*Cancelled* Cruise via Great Ocean Road

[dubdocker]

How about this for a plan http://g.co/maps/srdpq

8.30-9am Meet somewhere in Melbourne, location depends on where people are coming from.

10.30-11am Meet at the Torquay Golf Club
Torquay to Lorne via Gum Flats Road then Winchelsea-Lorne

Lunch in Lorne, then drive to Warrnambool via Wild Dog Road, Beech Forest and Lavers Hill.
There is an option to detour from Beech Forest to Gellibrand and back, looks like a good road judging from street view.

Dinner in Warrnambool then head back to Melbourne by the Princes Hwy or the Hamilton Hwy
I'm not sure if the Hamilton Hwy will be faster because of all the work being done on the Princes at the moment.

[dubdocker]

Bump, have all the Victorian members vanished?

[ofey]

I haven't been around much but with my experience I thought I should point out a few things.

90% of VIC's "active" membership is located in the EAST of the state.

For me in Doncaster the cruise you're proposing is over 280km one way. A return drive is 500km, let alone the guys in the SE suburbs who will be driving in excess of 600km on their day off work.

Demographics of members have to be taken into consideration.

When I started as a moderator in VIC, I did organise a couple of cruises and slowly I realised few of the frequent members wanted that. Working 5 days in the week and then going on a 100+km drive was never going to be something attractive.

So I realised I had to adjust the appeal and go for a more social meet.

Another thing I noted is 90% of those who turned up for meets had their CJ as their daily driver.
This took them to and from work. Imagine if something happened to their car on a Saturday cruise. No chance to fix before getting back to work on Monday. So again safety of the cruise and off road plans or track ideas had to be kept in check.

Now I'm not saying cruises are not part of a car club, they absolutely are but distances and the situation of the people involved have to be taken into consideration.

I know we in VIC get ridiculed by the other states because we don't have long cruises but I've always pointed out different demographics result in different desire of how club events will turn out.

One last point. The CJ is a fairly new model of Lancer. It is unlikely that most people who own a CJ will want to try its off road capability. If you come to a meet take note of how "new" everyone wants to keep their car looking. We used to have one member here (now in another state) who would claim "I will only come to a meet if my car is polished and clean".

We do indeed need to have more meets towards the west but if you look at the East side minimeets I organise and where all the people there attend are from, you'll realise the demographics are 60% EAST + SOUTH EAST with the remaining 35% from the North and 5% from the West. And asking them to drive 600km for a cruise on their day off, in their daily driver is always going to be a challenge.

The way to get this to fly I guess is to get what numbers you can to get together in the far West in a mini meet. Grow the numbers as best as you can. Sure organise a cruise to Warnambool but don't expect much of the SE boys to join in. Until there is a following in the West like 10 odd cars, then maybe you'll see more numbers willing to make the drive far west.

[dubdocker]

I do realise that Irving, but the thing is, has there actually been a decent cruise in Victoria yet?
What about the members who have been waiting to do something like this?

If this goes ahead, it'll be interesting to see if there is sufficient interest generated to do more cruises, or just continue with the occasional meet.

I certainly don't expect people to show up with gleaming cars that barely manage to get over speed humps, but we can easily accomodate those who don't wish to go off road.


Thanks for the support, I really wasn't expecting it from you.

[ofey]

I've done abit of mapping as well.

The last hike the Eastern boys did to the West was to see Ken Block at Calder Raceway. On that day, the meeting point was Doncaster Autobarn, so I chose that again as the starting point.

Bear in mind there are those coming from the Dandenongs so it's all relative to distance.

Here's a Google Maps of the places mentioned by dubdock: http://g.co/maps/uwhd5

A round trip is 757 km, and will take 11 hours 6 mins of driving.

Just to put things into perspective, that's further than for me to drive to the federal parliament in Canberra.

But having said that, if everyone wants to do it, I'll certainly come along for the ride.

[lukeaday]

Ok, well lets put things in perspective from a western victorian member (myself)
I have been a member of CCJ since late 2009 and apart from the Calder Park meet I can not recall any other westside cruises or even mini meets out my way.........I tried to organise one for a big car show event in Melton on Australia Day 2011 but that feel on deaf ears!
I thought about doing the same this year at the same location but I thought that no one would have been interested so i didn't even bother mentioning it.
Silly, As it was a massive event with 451 cars registered for 12 different trophy categories (including best import!) as well as the huge crowd and festivities on the day dispite the 38 degree temp. Oh, And me airbrushing live!!!

Anyway, I have made the effort on quite a few occasions to go to the all famous Doncaster Autobarn for get togethers but what really disapoints me about these is that all we seem to do is take pics infront of office works then end up talking S H one T in the top level car park at the shopping centre to late at night. Same Same but no Different.

