Thanks John, I moved my date this year as well, so it is not on the same weekend as NSRA. Aug 13-14, 2010. I think NSRA is the weekend before. Check out www.symcoshakedown for video and pics from the 2009 show. There is also an article coming out in the next Old Skool Rodz next month. Last year we had almost 4" of rain for the weekend, we expect to grow to about double this year with good weather. This would mean 500+ cars. We had 60 vendors last year, I expect about 100 this year. I am selective on our vendors, you won't see more than one or two toy vendors(I let a couple in for the kids sake.) Primarily we have vintage parts vendors and others that fit the show. It's only $10 per person for the weekend and another $10 to get your car in. Very inexpensive weekend. Camp spaces are $10, food is reasonable and we have $1 taps in the bar on the grounds. No $9 hot dogs here kids. Not to mention 8+ bands including Deke Dickerson.
My company has advertised in Street Scene for over 20 years. After it runs out this year we will not renew. I love the Nationals but this has turned into a circus. The Greedy boys and NSRA have both lost the focus of the mainstream rodder. We spend a lot of money and I believe that will hurt but not stop them. It is privately owned and they can do as they please. If the clubs that do all the work quit they will listen. Just my opinion.
Unless there is something better going on the same wknd, I'll be there. Like everyone else on here, I hate that newer cars are allowed in and will be taking over the show but it beats sittin at home on the couch. I have muscle cars too and enjoy them but the whole point of this show was it being pre-49.
As of now I am planning on going to Knoxville but I have definitely changed plans on Louisville and will not attend and will probably let my membership expire in December. I too think this will blow up in their faces...good enough for them if it does. If it does I also see the "you talked...we listened" campaign coming when they try to get all the members back. But it will only come if this change bites them. I for one will remember how this all went down and as of now will be gone for good if it doesn't pan out. By the end of the year they should know if their move is worth continuing. I like most all cars but my preference is pre-49. That is the main reason I joined NSRA. I'm no prophet but if I was an owner of Goodguys I would be eating this up because now if I want to join a National Organization it will be Goodguys and I have heard many say they were changing from NSRA to them due to the cut-off dates. Ever how it goes its just another change that won't effect me a lot except for where I choose to be with my car (if I get it back on the road). I do know I can go to a lot of smaller shows that are closer with the money I would have spent at Louisville and have just as good a time IMO. If their "true main goal" was to bring in younger people I too think they should have opened up the Street Machine Division again....but they learned a lesson there didn't they? Wasn't a very long shelf life. Oh well, "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" I guess. 48 Poncho
For all that are planning on coming to the Frog Follies. Need to make motel reservations asap, as they fill up fast. Great show (to most), and low prices. Geared toward the family.
This is such a lame argument because it assumes that when a greybeard dies he's buried in his car or the car goes into a museum somewhere. The FACT is that most members of the NSRA will always be on the older side. They're the majority simply because it takes $$$$ to build a nice street rod and the older crowd, in the vast majority of cases, are the ones who have the disposable income necessary to do it. However, when that old codger dies his car doesn't mysteriously disappear, it's either passed down to someone in his family or sold. That means someone NEW now owns his car and THAT person will be attending shows. This argument also fails to realize that more pre-49 cars are being built every day. Sure many are plastic but that doesn't really matter as the NSRA welcomes them as well. What the NSRA has done with the new rule is alienate a huge segment of their membership. Something that easily could have been avoided if they simply had bothered to ask the general membership, or made the case for some sort of change, but they did neither. What they have done will result in fewer pre-49 cars attending and this will not be offset by some magical influx of post-49 cars. Vernon and the boys have cut off their nose to spit their face in the name of greed, and it will backfire big time.
To those that let their memebership laps, did you send them a note to tell them why? I sent a note back written on the other side of the renewal form and mailed in the envelope they sent with the renewal so they knew exactly who I was and what my thoughts and feelings were regarding their decision.
Our louisville indoor show was last weekend. I had some guys ask about this years nats. They wanted to know how much it was going to be to get in with their cars. I wish you could have seen their faces when I told them $65 at the event. One guy said he can just go one day, still $65 unless you sent it in early. Several of them said no way that they were paying that much. It should be interesting this august. Last year they said there was 11003 registered, We will see what happens. I think they just went way too far, should have stopped at 1972.
I am planning on going this year, but it could very well be my last. I have always looked forward to that show ever since i was a little kid. I hate the new rules! We will see.......
Dropped my membership after many years and not going after many years! I will patronize the vendors someplace else! They made their choice now I have made mine. I am sure all of us not going is just a drop in the bucket to them but it is a big personal victory for me to stay home.
