ulsterscooby

Last Sunday at the sound in motion show I met with Jim McMullan his daughter Gemma is doing her uni dissertation on cruising and he has asked for some assistance from the cruising community.

Nothing too difficult just a questionnaire to copy into an email and then forward to ggps@hotmail.co.uk

I hope as many as possible will take a minute or 2 to fill it out and send it to Gemma

Anyway here it is :-

Car Cruise Questionnaire

Where appropriate, please circle or underline your answer. Please answer those questions you feel comfortable with. All completed questionnaires will be treated anonymously and confidentially.

Thanks for your time and help – Gemma ggps@hotmail.co.uk


1. Are you male or female? MALE FEMALE

2. What age are you? AGE

3. In what county do you live COUNTY

4. Do you own a car? If YES how much did it cost? YES NO £

5. If YES, have you modified it since getting it? YES NO

6. Did you modify it in response to ‘cruising’? YES NO

7. What attracted you to cruising?



8. Do you take an active part in cruising? YES NO

9. Do you ‘just’ watch the cruise? YES NO

10. How many organised cruise events have you attended?

Less than 5?
5-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
More than 30?

11. Have you attended ‘unofficial’ cruise events? YES NO



12. Are you a member of a cruise club? YES NO

If YES please state which one(s). Why did you join?



13. Is there anything about ‘cruises’ that you don’t like? YES NO

If YES please explain.


14.if you have modified your car, please indicate the changes you have made by ticking one or more of the boxes below. If your modification is not listed please record it/them in the space provided.

Paintwork

External Graphics


Interior

Lights


Internal Lights

Underglow Kit


Suspension

Brakes


Wheels

Tyres


Engine

Exhaust


Alarm

Body Kits


Tinted Windows

Music


Speakers

Seats


Other




15. What is the best part of ‘cruising’?

16. Do you think that ‘cruising’ affects how you think about yourself.YES NO

If YES please explain.

17. Do you think that ‘cruising’ affects what you think about other people? If YES please explain. YES NO

18. Do you think that ‘cruising’ affects what other people think about you? If YES please explain. YES NO

19. Do you think that ‘cruising’ affects how you think about yourself? If YES please explain. YES NO

20. Do you regularly use ‘cruise related forums/chat rooms’ or other Internet facilities?

21. If so, which ones?

22. Please list any other hobbies you have.

23. Why do you think cruising has become so popular?

24. Do you take part in other car or motor sport events? If so which ones?

25. If not which ones would you like to take part in?

26. Do you attend any other social or cultural meetings/groups? If so which ones?

27. What is your annual income? (approx)

If there is anything else that you would like to say about ‘cruising’, for example anything you would like to introduce or get rid of, or something that you think could be improved on, please write it here. This also applies to people or agencies outside of the club, e.g. the way ‘outsiders’ talk or react to ‘cruisers’. Basically anything you want to make others aware of.

And again a big thank you for helping me out.

Gemma

bushiwarrior

done

c0lin

done also

geoffo

X 2

my dysliexia may make me appear to be a doh!

bushiwarrior

free bump for a good cause

ulsterscooby

had this emailed to me from Gemma guess its page 1 mostly about her dads visit to the seacat on tuesday

Cruising In N. Ireland

At the outset of this chapter I would like to make it clear that the help, consideration, advice and support that I received from the ‘cruising’ fraternity was exceptional. The phrase ‘they couldn’t have done any more’ is often overused but is completely appropriate in this circumstance. Each group I made contact with was extremely generous in terms of the time and effort they put in to cooperating with my research.


People in Northern Ireland have always had a keen interest in cars and motorsport. Paddy Hopkirk, Bertie Fisher and Eddie Irvine and many other less well known participants, have, like their counterparts in Finland, inspired many of their fellow countrymen and women to take part in or spectate at a number of motorsport events. The existence of Kirkistown or the Circuit of Ireland Rally are a testimony to this.

However, as well as these, acceptable forms of motorsport there are, as in Finland, two expressions of the passion for the automobile that are in one case little known and in the other, held to be beyond the pale.

