Honda Racing Club - South Africa's largest Honda Forum

So for all of those that have been following the news that I've posted in bits and pieces and may have wondered whats going on, heres a breakdown of things to come.

My strategy is to get the forum and club back to what it was many years ago.

If you'd read any of the following posts then im sure you would have caught on to what was / is instore
forum-maintenance-13-01-2010-22h00-t29212.html
subdividing-for-sale-and-wanted-sections-t26553.html
forum-dns-update-t26435.html
regional-content-writers-required-t29567.html
calling-all-graphic-web-designers-ps3-80gb-up-for-grabs-t28619.html
hrc-2009-2010-demographics-survey-updated-t28223.html

To reiterate and keep everyone abreast of the new developments here's a breakdown of the plans.
Part 1
I've just wrapped up a meeting with Honda SA to discuss their involvement on the forum. The plan is to get them interacting with us (the consumer) and narrow the gap of communication.
The first set of meetings went well and I'll be meeting with them again to discuss the venture in more detail.
As part of the plan to get Honda SA on board, I am also trying to get all of the dealerships on to the forum. As soon as I have the all clear from Honda SA we'll then move to the next step.

Part 2
Reinstate the club and get everyone re-registered as members of the club and not just a forum.
The club will be divided into 4 regions, with each region responsible for holding its own events and managing its members.
New members will be issued with new stickers, T-Shirts and membership cards.

The stickers include a membership number on them in order to identify valid members vs any joe soap who may have arranged their own stickers or had stickers from the previous club


Membership cards will also have your membership number on them, and as part of the benefits of being a member you'll receive discounts from Honda dealerships (refer to part 1) and other participating sponsors of the forum.
If you, or someone that you know of may be interested in taking part in this initiative then have them contact me. Think of how your business / your mates business may benefit by having support from all members?

Part 3
Take HRC to the next level and introduce new sections and transform HRC's online presence to more than just a forum
Have a look at this for an example : regional-content-writers-required-t29567.html

I've been pretty busy during the last few months and have been some what delayed in getting this all ready but none the less, its happening.
I know for some these changes are exciting, and for others they have alot to say about the changes. Overall what I am planning will benefit everyone on the forum, on the club and within a few months any other Honda owner.
Editors note :
You suggestions are welcome, and if you have any positive input which may be used for future plans then i'd like to hear from you.

If you have nothing good to say and plan to moan for the sake of moaning then rather go post somewhere else and dont jack this thread.

I love what i just read, what a great start to the new year.
A big thank you Shabsta for all the time & effort that you put into this forum/club as well as to all here on the forum for making it what it is today - Successful & Moving Forward

just thinking aloud with regards to the stickers- you'd need to get people to pay upfront and then its a matter of digital printing onto white vinyl. (probably the best way to do it) and then its a matter of getting new stickers made on a regular basis (probably once a month) depending on how many new people register throughout the year...

Give me a shout if you need any input on shirts and membership cards

send me a pm regarding shirts - send me your msn / skype details else lets meet

sounds brilliant man, thanks for all your efforts

Well played Shabster...let me know if there is anything I can do to help...shot

I agree what Swich said!!! Good ideas!!! But it will be a HOCSA all over again, Soon you will have to take race results down because you we are not allowed to have fun!!!

Thats true is honda SA really going to put its name behind the DC crew or any of the thing we do. illegal mods etc.

IMO you are killing what the HRC used to be. you not taking it back to the old days.

Swich, I'm beginning to wonder about that question you posed some time ago...whether in fact you are a chop.

Killing HRC? Shabsta has at least shown initiative.

Wow...
Where to start.
Why would you wanna be involved with honda SA as barely anyof us here drive new model honda's let alone have the money to buy new ones.
Their parts are a rip off and gaurenteed there are aftermarket prts suppliers that can do better quality or upgraded parts at similar if not better prices!
As for rocking a sticker on the car with a membership number wow, just another thing for hijackers cars theives ect to get onto, easy, look on the forums, identify the area you in and what mods you have and bam.... look for the corresponding sticker!

The membership card with benifits from other companies will be awesome but non rice companies like autostyle ect!

I say try keep the club underground and back to its roots

Come guys we gonna end up like HOCSA

Well said!!!

Doesn't sound like it dude.

So it seems that some of you guys would prefer things to remain the same?

Good luck Shabsta.

