Yeah, the Bombers did a fantastic job not only managing the swap, but bringing in more swappers than I've ever seen at the show, and every one of them had great stuff. For all of those of you who complained about the lack of a swap last year, can thank the Bombers for making it possible to bring it back, and doing such a great job with it. HUGE thanks to the Red Shirt Army, too. They make the show happen. Thanks to DW for coordinating the Army and DMZ for coordinating and setting up a LOT of other things. Of course, the towns people and governments of Decatur, Forsyth, and Clinton were great. No, there are no trees, buildings, or pretty much anything else, but you can either bring in 1500 traditional hot rods and customs to one location, OR you can have ambience and 200 local cars. Don't forget, we searched a 4 hour radius from Chicago to find a location that could handle 30,000 spectators and 1500 show cars for a single day event. Progress City was the only place that could do it, and they did an damn good job. If we keep it small (don't know how to do that), then people complain that it's not worth driving very far for, but if it's big and draws cars from 20+ states, then it's not worth going to because it's too big. You can't please everyone. I thought Kevin's inspection team did a fantastic job and I thought the rules were clearer this year than ever (at least for what you get for something subjective like "Traditional"). Much more consistent in the past. Everyone wants to be an inspector, but few can actually handle the pressure AND do it RIGHT... in 10 seconds or less. That's why we have the same inspectors every year. If you don't believe me, ask Flt-Blk or Curious Rash about their experiences. As I say every year, PLEASE send suggestions on ways to do things better. We tried pre-screening cars in line before (including this year) and 9 out of 10 drivers will say "I'll take my chances and wait in line" and find out that we could have saved them the wait. Tents and seating... I agree 100%. Picnic tables were supposed to be out, but they never made it. That will be corrected next year. We got the big tent in front of the stage at the last minute. Maybe next year we'll have a bigger one or more. Believe it or not, I've already had a few conversations with PC staff about way to make things run more smoothly next. This year was the smoothest the show has ever run! FWIW, we filled 30+ acres of spectator parking Thanks to everyone for coming!
Thanks to the Czars and DW!! You guys outdid yourselves again. I had a great time and cant wait until next year. This years show was probably the most smoothest well run show I have ever been too as a spectator. Hats off to you guys for bringing the midwest hot rod community together yearly and also donating to charity. You could ease up on the pre-party festivities though...my friggin head still hurts
A CAR SHOW that raises money for charity and that makes it the best kind. Sorry I missed it this year. Looks like the weather and turn out was great. Tim
You guys had an awesome show! I am glad that Decatur was able to acommodate so well. As a lifelong resident of this part of Illinois, it is so nice to see something come here instead of leave. I hope that you will be back for a few years to come. From the looks of it, there was enough room at Progress City for the show to more than double!
hey thank's for the great show again / and the pre inspection idea sure would be nice a lot of us new guys could fix our small problems in 20 minutes and come back through later when the preesure is off some of us just need a little help to get it right / thank's again to all that helped / and to the folks in the parking lot great show out there allso thank's for giving it a shot
I'd say that you guys did a great job with putting on a fantastic event from reading several threads and looking at a few hundred photos. Your criteria was posted months ago on the event's website. That should have given most anyone with a car with a non compliant set of wheels, tires or exposed engine components to come up with proper pieces for the weekend if they wanted to take the vehicle in question. Would having a printable pfd entry form/check off list on the website speed things up at the participant gate? With a big DOES YOUR VEHICLE COMPLY across the top. Along with having someone walking the line handing out the same list to those who didn't print it out and fill it out beforehand. Hand it to the inspectors and check, check, check, pass and go in or fail and go park in the spectator lot. It could even include required pass elements and obvious fail elements. The best part of what I saw in all of the photos that everyone showed so far is not one frigging show board was in evidence in front of any vehicle at the event as far as I could tell.