So, I say, we really need a few more west side meets including this proposed cruise that I always mention about doing every time I go to a mini meet in the south east!
Now that I have had my little rant lets get onto the topic at hand.

Now as for logistics, I think you are a bit ambitious going all the way to Warnambool for Dinner. I think I would have to be speaking for nearly everyone by saying that's a bloody long way for an indirect day trip even for myself having a solid head start on the rest of you lot!!!!

Perhaps you might want to re-route your course and head north after Apollo Bay and get onto the A1 highway to head back home. Perhaps having a feed in Geelong somewhere??

Also, I think you should ditch the idea of aiming to hit dirt roads for reasons Irving has already pointed out.

I think it is fair to say that a huge pecentage of people interested in coming along will be taking thier daily drive, not a car set up for offroad conditions. Alot of members including myself, have a lowered car with a body kit, road tyres and like to keep thier car clean and stone chip free.

Plus, there is less chance of an accident or breakdown if we stick to the hard black stuff.

So, You can count me in on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of March.
Out for the 19th of feb as i have an airbrush course on.
Happy to double back and meet up at Lavo/Western Ring Road Maccas for B'fast.

[ofey]

I suspect we can address this now since there are a number of you in the West. We used to only have lukeaday.

There's at least 3 of you:
1. dubdocker
2. tjoz
3. lukeaday
4. momenga

There's an RA, Aspire and 2 modded ESs. That's enough to drive most people out of the wood work.

Why don't you organise a simple West Side mini Meet.
Do this a couple of times and drive the numbers up.

I want to point out the meets here at Doncaster are called Minimeets for suburbs. So you can also have a West side minimeet and we can develop the scene from there.

[lukeaday]

yep, good point but what I was aiming at saying is that it wouldn't hurt a few of you guys to pop over to the west once in a while.
There is a regular car club get together in Melton. Can't recall which one but I can soon find out as my brothers boss is involved with it.

[dg-RALLI]

Hi all,
It would be a great day out. However no off road for me. Suggestion: Meet at Werribee, drive to Lorne via the Great Ocean Rd. Lunch at Lorne or Wye River. 2 hrs max drive.

[dubdocker]

Even if it sounds silly to you Irving, I'm not going to cancel this cruise to organise something else that I can't attend.


I can alter the route to be shorter and tarmac only, if that's what you're after
Poll option 1
I would prefer to try out the roads around the Holden grounds near Anglesea, but it's not worth splitting up the group for.

9am Meet in Melbourne
10.30am Meet in Anglesea
1pm Lunch in Beech Forest

This route would have most people home before dinner.


Of course you could simply cut out Port Campbell entirely and do this
Poll option 3

[ofey]

I never suggested you should cancel. I think you missed the line that said:

"But having said that, if everyone wants to do it, I'll certainly come along for the ride."

For obvious reasons, I'll pick Option 3 then.

[China]

I agree with Irving (btw I'm from west aswell), I have been wanting to go on a cruise and I have been following this thread, but the amount of driving for one day was putting me off . By the end of the day, the cruise home would not be that enjoyable, for me anyways.

Matt, please don't take other peoples comments too personally. It's great that you took the initiative to organise this. Perhaps, in the near future the club can organise a 2 day cruise (with plenty of notice of course - hopefully we can get a big turn out) with an overnight stay somewhere. It will probably be difficult to organise, but would be well worth it.

I vote for option 3, but I'm happy to attend any 3 of the options.

[Momengah]

hey guys, i've been watching this thread with interest. Great work in getting th ideas and planning a route and all.

I love the idea of a cruise myself. But my worry as i've been watching is that it's just way too long. I don't know about others but if im cooped up in my car for over 6 hours i just start to get a bit cranky and annoyed. I mean i love driving and I love my car but in 6 hours in the car is just a bit much. in that amount of time i could probably fly to malaysia or singapore.

In saying all that though. I probably wont be able to make it to this cruise unfortunately. I'll be heading off to the US in a few weeks so most likely will be missing out.

So have fun guys!

(PS i'm up in the North but work in the West. If there are meets in the West I'd love to attend. Same as in the East. Both sides are pretty easy for me to get to)

[rus7y]

Look guys ive been following this as well but it is a huge amount of driving and living in the south east I will have to add an hour or so just to make the start point. I dont want to put a sleepy me behind the wheel of my car.

[dubdocker]

It's fine if people can't make it due to distance, driving 2 hours just to get to the starting point is quite far.

I dont know about others but if im cooped up in my car for over 6 hours i just start to get a bit cranky and annoyed. I mean i love driving and I love my car but in 6 hours in the car is just a bit much. in that amount of time i could probably fly to malaysia or singapore.)

I am definately not suggesting that you should be in your car for 6 hours, there's not much point in doing something as a group if we're just sitting in them.

Enjoy your trip to the USA, I was there a couple of months ago.
Where are you headed?