Donny

[Rikki]

i take it no one other than kev decided to do a second day then. even tho u all paid extra to camp

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I wuz there!

[DOHC 16V]

i wasnt there saturday just today was alright like but only 3 starlets all day lol

[james1760]

i would have been there.

[MSC_Kev]

Hi guys...

I feel really bad that Donny failed in a big way. I put soo much time and effort into organising the stand and getting everything sorted in time for the show, with people letting me down at the last minute and people coming in to make the numbers up, it wasn't easy getting it sorted. My PM box has about 70 odd messages just relating to donny show!

I knew the stand location wasn't going to be the best as the TOC was new to donny, but I think we can safely say we had the worst pitch in the entire show!

1.) Pitch at the bottom of the show away from the main show area.

2.) Gravel track infront of stand, just think high winds and dirt! + helicopter 30 yards away taking off every 15mins

3.) My cream leather sets got covered in dust and dirt which took hours to clean up and there was no way I was returning sunday morning to the same spot!

We all cleaned and polished up the cars in the morning, only for 10mins to past by and they where covered in dust! I have spoken to the organisers and mentioned how our stand location ruined everyone's weekend and only 4 TOC cars returned for the Saturday. Myself (Corolla) Rose (Celica) Shaf (MR2) Rikki (MR2) I have asked for a better location for next years show, that is if anyone is still interested in going back. The chav aspect you just have to ignore, the show always attracts it, but at the same time people do bring some amazing cars of varying styles.

Max Power did take photo's of every TOC car, would be amusing if they said TOC covered in dust, as for those who had aftermarket respray's such as about 3 of us, would have just been completed covered over by dust!

I even decided to head back to the hotel at 3ish as we had enough by then and if it wasn't for moving sunday morning we wouldn't have returned.

Sunday's show was much better, superb weather, the wind had died down and everyone was much happier. I managed to get a pass for gate 12 from a friend which got me right on the front entrance, I gave my pass to Rose to get her Celica more central also. It was good to meet new faces and see some TOC cars that I hadn't previously seen in the flesh. Don't think I missed anyone out on the saturday. I also took over 200 photo's, so will find somewhere to host them. I have every toyota in the show and loads of the TOC stand before it was covered in crap!!

On returning to the hotel on saturday evening from meeting up with some old friends, my laser diffusers went off as some local police decided they would flash everyone even if you where well under the speed limit such as I was, so people who could have been over by a few mph would have got done. Best purchase I ever made for the car!

Anyway, I'd just like to offer my apologies again that the show didn't go well, all that planning ruined by crap location.

Kev

[james1760]

i had cleaned mine just before max power took a pic of it.

cheers for organising it kev, if we are garanteed a better stand next year i will be up for it if i still have the car.

[Rikki]

Wasnt your fault mate, you did well organising the stand.

IMOC had a great pitch last year in the middle of it all, shame you couldnt have borrowed that space LOL.

R.

[LORD_ED]

fair play to you mate everyonr knows u worked ur rs off for it. also max power didnt take pics of everyones cars , they missed mine so he got spraye dwith n20

[MSC_Kev]

thanks for that, I know I had no say at all where the stand was, just makes me angry when I put in all the effort organising it and we end up there!

nice one on getting the photographer with nitrous, I missed that, I would have snapped him with my camera lol!

Kev

[shaf2000]

yeah big props to kev for making it happen. shame it just worked out bad.... no fault of kev's may i add.... oh well, maybe next year :)

[earpl]

yeah dont be soft pal! weynt your falut i thourght it was woth it just to meet folks.

[corollakid20valve]

ive just remembers that my old honda teamates Team kamikaze had that same spot last year..and it wrecked there weekend so much they didnt rebook for this year....seems a shame when I thought there were more actual clubs and cruise sites at this years donny then ive ever seen there before...i dont see why they have that helicopter there anyway..who in there right mind would pay to fly over doncaster for 5 minutes lol.....new york,paris,london i can understand....but doncaster....erm nope!!