Yes with my membership card cut up and they sent me back a canned letter explaining why it would be better now and hoping I would reconsider! Ha Ha I wanted to cut that up and send it back also but saved the postage.
$500 will buy you the perfect car for this years nats..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cust...ewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item4a9edd0931
If nsra gets your entry money they don't care what you drive.............. If every body stays home they might wise up.
I am going and will continue to do so as long as it is the premier event in the industry/hobby. Vendors, new products, and old friends are why I go. For everyone crackin on late model cars....have you ever been to Louisville for the nats? Have you seen the droves of cobbled up, pieced together, pastel two tone, fat fendered junks? Tell me (honestly) you would rather see those cars than a juiced Impala, a road race inspired Torino (like Poteet's), or a pickup truck layin on its frame. They are all cars and we are all in this together. CAR PEOPLE ARE THE MINORITY! Not street, custom, kustom, hot, rat, rice rodders. We are all the same, just a different medium. That said, I am with Denise, NSRA needs to fix the events and the magazine (in a word, their image) not the cutoff date. I have way more fun at a GG show and actually read the gazette (thanks KIRK! and Brandon). For those of you not attending, us attending will miss you. It is a shame that it has come to this but I can't justify missing a great show full of great people and some of the finest cars in the country because there might be a car there that is not to my standards of year or style. If I thought this way I would stay home forever and collect stamps.
Except I can't think of any other way that they will listen. They WILL pay attention to loss revenue and the only way for them to lose revenue is for those that are opposed to the dramatic year change to stay home and not attend. They haven't listened to the written word or the verbal word so hitting them in their pocket book might be the only way to force a reversal of this idiotic 30 year sliding rule. Let's say for instance someone has $500 to spend in August to attend an event, one event. Those on the HAMB that would normally attend the Nats in L'ville as their one show in August because lets face it ya can't attend every every, every weekend. If you took that money and attended the HAMB Drags instead I guarantee you that you would never even give the NSRA Nats in L'ville another thought. That and the fact the rooms are 1/2 the price of the rooms in L'ville THEREFORE spending less money for the weekend AND having a much better time.....seriously. There are so many more options in the last 10 years for car people to attend that if NSRA doesn't wake up and change what goes on INSIDE their events, it won't matter what the year cut off is, the oganization will die a slow and painfull death. What I'm going to miss the most are the peeps that I might only see there and at the Kzoo event.
I used to love to go to the Nats. But with the room rates going up($700.00+) and NSRA upping the car year, I think this is a great break point. Don't get me wrong, I go to Good Guys events and have a ball. I know its about the people, but just remember what brought these people together, 1948 and older cars! Hope it works for them, it just does not for me. See you in Bonneville. #5
Yes, I would ... I do not believe that the NATIONALS will be over run with late models. 20 per cent or so is my prediction. I do believe that MORE pre 49's will stay home than 49 up that show up ... resulting in a lower registration count. But you KNOW that the lying @#%& folks at Street Scene will say it was GREAT and give a inflated registation number NSRA also figures to gain $$$ ... from the newer cars ... because almost NONE of these folks are NSRA members currently. If they get only 2,000 new members @ 30 dollars each ... that is a decent infusion of ca$h ( $60,000 ) in my book. .
The past couple of years there has been a car show the same weekend in Louisville as the nats put on by Funk Master Flex. It is 85 % lifted g body chevys caddys impalas etc. on 26 '' wheels and bigger. And talking to some of them they said they will be attending the Nats this year instead.
'Doubt that I'll go. Will proably go to Knoxville just to see what it looks like; and if my hunch is right that will be my last visit to a NSRA event. As others have said, there are too many other events that are equally, if not more, enjoyable.
I'm done with nsra ( note lower case). We joined the nsra because the cut off was 48 and older. That's what my wife and I like. I was a safety inspector for 6 years and worked registration for 10 years. We got a t-shirt for working 5-6 hours. We didn't mind working it was fun.We went to Knoxville and Louisville every year. No more we are done. We can go to local shows and see the same kinds of cars. Now after the cut off change we will let the membership lapse. I talked to the Tenn rep. last year. he said it was a done deal. The KY rep said the same thing. Well it's a done deal with me too. End of rant......
We're 3 hrs from Knoxville & Louisville. We'll attend both events as long as we enjoy them. We haven't been to the Shades run in 3yrs for the same reasons , not worth the trouble &$. If pro touring Camaros take over, I'm done.