Bogert 1

Observation Notes
Comment [ds1]: Be Specific, Reads weird.

My figured world that I am going to observe is the world of car meets. This is a world that I am very familiar with. I have a 2003 Ford Focus SVT which I have put countless hours of work and amounts of money into. I go to every car show I can go to, whether a formal show with judging and prizes, or an informal cruise in type meet which has more of a social aspect than the formal shows. I have driven over 1000 miles just to go to a show in the past and if I have the means to, would go even further! I will focus on the informal, cruise in style car meets for the specific figured world. The main purpose of a cruise in would be to socialize and show your car and all modifications off to your friends and others who share your passion for cars. We would usually meet at a place with parking for hundreds of cars, if not thousands, depending on the expected size of the meet. Some examples of locations would be North Deck here at UNC Charlotte, the parking lot of a restaurant such as Sonic or Buffalo Wild Wings, or the parking lot of the NC Music Factory. Other activities can occur at the same time as the meet. It is common to see groups of friends surrounding and smoking a hookah, photographers at work taking photos of the cars, or groups from the show supporting the restaurant's they meet at. The acceptable behaviors at a car meet are usually fairly logical and have a lot to do with rules of the road and laws for the area you are meeting in. It is acceptable to smoke cigarettes or hookah but it's frowned upon to drink alcohol, even if the restaurant your patronizing serves alcohol. It's very frowned upon to do a burnout or any similarly dangerous activity on a public road or in the parking lot of the meet. It is acceptable and common to take photos of your own and others cars. Loud noise is to be expected as most cars have modified exhaust systems, a loud sound system, or both! Lastly it is inappropriate to talk down or be rude to others if you don't like other's cars or modifications to their cars. If you are rude or otherwise do anything illegal, you will likely be asked to leave. Some of the different discourse communities you might see could be people that modify their cars, photographers, and vendors.

Comment [ds2]: Delete this as to not be repetitive.

Actors: The volunteers: These were people that had asked to help out and staff the event. They are the keepers of peace in this figured world and help with really anything they are asked to do by either the owners of the airport or the people who put the meet into place in the first place. Within the figured world have the power to kick you out of the meet and do whatever they feel is necessary to keep the meet from going into total anarchy. Joey: A friend of mine who drives a stanced Ford Focus SVT who regularly attends meets all across the whole state and sometimes beyond the bounds of North Carolina. His car is show quality and also is a self-declared photographer who founded Joey Kraft Photography. Duane: Owner of one of the lowest and best known 3rd generation Ford Focus hatchbacks. Won numerous awards from many formal car shows all across the country. Often will attend less formal meets and always will give a hand whenever necessary to

Comment [ds3]: Define Actors and Artifacts before describing each

Comment [ds4]: Define some words that people might not know

Bogert 2

help out! His car, a 2012 Ford Focus Titanium, was the guinea pig for many companies to test their performance and aftermarket parts on. He, and his car, are well known and respected within the Ford Focus and local car show community. Artifacts: Car Limbo Equipment: This is not too different from any other limbo equipment except its width is adjustable to accommodate cars to pass through! This is significant within the context of a car meet because its always a competition to see who has the lowest car. This is just a more creative way to figure this out than to measure the cars! Photographers Cameras: These are very significant to the photographers and what comes from their use is significant to everyone. Within the community of the car owners, its an honor to get your cars picture taken and posted online. Without the photographers cameras, this could never happen! Microfiber Towels: This is significant to almost anyone who drove a car to the meet. Its a must to have your car look its best at all times and nothing does a better job of cleaning a car than a good microfiber towel. They are also very effective for wiping the brake dust off wheels and getting a bug off the front end of your car! Aftermarket Wheels: Wheels, or rims as some call them, are an essential purchase to anyone who has lowered or modified their car in any way. A set of aftermarket or different OEM wheels is a way that many express their tastes onto their car and set it apart from others. Even though some might look alike, changing the width or offset can give identical wheel designs completely different looks and change the entire look of the car they are mounted on! Aftermarket Suspensions: When it comes to aftermarket suspensions, you really have two options, coilovers or bags. Coilovers are a suspension option that lowers the car and stiffens the ride. It is the more common suspension to buy because its cheaper and easier to install. Someone with coilovers is said to be driving a static car because the ride height does not change. Bags, also known as air-ride suspension, are an option that gives you the ability to raise and lower your car with the push of a button and aid from a compressed air tank. Some ways to identify the use of air-ride is a compressed air tank in the trunk, or if they roll up to the meet and the car lowers to the ground. When a car uses air-ride suspension, it is commonly said the car is bagged or on bags. Discourse Communities: Car Owners: Many of the people that attend these events are proud car owners and put many thousands of dollars and hours of their time into making the cars exactly the way they want. Usually very nice and love seeing others who share their passion, especially if they have a passion for the same type of car! Joey, Duane, and I all fit into this community. Photographers: This is a special group of rather gifted individuals that aspire to capture the beauty within the amazing machines that are driven to the meets. They are usually owners of modified cars themselves, but also spend hundreds, if not thousands on cameras and lenses. Joey and I both fit into this group. Very common to see at meets and can be identified easily. They usually will carry one or more DSLR cameras and usually will be doing all sorts of weird things to get just the perfect shot!

