This week, it’s the mailbag, but I wouldn’t exactly call it fan mail. It’s from the park where we ended our M Fall Cruise, and the news is not good.
Question (statement, actually)
Mike,
We received multiple complaints this year about your event. Last year there was a complaint for burnouts on the road when guests were leaving.
This year the complaints included burnouts inside the Park, speeding in and out of the Park and noise complaints from people revving their engines.
Since this is the second year there were issues with your event, we will not be able to issue any permits for your event in the County Parks in the future. Therefore you will have to find another location for your event next year.
You may want to let your members know that THEIR actions that (sic) caused us make this decision. We wish you well and hope you can find a suitable location for your event in the future.
Michael DiMola
Parks Operations Manager
Rockland County Division of Environmental Resources
Answer
Normally we protect the innocent and show no real names, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Maybe you can reach out to Mr. DiMola, though it’s clear they don’t want our ilk there.
So what really happened? Perhaps everyone is to blame, including me.
Kids today…
Have you ever heard of a “takeover”? It’s where a crowd of youths block off a city street or parking lot, form a big circle, and do burnouts in 15-year-old shit boxes.
But the best part is, the people driving have no idea what they are doing, so they drift closer, and closer…and closer to the standing crowd until SLAM. People get run over. Too busy filming, no one gets out of the way in time.
All for the ‘gram.
Now obviously, the Fall Cruise is nothing like that kind of event. But the reputation of the car community isn’t so great right now. Call me old, but I cannot comprehend the allure of risking my life while standing next to a car being driven by an idiot as they smoke tires in big circles.
Cheap speed
Let’s keep the crotchety old man theme going and talk about power.
When I was 18, my 1997 Mitsubishi 3000GT SL made 220 horsepower and ran the quarter mile in 16.1 seconds. With a four-speed automatic and front-wheel drive, the only drifting that thing could do was if it were on the ocean. Cost in the year 2001 upon purchase: $33,000.
How much is a BMW M4 today? Here’s one for $35,000. And that’s with inflation, because $33,000 then is equal to $58,000 today!
What this means is speed is cheap. That’s a 444-horsepower, rear-wheel drive M car. In 2001, you’d be buying an E30? Maybe an E36? Hard to be an idiot in those back then.
Typically, older people can afford these types of cars new, and a safe general assumption is they are more mature and better able to handle said metal box. But as the F8X platform, and now the G8X age, it’s a free-for-all in the cheap market.
I don’t want a 20-year-old in an M3 Competition unless they know what they are doing. Go to school.
Did anything bad really happen on the M Fall Cruise?
The event was smaller than it’s ever been. Everyone was very well-behaved on the highway. But once we got to the park, some people juuuuuust couldn’t contain themselves.
I arrive last, so I didn’t see everyone pull in. And the way the park is situated, I couldn’t see anyone leave once they left the lot.
I wouldn’t call anything I saw terrible, and many others can corroborate. But I did hear some things that James May would call…unnecessary.
So part of the blame falls at the feet of those that couldn’t handle themselves and had to show off, even if it was minor. You know who you are, and you know we’re all on a short leash at spots like this.
Your bad, bro.
We’ve run out of spots
Bear Mountain – chock full of people this time of year. We used to go to the top of the mountain, but the only way that’s happening now is with a helicopter.
Peekskill – they said I could come back for a third year (the first was unpermitted because we found it by accident). But the cost of the permit went up to $1,500. No thanks.
2022 was Yorktown. People misbehaved upon leaving, please don’t come back.
2023 and 2024 were in Haverstraw, and last year seemed okay. But now we’re here.
Kind of tired of looking for new places, especially ones that maintain the original route we used up the Palisades because everyone agrees it’s a nice one.
People are miserable
This last bit would be directed at Mr. DiMola. Pardon me, but I don’t need a permit to park a bunch of cars in a public park. If we all drove different brands and arrived there, no one would even care. I get the permit to be considerate.
Instead, what do I find? The ten people in the park walking, complaining that their Sunday morning was interrupted by two minutes of loud cars arriving? I paid for the permit, so they can’t be “disturbed”…I’m there. I think some people are just miserable, and hate seeing something they aren’t a part of, so they complain. We have as much right as anyone else to be there. I digress.
At the end of the day, the park is right – all it takes is one accident for someone to get hurt. I should know. So I don’t blame them.
Is this the end of the M Fall Cruise?
I do this for the community, but there will always be someone with no respect.
A shame, because 99% have been so nice, so appreciative. Some suggested I vet people to allow them into the event, but I can’t ban anyone from public roads. MWS is not a driver’s club. Others say we should end at a restaurant, but that means reserving a space for what..100 guests? What if more come? Or less? MWS is not a catering hall.
So it’s probably over.
Maybe I’ll invite ten or fifteen close car friends – people I know that can handle themselves, and a car. But as it stands, 2024 is the end of the road.
Thnks fr th Mmrs.
