Best place to live for a GRMer?

Here is a thought for an article or at the very least a 4 deep thread on post.

Given our collective chosen hobby, where is the best place in the good ol USA to live to pursue our passion?

I guess one would have to have criteria so here is a good list to start:

number of Salvage yards

number of Autocross events

miles to the nearest road course

number of road courses X number of miles/minutes away

average used car price (lower price is better)

number of GRM forum faithful willing to pitch in.

Feel free to add to this list.

I like Milwaukee. SE Wisconsin in general isn't bad; close proximity to Road America, Blackhawk Farms, and the Autobahn Country Club. Fair amount of auto-x and rally-x locally, cheap (but rusty) used cars, and a fair amount of interesting stuff running around. Also some local members (RealMiniDriver, PKazaks, STSZX2, etc).

I think we have it better than most in the rust belt, but I'm sure there is somewhere better overall.

Atlanta is pretty damn cool.

Road ATL, Barber, Talladega, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Roebling Road are all pretty close.

There is a very hot autocross scene.

The car scene in general is very good with almost weekly car shows.

Cars are cheap and rust free.

We are pretty limited on salvage yards though. We had more in my small home town in Michigan than we do here in ATL.

I would personally rather work in weather that is too hot than weather that is too cold, so it's conducive to wrenching and beer drinking.

It's not Chicago. Lot's of tracks, but short season and it's called the rust belt for a reason (beyond mfg). edit - it's May - weather still pretty much sucks - 50s and rain today.

Atlanta seems to be the craigslist mecca - interesting and cheap finds, plus Road Atlanta, not all that far to VIR, CMP or Savannah, a day's drive to the challenge, year-round wrenching weather - no giant salt storage facilities anywhere to be found...

Well, my new place has 3 parts stores within WALKING distance. 5 salvage yards with in 20minutes, too many to count at the 1 hour mark. 1 road course within 20 minutes, about an hour to the drag strip. At least 2 ovals within an hour's drive too. 2-3 more road courses within 3 hours. Very active autocross area with at least 5 active clubs with in an hour drive. Rally cross and road rally is available quite easily too. Hooray for south east Michigan! Property is cheap! No emissions testing either. Also no jobs and 6-8 months of winter every year.

I gotta admit. Ohio is boring... but the area I live in DOES have curvy roads... a decent amount of events. And the kicker? No emissions check.

Not NW Ohio.

few GRMers

Several tracks (Mid Ohio, Putnam Park, IRP and more within 3 hours)

There are several active autocrossing SCCA clubs

Several salvage yards but rust inhibits finding cool cars still in decent shape

Back in Oz, Melbourne had it all

6 National Race Tracks including Sandown, Philip island, Calder Park, Winton.

Huge Rally scene including the Rally of Melbourne and the Rally in the Valley.

Local events everywhere

great weather

Lots of regional and marque specific clubs

Calder Park is a National drag strip

Gearheadotaku wrote: Well, my new place has 3 parts stores within WALKING distance. 5 salvage yards with in 20minutes, too many to count at the 1 hour mark. 1 road course within 20 minutes, about an hour to the drag strip. At least 2 ovals within an hour's drive too. 2-3 more road courses within 3 hours. Very active autocross area with at least 5 active clubs with in an hour drive. Rally cross and road rally is available quite easily too. Hooray for south east Michigan! Property is cheap!

South East Michigan was fun while I was there too, but 7 months of unemployment after graduating from college takes all the fun out of it. The car guy stuff there is great, but the job market sucks.

I promise you NYC is not it. Though mass transit does mean you can buy a fun car, but not worry too much about a practical DD (It needs to move unless you want to push into a spot across the street). I do see some interesting cars in apt parking garages though.

aussiesmg wrote: Not NW Ohio. few GRMers Several tracks (Mid Ohio, Putnam Park, IRP and more within 3 hours) There are several active autocrossing SCCA clubs Several salvage yards but rust inhibits finding cool cars still in decent shape Back in Oz, Melbourne had it all 6 National Race Tracks including Sandown, Philip island, Calder Park, Winton. Huge Rally scene including the Rally of Melbourne and the Rally in the Valley. Local events everywhere great weather Lots of regional and marque specific clubs Calder Park is a National drag strip

We keep it real in the SW lol. Its still a pretty boring area and the "car scene" is mostly just JDM and show type bros. But those few INCREDIBLY entertaining roads, no emissions check, and ease of finding pretty much anything you want is nice. I would say we have a road course close but unfortunately the bluegrass motorsports park never opened up

Not South Dakota, I don't think I need to explain my reasoning.

