Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ethnography on the Sports Car Club

Commented on:
Tyler Hennings
Patrick Clay
John Book


I did my ethnography on the Texas A&M Sports Car Club. It was a pretty interesting experience, and while they are an official organized group of people rather than strangers who performed similar actions, there were still things to be realized about them. Aside from the implicit conclusion that everyone in the group like cars, members of the Car Club is a diverse and friendly group of individuals. My method included in going to one of their events and unobtrusively observe their behaviors and, through an interview, gather information on how they operate and what they have to offer its members.
As their name implies, the group revolves around cars and motorsports, however, a person does not need to have a sports car to actually join. Members have the opportunity to participate in various racing events such as Auto Cross, drag racing and rallies. Social events include annual formals and monday night dinners. At the recent monday night dinner, I had the pleasure of meeting many members, as well as the president of TAMSS, Chad. Chad explained to the structure of the sports car club and what the club really had to offer those who are interested. The commadarerie among club members can be felt just by being among them. Small talk erupts sporatically.

My conclusions about the club shows that they are a group of car-loving guys and gals who enjoy celebrating their passion in a safe and organized manner. The club welcomes anyone and everyone who is even remotely interested in cars and motorsports and it has many things to offer.

Heres a video of what an auto cross looks like:

3 comments:

  1. That's pretty interesting, Tony. It sucks you were only able to go through one meeting and not able to meet many more people, but you made a good presentation anyway.

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  2. Your ethnography was very good. It might have been interesting to learn about what goes on when they are actually racing and at the track with their cars. Even from just one meeting, the club seems very interesting and I found the fact that you don't even have to have a car to join was perplexing.

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  3. A very intriguing subject for an ethnography. I think it certainly has the "edge" of something like "The Mole People." Thankfully it wasn't so edgy that you were in danger, but it would've been nice to hear more after that first meeting.

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