What has surprised me is that both have existed for much longer than I had expected.

Despite the fact that I regard myself as a car fan and generally take a lot of interest in motorsports I have to confess a remarkable ‘blindspot’. As the following paragraphs will reveal ‘cruising’ is alive and well in Northern Ireland. Furthermore it has been over the last twenty five years.

As part of the ‘participant obsevation’ that was part of my approach to this research, I made contact with a number of ‘cruisers’ and attended several events over the course of the summer. I used these opportunities to make contacts and to glean and record information.

The first meeting I attended was held in a deserted car park, underneath the M3 flyover, in Central Belfast. This ‘cruise’ was/is a regular, once a week, event. The only variation to the ‘cruise’ event was in the time at which it started. Rob one of the organisers of the event ~ informed me that the cruisers started to arrive at the location from about 7pm with the carpark rapidly filling up as darkness descended. The reason for this had nothing to do with trying to ‘hide the rust’ but rather with the impression that darkness made the whole occasion more atmospheric. This was especially true for those ‘cruisers’ who had invested a lot of money in headlight, sidelight, interior light or underbody glowlight modifications.

The car park was used with the permission of the owners. The nationwide organisation was happy for the ‘cruisers’ to use the site. The sole proviso was that the site would be left ‘clean and tidy’.

The event had migrated here from a location a few miles away. The previous meeting place was actually a retail park outside belfast.

The cruise owner Luke found a new home for the weekly meets , underneath the flyover. The car park seemed an ideal location – enough room to show off a large number of cars with the flyover providing shelter from the elements. Located at a distance from any residential sites noise and congestion is not a problem.

Despite this comparative isolation the ‘cruisers’ did have initial problems with some youths who would turn up on meet nights and throw stones and abuse at the ‘cruisers’. Bearing in mind that many of the cars had a value in excess of thirty thousand pounds, stoning the cars was even more intolerable than normal.

The situation was resolved through contact with the PSNI. The police were invited to turn up to or attend the meet evenings. This move had three positive results. The ‘stone-throwers’ soon stopped their activities. The presence of the PSNI (Road Traffic Branch) also curbed the excesses of some of the more undisciplined attendees. Though it still occurs very infrequently, R reports that sometimes the combination of a high-powered vehicle and a traffic-free space was just too much for some. Handbrake turns, doughnutting and short, dramatic spurts across the car park occurred. As entertaining as many would view them these ‘stunts’ were seen by the others as a potential hazard to humans and expensive machines. Finally the presence of the police meant that these show offs some quite inexperienced drivers have all but stopped their antics

On the occasions I attended the ‘cruises’ the main observable activities seemed to be displaying cars and modifications and socialising. There were no observable cliques, no differentiating on any basis (gender, race or religion). What I did observe were people who were pleased with their accomplishments (in terms of work done to cars) and a lot of talk and laughter. To help me get a sense of what being a cruiser in Northern Ireland was like, I signed up for membership with a number of ‘cruises’. Despite the fact that I was an ‘observer’ and still something of an ‘outsider’, I was made welcome, but not unostentatiously so. In contradiction to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the people I was observing showed no sense of behaving differently either to each other or to me, because they were being observed.

When asked about influences on ‘cruising’ in Northern Ireland, Rob replied that without doubt it was the advent of the Internet. Whereas before ‘cruises’ were organised by word of mouth and were consequently much smaller and much more localised, websites, forums, digital photography and e-mail now made it possible to organise ‘cruises’ across the whole of Northern Ireland and beyond. The technology also made the contact interactive rather than one way traffic. It has also makes the ‘cruise’ more democratic.

A presence on the Internet is now seen as a ‘must-have’ for the survival and/or development of any ‘cruise group’.

c0lin

reads very well!!

bushiwarrior

guys gemma has had a low response to this thread she needs more replies c'on guys have a heart.

geoffo

its on rms and bc - she'll get repsonse now 4 sure.