My thoughts-

Detroit has potential. Ask me again in 5 years. (and make sure it's during the summer.)

Atlanta sounds like a very sound candidate. Great autocrossing, lots of road courses within a day's drive, great shops and junkyards, big events like Petit Le Mans, ARRC, The Mitty, etc. Great support for both NASA and the SCCA. There's a lot to love about that region.

I like Daytona a lot too. The local SCCA region is great, There are plenty of options for track days, club racing or autocross, though rallycross events are a little harder to find within 4 hours.

If I could pick anywhere at all to live and had a recent lottery win (thereby no longer needing to work) I'd start leasing one of the Villas at VIR.

I second the "Not NYC" motion, and will use that motion to add to the requirement list:

Low cost of living (to finance projects).

Enough room to have a decent size garage.

NYC fails both tests.

FlightService wrote: number of Salvage yards number of Autocross events miles to the nearest road course number of road courses X number of miles/minutes away average used car price (lower price is better) number of GRM forum faithful willing to pitch in.

I'm going to rate L.A. on this list - (even though I don't live there anymore)

Salvage yards? Heck yes. Where the two geologic faults meet in Sun Valley there is nothing but yards for 10 square blocks. There are even brand-specific yards ranging from Ford to Fiat and Mercedes to Mazda.

Autocross events seem to be rather common in Orange county. Its 10-30 miles away from L.A. depending on where you are.

Average used car price is a LOT lower than you might think. While there is a large concentration of low-income folks who think their 89 Camry is worth $3000 there is a very high percentage of rich-types who think their 99 Mercedes is also only worth $3000. I snagged a 5-series with a blown motor for FREE in L.A. I also grabbed a 62 Caddy CDV that was chopped, dropped, and shaved for $1500 because the builder thought it had "too much bondo." The sheer number of vehicles that are for sale within a 20-mile radius of your front door is staggering. Pick your favorite vehicle of all time. Got to LA's CL page and search for it. Seriously.

Question is.... can you afford a 2br/1ba house in a bad neigborhood with bars on the windows for $350k? I couldn't .... that's why I went to Austin.... but that's another post.

I am going to guess that amyplace that is not California would do.

And as much as we hate it, winter is the season to lock one's self in a warm arage and get creative. It is actually a good way to survive said season.

aussiesmg wrote: Not NW Ohio. few GRMers Several tracks (Mid Ohio, Putnam Park, IRP and more within 3 hours) There are several active autocrossing SCCA clubs Several salvage yards but rust inhibits finding cool cars still in decent shape Back in Oz, Melbourne had it all 6 National Race Tracks including Sandown, Philip island, Calder Park, Winton. Huge Rally scene including the Rally of Melbourne and the Rally in the Valley. Local events everywhere great weather Lots of regional and marque specific clubs Calder Park is a National drag strip

......And you moved to NW Ohio because .............?????

Not so much the DC area. There are a few salvage yards and Summit Point is a reasonable drive away. But high prices (gas taxes), emissions tests, bad drivers from outer Mongolia, stupid slow speed limits, and generally just miserable traffic make it tough to enjoy driving. There is a good selection of autocross venues, though.

Clearly, half way between Atlanta and Gainesville.

DeadSkunk wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: Not NW Ohio. few GRMers Several tracks (Mid Ohio, Putnam Park, IRP and more within 3 hours) There are several active autocrossing SCCA clubs Several salvage yards but rust inhibits finding cool cars still in decent shape Back in Oz, Melbourne had it all 6 National Race Tracks including Sandown, Philip island, Calder Park, Winton. Huge Rally scene including the Rally of Melbourne and the Rally in the Valley. Local events everywhere great weather Lots of regional and marque specific clubs Calder Park is a National drag strip

......And you moved to NW Ohio because .............?????

She said "Yes."

Now I just need to convince her to move somewhere warm, Daytona is high on my list also.

Central Florida. Sebring is an hour, Daytona is 2, Homestead is 3-4, Starke is 2.5, Gainesville is 2. Lots of salvage yards, The Challenge, auto crosses and track events every weekend year round, The Baybottom Crawl. No rust, no emissions. Good CL deals can be found. Only thing we are missing are some good hill climbs and rally. But we can make up for that with mud.

I live in SE Michigan, the greater Detroit area. There is a huge car culture here. A nice local track, Waterford Hills Raceway, in metro Detroit area. Also only a 3-4 hr drive from Grattan, Gingerman, and Mid Ohio! Detroit SCCA hosts plenty events in the summer months. We even have a Gumball Rally (http://www.michigangumball.com/) Almost as many parts stores as gas stations, and decent amount of junk yards. You can also find a gathering, cruise, or show nearly any day of the week. Not to mention the Woodward Dream Cruise, which is said to be the largest organized automotive event in the world. Its mostly american iron but you'll find a group for any model.