Comment [ds5]: Great description and detail to the artifacts!

Bogert 3

Staff / Volunteers: Usually can be spotted sporting a t-shirt with the word Staff on the back. They are the keepers of peace and protectors of sanity and occasionally safety. They usually will act as security until police arrive if necessary. They are affiliated with the meet and help direct traffic into and out of the event, kick people out if their behavior is unruly, and run the activities like car limbo!

Comment [ds6]: Dont need in both? Comment [ds7]: Great Descriptions Comment [ds8]: Add Discorse Community for those whom just go to the meets and are not an owner of a car or a photographer.

Observation One Description of the Location: These notes were taken at the Dankfest 3 car meet for charity in Winston Salem, NC at a local airport parking lot. The parking lot was large and separated into two sections, one smaller section to the right of the entrance and a larger, deep section to the left of the entrance. Straight ahead from the entrance was a row of parking spots that was roped off and being saved for a few special cars. Just beyond the parking lot was the runway and hangars of the airport which was running independently of the car meet. There were a few volunteers that were all wearing staff shirts that were helping direct cars to open parking spots, collecting donations for their charity and just keeping the peace. 12:20 I had just turned into the airport parking lot and was stopped by a volunteer who helped to directed me to another few volunteers that helped me find a parking spot. There is still a solid flow of traffic into the event and the lot is almost full. The volunteers would direct most cars left once you entered the parking lot, over to where I was, but a few of the lower, more modified cars, were being directed forward into a special reserved parking area right near the entrance to the meet. 12:30 A built Subaru Impreza WRX STi was leaving the show and floored it out of the lot onto the street, spinning all four tires in first. I could hear the volunteer closest to the street tell another volunteer that the driver was not going to be allowed back into the event. Most of the cars entering were all donating at least a dollar to the charity for the car show, the wounded warriors program. 12:40 The line of cars waiting to enter has lessened substantially. Most of the cars coming into the event I had seen leaving the event about the same time I was coming in. Photographers were abundant. They would usually congregate around a select few of the cars, but I think just about every car got its photo taken at least once since I had arrived. A friend of mine, Joey, had just parked and was wiping his car down. After giving the car a quick shine, he got his camera and lenses out of the car and proceeded to walk around the event. Duane pulled into the lot and parked his Ford Focus beside Joeys and proceeded to get out of the car and wipe it down just as Joey had. Duanes daughter helped him wipe down the car a little.

Comment [ds9]: Great description with lots of details.

Comment [ds10]: Describe a little about the wounded warriors program

Bogert 4

12:45 A Ford Mustang GT500 drove to the open area in the back of the parking lot and started to do donuts and otherwise burning through his tires. This caught almost everyones attention because the car was not loud and there was an ever-growing smoke cloud coming from the back of the parking lot. The security was there in under a minute after it started and had intentions to kick him out of the event. He talked to security and informed everyone that he was part owner in the airport and indeed was. Instead of being asked to leave, they let him stay but told him that hed still have to park the car as to not encourage others to join him. 1:00 The volunteers set up a game of Car Limbo for anyone who wanted to compete. Car limbo is just like regular limbo but for lowered cars! Anyone was allowed to compete and I actually did first round, and lost. My BMW is not very low as I couldnt even clear the first bar! Every time the group of cars would pass through, they would lower the bar one notch and send the group through again. As it usually does, the final matchup came down to two miatas. The bar was set around 40 tall and the cars were sourcing help to get lower. Each of the miatas were getting people from the crowd to come and lay on the hood, trunk and hop inside the car. The extra weight was to compress the coilovers to get every last bit of low they could. The first miata hit the bar and was about inch away from clearing it. The second miata was millimeters away from clearing it, but alas still hit the bar. He won the limbo because his car was a good bit lower than the other miata. Observation Two Description of the Location: These notes were taken at the North Parking Deck at UNC Charlotte on the 4th and 5th levels at the normal Tuesday night car meet. The 3rd level has cones set up to assure that people will stick in their lane so there can be cars leaving at the same time as cars entering the event. Once you get onto the 4th level of the parking deck, there are cars backed into almost every parking spot if you get to the deck after around 9pm. Once the 4th level is close to full, people will start to drive up onto the 5th level of the deck to find a spot to back into. You will see groups of people walking around and groups standing beside their cars talking.

