 For years, being a gearhead or a car nut meant that you spent your free time in the garage. There you could immerse yourself in the smells of gasoline and oil, the feel of a finely wrought tool in your hand and you could entertain your predominantly male friends with a beer and an afternoon spent tuning your car and shooting the breeze. Though these things have not changed over the years (and I hope they never will) sometimes your friends are busy doing other things, your significant other doesn't feel like company or it's too cold or late at night to be rattling around out in the shop. At times like these, those of us that are connected to the internet have an alternative to surfing the channels looking for replays of last weekend's NASCAR race. The internet has literally limitless numbers of car-related sites and thousands of Mustang-specific sites. There are quite a few personal web-pages of individual Mustang enthusiasts. These range from the mundane and poorly done pages of people who have no idea what they're doing (such as my page), to the incredibly well finished and professional looking pages of people such as our own John Lill or that of Ian and Lisa Chapman of the Vancouver Island Mustang Association The better done personal pages can be very informative and some are quite entertaining. Simply enter a word or term in the "search" box and browse away. You'll be amazed at what you can find. Club sites are becoming increasingly common in the wired world. There is as much of a range in these as there are in the personal web pages. Almost all of them have guest books that you can sign and browse to see who else has been there. The best have a lot of good information and you can see pictures of members cars that you might not see at the local shows. In my opinion (reinforced by many comments at Mustang gatherings) our site is one of the very best out there. For those of you who haven't been there, the address is https://islandclassicmustangclub.com. To view some of the other club sites in the Northwest, go to our site and click on the "links" button. From there you can go to 14 other club sites throughout the region. After a long Sunday afternoon of fiddling around under the hood of my car I have, on occasion, found myself needing a part that my local NAPA store won't be able to come up with on Monday morning. Now I can come inside, wash my hands and type up my favorite vendor on the computer and have what I need delivered directly to my front door within a few days. My personal choice for buying parts online is Summit Racing Equipment but nearly every source for restoration or performance parts has a website. If you can order it out of a catalog, you can order it on the internet and probably get it faster. As many people who know me are aware, one of my favorite ways to feed my car addiction is to spend time on-line on Mustang specific web-sites. There are several out there that are commercial enterprises supported by advertising dollars that are very like interactive on-line magazines. They are free to us (the users) and offer such things as free classified advertising, technical articles and automotive news. Some offer free e-mail services and web-page hosting. What attracts me to them the most are the "forums". Most of the sites seem to use the same basic program for their forums so, if you use one, you'll be able to understand them all. Once you register as a member, you will be able to interact with other members. You can post a message on a subject and receive answers from other Mustang enthusiasts all over the world. You might find a question from someone on a subject you know something about. A knowledgeable answer will usually earn you a thank you or even an appreciate e-mail from the originator. Forums are usually divided into technical forums and general visiting forums. The visiting forums can be very entertaining or infuriating. The subject matter is wide ranging and diverse. Cars, shows, politics, sex, family life, drugs, relationships, all are discussed with varying amounts of good natured ribbing and lack of class. The biggest of these sites is The Corral. It has several thousand members and their technical forums are very useful. I have learned a lot about my 5.0 there and I like to think that I have helped some folks there. The Corral has a detailing forum that was a big help to me in preparing for the judged show at the Roundup. However, their visiting forum, "The Lounge" seems to be populated be a group of people who feel the need to put people down who have different opinions from their own. I don't recommend it. Stangnet is the polar opposite of The Corral. Their technical forum is not as advanced (but it is still informative) but the Anything Goes forum is very fun. There are a large number of young people there who are new to the hobby and lots of older folks with interesting opinions to balance things out. Stangnet seems to have a strong connection with Ford Motor Company. Periodically, Ford will post surveys on the site to gauge opinions on upcoming Mustang models and features. I recommend Stangnet highly. My current number one stop on-line is Mustangs and More It's a fairly new site with less than 700 members. Everyone there appears to be an adult with a good sense of humor and a good attitude. There is no back-biting in the visiting forum (called Sam's Place) and a good time is had by all. It is very much like sitting around at a car show and chatting with the people around you. Everybody shares a mutual interest and respects other people's opinions. It is still a fairly small site, but I am sure that new features will be added as time goes on and membership increases along with advertising revenue. The computer has added a whole new facet to the car hobby. It allows you to meet people from all over the world who share your interests and to ask technical questions of those more knowledgeable than you without dealing with a crusty service manager or taking up the time of a small businessman. I've met some very nice people in person that I met on-line and I have learned much about my car along the way. If you don't have a computer yet, get one! There's more out there than you can imagine. Dave  View Previous "2¢" Articles Copyright © 2002 Island Classic Mustang Club. Last modified Wednesday, 20-Sep-2000 22:12:50 PDT. |
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