Lost interest in the Griffith?
Discussion
Interesting question and I agree with a lot of what has been said on here.
Firstly I'd say the decline in forum activity, not just on the Griffith forum but across the TVR forums and others is matched by the rise of newer more accessible social media like Twitter and Facebook. Who wants to log into a forum when a couple of button presses gets you into both of the aforementioned sites and you can pick your friends.
Yes the Chimaera forums are busy but even they are not AS the Griffith forum used to be. I'd suggest with changing ownership profiles and the numbers of cars now out there as mentioned previously the Chimaera is now seen as the car to modify and own as a first V8 TVR. As Griffiths have become older, rarer and more valuable the profile of the owner has changed and the cars are, in teh main, used and modified less to reflect that added to which a good number of the prolific Griffith posters and modifiers have moved on to different things, moved marques and just generally got older along with the cars.
The TVRCC is always a difficult one and I'm not going to get all defensive here but as I always stress when Sprint is bought up as being biased to a particular model or too much of this and not enough that is that the magazine relies on owners to write articles about their projects, their knowledge or what interests them.
There is no team of professional journalists scouring the country like newstand magazines and as a result we rely solely on submissions or by folk bringing interesting projects to our attention.
If the magazine is boring then you do something positive about it and write something, or get someone who's doing an interesting project you know about to write something. The excuse is always 'I'm busy', point is everyone is these days but you really cannot complain if you do nothing about it.
Likewise the running of 'the club' it's run by folk like you not some faceless bunch of execs in a tower block but people like the ROs who give up considerable amounts of time to organise events, trip and so on. Often a thankless task and criticism is easy if you're not prepared to be pro-active and help and that includes just attending organised events.
Any RO will tell you a region or the whole club is only as good as it's members and the club as it is today reflects the membership.
As an example, people ask why doesn't the club do trackdays anymore. That again is something that reflects the interests of many TVR owners and the profile has changed so much that exclusive TVR trackdays are just no longer viable. There was a thread about what people want out of TVR Motorsport on here recently and a lot of folk contributed to that thread and it appears that many folk are just not interested. Not a lot you can do about a lack of interest or apathy.
There are so many things to choose from these days outside of motoring and I think the general appetite for all things TVR has fallen away,a situation not helped by the absence of an active factory and the fact that there aren't that many TVRs out there when you compare the marque to one like MG or Jaguar.
Firstly I'd say the decline in forum activity, not just on the Griffith forum but across the TVR forums and others is matched by the rise of newer more accessible social media like Twitter and Facebook. Who wants to log into a forum when a couple of button presses gets you into both of the aforementioned sites and you can pick your friends.
Yes the Chimaera forums are busy but even they are not AS the Griffith forum used to be. I'd suggest with changing ownership profiles and the numbers of cars now out there as mentioned previously the Chimaera is now seen as the car to modify and own as a first V8 TVR. As Griffiths have become older, rarer and more valuable the profile of the owner has changed and the cars are, in teh main, used and modified less to reflect that added to which a good number of the prolific Griffith posters and modifiers have moved on to different things, moved marques and just generally got older along with the cars.
The TVRCC is always a difficult one and I'm not going to get all defensive here but as I always stress when Sprint is bought up as being biased to a particular model or too much of this and not enough that is that the magazine relies on owners to write articles about their projects, their knowledge or what interests them.
There is no team of professional journalists scouring the country like newstand magazines and as a result we rely solely on submissions or by folk bringing interesting projects to our attention.
If the magazine is boring then you do something positive about it and write something, or get someone who's doing an interesting project you know about to write something. The excuse is always 'I'm busy', point is everyone is these days but you really cannot complain if you do nothing about it.
Likewise the running of 'the club' it's run by folk like you not some faceless bunch of execs in a tower block but people like the ROs who give up considerable amounts of time to organise events, trip and so on. Often a thankless task and criticism is easy if you're not prepared to be pro-active and help and that includes just attending organised events.
Any RO will tell you a region or the whole club is only as good as it's members and the club as it is today reflects the membership.
As an example, people ask why doesn't the club do trackdays anymore. That again is something that reflects the interests of many TVR owners and the profile has changed so much that exclusive TVR trackdays are just no longer viable. There was a thread about what people want out of TVR Motorsport on here recently and a lot of folk contributed to that thread and it appears that many folk are just not interested. Not a lot you can do about a lack of interest or apathy.
There are so many things to choose from these days outside of motoring and I think the general appetite for all things TVR has fallen away,a situation not helped by the absence of an active factory and the fact that there aren't that many TVRs out there when you compare the marque to one like MG or Jaguar.
