RetroRides - Where did it go wrong and what are the lessons?

[24vdiamond]

I do pop in most days as there are some interesting builds but it's hard work to be honest, I don't bother posting much anymore 

[Markeh]

I used to lurk both here and there a lot. Difference is after a good 7 or 8 years of lurking here I decided to sign up here, never felt the urge to sign up over there.

[Homersimpson]

Just noticed they still don't allow cars newer than Y reg in the classifieds even though there is a forum now for post 2000 projects.  No idea what is wrong with them.

[eddyramrod]

9 minutes ago, Homersimpson said:

Just noticed they still don't allow cars newer than Y reg in the classifieds even though there is a forum now for post 2000 projects.  No idea what is wrong with them.

Actually that's something they've got right!  21st century cars are overcomplicated plastic blobs.

 

Just my opinion of course...

[Homersimpson]

5 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Actually that's something they've got right!  21st century cars are overcomplicated plastic blobs.

 

Just my opinion of course...

It depends though, my 2007 Fiesta is no more complicated than a 1990s Fiesta, if the forum is to survive they need to fully open it up but when its been raised by people in the past the moderators are douche bags about it.

[eddyramrod]

Yeah, tbf it would seem the mods are a major issue.  

Never mind: stay here, you're much better off.

[stuboy]

so has RR gone offline?

[Rustybullethole]

5 minutes ago, stuboy said:

so has RR gone offline?

Just went for a look seems working to me. 

 I find it a bit hard to use on mobile which is all that have for computing. RR got me into forums though far preferred this place when i found it. I drifted away from forums all together some years back and lost all my log ins. Recreated one here and never bothered going back there. Stopped browsing there as found it hard to navigate. Always quite enjoyed the gatherings though, went to a few of them. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 28/12/2025 at 21:18, eddyramrod said:

Actually that's something they've got right!  21st century cars are overcomplicated plastic blobs.

 

Just my opinion of course...

Things have to move with the times, to a certain extent. 

Our local annual Mini festival, The Riviera Run, used to be huge. From 2000ish onwards, it slowly declined to the point that it was almost no longer worth bothering with. Then a mate came along, worked with a new committee and made a key change - Binis were invited as well as classics. 

From that point onwards, it's regained its popularity and continues to grow, year on year. When the rule was changed to open the door to the modernz, some of the old school committee left as they were so upset with the idea of such a big change. 

My mate made a good point though- many classic Mini owners also own a Bini and are fans of both, himself included. Open the doors to a wider audience and keep the interest alive. 

Adapt or slowly sink. 

[eddyramrod]

52 minutes ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Things have to move with the times, to a certain extent. 

I have to agree, but necessity is rarely easy to accept.

I'll just be the grumpy dinosaur in the corner then.

[wuvvum]

The main irritation for me on RR was the enforced positivity all the time.  There was one thread on there which particularly sticks in my mind, started by a young lad who had lowered his K11 Micra (or it could have been a Corsa B ) by completely removing the springs and riding it around on the bump stops.  Nobody was allowed to tell him that he was a bellend and his car was a deathtrap so he ended up thinking he was God's gift to modding.

The only person on there who seems to have been able to speak his mind, back in the day at least, was Bo11ox.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

13 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

I have to agree, but necessity is rarely easy to accept.

I'll just be the grumpy dinosaur in the corner then.

I get where you're coming from. I remember when Binis were relatively new and a few started to appear at the Riveira Run. A large group of us watched the Minis leaving the campsite and the few modern imposters were almost unanimously booed by the lot of us. It was hilarious at the time. 

I guess the organisers must have tightened up on the rules shortly after as attested to by the dwindling attendance of classic Minis as the years passed.

[Homersimpson]

2 hours ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

I get where you're coming from. I remember when Binis were relatively new and a few started to appear at the Riveira Run. A large group of us watched the Minis leaving the campsite and the few modern imposters were almost unanimously booed by the lot of us. It was hilarious at the time. 

I guess the organisers must have tightened up on the rules shortly after as attested to by the dwindling attendance of classic Minis as the years passed.

