How to organize a fun rally or cruise event?

Hi, guys.

I have a lot of experience hosting track events. I used to be the chief instructor and primary event chair for a large chapter of the BMW CCA.

But I also like to drive on the street on interesting back roads and stuff. Not necessarily in a hardcore, track-focused car. I've been looking for fun rally or "spirited driving tour" type events. I'm thinking: meet at a specific location on a weekend morning; cruise through a pre-selected route; then loop back to the starting point for lunch or something.

No one seems to host events like that around here. I'd like to try to put something like this together through the local BMW CCA chapter or maybe one of the exotic clubs, like the Aston Martin Owner's Club (AMOC). Does anyone have experience organizing/hosting events like this?

We did things like that in the 70's.... before lawyers and expensive liability insurance.   4 page waivers and the such.  Now. everyone is afraid one smiling happy person will ruin the whole day.

Good luck.   You need a starting point that will hold all the expected cars, and a like destination (usually a business that will sell food and drink.)  A bit of common sense helps... don't route 100 street rods past churches on Sunday morning, etc.

Maybe involve a charity in something like a poker run.  5 planned stops that can handle the traffic without causing a jam.  Sometimes a small rural village will be glad for you to come in and spend money... as long as you don't hold burn-out contests and the such.

I organized a few a million years ago for BMW 2002s through the 2002 FAQ forum (or maybe its precursor - I can't recall). I think at most we had maybe ten cars, and that was hard enough to wrangle; I wouldn't want anything larger. I also made it very clear that I would happily call the cops on anyone who behaved like an shiny happy person - thankfully, 2002 people were pretty low-key, at least back then when the cars were cheap, and we never had any problems. Pick a nice route, start early, drive a few hours, have lunch.

I made two simple road rallies for my local SCCA years ago for something to do after AX/RX ended.  I looked up multiple interesting sites around Dayton and plotted a big loop to connect them all.

Came up with very easy trivia questions to guess what they were, and you drove to the next one.  I had them take a photo at a couple.  Drove it myself to get an idea of the time involved, made it about an hour-ish.  Ended at a restaurant.

My only problem was the first one I included a time element (started them each a few minutes apart) and two saw each other, and human nature took over.  I heard reports of 60mph drag racing through downtown.  After that, I dropped the times.

Just came here to say I was hired to replace some culverts on a logging road a few years back and I did the work on a weekend so as not to impede active logging, as per requirements. I dug one out and left a gaping trench across the road and 4x4's started to arrive. Lots of them. Turns out there was a rally that day and they had not received the information that the road would be impassable for several hours.  The organizer showed up and demanded I fill the trench in so they could all pass but I was not inclined to do that so there was a lot of yelling and bad language while I worked under  fair bit of pressure. So, check for road closures.

ABC.

We are going to start at point A for breakfast and or just a parking lot meet and greet. Say 10 cars max preferably an agnostic collection of cars.

 The first goal is to drive to point B via roads that are of interest to the drivers involved. Lunch or shopping or garage crawl for examples. Agree on a point C to finish the day with food or whatever suits the group.  Routes don't matter or have to be predetermined for the group,  but have some target times for B and C.

The above works for me if there are not more than 10 cars. Anymore than that and it becomes work for some of the group. 

If the original question was more of the "How do I organize a large for-profit cruise"  like GRM does every year, then I have no idea. Sounds like work.

No profit motive at all. Just something fun to do on a fall weekend when there's no track stuff going on!

Just do it and you will learn from mistakes!

Sometimes looking on the forum or Facebook groups are great options. It also lets you pull ideas from others who may be familiar with the area and have secret spots. I personally joined alot of local clubs and kept an eye out for public meet ups. The more people you know and network within the local community, the easier it is to organize events that are safe, and fun.

We (my wife and I) used to do it with a decent bit with LVMOC (Lehigh Valley Miata Owners Club).   Generally it involved pre-running the course to make sure there wasn't anything major happening (roadwork shutting things down, as bearmtnmartin mentioned, good fun & safe roads, etc.), a good place halfway for lunch (check and see if they can seat approximately 20 people sometime around lunch on that day) and potentially dinner.    It was all coordinated on the forum (meet at X at 9:00 AM), and there would be someone acting as the lead and tail.