Podie said:
There are only so many times I have the inclination to post answers to the same old questions.
AWWW go on man just for one last time, I loved the 
hello V8Developments you used to do or the classic 
V8Developments. Just a joke, from what I can remember there weren't many more posters but the ones who used to post were more prolific but at the time some people used to complain about that, as the threads pretty regularly degenerated into 'in jokes'and general s
te.As Podie says there are actually only so many questions that can be asked so I guess it's just a natural wind down.
ray von said:
Podie said:
There are only so many times I have the inclination to post answers to the same old questions.
AWWW go on man just for one last time, I loved the hello V8Developments you used to do or the classic V8Developments. Just a joke, from what I can remember there weren't many more posters but the ones who used to post were more prolific but at the time some people used to complain about that, as the threads pretty regularly degenerated into 'in jokes'and general s
te.As Podie says there are actually only so many questions that can be asked so I guess it's just a natural wind down.
The other thing here is that years ago, the whole modifying TVRs wasn't really a big thing - until someone's cam went (or was diagnosed as an issue via a rolling road session). It kinda led to those questions / responses. Now, every man and his dog will do you a cam and the rest of the world will fit it, or argue about which is best.
One point I should make is that I still read most of the threads, I just don't have the inclination to respond.
Quite ironic that this is one of the most commented threads in the forum...
ray von said:
Dare I say the only 'newish' topics are supercharging or turbo's and the advent of body on/off chassis refurbs. Everything else has been done to death IMHO. To be honest those topics might have been done to death as well.
There is only so much you can do to these cars.Do you want to hear about my new drop links?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Stroll on Perhaps there is always something new
Stroll on
Perhaps there is always something new This is turning out to be a funny thread , if you find some of my posts misspelt that's because of the iphone I use to acces this wonderfull site fat thumbs and blindness !!
CANT BEAT A BIT OF BANTER !!
Oh and by the way threads done to death !! well this maybe because some have left and forgot came back and got older and cant remember :-)
Ste .
CANT BEAT A BIT OF BANTER !!
Oh and by the way threads done to death !! well this maybe because some have left and forgot came back and got older and cant remember :-)
Ste .
Does the loss of interest in TVR circles lead to you personally using the car less or visa versa?
15 years I've had the Griff and with the odd annual excursion, it gets less use each year. Kids are a major factor, back in the day there were a lot of owners in their 20-30s, pre-kids and the time and money that they consume. Today's child-free 20-30s maybe don't appreciate TVRs in the same way. No iTunes connectivity innit?
Increase in traffic doesn't help as the gap between a TVR and a modern car in traffic or bumbling along at motorway speeds is greater than ever. I avoid using mine around town these days, my clutch leg can't take it even if the car can. Longer trips that used to be completed wide-eyed with a roaring V8 are now completed with an automatic gearbox, cruise control and climate control.
There's only one occasion where the TVR wins and that's on the occasion you find yourself alone on a wide and empty b-road, roof down, high on caffeine and with nowhere particular place to be. NOTHING compares to the TVR in that scenario! It's no good though if you left the TVR at home and you find yourself in that situation while driving your daily Eurobox.
It takes 20 minutes or so for me to dig the TVR out of the garage and complete the pre-flight checks. I do that more often when there are events to attend, but there's only so many times you can go to the same event year after year to stand in the car park with owners of a similar car.
So we really need new and exciting events. The TVRCC 50th at Millbrook for example. Skid-pan days maybe. Something worthy of dusting off the cobwebs. And if there are enough events, people will use their TVRs more and so the interest in the TVR community will be restored.
Most events are organised by individuals, not the TVRCC. So why not suggest an event of your own?
Oh. PS. The loss of the Yahoogroups email circular was the start of the decline for me. You didn't need to remember to logon to a forum, the email digest was sent to you. Push vs Pull subscription.
15 years I've had the Griff and with the odd annual excursion, it gets less use each year. Kids are a major factor, back in the day there were a lot of owners in their 20-30s, pre-kids and the time and money that they consume. Today's child-free 20-30s maybe don't appreciate TVRs in the same way. No iTunes connectivity innit?
Increase in traffic doesn't help as the gap between a TVR and a modern car in traffic or bumbling along at motorway speeds is greater than ever. I avoid using mine around town these days, my clutch leg can't take it even if the car can. Longer trips that used to be completed wide-eyed with a roaring V8 are now completed with an automatic gearbox, cruise control and climate control.