It may not be the best place in the country for a GRMer, but its pretty cool. In spite of the horrifying economy here, the car culture thrives.

As much as I don't really want to live there Greenville/Spartenburg area of SC.

Road Atl is 1.5-2 hours down I-85 Carolina Motorsports park is 1.5-2 hours down I-26 Roebling Road and Barber are a bit farther but still easy drive Atlanta Motorspeedway and Charlotte Motorspeed way few hours on I-85 Good AutoX support in both the Upstate and Atlanta areas. Great driving roads just up the mountain in NC. Greenville has a decent light life so I am told. Greenville has Minor league Hockey and Baseball Greenville has a good sized arena down town so oyu get good events. Ikea is only 2 hours up I-85 in Charlotte. They have an International (I think) Airport. Land outside of the city is plentiful and can get really cheap if you look hard enough. No state vehicle inpections at all. You hav 4 real seasons of the year. The beach is just down I-26, 3 hours. Don't know about the wrecking yard situation but it can't be any worse than some of the other places mentioned.

JoeTR6 wrote: Not so much the DC area. There are a few salvage yards and Summit Point is a reasonable drive away. But high prices (gas taxes), emissions tests, bad drivers from outer Mongolia, stupid slow speed limits, and generally just miserable traffic make it tough to enjoy driving. There is a good selection of autocross venues, though.

Do you know any good salvage yards or pick n pull type places in the DC area? I'd agree with what you said- still trying to find a good driving road with low fuzz concentration.

LopRacer wrote: As much as I don't really want to live there Greenville/Spartenburg area of SC. Road Atl is 1.5-2 hours down I-85 Carolina Motorsports park is 1.5-2 hours down I-26 Roebling Road and Barber are a bit farther but still easy drive Atlanta Motorspeedway and Charlotte Motorspeed way few hours on I-85 Good AutoX support in both the Upstate and Atlanta areas. Great driving roads just up the mountain in NC. Greenville has a decent light life so I am told. Greenville has Minor league Hockey and Baseball Greenville has a good sized arena down town so oyu get good events. Ikea is only 2 hours up I-85 in Charlotte. They have an International (I think) Airport. Land outside of the city is plentiful and can get really cheap if you look hard enough. No state vehicle inpections at all. You hav 4 real seasons of the year. The beach is just down I-26, 3 hours. Don't know about the wrecking yard situation but it can't be any worse than some of the other places mentioned.

I will give you a few good reasons not to live in the Upstate.

Yearly property Tax on your car. They don't inspect it they charge you for it anyway.

State income tax

Per capita one of the most violent areas of the country

Extremely high racism

Salvages yards are scarce and are priced accordingly

High crime rate

Schools are garbage.

Used car prices are high.

The International Airport is there for it's direct flights to Germany (BMW) and as a FTZ for local manufactures. Everything else goes to a bigger airport for exchanges.

Who told you there were 4 seasons? You have 3 months of Fall, 3 months of Spring 1 month of heavy frost, even if it snows it is just heavy frost. and 5 months of summer. By summer I mean you parked on the face of the sun. SC has been in a drought for about 6 years now. You can spin that to fewer rain delays.

If you get a ticket in Greenville proper you can't go in front of a judge, you go in front of a court officer. Which is a Greenville cop. Guess who he sides on, every time?

I graduated from Clemson, and worked in Greenville for a BMW supplier and at Carmax. I find Greenville proper a nice place, but if you aren't living in the upper scale part of town good luck. I haven't found an area where people with less money and education than you are as aggressive about you owing them something than in SC.

Despite the few good reasons (close to tracks, very active Clemson SCCA at least 5 years ago.) All the other qualifications it fails miserably at.

So if you are wealthy enough to send your kids to private school, buy a large piece of land to avoid your neighbors stabbing you, don't mind crooked cops, paying for your cars value in taxes in about 5 years, and having to create your own water. Enjoy!

I'm going to make an argument for where I am, Southwest Washington State (I live in Kelso, but Vancouver is probably better).

Road Racing / HPDE:

• Portland International Raceway is 40 minutes away with a full SCCA and ESSCC calenders, and occasional PCA, NASCAR West, Historic, and sometimes even Pro Racing (we've had IRL, Trans Am, and others). Plus HPDE's out the wazoo from dozens of clubs. Did I mention PIR hosts the oldest continuous Road Race west of the Mississippi in the Rose Cup? Also, Chump Car started life here.

