2024 Midwest 7s Gathering

[rx7locost]

So sorry to hear that, Chris. I hope you have an otherwise great weekend and that every attendee does too. Your planning is always the greatest.

[FieroReinke]

Another great gathering in the books. We had a little rain on Thursday but was able to shift the drive to after dinner. Friday was supposed to be rain all day but we woke up to cloudy sky's and no rain. It was fun driving through the mountain mist on Friday. The rain did catch up to us Friday afternoon. At dinner Phil from Dove racing joined us with his exobusa for dinner and a night drive. On Saturday Ross joined us with his goblin. I will get pictures and video uploaded this week.

20240518_121633_copy_2016x1134.jpg

[trialsmangasgas]

Some videos that Dale made of the gathering. Wish I could have been there:

https://youtu.be/jiaqeS4TUtw

https://youtu.be/1AWKHg8TS0A

[trialsmangasgas]

Dale also wanted to post this about a Goblin Gathering coming up: The dates for Goblinfest 2024 is Oct. 3rd-6th.

[KB58]

No group shots? How many people attended?

At the risk of being Debbie Downer, it seems like there was a very small turnout, which brings up a larger issue that's been eating at me, that the hobby of building cars from scratch, or even from kits, seems to be dwindling. A buddy in the UK noted the same trend, that kit car show attendance is clearly down. I suspect that it's a combination of:
- Rule changes
- People (in general) being less mechanically inclined
- People having less time for such hobbies
- People have less space to work in
- Heavier traffic making driving such cars less enjoyable
- It's becoming possible to buy a used car that has similar or better performance for the same cost as building one from scratch.

I also think that a strong factor for the last point is that most tracks are not super-twisty, giving the advantage to both aerodynamics and horsepower, both of which aren't in the Locost's favor.

Fitting into all this is seeing traffic dropping off on this site, and I think it's for all the above reasons. Sadly, times are moving on and I'm afraid that self-build cars are becoming a thing of the past. That said, I count myself lucky to live at a time when such activities are a thing.

[FieroReinke]

Thanks for the reminder to get pictures up. The goblin guys are better at that. You can see their photos here. I will get mine posted soon.

https://dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/2024-locost-gathering.4906/

You are right that attendance has been dropping. Many of the regulars in the past have moved on / sold their Locost. Two of our regulars from the past few years didn't attend this year. I have started planning for next year's gathering. I will be starting a survey thread asking for input on why people don't attend. I expect a big part of it is costs. There aren't many in the midwest anymore and traveling multiple states at current travel costs makes it difficult.

[trialsmangasgas]

KB58 you would be welcome to join us at any of our events. Russ

[KB58]

Thanks, and I did consider it, but it would be a round-trip of 3,242 miles, which would be a bit too epic. That, and I sold Midlana about two years now - the heavy traffic around here removed all the fun in driving it, in addition to other factors.