The truth is though that you have to be relevant to people, its evident that the normal pre-war cars have had their day as the people who aspire to them because they had one as a first car, their dad had one etc are mostly dead or too old to drive, the 50's to 70's stuff seems to be declining and it will happen to the next generation one day.

Its no good sticking to pre 2000 cars until the point that you have so few members its not economical to run the forum anymore, even Retrorides have realised this but not yet for the classifieds.

If you look at Minis as an example, when I first got into Minis in1997 they were still very much a cheap car for a lot of people and the local club had a lot of people who had bought one for a couple of hundred quid to get to work and back, now you need a fair amount of spare cash to buy one and have it as a toy and so the audience has declined significantly.

I remember going to Gaydon for a mini show when the MINI was first launched and a few turned up and there must have been some trouble as they announced over the tanoy that if anyone felt strongly against the MINI they should leave the site, now an early MINI on as Y reg especially would be quite collectable.

 

[Mike D]

I miss the early days of RR,  I made some life long mates from it, and had a right whale of a time arsing about with old rammel. I think the thing that has 'killed' it is the stratospheric rise in prices for its target old chod. You could pick up cool Japanese rarities for a few hundred quid, old German barges were the same, and you could have a laugh with your mates doing whatever you liked to them as they were worth fuck all, so it didn't really matter if they ended up scrapped after. I remember lowering stuff and spraying cars on my driveway with my friends, then we'd all convoy down to the shows, drink a load of beer and have a laugh meeting new folk. 

I also blame Photobucket for ruining every single forum and build thread when they killed of the photo hosting. 

I think the DVLA trolling build threads too and people reporting every single mod you did killed bothering to write up a build for me, I probably have the nicest stuff I've ever owned nowadays but I haven't written up a build for about 10 or 15 years.

 

*Pic for penance.. on topic for here, it was £150. 

[JakeT]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The main irritation for me on RR was the enforced positivity all the time.  There was one thread on there which particularly sticks in my mind, started by a young lad who had lowered his K11 Micra (or it could have been a Corsa B ) by completely removing the springs and riding it around on the bump stops.  Nobody was allowed to tell him that he was a bellend and his car was a deathtrap so he ended up thinking he was God's gift to modding.

The only person on there who seems to have been able to speak his mind, back in the day at least, was Bo11ox.

Wasn’t there also that thread where someone did welding so bad that it was actually worse than not even welding it up?

 

Monsieur plums blog was one of my favourite threads on there for a long time.

 

Went to various weekenders, gatherings and enjoyed them greatly. It used to be a thing I’d go to with about 5-6 mates, always in some shonkers. Most of us being students just couldn’t afford better. Than as is usual, people fell out of love with it, moved away and such. Last RR event I think we went to was 2022? And that was just two of us.

[Lord Sterling]

I can't really remember the first time I ever went on RR but it never felt like such an inviting place at the time. I was never a member and never signed up but did read a few threads.

I was a one-make/model guy at the time, Rover 800s were my thing (as if you didn't know) and was a member primarily of AROnline and later on I found Rover800.org or whatever it was called then.

I think I found RR much later on which led me to this place. Even then, in the mid 00s, RR felt very 'cliquey' and I decided it wasn't for me. When RR forum was discussed/linked from here, I'd occasionally pop in and have look, it on was here that the over-moderation/enforced enjoyment/swear filters and so on were mentioned. I also remember BarryBoys and found it fairly hilarious, but again, always a lurker, never a member. 

Like BarryBoys though, both Rover 800 and AROnline forums no longer exists. Although, latterly, R800.org forum itself is gone, the Rover800 Owners Club has morphed into much larger and pay-up members club.

[delux]

I am not keen on British cars but I've spent hour after hour reading stuff on AROnline! Fantastic, well written stuff! A real wormhole, lol!

[Rocket88]

On 26/12/2025 at 19:05, BorniteIdentity said:

It was also on here. What a fucking mess. 

It was mine. It was a petrol VW 1.8 t. Went well, in spite of the haters dissing it, with some justification 

[BorniteIdentity]

4 minutes ago, Rocket88 said:

It was mine. It was a petrol VW 1.8 t. Went well, in spite of the haters dissing it, with some justification 

Oh mate, don’t get me wrong - I know it was yours. And I stand by what I said. 