[JustJJ]

Oh well didnt make it down at all... was kinda busy :P but looks like i didnt miss much... nevermind eh... Northern Meet coming up... and Track Attack!!! woohooo ;)

[MSC_Kev]

ive just remembers that my old honda teamates Team kamikaze had that same spot last year..and it wrecked there weekend so much they didnt rebook for this year....seems a shame when I thought there were more actual clubs and cruise sites at this years donny then ive ever seen there before...i dont see why they have that helicopter there anyway..who in there right mind would pay to fly over doncaster for 5 minutes lol.....new york,paris,london i can understand....but doncaster....erm nope!!

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My thoughts exactly! Why even bother to offer a feature like helicopter rides at Donny Show? It wasn't actually used that much anyway!, but when it did all the stands below it and there members got covered in dust!!!

Our stand location led to many not returning the next day, we had visions of getting the bbq's running in the evening as I talked to Ken about in the morning and could have had a very good day and through into the evening. Instead most of us and me included just decided to leave and make our way back home or to the hotels.

I was lucky on sunday as my old club always get put next to the main entrance and I managed to get a pass for gate 12, which got me on hardcore standing with no dust! I got the car gleaming and it got a lot of interest with people asking about the paint and all my cards and flyers went which was great!

For next year I have already said we will not return if we are put in the same position, I have requested a more central location and already gave feedback at how dissapointed we where to end up there. I know the show is getting larger with each year, but they need to design a new layout to accomodate the car clubs and stands better!

Kev

[james1760]

there was a saarb 90 owners club in the main area with at least 3 standard looking cars (one with wheel trims and totted arches) not sure how they got their space or even how they got in?

[MSC_Kev]

feedback from toyota Owners Club on show / stand

Hi,

I thought you would be interested in some feedback from our club's first year at Donny Show.  I represent the Toyota Owners Club who applied for a club stand at this years Donny Show.  I was very grateful to receive confirmation of our club stand and were allocated 10 spaces.

I set about to choose our 10 cars from a club of over 19,000 forum users, a large proportion of those are UK based, no easy task!!!!  We could have brought along at least 20-30 genuine show cars from varying types from fully body kitted with after-market respray's to Super Charged Yaris's, corolla turbo's to Avensis Turbo's etc etc.  As you can get a feel for the club is very well blessed for show cars, but we where very pleased to be allocated our 10 spaces and looking forward to our first year at donny show.

I received the pack with the show tickets and passes to see that our stand location was c58 gate 5, which I couldn't find on the maps included in the pack, I contacted you to inquire where the club stand was located in the show to find we had been put on the end of the show at the very bottom of the map, but still other clubs where around us, so thought ok it's the first year we have attended so we thought nothing of it and continued to get everything organised.

We arrived saturday morning 10 cars strong and ready for the Donny weekend, found our stand and we all began frantically cleaning and polishing our pride and joy's.  We noticed that directly in front of our stand ran a gravel track, well we had no idea what was next in store for us, not even 10 minutes had passed by and with the high winds not helping the situation our cars and members were getting covered in dirt and dust.  Also only 50 yards away was the helicopter taking off every 15 minutes covering us in yet more dust and dirt! What made matters worse was seeing some clubs such as the Saab Owners Club with 3 cars that where almost factory standard in the main show area while we where having a shocking time.

Many of us, at least 4 had after-market respray's that where covered in it. not to mention some of having leather seats and cream leather at that, it took me over 2 hours to clean and get rid of all the dirt and dust at the hotel on the saturday evening.  As the day worn on and noticing that about 20 people had walked past the stand by about 2pm it was evident that most people didn't even know the clubs where at the bottom of the show.  Members began to leave for home and hotels at around 3pm and six of our members choose not to return on sunday due to the huge disappointment of saturday's events.  I only came back on the sunday as I also organise the Micra Sports Club stand each year and I got a pass for gate 12 as one of there members could not come back on the sunday.

I have been to donny show the last 4 years running now and I can appreciate just how hard a job it is for you guys to organise a show so big and one that appears to be growing in size every year.  However maybe a possible redesign of the layout would help avoid the problems we encountered and would encourage more clubs to return the following year.  Maybe Doncaster Race Course is too small a venue to cater for the show's growing popularity?  Many of our members have shown feelings considering not attending donny show next year if our stand was in a similar position to this year's. 