Comment [ds11]: Tell what a Miata is

Bogert 5

8:00 pm I moved my car from the first level of the parking deck to the 4th level. Found a nice spot and backed it in. Many cars were still coming up to the deck. There are groups of people standing around their cars talking. A few people are walking around looking at the other cars and a few are taking photos. 8:05 pm A GT-R rolled onto the 4th floor and backed in beside the elevator. Almost everyone who had seen him come in all was staring. The GT-R is a bit nicer than the average car at the meet. Once admiring it for about a minute, the crowd started to disperse. 8:10 pm A second GT-R rolled in, followed by a group of slammed Honda Ruckuses. The second GT-R parked beside the first and by the point that he had turned the engine off, most of the people at the meet had come down to take a look. GT-Rs are expensive and rare, and to see two parked next to each other is a rare sight to be had! The Ruckuses gathered quite a crowd of their own too! 8:30 pm Most everyone is up walking around, looking at cars or talking to others. Not much has really happened. A Honda two stepped its exhaust, a few people cranked their subs, and a few cars rolled out. For the most part everyone is just talking and walking around right now. 9:15 pm The police are rolling through the deck lights flashing and telling everyone with their megaphones that its time to leave. Were getting kicked out of the parking deck. The police said that we were being too loud and that everyone without a parking pass had to get in their cars and leave. The traffic jam thats being caused by everyone leaving at once is mind blowing. For the most part, people are just sitting in line waiting to leave. The police went all the way to the top with all three cars and are trying to herd us like cattle out of the parking deck. They cleared the 5th level of the deck, came down to the 4th level of the deck and backed into spots against the wall, watching and waiting for the 4th level to clear out so they can move down and make sure that the 3rd is leaving too. I was allowed to stay since I had a parking pass. I ended up getting in my car and leaving once the line diminished. The police really didnt look happy that th ey were doing this. Observation Three Description of the Location: These notes were taken at the Cars & Coffee meet at the NC Music Factorys parking lot. The NC Music Factorys parking lot is a relatively flat parking lot

Bogert 6

that could probably accommodate a few thousand cars. Its split into two sections, the lower and the upper section. In the southeasternmost corner of the lower section, there is Matties Diner. There are three entrances into the parking lot, one that is between the upper and lower sections on the south side of the lot, and two on the east side of the lot entering the lower portion of the lot. 8:00 am I entered the lot through the first entrance on the eastern side of the lot and backed into a parking spot beside a large group of BMWs my body style. The event was supposed to start at 8am, which is when I arrived, but there was a crowd that had to number a few hundred cars already parked. Groups of cars seemed to try to park together. The group of BMWs I parked in numbered around 14. A row over there was a group of 4 lifted rock crawlers beside a group of 5 Lotus Elises. 8:15am More cars had been rolling into the event since the time I parked. I would say at least another hundred cars had entered the event and parked in the past 10-15 minutes. Almost every type of car you can imagine had showed up to the event so far. I counted 3 Lamborghini, 5 Ferraris, an Aston Martin, and a handful of other supercars. 8:30 am The bottom lot is almost full and there are a number of people already parked at the top lot. The events starting to get packed. Its so packed with everyone walking around checking out oth er peoples cars that its hard just to get to a parking spot because some people dont seem to move out of a cars way. Most people it seems are a bit older than the typical age at other meets that happen later in the day. The average age of person here Id guess is in their 40s where the later the meet, the younger the crowd seems to get. Another observation is that most of the people walking around seem to be carrying coffee. Fitting that the event is called Cars & Coffee!

Bogert 7

9:00 am Almost everyone who would come today had already made it to the event. Almost no new cars were rolling in, just one here and there. Close to, if not more than, 500 cars had showed up and had parked. Everything from a rusty Civic to a pristine Rolls Royce had made it out! Not much more happens till people start to leave. 11:00 am I walked across the street to the NC Music Factorys side of the road and sat down on the sidewalk. When some of the cars were leaving, some were doing burnouts and throwing up a little smoke, especially a few Mustang GTs who threw up decent clouds! Most of the cars, even the Lamborghinis and such, would give it some gas leaving the event! Those were real crowd pleasers! 12 noon I am about ready to leave as most have already left for the day. I packed my stuff into my car and took off down the road. At the time I left I remember there were less than 100 cars left in the whole lot! Interview Questions: 1. For how many years have you attended car meets? 2. Tell me about the first meet you ever attended. What was your draw to start going to these meets? 3. What kind of car do you drive to the meets? Tell me about why you decided to buy that car over others? Are there any you want to buy within the near future? Why? 4. Tell me about why you like going to meets. What aspect(s) do you like most about meets? 5. What is the furthest you have ever driven to go to a meet? What was the meet, and was it worth driving that distance? Would you drive farther? If yes, tell me how far and why you would, or for what meet(s)? Answers to Interview Questions: Joey Kraft, a Freshman at Forsyth Tech College in Winston Salem, NC was whom I interviewed. He is a longtime friend of mine and someone who is a longtime car enthusiast. 1) That's a tough one, ever since I can remember. Then again, I believe there are two kinds of "meets." You have your "car shows" which mostly consist of your older generation getting together, having fun and showing off their muscle cars typically or classics. Then you have what I call "meets" which appeals to your younger crowd usually. At a meet you'll see mostly import cars, with domestic cars mixed in all of which are usually highly modified. That's how I usually
Comment [ds12]: Put answers with the respective questions. Comment [ds13]: Questions create a good compliment to the paper!

