can really say; I've apologised, I've agreed PH is ultimately to blame, I've agreed that we made mistakes and I've agreed that we need to learn from this. Oh, and I offered to compensate some of you with some goodies... and if that still isn't enough then I'm all out of ideas as there really isn't anything else I can say or do.

Best wishes

JD

Hi James,

Thanks for the apologies. I have done quite a few PH events in the past and this is the first time it's all gone pear shaped. I appreciate what you've said as I am sure do the other folk who were there this weekend.

I'm happy to move on and put this one behind me now and look forward to future shows and gatherings.

[James Drake]

bob1179 said:

Hi James,

Thanks for the apologies. I have done quite a few PH events in the past and this is the first time it's all gone pear shaped. I appreciate what you've said as I am sure do the other folk who were there this weekend.

I'm happy to move on and put this one behind me now and look forward to future shows and gatherings.

Thanks Bob, I appreciate your comments.

JD

[themanwithnoname]

Hi James

Another thanks for the apologies.

I do understand and appreciate that this is not the normal order of things, and that, in fairness, you may have felt a little jumped on.

At the end of the day, we made the best of it, and all the previous aside, some good clean fun was had.

All the best.

[Zoobeef]

Like I said earlier, after the initial confusion of not knowing what was going on I met some great people, sorted out some track time and drank slightly too much. It was a great weekend.

Just needed some banners for the Saturday to make the stand look like a stand. Even dropping them off with a member would have worked.

[e21Mark]

bob1179 said:

I'm happy to move on and put this one behind me now and look forward to future shows and gatherings.

This.

Was really just venting my frustration & disappointment as had bee looking forward to this for some weeks. Anyway.....

[Zoobeef]

Rib said:

And Noble guy, hats off to you again for your awareness when the Tamora had a little moment! 2nd session went without issue and allowed me to really get a lot more out of the car as my Confidence grew!

Did you manage to get that on video in the end!