There's only one occasion where the TVR wins and that's on the occasion you find yourself alone on a wide and empty b-road, roof down, high on caffeine and with nowhere particular place to be. NOTHING compares to the TVR in that scenario! It's no good though if you left the TVR at home and you find yourself in that situation while driving your daily Eurobox.
It takes 20 minutes or so for me to dig the TVR out of the garage and complete the pre-flight checks. I do that more often when there are events to attend, but there's only so many times you can go to the same event year after year to stand in the car park with owners of a similar car.
So we really need new and exciting events. The TVRCC 50th at Millbrook for example. Skid-pan days maybe. Something worthy of dusting off the cobwebs. And if there are enough events, people will use their TVRs more and so the interest in the TVR community will be restored.
Most events are organised by individuals, not the TVRCC. So why not suggest an event of your own?
Oh. PS. The loss of the Yahoogroups email circular was the start of the decline for me. You didn't need to remember to logon to a forum, the email digest was sent to you. Push vs Pull subscription.
Edited by ecs0set on Monday 30th March 13:46
Damn busy on here today tho aint it.
I`d like to know how many readers there are of these threads, daily. I suspect masses but with only a handful or regular contributors.
I personally try and contribute when i can, why - because i like to visit these pages probably several times a day, its what i`m interested in and if everyone took the decision not to contribute anymore they would be very dull places indeed.
I`d like to know how many readers there are of these threads, daily. I suspect masses but with only a handful or regular contributors.
I personally try and contribute when i can, why - because i like to visit these pages probably several times a day, its what i`m interested in and if everyone took the decision not to contribute anymore they would be very dull places indeed.
ray von said:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Stroll on Perhaps there is always something new
Dam, I was hoping the mods might have removed that one................Stroll on
Perhaps there is always something new BTW, you griff guys must be getting older and slower, that thread's been up for days
phazed said:
ray von said:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Stroll on Perhaps there is always something new
Dam, I was hoping the mods might have removed that one................Stroll on
Perhaps there is always something new BTW, you griff guys must be getting older and slower, that thread's been up for days
Lost Interest? Certainly not. I have phases of posting, either commenting on other posts or starting a thread. My Griff comes off SORN this week when it has its MOT, so will be taxed from April! I always take it off the road (though it is luckily garaged) January through to March. These are the months where I carry out any jobs, upgrades modifications etc. This Winter I have carried out a brake upgrade with 4 pot front callipers and larger discs (max that can fit 15" wheels) front and new grooved discs rear. Had fun when I came to bleed them had an airlock and had to resort to a pressure fed bleeding system, all worked out fine eventually. I usually run the Griff up every week or two when on SORN, usually running it in and out of my garage onto the drive and back a couple of times. Also this winter whilst up on the axle stands I tweaked the height of the Protech units to give me a little more ride height; last year it was a bit low so adjusted spring by 10mm which equated to approx 30mm additional ride height (will try this for a couple of months). Also had drivers door mirror off and added a thicker rubber washer (made from sheet and punched out) to facilitate a tighter fit onto bush in door. Front wheels rebalanced whilst off the car. Complete check over including fluid levels (carried out full service last Summer including diff oil change), clean and polish inside and out, so now ready, once MOT done and taxed to get back on the road (hopefully will be reasonable over Easter). Then of course there is the Burghley House event in a couple of weeks and loads of other events. Oh and as a postscript - Autumn/Winter I spent acres of time producing the dashboards for various Griff owners, many of which grace this very forum. All the best, Pete
And not a reply to this one !
I guess I will have to cut and shut ?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Ste .
I guess I will have to cut and shut ?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Ste .
Have been restoring my Griff over the past 6 months. Daily visitor.
I find if I Google any Griffith/Rover V8 subject and put PISTONHEADS on the end, the answer has already been discussed in great length without the need for new threads.
Oil grades, oil pressures, Sierra discs, Sierra XR4i front knuckles, swirl pots, track-rod ends, fitting front headlamps, wiring diagrams; all have been answered for me on here (or over in the Chimp section) without the need to disturb anyone.
I find if I Google any Griffith/Rover V8 subject and put PISTONHEADS on the end, the answer has already been discussed in great length without the need for new threads.
Oil grades, oil pressures, Sierra discs, Sierra XR4i front knuckles, swirl pots, track-rod ends, fitting front headlamps, wiring diagrams; all have been answered for me on here (or over in the Chimp section) without the need to disturb anyone.
stesrg said:
And not a reply to this one !
I guess I will have to cut and shut ?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Ste .
Have replied on your other thread with some helpful suppliers. I believe the connectors are a land Rover part. Regards, PeteI guess I will have to cut and shut ?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Ste .
Gassing Station | Griffith | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff