FM needs "Us" to help them go racing... Lol
 

Saw this pop up on the GRM facebook page...

http://www.flyinmiata.com/projects/targa/index.php

I'm having a big Huh moment? Why is a shop asking for peoples help to go racing. Doesn't their parts markup help do that? Why are "we" supposed to pay for them to go racing and advertise their company. I'm lost.

They've had this telethon going on for a while now. While I really appreciate and respect their targa efforts, I just see this as tacky way to go about it. I'd rather see them get behind other racers in the community, but hey if it works for them then my criticism is probably just jealousy.

I agree with this, including the fact that my view may just be jealousy.

EDIT: pay $50 and get a t-shirt. They twist it to make you feel you are supporting the underdog miata in this epic international race, when in reality you are funding this small market high-end (i.e. larger markup) retailer, their marketing & advertizing, and their hobby. Slick.

I have no issue with looking for legit sponsors (name on car & media communications, etc) but it is the direct appeal from a high-margin retailer to the average joe enthusiast that bothers me. It's like having Prada asking soccer moms to donate directly to their fund so they can attend a Paris fashion show. Prada 'can't do it without you and needs your help'.

"Yes, we have winners but our prize isn't money – its bragging rights and personal fulfilment. To that end, completing or just participating in Targa Newfoundland is reward enough and beyond anything you have ever experienced."

They need around $23,000 just to enter, get there, race and eat/sleep. With no realy way to recoupe the money. I'm sure most buisness owners wouldn't want to just hand that out. That's a lot of money for FM to put up for Keith to do his thing.

Is the Targa Miata Keith's own project or FM's? I don't see anything wrong asking for sponsors....how do you think NASCAR, F1, INDY, SCCA, etc. are financed.

I do know that if I ever get cash together and go for a more legit turbo system for my car it will be an absurdflow.

But the 'private' sponsors are not businesses who get advertising and whatnot. They are customers who are being double dipped to pay for someone else to go racing. Why in the hell would anyone do that, donate the money to a charity for gods sake... don't give it to someone to race and advertise their company.

Corporate/company sponsors I get. Soliciting people... I don't get.

I see no problem with it. As Scott said, it is no different than professional teams getting sponsored. They are still having to pay a large chunk of this themselves.

It is different. Most professional teams get sponsors from companies that can use the sponsorship as a tax writeoff from their advertising budget and for advertising their product or services. There is a ROI. In FM's case they are asking their customers for money to pay for them to go racing, with no ROI in it for their customer. Sure they can claim R&D, but they'll still roll that R&D cost into the cost of their parts despite who donates and how much. As was mentioned it seems like double dipping from their customers.

I bought a set of seats from a conversion van for my bus from a guy that was a van dweller that was going to drive to Panama. After talking with him, he had set up a whole site for people to be able to follow him and he would post pictures and videos from his planned 6 month travel. On the site there was a spot to donate money so that he make the trip and I donated $50 to it. We all get to live vicariously through him making his trip and the same happens for us with FM.

I guess, I never was much for watching sports though. No fun unless actually doing it.

If you are looking at it with a monetary ROI, then I do agree with you that there is none. The ROI in a situation like this is qualitative and for the people that contributed, that is what they are after.

If it is Keith and HIS car then I see no issues.

The way I see it, its simply FM helping Keith promote the car and I'm sure FM is provided a good chunk of all the equipment on the car as well.

If we don't help him then it'll be up to 1 sponsor (FM) to cover all the costs... more car going up there have several sponsors, big and small.

Like I said earlier, probably me just being jelousy. But that is why I don't donate for their effort, I wish them success, but my budget goes to my own track experiences.

"For 2011, we're representing Miatas by running a two-car team. One car will run in Targa class and one in Grand Touring.

Flyin' Miata will be entered as a small manufacturer, allowing us to take on the big factories face to face."

If it was personal, I could see, That would be like "hey gays I just blew my engine.. no not like that :giggle: and I though it would be nifty if each of you mt'ers donated to something that makes no difference to you." Don't get me wrong, I would like to see him win, but FM is a company that does a good bit of business. The prada reference was perfect.