🤷‍♂️

[Rocket88]

Well, this is getting the same treatment, although it had a Pinto in when I bought it

[R Lutz]

6 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

I can't really remember the first time I ever went on RR but it never felt like such an inviting place at the time.

I was a one-make/model guy at the time, Rover 800s were my thing (as if you didn't know) and I may have come across it. Even then, in the mid 00s, it felt very 'cliquey' and I decided it wasn't for me. Even later on when the RR forum was discussed over here, I'd occasionally pop in and have look, it on was here that the over-moderation/enforced enjoyment/swear filters and so on were mentioned.

I think I may have come across this place at the time. I was a AROnline member and then a R800.org (or something) member for a long time before I fully migrated over here. Both Rover 800 and AROnline forums no longer exists.

I was asked to be a mod on that forum. I refused. I contributed a lot to the site however. 

[DodgeRover]

Oldschool.co.nz forum is pretty good, more like I remember forums being. Could be person bias with the car content being more to my liking.

[delux]

16 hours ago, Rocket88 said:

It was mine. It was a petrol VW 1.8 t. Went well, in spite of the haters dissing it, with some justification 

This is a great illustration of why this place does better than the blue pages!

Its fine to have different opinions, its healthy to speak your mind. No-one gets kicked, replies dont vanish. Some people like one thing, some dont but everyone can say what they want, just like real life! 😄

[DavidB]

Does anyone remember the group on there that used to hold secret meetings where they would have secret projects and announce them prior to showing them to the RR world a couple of weeks later, and it was usually something painted rattle can black on cut springs with wheels that cost £2000? I got the impression it was a very exclusive event/shed/man cave thing.

 

[Heidel_Kakao]

1 hour ago, DavidB said:

Does anyone remember the group on there that used to hold secret meetings where they would have secret projects and announce them prior to showing them to the RR world a couple of weeks later, and it was usually something painted rattle can black on cut springs with wheels that cost £2000? I got the impression it was a very exclusive event/shed/man cave thing.

Area 52 run by Mystery Machine? I went there a couple of times, it was good fun and it can't have been that exclusive if they let me attend haha.

[Markeh]

On 31/12/2025 at 13:16, Lord Sterling said:

I also remember BarryBoys and found it fairly hilarious, but again, always a lurker, never a member. 

Quite relieved that isn't around any more, stupid 13 year old me signed up with a fake age (of course not realising that rules back then dictated a proper ISP-supplied email address, which of course mine was in the format of firstname.lastname...) and trotting out a load of made up shite and just generally being an idiot. That, and some similar experiences on a gaming forum, was pretty much learning the hard way how and how not to use internet forums. At one point I think a moderator asked a question as to whether I thought my surname was particularly common or not (and those who know it know it very much is not!), I got spooked, closed the tab and never went back!

I think that's probably why it took me so long to sign up here in the end!

3 hours ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

Area 52 run by Mystery Machine? I went there a couple of times, it was good fun and it can't have been that exclusive if they let me attend haha.

This is one of the main threads I remember enjoying on RR back when I used to lurk - that and Bollox's mega thread.

[Gazza]

On 26/12/2025 at 13:58, captain_cal said:

Bring back Daveb, all is forgiven!

Just checking through some of my old book marks and thought i would visit here to see what was going on.

Not sure if you all know but Daveb47 sadly passed away, back in 16th April 2022

[beko1987]

46 minutes ago, Gazza said:

Just checking through some of my old book marks and thought i would visit here to see what was going on.

Not sure if you all know but Daveb47 sadly passed away, back in 16th April 2022

I didn't know, sorry to hear that. 

[DodgeRover]

3 hours ago, Gazza said:

Not sure if you all know but Daveb47 sadly passed away, back in 16th April 2022

Sorry to hear that

[barrett]

On 31/12/2025 at 08:16, Mike D said:

*Pic for penance.. on topic for here, it was £150. 

Hey, I was telling my girlfriend about that car the other day!