Is the n.s.r.a. doomed or do they just need to retrench and rethink some things?

I know that the n.s.r.a. events aren't everyone's cup of tea but I have seen some HAMBers lurking about, enjoying York for example. I'm guilty myself. Went down to the Richmond,Va. event Sunday morning with some friends, purely as spectators. This is one of the events they opened up to later models from the start ostensibly to attract a broader based group and maybe bring in some new blood. Sadly, it was not well attended at all. I heard whispers of numbers like 880 registered. I know York was down this year and I attributed it to the gas prices and economy in general. Vendors can't justify hauling long distances with this level of participation and obviously are down as well. Is there more going on here than meets the eye? Will the n.s.r.a survive, will most events be lost? Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

Lots of the "mainstream" shows like NSRA or WOW are down on attendence. Since alot of cars are hauled or driven a fair distance to the shows it's got to be fuel related. Hell even race circuits are ramping down do to travel costs. It is not just the NSRA. Scary that gas for my race car is the same price as for my beater.

 

i have been a member for 15 years. the economy has been ruff on everybody, one way or another. everything will cycle around again. over 10000 at louisville this year down around a 1000 from previous years. there will be more shows opened up to more years, its good to see more young blood coming in, i see more every year at the nsra shows, were all about the same thing having fun with the old iron, i like it all!!!!!

 

I believe most NSRA members ... myself included do not want to go to the events with the 30 year slide rule. We have Chocolate ( GoodGuys ) and Vanilla ( NSRA )

If you want Chocolate or Vanilla ... they have you covered. Some like both. That's cool by me. Different tastes for different people.

NSRA ... their membership base is getting older ... and that's a problem for them ... but I do not have the answer. Example ... Shades of the Past. They had a killer pre - 49 event going. So they got GREEDY and opened it up to 1964 The numbers went down ... so what did they do ?? They went on to 1972 The numbers were even lower.

At their event, the later stuff comes in droves but stay up on the parkway and do not register. Then the pre - 49 bunch starts not coming ... If the Shades did not have the special 1932 Ford event on Saturday ... where I can see my old friends and hang out with them ... I would not go either

 

Not sure about low attendance numbers, but at the Pueblo NSRA event I was car #1883.

It was a Pre-48 event and was packed.

 

Well every car show i have been to all the numbers have been down, except for one. The Frog Follies in Evansville, In this past weekend. I am not sure about the final overall count to the show but last year there was over 4,000 cars there. This year they had to make more room for some of the rods and parking was tight. This show amazes me because it is a pre-49 show and it is run by the local club there. I think the reason for the success is, it only cost $15 to register and for a spectator $5.00 to get in. Majority of the proceeds got to local charities(Easter Seals, MDA, etc.). And not to mention, very HAMB friendly too.

 

of course we like to go to shows that lots of cars we like and be with people that have the same views and life experiences. 32 ford guys dont like fat fendered stuff and chevy
rodders are condsidered cheap (there not) pro-street cars, resto rods, customs, rat rods, old skool rods, canadians?? we are all caar guys and we need to stick together cause to doo gooders, flower pot ladies and enviormentilist are all against use, those damm hot rodders speeding and making noise late at night etc, etc, you guys all call from all these different groups and guess what you are all the same it about the cars!!!

nsra has been to succesfull to consider anything that might interup the money flow, they may not get it in time to save themselves their 30 year rule is a stop gap action to try and conviece themsleves that they are progressive, but there hatered of goodduys has blinded them

goodguys has wonderfull idea's but is so disorganized they screw up and piss people off as a matter of routine.

with the rise in fuel prices and downturn in the economy niether of them have a clue as what to do.

the difference of a 60 year old guy that stuffed a chevy small block into a 32 ford is not any different than a 20 year taken a lexus motor and stuffing it into a honda civic
but we all like to make into something more then it really is. it is just about the cars and we all need to get along

 

Not me ... I like them all ... and I do go to the NSRA events and a few GoodGuys events. I do prefer the NSRA pre 49 events ... but then I prefer Vanilla over chocolate but I like both

 

the difference of a 60 year old guy that stuffed a chevy small block into a 32 ford is not any different than a 20 year taken a lexus motor and stuffing it into a honda civic

uh.... that is incredibly wrong on many levels.

 

i think both NSRA and GG are guilty of jumping ahead a 1000 or so entry numbers to make it appear there are more cars there.....not saying it happened at that event , but i'm sure they do it sometimes

i recall GG des moines in the early 90's seeing numbers in the 3000 range when it was obvious there wasn't 1500 cars there

 

Sad, but I'd attribute some of it to attrition, some to the economy and the rest to not keeping up with the bell curve as far as what the event offers. Doo Wop ain't cuttin it, the T-shirt designs are straight out of the 80's and the swap meet/entry fees are too high. I won't even get into the waste of trees StreetScene is.

My $45 a year nets me one event and some junk mail.

 

Why exactly?

They both have the same goal: to put a better, more powerful engine into a car with the purpose of making it go faster.

Other than having an elitist take on things, where we are all congratulating each other for being so much cooler than the guys who are building imports, what is the real difference?

 

I still have my tag from around 94, participant numer is 2900-something. Remember thinking damn that's a lot of cars, then looking around and figuring they must've included tow rigs or campers to hit that number. Watched the numbers on the cars that day and found gaps of a couple hundred here and there. Possibly an artifact of working multiple registrars with number ranges ***igned to each.

And back to the original post, Don, I wouldn't call you guilty for going to a show featuring old cars. True car guys can appreciate each genre for their strengths. Personally hope the organization thrives and this summer is the end of the economic impact on car shows.

 

Once you brake a year cutoff rule you can't go back, look at the restoration side of the hobby. Once they desided to make ANY VEHICLE 25 years old an ANTIQUE it cut into the real old cars at events. Why bring out a Model T Ford when the tow vehicle you bought 25+ years ago can be parked on the show field. I like old stuff WWII and older stock or rodded.

 

There are pretty clear age steps out there...musclecars, streetrodders, Model A , Model T...groups of people largely the same ages with little sign of younger converts.
But look at the HAMB...people in their twenties building 60 year old flatheads, young guys beating the woods for a DeSoto grill...and reading posts from other HAMBers who were at the Nationals in '60 or even on the dry lakes in 1941. Could we be the wave of the future and the past all at once??

 

10-4 on Doo Wop. I'm a member of the generation that grew up with it, and while I loved it when I was a kid, I'm Soooo Damn Tired of it now. Somebody please tell the nsra & goodguys that cool tunes have been/are being recorded after 1959.

 

That is why the HAMB gets so many posts every day, we all have some core inner respect for the same era of vehicles and the people that are connected to them.

 

"Why exactly? "

The kid with a cheap, light car trying to go faster seems a lot closer to the guys running the lakes in 1946 than does the person trying to stuff a new Lexus inside an old Ford... and their goals are different enough (and age related enough!) that neither project has any appeal to the other person. And you can't tell the kid to buy a '32 Ford to hop...the damn left rear fender costs more than his Honda.
The 1946 rodder bought a used car and drove it to work while souping it...just like the modern kid in his Honda and the 1962 kid with his '55 Chevy.

 

NSRA opened up some of their shows to combat Goodguys. The proplem is that neither group listens to their members.
I wrote NSRA for years to move the Okla City show to May and move the Knoxville show to July or Aug. REASON? I attended Knoxville for years only to be froze out or rained on. July and Aug in Oklahoma are HOT. They should have swapped these shows around. Knoxville in July or Aug and Okla. City in May. NO, what did they do. Moved the Okla.City show to EARLY April. Almost a guaranteed to either rain you out or freeze you out, or both.
If the NSRA doesn't pull their head out of Okla.City's *** and move that show to Tulsa they will continue to lose attendance. The cops in OkC treat the members like ****. They are Nazi Gestapo cops. The think everyone on the street is a 19 year old in a beat to **** Camero just out to spin their tires. Ask most guys and they will tell you their tired of OKC and want to go somewhere else for a change. Last April we froze on friday. Okla City ****s. It's just a big overgrown redneck fu*king cow town.
Now I'm waiting for the load if **** from guys who live around there and don't want to drive to Tulsa or anywhere else. When you can stay at home (no motel bill) and drive in every morning (No gas bill, no miles on their car). Why would you not want it to stay in OKC, even if it is a **** town. I won't go back and be bullied around by the Gestapo cops. I'm not some fuc*ing 18 year old thats intimidated by fuc*ing Nazi cops. Redneck f*cking hick town.
_____________________________________________________________________
Like I told the kid "Your music's not too loud, it just ****s and OKC ****s more."

 

Wonder if the NSRA is going to regenerate the old "Street Machine-Van Division" LOL

 

I'm a lifetime member of the NSRA (chill out, it was a gift!) I laugh every month at the cover photos on Streetscene..... they always look like they have the local Jr. High Yearbook staff put it together.... but it's free and makes for good bathroom reading.

