Grassroots Motorsports

Grassroots Motorsports
Editor David S. Wallens
Categories automobiles, motorsports, do it yourself
Frequency 8 per year
Circulation 60,000+[1]
Publisher Tim Suddard
First issue 1984
Country  United States
Language American English
Website grassrootsmotorsports.com
ISSN 1047-0298

Grassroots Motorsports (GRM) is an American periodical devoted to hardcore sports cars, driving skill improvement, technical advice and amateur motorsports such as road racing, autocross and rallying. It was established in 1984 and is published eight times a year. The magazine’s parent company, Motorsport Marketing Inc. is based in Holly Hill, Florida and also publishes Classic Motorsports magazine. Motorsport Marketing, Inc. is also an event company, hosting several large events annually including the Tire Rack Ultimate Track Car Challenge, GRM Speediest at The Classic Motorsports Mitty, The Orange Blossom Tour, The GRM Experience at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Classic Motorsports magazine Auction Tours and is present at most large national and regional automotive enthusiast events with ties to modern and vintage sports cars.

Magazine History

Grassroots Motorsports was originally called "Auto-X," and started in 1984 in Deland, Florida by publisher Tim Suddard and his wife, Margie. The name was changed to Grassroots Motorsports a few years later.

Project cars

Grassroots Motorsports magazine's "Project Cars" section focuses on a wide variety of staff-owned road and track cars and presents in-depth technical subjects with a very hands-on, do-it-yourself point of view. Recent GRM project cars have included a Mazda MX-5 24 Hours of LeMons racer and autocrosser, a MINI Cooper S race car, a BMW M235i track day car, a Volkswagen New Beetle multi-purpose car and a LeGrand Mk. 18 race car built for autocross.

One of the most famous project cars in the magazine's history is the Ro-Spit, a 200-plus-horsepower, rotary-powered Triumph Spitfire.[2]

Subscriptions

Grassroots Motorsports' regular subscription price is $19.99.[3] The company occasionally holds sales, sometimes offering subscriptions for as little as $10.[4]

Grassroots Motorsports $2015 Challenge

The magazine holds an annual competition called the $2015 Challenge. The main goal of the Challenge is to demonstrate that fun, capable and attractive cars do not have to be expensive. The total budget for entries cannot cost more than the year in dollars (i.e., $2014 in 2014). The competition consists of an autocross competition, a quarter-mile (0.4 km) dragstrip time trial and a concours d'elegance.[5]

A special points system determines the final rank of each entry based on its performance in each segment of the competition.[6] Along with first-, second- and third-place trophies, other awards are distributed to deserving competitors, including “Most Spectacular Failure,” “Challengers’ Choice,” and “Best Attempt to Persuade Concours Judges.”

The first Challenge event was held in 1999, before the “year as the budget” policy was instituted; the budget cap for entries in that event was $1500. The second Challenge event was held in 2001 with the budget cap set at $2001. The event then became annual, with the budget cap increasing by one dollar each year.

Recent Challenge winners include Wreck Racing's V8-powered Mazda Miata, Andrew Nelson’s home-fabricated, Chevy V8-powered Volkswagen Beetle in 2009 and the Hong Norr team’s 1986 Honda CRX in 2008.

Ultimate Track Car Challenge

In 2007, Grassroots Motorsports added another competition to their lineup with the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. The goal of the UTCC is to discover the fastest track car in a field governed by minimal classifications.

Thirty-six cars competed at the Virginia International Raceway North Course in 2007. The overall winner was a Dodge Viper Competition coupe with pro driver Tommy Archer at the wheel.[7] In 2008, the event moved to Buttonwillow Raceway Park, and Bart Carter took first place overall in his Radical SR8.[8] In 2009, the event was held at the Virginia International Raceway Full Course; Marc Goossens beat out a field of more than 50 cars to take the overall win in his Riley Technologies Track Day Car. In 2010 Pirelli became the title sponsor of the Ultimate Track Car Challenge and continue as the title sponsor of the event in 2011.[9]

Internet forum

The Grassroots Motorsports online forum is a section of the magazine's website which allows discussion on almost any topic, automotive or not. Message board users can also schedule gatherings of forum users, information about race dates, or other events on the forum.

Users must complete an online registration and create a username to post to the forum. The forum is moderated by magazine staff. Users gain "Dork" status as their post count raises.

New reader - 0 posts | Reader - 100 posts | Half Dork - 500 posts | Dork - 1k posts | Super Dork - 2k posts | Ultra Dork - 3k posts | Uber Dork - 4k posts | Power Dork - 5k posts | UltimaDork - 7k posts | MegaDork - 10k posts

The "Ignore" thread and the "Hotlink" thread have reached 300+ pages of posts by regular and new users alike. As of April 2014, the "Hotlink" thread has reached 2387 pages with 59656 posts. There are many inside jokes specific to the GRM forum that have evolved through regular postings by some of the most prolific users. Several thousand posts per user is not rare, and are often racked up in less than a year.

Memes

There are several anagrams used for common phrases in the website. YMMV means Your Mileage May Vary, or "your experience may be different than mine", SWMBO means She Who Must Be Obeyed, or "your significant other", IIRC means If I Remember Correctly. In the for sale section, "NMNA" is used meaning "Not Mine No Affiliation" it is a link of something interesting for sale (usually on craigslist) that may be of interest to the community but is not being sold by a forum member. Several words are automatically filtered to keep the forum family-friendly, but they are filtered and replaced with unorthodox alternatives as follows:

E36 M3: for the "S" word.

Berkeley: for the "F" word.

Bob Costas: for the "P" word in the context of the female anatomy.

Shiny Happy Person: for the "A" word.

Forum members have also developed the following slang terms:

Canoe: used to label spam posts inserted by bots or other non-regular post methods.

Flounder: a person or post that pushes a political ideology, but doesn't necessarily add to the thread or topic - a type of political rhetoric spam. Based loosely on the National Lampoon's Animal House character

"Yeah but do all the pixels work?": Something to ask anyone who asks a "should I buy this car" or "what car" type question. Should thoroughly derail the thread. In reference to BMW's of the '90s and early '00s that had readout panels famous for losing pixels as they age.

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/media/files/2009-GRM-media-kit.pdf
  2. ↑ "Retrieved January 23, 2009". Grassrootsmotorsports.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  3. ↑ https://secure.ablesoftsolutions.com/pdmg/SecurePages/NewSub.aspx?pi=grm
  4. ↑ http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/206167/8a910b3ef7/TEST/TEST/
  5. ↑ http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/events/2014-challenge/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "retrieved January 23, 2009". Grassrootsmotorsports.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  8. ↑ "2008 Hankook Ultimate Track Car Challenge: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine". Grassrootsmotorsports.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  9. ↑ "2011 Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine". Grassrootsmotorsports.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.