Branners

It will be mostly Supras but I would expect 5 or 6 non supras to be there. The Spa Classic thing changes this completely. Need to look at my plans now and see what we end up doing. Will still be staying in Brussels, its just what we do on the Friday and Saturday that needs to be checked.

oh poo, I checked the dates a few months back and couldnt see anything. Will have to see if I can build that in somehow.

Im pleased to announce that Dragonball 2014 is a go!! Full details in this thread http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?299323 If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or thoughts please post them in here. Tickets will go on sale in January, so calm down, you have not missed the boat (or train) so to speak.

closing this thread so I can start a new one...

Pleased to announce that Dragonball 2014 is a definite go. The dates are set as the 16th, 17th and 18th May 2014. That's a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will travel out on the Friday on the 7.50am Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais, with a drive down to Brussels in Belgium on the Friday. Saturday involves a drive to Spa and back, and a return drive to Eurotunnel on the Sunday, returning on the 4.20pm train. Sounds so simple doesn't it!! The hotel is in Brussels, far enough outside the town centre to give us a hotel with parking, but close enough for the night owls to get to a few nightclubs. Booked 60 rooms at the hotel, and 40 spaces on Eurotunnel. 48 of those rooms are twin rooms, so no unexpected spooning opportunities for those who found the hotel rooms in 2013 a little too friendly. Breakfast is included in the room price. Expecting to have an evening buffet on the Friday and Saturday night at around 20euros per person including a drink. Tickets will go on sale mid January in the usual random style as previous years. Small batches will be released to ensure we can manage the numbers correctly. A chat thread can be found here, any questions can be asked in that thread. http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?299325-Dragonball-2014-16th-17th-and-18th-May-2014-Spa-Weekend-CHAT-THREAD

September 13th 2014 is your deadline, Suprapod at Santapod, with the After Pod Party at the Ibis followed by Trax at Silverstone on the Sunday. A weekend not to be missed.

Hotel is now sorted out http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/brucy-courtyard-brussels/ Also looking at having a buffet meal on the Friday and Saturday night for about 20euros per person. Eurotunnel is booked and deposit paid. Now just looking at routes. There is a car museum in Brussels so we are going to see if we can stop there at some point during the weekend.

Ibrar, so long as you follow the signs for the coaches (like everybody is supposed to) then you will be fine. I can find out the width from Eurotunnel but as the fit coaches in that section I'm sure we can fit a Supra, even a really really fat one.

We are booked in to the same section as the coaches, if your car is wider than a coach it may be a problem!!

Eurotunnel is booked and confirmed. 7.50am outbound on Friday 16th May, 16:20 or 16:50 return on the Sunday. And they do think they can fit all of us on one train on the way out!!

Maybe you can help me find a hotel that can park 50 cars in the hotel in or around Brussels!! Any ideas?

Hello, we are all coming to Belgium for our European trip next year so would be good to see you there. Staying in Brussels and driving out to Spa for the day, should be about 45 Supras.

Good point David. We may infact cause a mass exodus from JAE for the Saturday if people fancy getting away from tug of war and football. The alcohol will mostly still be there when they all get back.

Just sent a tonne of enquiries out to hotels in Brussels. Should be some nice hotels if they decide they want the business. All with underground car parks so lets hope the low slung cars can get in and out again!!

Just booked my room at the Ibis in Wellingborough for the 13th Sept!! £45 which seems reasonable. http://ibishotel.ibis.com/gb/hotel-3164-ibis-wellingborough/index.shtml once we find out the dates for JAE 2014 then I may have to cancel it but thought it best to get in there early.

It's going to run no matter what so unless we find we are £3k down on the deal or something then it will happen. THe usual pushing and cajoling will no doubt happen around July to get numbers up but having seen the enthusiasm I think we should be okay this year. And we will allow non-supras. I've seen most Supras doing their thing on the strip, I like to see other stuff there to liven it up a bit.

Im thinking Spa Weekender at the moment, but I'm sure we can use the word Brussels in some way.

Have to remember we have around 6 Dutch Supras come along, and being closer to Holland we may pick up a few more along with some German ones. So need to keep the numbers down and see how it goes. We will also have a welcome evening on the Friday where I will lay down some ground rules about driving standards as I think we cut it a little close with the police and locals in 2013.

I know we all missed not having Suprapod this year, and I know its a push to get enough sign ups each year but I have agreed a date with Santa Pod for Suprapod 2014. So keep the 13th September 2014 free. It's a Saturday as usual, most things stay the same but there is a chance the drifting might have to be a handling circuit instead. I will work out costs and whatnot soon and get it in the shop for the eager beavers out there. We may run it jointly with Sky Insurance as that seemed to work pretty well in 2012. So thats DB14 and Suprapod14 all sorted in a single week. Oh, and Japfest dates got announced too, 10th May so no clash with DB14 there either.

We just need to come up with a catchy name, The Road to Rouen was an inspired choice, working on a name for 2014.

Yep, the official dates for Dragonball 2014 are the 16th, 17th and 18th May. Thats a Friday to Sunday. Tickets will go on sale in January as usual. We are looking to keep numbers down to around 40 cars this time as I didnt enjoy trying to manage 50 cars plus the nice chaps from Holland. I will have a couple of non Supras in there I'm sure, and the chap with the Porsche gets a special invite as he has been with us since 2011 (he was in a Corsa VXR back then) Once I have more details I will post them. The plan is to drive down and then up in to Brussels on the Friday, then Brussels out to Spa on the Saturday and then Brussels back to the Eurotunnel on the Sunday. Sounds so simple!!

Done. Really wish I could have made this. I would appreciate it if people could donate to this if they can, it goes to CJ's chosen charity, Macmillan, which was a great help to Colin and it would be good if we can give something back to them. JB

I do have a couple lined up in the centre, but their parking is not all within the hotel. I'm also looking at the NH hotel out at the airport, 60 spaces and a much nicer hotel. Will keep looking to see what else I can find. Open to suggestions on hotels if anybody knows Brussels or the surrounding area. Needs to have parking for 50 cars, have about 80 rooms, most of which need to be twin rooms. Make a suggestion and I can take it from there.

Thanks for the advice chaps. I will take the dash apart around the shifter and take a look with these suggestions. To MattP, sadly there are no standard autobox cars with the VVTi. It seems it was Tiptronic or 6sp manual only. I have never heard of a tiptronic failing before so they are not a problematic gearbox. They are supposedly the same box as the original mkiv auto but with different ecu and shifter. So should prove to be pretty reliable.

My tiptronic gearbox is working fine, but the digi readout on the dash seems a little confused. When you have the car in N or D then the LCD display puts a black background around the letter. However mine seems to have the black background around the D or the N or both when still in park. It also means sometimes the shifter wont go from N to reverse and I have to use the red button. Also when reversing sometimes I can hear clicking coming from the shifter, as if the shift lock is trying to activate. I doubt anybody has heard of this before but thought it worth checking to see if anybody has any ideas? I may change the whole shift mechanism to see if that fixes it.