Shabsta, I think you have some fantastic ideas there, and I wish you all the very best in achieving what you want for this club. You have vision and foresight and THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.
As for the others, you guys to need to LET GO of your HOCSA GRUDGE and move on because its getting old now.
Who cares what HOCSA is doing or has done?
This is HRC, and what is wrong with wanting the club to grow and become something?
You say you dont wanna 'end up like HOCSA'?
HOCSA might not be big and well established like SOCSA for example, but I think we have a pretty cool forum, we have awesome socials with lots of fun and even though you are against Honda SA's prices on parts and labour, we still get help from the dealerships who are on our forum.
How can that be seen as negative?
Why does it always have to be HRC vs. HOCSA?
I really hope for your sake Shabsta, that you can rally together some POSITIVE people who also wanna see this club turn into something more than just a forum.

Better than HRC = HOCSA.
No use having two of the same thing.

Anyway, I think it'll be a bad idea getting Honda involved.
Well, doesn't matter to me, but all this FN2 reflash stuff, how to keep your warranty etc. etc. will have to go.

Look, HOCSA aint all that bad, but seriously, IMO HRC is way better. Shabs im not saying u got bad ideas, they in fact, are very good ideas and steps, well done to you, ill agree that you have worked hard and put a lot of effort into this forum - respect .
However, swich has a good point.
I fear (and i think a lot of others do as well) that Honda SA may be too "formal" for us and a lot of the guys have got (ill say semi-illegal) mods done to their cars and they do look sweet - so as boosted said, lets try keep the forum at its roots, but integrate some of the changes you have mentioned into the forum as well.

just my 2 cents, on the whole, good luck shabsta, keep up the good work.

wow where to start..

Ok lets address mr negative chop.

I did ask that any negative comments which have no value to this thread remain outside of here.

What was the point of posting this and what reaction were you expecting? None of this is positive nor constructive. Well done, you did as I expected, albeit you managed to last a few days before posting.
Show me where I stated that races would have to be documented and under no circumstances would fun be allowed.

Why dont you join me for the next meeting with Honda SA and see their enthusiasm and response to the suggestion. Then once you've attended sit down and lay down your negative comments and concerns. If you are so enthusiastic and passionate about this "club" then put some ideas together and play a part in it rather than sitting back and thrashing it out with your keyboard.
This is one of the topics that came up. At some point or another you will need to buy OEM parts and I dont see why getting them at discounted prices causes an objection. At some point you may need tyres for your car and if we could partner with a supplier that can foresee benefit in offering us discount then surely you would benefit from this?
You have a valid point here and every step will be taken to ensure that you arent exposed. I choose to have my location in my profile and see it as no threat. You arent forced to have such information publicly available. Please do let me know what other concerns you have.

@ Suzi_Q - Thanks for your sensible comments on the matter.

Do you not think that they have not been on the forum already? As an owner of a vehicle I have the right to decide what I do to my vehicle. If Honda were so persistent about this then they would do what FORD SA does, and have scouts go out to track days and photograph those vehicles which are on the tracks, and the following Monday cancel their warranties.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves and start making assumptions here.

Skar, thanks for the response. I'd like to hear more from you regarding this.

To end this post off :
To all those that keep going on about HOCSA this and HRC that and the differences or similarities , and how this may become HOCSA : read what I have to say.
Some of the ideas (such as registered members, regional committees & more involvement from Honda SA) originated from other clubs such as BMW & Renault and not HOCSA.
Go do some research on these clubs and see how the members benefit from the involvement and then honestly tell me that you within your personal capacity wont benefit from this.
Give Brent a break and some recognition for what he has built - whether you have hard feelings or not. I may not get along with Brent for personal reasons but that doesnt mean every word that comes out my mouth involves slagging him off.
Why is it that other clubs, real car clubs have such structure and it works but yet HRC "members" oppose it? What you're asking for is a forum related to honda rather than a club...and if thats the case then there are plenty others out there and there is no need for Honda Racing Club (ironic name considering we dont have one, hey swich) to exist but rather Honda Racing Forum

What the Fok is going on with the okes on this forum?
Cant everybody just be happy and move forward together?
I give up.

lol, me too...

Obviously one would benifit from this but it needs to be set up and known at ALL honda branches so you dont have to sit around and wait for it to be verified and so on. No been ungrateful or anything but a discount bigger than 10% will make this worthwhile.
As for the tyre places that would be an awesome idea, maybe even try get some performance shops (no tuners) to get onto this aswell ie: Import Parts ect Maybe i can even have a chat to Carmodz.