 

I think the NSRA screwed up big time by having the nationals at the same location each year. Seems like you see the same cars every year at Louisville but when the NSRA rotated the nat's it seemed the cars were always different each year (for the most part).

 

yeah ,i liked it when it came to St Paul. it was announced at the nat's in Louisville that there is a new contract to hold them there until the year 2020

 

NSRA=stale

HAMB= a bright future

 

At the start of those organizations, consider the age of "pre-64" cars. What they've really done is moved back toward their original intentions, of only excluding a segment, not the majority.

Organizations that don't attract new people grow old and die along with their membership. Allowing 70s iron in the door isn't just about allowing 70s iron, it's about the fact cars often road trip in groups. Suddenly the pre-64 cars have more traveling partners. That kind of thing encourages the pre-64s to make the show.

If you haven't checked out the craftsmanship going into those non-traditional cars recently, look again. The last 10 years has seen their quality & fabrication intensity skyrocket. The tow rig referenced might be worth looking at as much as the T (and if the out-of-state T owner can show off 2 prides and joys at once might encourage him to go).

You don't have to look at all the cars at a show, but ya never know where your next great idea could come from.

 

"Organizations that don't attract new people grow old and die along with their membership. Allowing 70s iron in the door isn't just about allowing 70s iron, it's about the fact cars often road trip in groups. Suddenly the pre-64 cars have more traveling partners. That kind of thing encourages the pre-64s to make the show."

But...the HAMB seems to have flipped this; we are clearly bringing in 20 year old people to build and enjoy stuff that is at a minimum twice their age...they may not be able to do perfect 1952 lakes roadsters, but they seem to be able to find toeholds in the traditional world that satisfy them without offending or scaring the geezers too badly. Before coming here, I would have not thought this possible, both because of my ***umptions about young people and old cars and because of the staggering expense of the hobby as I once saw it...now I see kids finishing Model A's built from parts no restorer or streetrodder would touch, and this amazes me!

 

They have an NSRA event here in Sac each year.

Last year a good old friend of mine called to say that he and some other old riding buds of mine were heading over to the NSRA show that day and that I should bring my car for them to see.
So I called NSRA to see if I could still enter or if it was limited to pre-registered cars.

She said "Sure, you can still register...it's $90.

??$90?!!, ha, ha, ha - no thanks - click.

 

The Hamb is also changing on a regular basis to attract new people. namely the g***er trend and the proliferation of 60's cars. Many 50's traditional guys are now building the g***ers. I've noticed over the last year or so there is more interest in 70's style rods and street freaks.
The g***er look on this site is very popular and I think that if you took that away the site would not be no where as big as it is and vibrant...maybe even stale

 

I do not believe it has much to do with the economy but more to do with choices. There are so many MORE choices of car events to attend nowdays. Remember the days when there was ONLY NSRA, then just NSRA and GG. Now we have all those very cool independant events and the folks are realizing that they have a choice in where to spend their fun money.

Take Speed Week for instance HUGE, HUGE difference in the increased number of spectators this year compared to last year and compared to 2003 when I was there before.

HAMB Drags has also had a very noticable increase along with the Roundup, Jalopy Showdown, Hunnert Car Pileup, etc.

People have choices now and are clearly stating to the powers that be in the GG and NSRAorganizations the type of events they want to attend. I do believe GG is watching and making chages. NSRA does have some catching up to do.

 

You can come up with lots of reasons. I have not been a participant at any national event in years. It flat just costs too much. Yeah I'm cheap but I'll bet it costs over 50 bucks to get into York for a day with your ride. The funny thing about it is we usually stand around in the parking lot and BS. Different parking lot... same BS.

The same thing was said about Macungie. I won't be going to ***berland either. The same cars in the same parking spaces as the last 6 years. If you don't go for the beer party, it's boring.

Disposable income isn't as disposable as it once was. My traveling partner and I always figure out what the weekend will cost before we commit even though we split the expenses. I can't justify it anymore. I can buy some nice hot rod parts with the money that gets burned up in gas and lodging for a weekend trip. Maybe once a year but that's about it.

I really don't think the year break off affects that many people. Some die hards for sure (I was one for a while) The few that get an at***ude will easily get replaced with the new kids on the block.

I think they have priced themselves out of business and are now trying to put the tooth paste back in the tube. JMHO