From The WI and Ill Vagabonds,thank you guys for putting on a top notch show...as Parking Volunteer's we started helping out 5 years ago and this was by far the easiest by far! The new venue practically parks it self ! The no trees are a draw back but i'll take that over the dust any day ! Thanks to all that stopped by are Friday night "meet wit meat" it has really become a great kick off for a great weekend ! Thanks Louver Dude
Back in the day of the fair grounds shows that car craft and hot rod mag put together they did a pre register and sent out a window decal, this way the gate guys only had to check for that preregistration decal, no one had hurt feelings which took away the liability of problems at the gates. These shows also could easily enforce maximum capacity of vehicles, they set them at around 2000 to 2500 entrants. Of course some guys cheated the system and put the decal on their new POS, buddy of mine, well the crowd will ride you all day if you go against the grain, trust in that. This might be a good way to alleviate this one problem as well as control attendance numbers. A pre register would also keep your lines moving so the guys are not over heating. they also had a uniformed officer within the group bumping out the non participants, that helped immensely, no one wanted a ticket. Loved this automobile show and only offering a few minor inputs to help you guys refine it, it was dang near perfect as it was. Thanks.
Just got home from the 575 mile drive Took a couple of small detours to explore some roads for a fun run that I'm working on in my head in between all of my other projects. Tons of good people, cool cars, odd little spiders and a lack of shade, had a great time and I will be back next year, hopefully with something that I can bring inside instead of hide a mile away while I ride in with Bobwop haha My pics will be going up tonight on my smugmug and I'll try to put a slideshow in this thread for everyone to find out.
The show rocked and the place was great. Clinton and snappers was awesome. Hangover to show it was awesome. Cant wait till next year. Im going to bring some shade next time. LOL. Who would of thought 80's in october their. Louder and more music to keep that morris tradition alive.
glad to see ya out there man thanks for stopping by and thats an awesome picture of my car man thanks
hahahahaahahhaha lol glad I wasnt the only one with spider issues. I hate spiders but I guess they dig a good show to
So I knew that the cars would show up to the HCPU....cause I knew guys from MO, southern IL, TN, Arkansas, KY that had never even considered going to the Pile Up in the past....."cause it's all the way up there in Chicago" (dont try telling them any different cause they think that 45 miles from Chicago is Southside Chicago or Cabrini Green!) Anyway - I was very impressed with the way the show was run, the quality of the cars that showed up, the ease of entering/exiting, and the overall FUN factor of the new location. (Everyone I talked to was in a good mood and seemed to really be enjoying the entire event/atmosphere - I did have 3 people complain about the hot weather.................I told them - "Yeah - you probably complained about the 29 degree weather last year too!) I am a vendor at the Pile Up and have been there since they moved to Morris. I was really concerned that there would only be hot rod guysgals and NO spectators........boy was I wrong. The spectators were there en force! For the vendors we NEED the spectators to help pay the cost of the vendor spots, gas, hotels, and the merchandise we are selling. We (Vintage Torque) were happy with the show (as usual) and hope to be back in the same spots we had this year. The new location will become a permanent spot for this national show (this show, in my opinion, could easily become the equivalent of the Louisville NSRA show-for the traditional hot rod crowd) due to the location and the popularity of the show. Lets not forget to add in all the people I talked to at the Morris Swap Meet today who were ALREADY upset that they did not go on Oct 9th. Many I spoke to have already commited to going next year. This show is just gonna grow and grow. And it should - the Czars and the Red Shirt Army do a bang up job and all the proceeds go to great causes. And a special thanks to the Oliver Group for helping us out as well!!! Many people purchased the 2009 Hunnert Car Pile Up DVD and we want to thank all those customers that bought them from us. The Chrome Czars have agreed to let us do another DVD for 2010 (which should be out the beginning of December) which will be available from vintagetorque.com or Hot Rod Chassis and Cycle. I will be putting up the trailer for the DVD later this week and if you dont see your car in the trailer - odds are you will be in there if you entered in the first couple of hours. Hemidave came all the way up here from Austin TX to film the event and we thank him for all the hard work and the sunburn he incurred! Amazing day - amazing show - amazing club(s) (dont wanna forget the Bombers) said it before - say it again......... Czars Rule and seems as though they will continue to rule for years to come!
Congrats Czars, looks like you had a great show! You guys had a great turn out and the weather couldn't have been better. I wish I could have made it, but my best friend is going into the service and his going away party was yesterday. BTW Hellfish I did realize I thinkin it was the wrong day, Still couldn't make it Anybody know what the final count on cars was?