Coming from someone who's spent a bunch of money with FM it rubs me the wrong way. When their goal was reached they reset the clock and asked for MORE money. Kinda pisses me off especially considering how much they mark up their items. I suspect though that most of their clients are on M.net, not here, and probably have more money than good sense.

When companies go racing it is on their own dime and it is largely a tax write-off as advertising and R&D testing. When individuals go racing they solicit parts and financial assistance from companies that write it off as an advertising expense on their taxes and the individuals pay everything else out of pocket.

If I could coax people into funding me driving in the Targa I would do it, no doubt.

About 10 years ago I gave money to a bum. the next day I saw him at the bank with a purple suit on (no I am not joking this is real), blue shirt, gold watch, etc. making a very large cash deposite. I felt cheated. I decided to give money to my charity of choice rather than give money to bums at that point.

If it had been a privateer type thing on a solo unafilliated website it would be one thing but it did rub me the wrong way too. Furthermore like someone said when the clock was reset when the goal was hit.

I have no problem with FM leaving donations open to anyone wanting to help them out. I also see it as a good testiment to their R&D and their parts since they use all of their own stuff on the cars. Sure many of us with FM stuff drive our cars, do some track days and autoX, but to see these "off the shelf" parts take a week long pounding on surfaces that are the opposite of a nice smooth race track is another thing. If you don't like it, don't donate...pretty simple. I'm sure if Tim or Abe or Reverant was looking to develop a product or do something to further develop their work and asked the MT community for a little extra "push", it would probably get done. I doubt that Keith/FM are expecting ALL of the money for the Targe to come from donations, God knows how much of their own funds they've already put into it.

I'm not donating unless I get some seat time.

When they started their donation drive, I had some spare cash and gave it to them happily. A lot of folks in my local Miata club also donated and got the club name put on the side of the car. Again, this was months ago when they first started soliciting donations. Before they decided to reset their donation tach. :sad2:

I've always liked FM, both as a company and as people. I think they're great guys. But when they reset their little donation clock after hitting their $10k goal? I was pissed off. All the happy feelings of helping them go to that race went away. It left quite a sour taste in my mouth.

I still like FM and will still buy parts from them, but I'd not give them any money for something like this again. :ugh:

I think it is lame as hell. Props to Keith for getting his hobby paid for but I think it is kind of taking advantage of their customer base. He should have gotten sponsorship from Mazda and Chevy and other companies, not individuals. Tacky.

This isn't even something down n dirty n grassroots like a lemons race. All the parts he is using are top quality and brand new :P

This said, FM has helped my power ambitions a lot and Keiths book got me through several projects. Still, this is lame. At the end he should have just auctioned the car and given any profit to charity instead.

I hope you guys never find out what Rick and I do with your "donations"

I'll donate by buying a new clutch for way more than I should spend on one.

fap material?

Pizza Party's at Dyno Days.

It's their right to solicit for donations on their website.

It's your right to ignore the solicitations.

They are a business in a (decreasingly) capitalist economy. Profit is their motive. If people *hand* them money, it is an infinite ROI and infinitely profitable.

If I could get people to hand me money for my hobbies, I would do it in a heartbeat.

At $3/month/supporter, you're sitting on a pretty decent profit margin before that little bit of non-subscribers advertisement money kicks in

and our white parties.

I'd prefer if you just give me your money as a donation so I could race without actually building and selling you anything.

Only if you promise to also overcharge me for products as well.

I wonder how many people read that the first round was for the Targa Miata and the "reset" is seperate to send Egor and that they didn't combine the cost of entering both cars into one fundraiser...

*Edit- It seems they changed #2 car from Egor to the s/c'd NC.

Nope I've never read that. They should make it bold.

I still think it should have been on a separate website.

No one said they didn't have the right. But previous and future customers also have the right to think it's tacky. Please reference my aforementioned jealousy.

I'm out of the loop here... I think that they're tach reads 13,500$ right now, and they tell us that they need about 24,000$. Were those numbers different before?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1305834163

.

Yeah, when they first started it, they had the tachometer gauge for the funds raised and under it they stated that once that goal was reached, they would reset it and start another one for the second car.

My fiancee saw the Facebook thing and suggested we send them $50. Why? Because we met them a couple weeks ago in Georgia and they were really nice guys. Keith helped me with some questions, and Bill hung out in the parking lot at Taco Mac and just chatted with us for a good bit.