The person organizing the cruise was generally the lead car and set the pace.

Back the in day we use CBs so everyone could harass each other and have a good time. Nowadays, maybe it would be better to use Discord so everyone could be on the same voice channels?    It was like doing a 100 mile loop through the woods while hanging out with your friends.  Yes, sometimes there were sheneagins like mid-flight cookie refueling during passing zones, but it was all done in a pretty safe manner.

People knew the lunch/dinner point and approximate time (that was always a major important part of the cruise) so if they wanted to detour they could catch back up with the group.  Often, there was an optional ice cream stop at the "end" of the cruise for people to be able to head separate ways home.

Everyone wanted to go on the rides with certain people leading the pack, you could count on good roads and good food.

Basically, to answer the question, what forums/facebook/discord/etc. groups do you hang out on?   Just do it.

I'd love to do it again, maybe when the kids are grown.

Insurance and liabilty are going to be the hardest aspects of this.

In the 80's & 90's I used to do fun rallies with a local group called Bay Area Rallye Enthusiasts (BARE). We'd have a local rallye in the Tampa Bay Area about once a quarter and every summer a two-day, overnight rallye (called the Cross FL Challenge) to somewhere in FL, then back the next day. The local rallies were mostly course-following, i.e.
1. L @ stop
2. R @ first option
3. SO @ 4WS
4. R @ 3rd option
Q: What does a girl with a miniskirt do? (Answer was "Shoneys", back when they were still around).

5 pages (or so) of this and you'd end up at a pizza place for trophies. Even though odometers read slightly differently, you always reset the trip OD at the start to have a course reading at the end. Score by # correct answers, then mileage. We usually had a time cutoff just to get people done by a reasonable hour. Pizza Huts tend to be pretty empty at 8:30-9pm so they didn't seem to mind 20 or so people showing up, eating a few pies, and buying a few pitchers. Every rallye had a unique dash plaque and the trophies were fairly simple. A simple General Rules (GR) document explained how the directions worked, etc. 

On the two-day, day one was always a map rallye. Meet at a breakfast place. Cars start 1 minute apart and get an envelope with X number of locations in the state of FL with point values, plus the address of the finish and the end cutoff time. You choose your route and the order you visit the checkpoint locations. You didn't have to visit them all, and often it was impossible to do so. At each checkpoint location you had to get an answer to a question that was impossible to do without being there. A memorable one was a plaque firmly secured to the bottom of a railing at the bottom of the walkway/stairs at the Devil Millhopper sinkhole in Gainesville. Quite the run/climb for that one. Finish was usually at a hotel with a restaurant close by with a private room where dinner/trophies were awarded a few hours after the cutoff time. Highest point score with lowest mileage, closest to an average speed, etc. were some of the trophies.

Day two was often a hare/hound back to the Tampa Bay Area. Much fun was had on both.

What I loved about the local and two-day events was getting to drive around in places you normally did not. Funky subdivisions, that unique road with a great turn, a beautiful view, farmland in the center of the state, small towns time has forgotten, etc. All of these events took a great deal of planning and I'm grateful to the 2-3 main couples of BARE that organized them. I often did these events with my Mom as navigator (because she's logical AF and great at word puzzles AND didn't scream when I slid through a turn or pulled a handbrake turn for a quick 180 when we realized were going the wrong way). Some great memories that we still share to this day.

I hate that insurance/risk has potentially killed this type of fun. Our group cracked down pretty hard on people who were being too risky and/or were just shiny happy people. The driver's meeting always made the point to clarify that these were NOT speed events and were for amusement only. Lots of couples (old and young) participated as well as young families in minivans. Some really good times.

Hey there!

I’ve organized a few spirited driving tours with my local car club, and they’ve been some of the most enjoyable events I've put together. It’s a lot more laid-back compared to track days but still offers a fun, social way to enjoy our cars. The key is selecting scenic, twisty roads that are engaging but not too demanding. We usually meet up at a coffee shop, hit the road for a couple of hours, and finish with lunch at a restaurant or picnic spot. Getting the word out through club forums and social media helped attract like-minded enthusiasts. I say go for it!