Just thinking way out the box here, it may never happen, but you never know what these low life skum bags get up to!!



I dont see HONDA SA been too formal for us but rather only really having intrest in the guys with the newer model cars as they have little if not nothing to gain from us guys driving 10 year old plus Civics and ballades.
As long as your engine is cleared and have all the paper work done there are no real illegal mods (unless you live in durban)

I Like the idea of change but lets not go too over board with it...
I agree with the membership, Discounts, Tshirts ect
But lets still try keep this fourm or what ever you want to call it core and not sell out and go fully commercial!

Shabsta, thanks for addressing our concerns. I'm afraid we are a bit apprehensive at this time but you're the man on the inside; the information that you have and the time that you take to relay this to us is greatly appreciated.

Shabs just a quick idea. I know with the new posting rules etc in the for sale section some ppl are forget to have the correct layout etc. i was thinking, and maybe i could get some input on this from some of the other guys, - is a template in the for sale section only, in regard to the guidelines. So basically, the image i got in my head is, when ever some gos into the for sale section, and clicks "new Topic" the guidelines are automatically there already for the user(new or not) to enter in, thus they dnt forget anything, and we all get the info we want.

Just an idea. let me know wat ya think

also sorry just re read this... maybe dont "divide" the club, we stay as a whole, but maybe introduce "subsections" something for the different regions, CPT, DBN, GP etc. I would hate to see the guys divided up in categories, then maybe the interaction between the guys from JHB and DBN may lessen to an extent i dunno - the way i see it, we are as a whole, sure, the guys from jhb cant attend dbn hookups and events and other way round, so that's what the sub sections would be for but yea.. maybe not such a great idea.
as for re-registering,what will this entail? having to start a new account, or will it be a case of re registering which will basically transfer your current account over to the new one but "upgrade" it same time?

so yea.. dnt mean to make more work for you,just curious.

whoa whoa tiger...
Ok with regards to subsections... Are you referring to the club registration and regional divisions? If so the idea is to have one or two peeps per region to manage the club. There wont be any segregation at all. All part of HRC SA regardless of whether you live in Jozi, durbs, or move from Durbs to Jozi etc etc.

As for registration. Club registration will entail registering on another section of the website in order to become a member of the club. You will retain your forum profile, and this will be integrated into the club section of the site.

As for the posting guidelines, the only way to make them more visible is to setup them up as "forum rules". This creates an orange banner on every page of the section that has rules assigned. It doesnt look that juicy - hence I have not implemented it.

i see... would be nice to have a specific rule for a specific section - and that would work well for the for sale section regarding guidelines but yea, cant have everything lol. thanks for clearing up the registering thing, so basically you can choose whether u just want to be a member of the forum, or the club or both i take it? if so, thats what i was sort of getting to with my last message. - I look forward to the upgrades.

i didnt really want to get involved in the thread..but Shabs you have my full support,i know the guys from my side will help out where ever they can as this is what we wanted,and it was our intentions when myself and cyAnide(i put the A in to be a pain) wanted to take over things,


As for getting more involved with Honda i thinks its a great idea,and there are many reasons to back that statement up,


Im with you,my fellow HRC Brethren (and sistaz)

I just read this thread for the 1st time, and HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Low you homo!!
I dunno, honestly, i have nothing, nor have had anything to do with HOCSA, so i have no clue what they going on about! i have however seen a few of HOCSA's events, and OMF PPPPPLLLLLLZZZZ MAY WE NEVER BE THAT LAME!!! Bunch of ballies that sit around and look at new, stock honda's No offence to HOCSA, but u ppl are old!

Hmm then u compair our events, we allot more lively, and i dnt think that will ever change!

I rate it might not be so bad to get honda involved! Shit, id take some discount!!

@Shabs, might have some tyres connection, in pta/jhb. will talk to my pops

and the sticker, fck hi-jackers, i like the sticker! aslong as i can get sticker number 24!! Lucky number! dnt forget ;P

@Low, you still gay

@ all

dc crew

DC.

I like Shabs ideas The sticker thing is a cool idea.. just photoshop the sticker like the license plates.. thats what I say...

Discounts will be awesome... don't really care for Honda SA though. I have only had problems with them, they haven't fixed problems on my car properly etc.

Think change is good though. Big ups to Shabs for all the hard work!

Big up Shabs- drop me a pm if you need any assistance in any way