• Pacific Raceway (formerly Seattle International) is 2.5 hours away and features much the same schedule as PIR and is equally a storied and popular track.

• Oregon Raceway Park is a brand new track about 2.5 hours away that is built in natural hills and drives like a roller coaster ride! Pretty much an asphalt ribbon in BFE right now, but they do host some SCCA races already. It's one of the most popular HPDE venues on the West Coast as well. Did I mention the Palatov is being developed here?

Autocross:

• Oregon Region SCCA: Runs a full 10-race season plus practices and schools at PIR and a National Tour venue, Packwood, WA (about 2 hours away).

• Northwest Region SCCA: Runs a full 10-race season plus prctices and schools out of Packwood, Bremerton (about 2.5 hours), and others.

• Oregon PCA: Runs a full 8-race season plus practices and schools at PIR and Packwood.

• Northwest PCA: Runs a full schedule up North and meets at Packwood annually with Oregon PCA for a Shootout.

• Local Clubs: Some even run full points championships at venues such as the Astoria, OR airport (1 hour), Olympia (1 hour), Salem (1.25 hours), Packwood, and PIR. You can literally autocross from late February to late October every weekend, and both days on most of them. In 2009 I ran in 22 events for 128 runs!

Drifting:

• South Sound Speedway is 1.5 hours north and runs a full season drift schedule, plus a Formula D event annually. There are other events hosted at Packwood and PIR.

Rallycross:

• Oregon SCCA is one of the few regions able to run a serious and season-long Rallycross schedule, running out of Beaverton (1 hour), Hillsboro (1 hour), and Chehalis (45 minutes). Northwest Region SCCA runs some as well as other smaller local clubs.

Rally (this is where we win):

• Olympus Rally (Rally Car National)

• Oregon Trail Rally (Rally Car National)

• Mt. Hood Rally, plus a good 3-5 other stage rallies for Regional competition

• There's also multiple clubs that do season-long Road Rallies.

Drag Racing:

• Portland International Raceway is 40 minutes away and has a season-long 1/8th mile NHRA program, a season-long 1/4 mile Test&Tune, and hosts some other clubs and special races.

• Woodburn Raceway is 1.5 hours away and hosts season-long NHRA 1/4 mile along with Alcohol cars, Jet Cars, and so many special events your head will spin. One of the best tracks and programs in the country.

• Pacific Raceway is 2.5 hours away and hosts season-long NHRA 1/4 mile events AND an NHRA National event (at 1000', stupid idiotic worthless rules idiots!!!) so you can see John Force catch on fire.

• Mission Raceway Park is about 3.5-4 hours away but worthy of a mention as they are probably the best track in Canada, and they host the West Coast track challenge annually, which drwas teams in from every major track all the way down to San Diego for a shootout of epic proportions.

Car Shows:

• PIR hosts cruise-ins all year; Longview closes off downtown for a cruise annually; and there's a huge car show network up here with everything from indoor traditional Roadster shows to the longest running Cars & Coffee outside of Irvine.

Junkyards:

• We got LKQ and multiple large Pick-and-Pulls, all within an hour. 20 minutes away in Rainier, OR is even an old school yard with nothing but old cars, and there's a larger version in Vancouver (about 35 minutes away).

Car-friendly:

• Washington State has no emissions checks outside of Seattle. Tabs are $30 a year plus a fee on weight (so you know, $0 for Miata's and RX'7's and such). We also have a Collector Vehicle plate for any car 30 and older so you never pay registration again. You can also mount original year plates (like a stamped 1959 plate on a 59 Buick) as your collector plate.

Driving roads:

• This state is mountainous and on the coast, so there are some flat-out spectacular driving roads. Everything from the 101 up the coast to challenging mountain switch-backs that look more like a rally stage than a road.

Car quality:

• Where else are you going to find a treasure-trove of cars with no rust? To give you an idea of the quality of car that is still to be found here, the only AMX/3 prototype in the world was discovered out here. We have a plethora of 50's classics, 60's and 70's muscle cars (got my Javelin out here), and enough 80's cars to feed the Challenge for a century (I literally trip over SA RX-7's). We also have cheap Miata's because it mists too much for mortals. Our craigslist puts Atlanta to shame.

Jobs/housing:

• Median houses in my area run $150K, Vancouver is higher, other areas are lower. Jobs are down like anywhere else, but I was able to find work at a massive pay increase in under 60 days last year. There's plenty of work in all sorts of fields, and tons of places to live. I like where we are as it's quiet with not much crime and close to all the great driving roads.

Any questions?