Overall I thought the show was good this year, excellent live action arena, some very well put together show stands and the weather was superb on the sunday and it did seem very busy with the public on that day also, but I did feel that many car clubs where left out of the main show area and surely that's where we should be?

If it could be at all possible to have hard-core standing next year, such as in the area around the exhibition entrance, up from where the Max Power stand was would encourage our members to return for next years show

I look forward to your reply.

regards

Kev Challis

Toyota Owners Club

This is the letter I will be sending out to the organisers

Kev :)

[earpl]

along side

regards

Kev Challis

Toyota Owners Club

could you add;

such an incredibly beautiful persons

chris turner

Toyota owners club

i think that isn't gonna work kev, to attract crowds what we need to do is put gold fish in our head lights :P that seamed to attract people :D

[Ken]

Far to polite Kev

BTW TOC will never attend this mockery of an event ever again and i'll be phoning up the organiser's to let my feeling's known plus i'll be putting a claim in for damage's & compensation for TOC and myself :censor:

[Kerby]

Far to polite Kev

BTW TOC will never attend this mockery of an event ever again and i'll be phoning up the organiser's to let my feeling's known plus i'll be putting a claim in for damage's & compensation for TOC and myself :censor:

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someone wasnt impressed.

dont blame u tho. the cars were sandblasted all day

[MSC_Kev]

ok Ken, I haven't sent it yet incase I remember anything else.

If anyone from the stand or yourself Ken wishes to add anything then let me know and I'll put it in.

Kev

[SexyCrayola]

Couldnt stand Donny Show last year even though was in the middle of it on the Total streetcar magazine stand with free tickets.

Less and less turn up every year and the organisers make zero attempt to spread out the entertainment and get people spreading out around the full grounds. If they at least placed one of the big noisy magazine stages in the other half of the grounds then people WOULD spread out. Everyone would enjoy it more too - theres nothing worse than having loads of big profile stands blasting out the bass in one spot trying to be louder than the next.

Central - NOT good for people that are a little cloustrophobic, Acousticophobic, ...

And for the stand where we were placed has proven that all of us that love our cars are Koniophobic (Fear of dust), and Anemophobic (Fear of air drafts or wind)

See here http://www.phobialist.com/

I couldnt get in over at gate 12 as no one I knew could accomodate - sucks eh

On Sunday I parked the celica on the DonnyCruise stand who despite being the local cruising community had a pretty naff placement also. On Sunday I brought 2 cars - left the mondeo in the car park, celica on show- then went home in the modeo for the day.

[Hou]

yeah you were in a very poor place, spwc my local club had the same spot for the second yeah running,near the indoor part and smack next to fireforce

i found the show very poor and rose if you kept in touch with us lot more you could have got a lovely space there where your would have got plenty of attention

ken when you talk to the organisers tell them how unhappy you were etc and see what freebies you can get and you may even get a better space

[Rikki]

I'm spoken with a friend who helps with the show and he will try and help us get a better spot next year. His advice just now is APPLY NOW for next years spaces and you'll get a good un.

Kev call me, or answer your phone!

Rikki

[MSC_Kev]

Hi Rikki, I'm at work (well I should be working lol) my signal is crap on my mobile and I can't answer it at work anyway.

PM me if you need anything

thanks

Kev

[sxb182]

Did enjoy self most of day, apart from the location n :censor: helicopter causin every1 to dust their !Removed! car every 2 mins which i gave up as a bad job!

Cheers to Kev n Ken anyways but dout ill be going to next donnyshow, dread to think of the amount of chavs n crappy chav cars that id rather kill myself before standing proud next to some of them!!

[dj_davo]

first time i've been to the donny show, and sadly not impressed.

loads of chav sad wannabe models wearing way too little clothing, and showing way too much excess hydrogen deposits (that's fat to the layman)!

saddo chavs spitting and swearing, a vast lack of decent cars - hardly any jap.

expensive food and wannabe dj's on every stand.

however, was nice to meet shaf, to bump into an old school mate who had just taken a helicopter ride (i know!), and to see some nicely made italian exotic replicas.

for me these pics (taken on phone excuse the quality) sum up the day.

good 1

good 2

good 3

a typical display of the usual garbage!

i will be sticking to owners club meets, and jap shows from now