Thank you so much to everyone who came to our launch day. There would be absolutely no reason whatsoever to do something like this, if you didn’t show your support – and we were absolutely overwhelmed by the turnout. Not just the quantity of cars, but the calibre and variety. It has further fuelled the passion and excitement we have to build the Re:Fuel venue.
A few months ago, we had this mad idea to bring together fellow petrolheads of the Southwest regularly, in one place, at one time, to properly geek out over each others’ cars. We want to make it an all-inclusive community, whatever you drive, you’re welcome – as long as you respect everyone else at the same time.
Now let’s be honest, we’ve been hugely inspired by what Phil McGovern has created in Caffeine and Machine up in Warwickshire. It’s a beautiful venue, with great coffee and awesome vehicles, and the community he has created is brilliant. But, and it’s a small but… it’s 2 and half hours away (depending on what you drive!).
If you don’t know what Caffeine and Machine is, have a little Google of it later. It’s an old pub, with a big car park, which has grown a wonderful community of like-minded car enthusiasts. If we’re able to be half as successful as they are, we’ll be absolutely delighted.
We hope that our launch day gave everyone a taster of our vision, and gave you all the chance to have your say in how we shape the venue, going forward. Please let us know if you have ideas of what you’d like to see or how you’d like the venue to look and feel.
Thanks to our partners who’ve joined us on this journey. Hattie’s Pizza, the Camper Coffee Company and Knight Detailing…they’re all like-minded, Southwest businesses that we felt would be a great fit for what we’re hoping to achieve here.
We had people travel from West Cornwall, the Midlands, and even one guy that messaged us from Thailand prior to our launch to say he would be visiting Exeter for the first time in 25 years and asking if he be welcome. Of course Re:Fuel is open to everyone – so he jumped off his plane and headed to Re:Fuel! We hope you had a great day, Richard!
We’re very lucky to have been able to base Re:Fuel in such beautiful surroundings – Froginwell Vineyard – and we were blown away by how responsible and respectful everybody was. We did a sweep of the field in the evening and found only two small items of rubbish – which is incredible.
With little to no effort from the Re:Fuel team, everyone fully respected the ‘house rules’ and the speed limits, etc. It just shows the calibre of the cars and enthusiasts that we were lucky enough to be graced with at Re:Fuel – and long may it continue.
We’ve had so much positive feedback – in person on the day, and on social media and email ever since. The two things that we keep hearing and reading again and again is that a venue like Re:Fuel has been needed in the Southwest for a long time, and that the staff were super friendly, welcoming, professional and well-organised. Both things that make us incredibly happy to hear – and re-assure us that we’re on the right track.
Huge thanks must go to the Re:Fuel team – the management team in the grey Re:Fuel shirts, and all those wearing the blue hi-vis ReFuel vests. You guys are all amazing, and we could not have done this without you.
If anyone has any feedback for us – positive or critical – we really want to hear it all so that we can discuss it as a team and make sure that the venue we’re working so hard to create becomes exactly what you want it to be. We’d also love to hear any ideas or suggestions. You can message us on any of our social media channels (@refuelsw on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) or email us on info@re-fuel.club.
At the moment, we’re only opening once this month, and our next open day is 29th September. After the enthusiasm and demand for the venue that we saw at the launch, we plan to continue with our aim to build up to being open both Saturday and Sunday, every weekend.
If you were there at our launch then please do tell your fellow enthusiasts and help us start, what we hope will become, a fantastic open, welcoming venue in the Southwest for all to enjoy!
All the best,
Dan & Matt (Co-founders) and the Re:Fuel team!
