Volvo Enthusiasts are the Absolute Best

Over the years, as I have begun to delve deeper into my passion for cars, I have maintained the position that being an automotive enthusiast is one of the best hobbies out there. The satisfaction you get by either maintaining, modifying, or driving your car is second to none and is the reason why I continued to be enthralled by the overall experience. However, like with most things, you can only do so much in isolation before getting bored. As such, even I was beginning to feel a little disinterested in my passion, and being one of the only automotive enthusiasts in my small midwestern town certainly wasn’t helping.

Now, it is commonly known that people tend to thrive while in community, and while I have been active on several online forums for years (nerdy, I know), I have never actually gotten together to hang out with a group of enthusiasts (other than my roommates) in person. That is until recently.

For the past ten years or so, the Volvo C30 owner’s club: C30Crew has put on an event called “C30s Conquer the Dragon” (CTD) on the legendary Tail of the Dragon. And this year, it lined up perfectly with my schedule! For those still living under a rock and using a fax machine, the tail of the Dragon is an 11-mile stretch of U.S. Route 129 between Tennessee and Deals Gap, North Carolina, comprising of 318 corners winding through the achingly beautiful Smoky Mountains. It is widely regarded as one of the best driving roads in the world, and people from all over the country descend upon it to experience its thrills firsthand. 

Having lived in the midwest for nearly three years at this point, I was itching to get out and experience roads with curves, camber, and scenery changes. Needless to say, I was pumped to be able to check the Dragon off my list of roads I want to drive before I die. However, I wasn’t prepared for the people I would meet there.

Though I came to the Dragon to experience the road, I actually got to experience something much more significant: The warmth of the Volvo enthusiast community. Despite being fairly active on several Volvo forums over the years, I had never gotten together with any other Volvo enthusiasts in person. So when I arrived at Fontana Village in North Carolina, I was a newbie in the fullest definition of the term. I had no idea where anything was, who these strangers from the internet were, or even where to procure food. Needless to say, I was pretty ill-prepared to be spending a week in Appalachia without a cell phone signal.

However, without the bat of an eye, I was welcomed in with all the bravado of a papal visit. It was astounding! People I had never met before went above and beyond to make me feel at home and help me with any problem I might have. For example, I was having an issue with a noise coming from the front of my S60, and a professional Volvo technician and several others lent me their tools and time to help me try and figure it out. Another great experience was meeting and getting to know a lovely couple named Michael and Bailey. They offered me food (the key to any college student’s heart) when they saw how woefully understocked I was and a place to sleep when my travel plans changed unexpectedly. On top of all that, they were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met!

While I would love to go on, they’re simply too many people and stories to list in a post like this. That’s where I think the Volvo community is unique compared to most other enthusiast groups. While many owners’ groups can tend to get a bad rap for being overly harsh and unwelcoming (Yes, I’m looking at you Cadillac Allante Owners Club), I have never experienced anything like that in the world of Volvo ownership. Even though I didn’t even turn up in a C30, CTD really served to bolster this. I have never in my life come across a more welcoming and friendly group of people in my entire life. I came back from this adventure not simply having made great friends, but rather as a member of a loving family.

I was immensely fortunate to spend an entire week in the Appalachian mountains with other car nuts that also enjoy that unique burble of a turbocharged 5-cylinder, and I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything in the world. So while I look forward to owning other kinds of cars in the future, my experience with the Volvo community has convinced me that I will always have a Volvo in my garage.