Comment [ds14]: Good description of whom I am interviewing.

Bogert 8

tell the two apart. My first car show I can remember attending was the AutoFair at the Charlotte Motor Speedway with my dad and one of his friends from work. That was when I was about eight, maybe seven years old. I've been going to car shows and meets for a good 10 or so years now. 2) The first car show I can remember going to was the AutoFair in Concord. That was my first time ever going to Charlotte Motor Speedway and I can still remember my first reaction to how steep the track actually is. I can remember thinking I was going to slide down the track for a while. To this day I don't think I've ever seen Charlotte Motor Speedway as packed as it was that day. Cars were parked all over the place, on the track, in the infield of the track, and outside the Speedway also. I would say it's probably one of the best shows to go to for classic cars with a hint of new school mixed in. My first meet was probably a month after I had my license and I drove to zMaxx Dragway in Concord by myself for the first time for Import Alliance, definitely freaked my Mom out. To this day it's the best overall, and especially fun, car meet I've been to. It kinda represents the start of going to car meets and freedom for me, not to mention my photography hobby. 3) Usually if it's running I'll take my daily driver, it's a 2003 Ford Focus SVT. I consider it my first car although it was technically my third. It happened to the first that I had insured to drive. The other two, a 1967 Ford Mustang and a 1994 Ford Probe never got to see the road. Well the Probe did but shhhhhhh.......It was actually accident that I even got the Focus. My Probe didn't have a passenger side airbag so my parents and I decided it was too unsafe if I had passengers in the car. My dad was showing me either a Mini Cooper, Volvo, or GTI in the Autotrader magazine and I happened to turn the page and the Focus just jumped out at me. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted that car, didn't even need to look at it in person. I knew it was going to be mine. It was modified, which was appealing to me, affordable and safe, which pleased my parents. Lately been thinking of selling the Focus even though it's been a great fun car. I've been looking into so many cars it's not even funny. I probably spend enough time looking at cars to make it a full time job, no joke. I'm mainly just looking for something different, us car guys like to change it up every once in a while since there are so many cars that we find appealing to us. I'd love to keep my next in the Focus family so I'd stay connected to all the friends I've made owning my car, possibly a faster turbo Focus or maybe a newer 2012 Focus. Also looking at Honda S2000's since they're great looking and rear wheel drive which I haven't been able to daily drive just yet. There are so many cars that I want to own it's an extremely hard decision what my next car is going to be. 4) Many people ask "Why are you so into cars and car meets, seems so boring." Then I ask them why are they so into partying, drugs and getting pregnant. I'd much rather spend my time hanging out with car enthusiasts instead of making a bad example of myself. It's a passion many people don't understand. Going to meets are definitely a lot of fun, you get to see the creative side of people and what they can come up with and how they express themselves with their cars. I can't count how many friends I've made by going to car meets, we all have something in common so it's very easy to make friends at meets. Driving to meets and seeing how people react when they like a photo I've taken of their car is probably what I look forward to the most at each car meet. I see it as a chance to also get better at taking photos. As for the drive there, my best advice would be to ride with someone who has another 3 or so cars at minimum and give them

Bogert 9

all walkie talkies. You'll see what I mean. The jokes, horseplay and good times of caravanning are the best. 5) So far I've driven 1800 or so miles to go to one meet. It was FocusFest which was located in St. Louis, MO. It took 2 days just to get there but it was definitely worth it. I was able to drive the Dragon for the first time and it's possible the best road in North America. It's so much fun and has so many curves it's not even funny, even my arms got a good workout from shifting and steering so much. The only downside I can think of the meet was how much I had to stress over blowing a tire on the highway because I didn't fit my new wheels properly before driving there. By the end of December this year I'll hopefully break that record when I drive about 2200 miles for one meet. It's going to be in Tampa, Florida and hosted by I Love Driving Slow, the events called Winterfest.