20-years ago

mtn said:

Toyman01 said:

I'm just shy of 10 years. My user name also hasn't changed. The avatar changes every couple of years though. 

 

Its gotta be longer than 10 years for you. 

12 years or so for me, I think my first post was asking about a SAAB to replace a Maxima that had been totaled--that would have put it around 2007, but I really remember being online in high school for my junior year, which would have been 2006. Autocross followed shortly after. 

Nope, I signed up on January 31 2009. So I'll be at 10 years in about 6 months. I'm just mouthy and can't keep my opinions to myself. 

Blimey, that reminds me that my first track day was something like 14-15 years ago (at Brands Hatch, no less). In an NA Miata, too.

Discovered GRM a few years later when visiting my then-girlfriend (now wife) in CA.

Joined the forum in 2009. Subscriber and lurker on the forum from sometime in the 90's.ALSO, i AM NOW A dORK!

Joined the forum in December 2007, but have been a magazine subscriber since at least 1995 when I stumbled upon the GRM booth at the Runoffs at Mid-Ohio, and signed up...

Check in almost daily, but rarely post....  Really appreciate all the knowledge sharing that happens here...

Cheers

Gordon Garrard

Started following GRM when Tim was contemplating building the Ro-Spit. Have been a forum member forever. 1 Name change along the way.

Think I may have you all beat (but then I'm OLD).  Got a complimentary mag in the mail back in 84 or early 85 because I was an SCCA member, sent them a proposal and sold my first story to them in mid- 1985, which led to many more over the following 20+ years, and branching out into other writing areas.  Still a lifelong sportscar guy at 72 (currently with an AW 11 MR2 and  94 C4 Corvette), and have been on the forum almost since the beginning.  It's still by far the best forum of any kind on the net, with the best people and polite discourse, something very unusual and much appreciated in these days.  GRMer forever.

I was introduced, like many others, to GRM's magazine at an autocross event (in San Antonio) around 2008/2009.  M4ff3w and Briana Corn (not a member here, but an awesome lady) would not SHUT UP about GRM.  And neither would the guys at the next corner I worked (I think Andy Hollis might have been out that way back then...).  Eventually I signed up for my complimentary magazine copy, it contained a tire test.  The potenzas I was saving for were over $200 a corner, and the test had some BFG's that were almost on par, but half the price.  I went with the BFG's and told Mrs. Hungary "You know what, with the money this magazine just saved us we can keep a subscription going for a LOOOOOOONG time"

So I got the subscription going shortly thereafter and M4ff3w immediately started hounding me to get on the forums.  I lurked for years before finally signing up in 2011 (probably to answer a classified ad...  a megasquirt, I think...)

These days the folks running the APO box steal my magazines more often than not, but I keep the subscription going.  I figure someone in the supply chain must be a "dork", why not let them enjoy all that is "Grassroots".  Maybe they'll pop up on the forum one day and I'll be able to say "hey, would it have F*****G killed you to re-send my magazines when you were done reading 'em?"  (oddly enough, my reminders that my renewal date is fast approaching make it through the mail system just fine...)

Either way, my subscription payments still have not caught up to the $400+ I saved in tires that year, and I got some pretty cool t-shirts out of the deal.

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

That’s awesome Jim! You bring up a point though - does anyone know when the forum first came online?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

From the way some of these guys talk it must have been steam powered. 

I had spent a few years looking in and had a car for the challenge 12 yrs. or so back, but was into Chevy HI Performance mag.  even though my hot rod was a Buick. The lurkers over there were Yellow Bullitt  Fans and thankfully they put the Mag. down.as the Old crowd left it to the trash mouth's. Road Race cars Have allway's been my fav. regardless of make . so home Sweet HOME.

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

That’s awesome Jim! You bring up a point though - does anyone know when the forum first came online?

You know, this is something I should be able to answer... but I cannot. I do remember posting a thread about how I knew a Manx was in my future, because Tim was working the word "Manx" into every conversation--like, "Good morning! How are (Manx) you?" We bought our Manx in, I think, summer of 2000. So I'd say the forum dates to 1999 ish.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard said:

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

That’s awesome Jim! You bring up a point though - does anyone know when the forum first came online?

You know, this is something I should be able to answer... but I cannot. I do remember posting a thread about how I knew a Manx was in my future, because Tim was working the word "Manx" into every conversation--like, "Good morning! How are (Manx) you?" We bought our Manx in, I think, summer of 2000. So I'd say the forum dates to 1999 ish.

Margie

It would have to be early 1999, as I very much recall talking about the $1500 challenge.  And all the jokes about Guido using free child labor painting his car.  

In reply to alfadriver :

Some follow up- the on line presence for me- roughly the same time this forum started, the Alfa Digest e-mailing group was going on.  Which was a great resource- as I got to know many of them virtually before meeting them face to face at conventions.  And that group REALLY helped me out when making our Challenge car.  Oddly enough, the oldest saved e-mails I have from that are from 1999, but I think there were a few before that- but since we changed e-mail systems here at work, I kind of lost them.  

Very fluid times back at the turn of the century.

Not long after 2000, then the Alfa Digest started.  Although, it would have to be sometime after 2002, since my user name there is based off of our challenge car- turbolarespider.

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

I’m pretty sure it was live by August of 1998, as I remember joining very shortly after my first autox that month. 

Edit: and as was mentioned above about the $1500 Challenge, I know I’d been on here a while before the idea for the event was brought up by Tim. 

Been reading the magazine since the first challenge issue. Started lurking on the forum a couple years later.

I think I joined the forum in 2002. I know it was a couple years before I got married which was in 04. 

Via the Wayback Machine site here is a screen shot on The Message Board from 1-09-01

https://web.archive.org/web/20000229033723/http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com:80/

Topic include Suburban Vs Minivan as well as Challenge.  I see Dan914.  

In reply to John Welsh :

I’m pretty sure Dan was here before me. I believe around ‘01 was the first major board revision, where all old posts/counts/usernames were lost. 

I started getting the magazine in 89-90, I used to sweep floors after school for a guy that ran time trials with EMRA and he'd give me his copies when he was finished with them.  Then I bought it off the rack for a while before finally subscribing around 94 or so. My profile says I've been on here since 08 but it had to be before that because I spent a lot of time on here after my accident in 06.

In reply to Wally :

IIRC there was a board reset in '08 so a lot of us have that as a join date. I don't see myself on John's Screencap so it was somewhere prior to '08 but maybe not 01? Maybe I wasn't there yet or maybe I was just lurking. I do remember the clown/child labor discussions.