Does this deserve our money? Probably not. However I still plan to throw in for their Targa effort. Why? Because I've owned one Miata or another since 1999 and until last year I cannot recall spending a dime with FM. If I did, it was under $100. However, I have owned several of their products that I bought as used pieces from other enthusiasts. The many times I have emailed or called FM with support questions, I was up-front that we were talking about a second hand part; they still always treated me as a customer.

I bought a "no electronics" FM turbo kit from FRT_Fun on this board, after a long discussion with Brandon at FM about buying the same setup new. Buying used saved me some money that I then was able to spend on a full 3" exhaust (new) from FM. So they have received a lot less of my money from me than my car would indicate, but they have supported me by phone and email throughout my install as though I bought every part new, directly from them.

I don't expect this kind of service from anyone and wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't receive it. I feel like this is a way that I can give back to them in a small way. They have spent time with me on many occasions and have not been paid for that time. I don't owe them, and they don't owe me, but I'm glad that they do what they do and make some great products for our community. It's nice to have a company that consists of good people making good products (mostly) in the US, for our hobby.

Nobody is forcing you to give. That said, I was also a little annoyed by the "resetting" of the goal. I'm not sure I fully understand the reasoning behind it, but hopefully they do well and get some good data that helps them to keep making good products. They have a good margin on most of their stuff, for sure, but it's still a small company in a niche market. I don't think they begin to compare to Prada.

Nothing wrong with it but he needs to be getting money from their vendors if he wants to make a dent. Rharris what is the link to the van man?

This inspires me. Maybe I can get a chumpcar or lemons sponsorship from sawzall? Only $500...

No harm in tryin'! Sawzall would be an inspired sponsor.

I'd threaten to paint "MX-5 = Fag Car" on the side unless Mazda donated $50K.

Who cares?

I think anyone who donates assuming all of the money goes to the targa effort, its a win for mx5s everywhere? Dont like dont vote?

Dann

Totally! I would love to see a Miata in a race!

They were in it last year. Didn't you watch?

What? I mean in ANY race. These Miatas are great cars but nobody races them.

Open your horizons from the USA a bit

http://www.max5racing.com/
pictures


http://www.ma5daracing.com/

http://www.ma5daracing.com/gallery/a...rstone-319.jpg

Am I the only one who get sit that Fae is being a smartass to me. Sorry I dont have a 1000+ post count mate.

I meant an open factory competition against cars that arent mx5s.
But hey Im just an aussie and I didnt give them my cash for no reason so maybe I dont have a stand here.

Dann

Another +1 on FM being super people. Keith took me for a ride in the targa a couple years ago at MRLS. Good times.

If I want to support them, I'll buy some more stuff from them though.


No, you're not the only one. Apparently sarcasm doesn't jump the Atlantic intact.

Apparetly not :facepalm:

Correction- They ran it in 2008 and haven't run it since. Just want to clarify that so no one thinks they are running it yearly and asking for donations every year.

After I typed that I knew someone was going to correct me but I was too lazy to look it up. I did watch it on ESPN (or whatever - might have been SPEED) and it looked like fun. They gave Keith a lot of airtime and only said Miatas are for homos less than 5 times so I consider that a win for all of us.

lmao

There were some interesting clips from that race....like the guy in the Evo that missed a turn, slams it in reverse right as the Audi Quattro comes flying by and misses the Evo by what looks like inches.

video found-




(how do I get my exhaust to hold and spit a flame like that?)

Antilag.

That will do it when engine braking off throttle?

As I understand it antilag is active whenever you're not at WOT.

I find it ridiculous that a for profit business, especially one that is often so overpriced would ask for donations to go racing!

Hey guys, I'd like to take a big vacation this year. Yall want to help me out?

What EMS do you have?

Turn off decel fuel cut
Put timing in your lowest vacuum cells to mega retard like 12 degrees

ka pow.

Hydra- The decel cut is deactivated....lots of burbles and pops are present right now :)

dont be a retard, seriously.


http://www.6thgearadvertising.com/pi..._0228.jpg?blue


We should boycott Honda, look at all the advertisers on this truck official Honda race truck.

BOYCOTT RENAULT!!!!!!!!

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-conten...09f1car-26.jpg