Thanks to all of you who put in the effort to make this a great event and destination for us to bring our cars. Well Done! Had a great time. Gary
I had a blast at the show, my only suggestion would be to free up the parking a bit. With that much room for show cars, there shouldn't be any reason to direct every car into a certain spot.
Any time a show moves, changes, or what have ya there is a chance that something get's broken along the way. The Czars and Red Shirt Army have managed to keep the Hunnert Car Pileup not only alive during these possibly show ending moves, but they make the damned thing better year after year and set the trend for what a good fun traditional car show should be. The new venue lost a little of that atmosphere but that did not seem to matter from what I saw. I always have to take a moment and chuckle about the hatred of not getting in the show. It even hit closer this year cause a couple of my friends didn't make it. I felt bad for em, but deep down I knew they were too stock. Criteria clearly states this about being too stock. They still enjoyed the show and moved on like everyone else should have. It's the ones who bitched, whined and cried that really just must not get "it". Any time you judge someones pride and joy and tell them essentially that your car is not right for our show, you're gonna hurt some feelings but I applaud the Czars for sticking to their guns and controlling how they want their show to be. If ya don't like it, don't go. The rest of the world will be there enjoying one hell of a car show put on by quality folks.
I enjoyed the show, missed the "atmosphere" and appreciate the effort. Nobody could ever make every decision correct 100% of the time, but the Czars came close. Lindross said something that prompted me to comment: it is regarding stock cars. I for one, really appreciate cars that are either restored to bone stock...or cars that are completely original and unrestored. I have a hunch many others might appreciate them as well. Considering the amount of available space at Progress City, perhaps a separate area for stock appearing cars would be something for discussion. I, for one, would gladly walk some distance to another show area to see the stock cars. Let me add this: I understand the show is for customs, so please don't hate on me.
Nothing in the criteria prohibiting Japanese bikes or glass rods. The Czar's own Low-Punk has an XS400. And its more bitchin' than 99% of the Harleys I've seen. Aside from that, the rest was awesome, right?
NO sh*t!! The girls were losing their minds in the vendor area! I'm afraid to bring our stuff in the house... Joe, Kevin, I just want to say thanks for a great event. Well laid out, nice facillities. BIG PROPS to the Red Shirts, things ran smoothly. I have NEVER been to an event where the cops were cool, the Clinton set up was so comfortable, & where the "civilians" were so hospitable! On several occasions, like breakfast, folks were looking over our cars & said "Thanks for coming & have a nice show." It blew my mind! The only suggestion I can offer is we all take up a collection & plant a few freakin' trees next year. Whaddya think??
Here's some examples of why I love doing this show. 1, all the old dragsters that showed up, including one that has been continuously raced since the 50s, and a new, hand-built bellytanker. Second, I ran into a friend from high school who brought her ailing father. He thought the show was so cool and saw our passion for hot rods that he GAVE me his membership cards from his car club in the mid-50s along with photos of his cars, and a set of HIS license plates from '55. He just asked that I archive them somewhere. Look for a post on this later. I don't think we even used a 1/4 of the available show area. I'm open to suggestions, but we're limited on staff. We have about 180 volunteers and we use ALL of them. Not sure how I could get more jobs in. The best thing I can suggest is to read the website and email me with any questions. I get a lot of them all year. It's fun. Hmmm... Interesting, but I think that would slow things down. In order to get all the cars in by noon we can only spend about 10 seconds on each car One of these days we'll finish up in time to make it. Sorry if I held up DaTinman and HalfCock and Coll57(?) from the Meat & Greet. They were helping me get the stupid Econocrime running again. Exactly. Pre-registration actually slows things down. We tried it once. We had 10 cars pre-register. You have to check every car against the list.. over open headers... then check to make sure they brought the car they registered and that their photos/description were accurate. Nothing official yet. We had a counting SNAFU. Somewhere between 789 and 1789 One reason: Chaos. People will hold up a line for 5 minutes to park their car JUST RIGHT. We see it every year We got some real nasties this year... who even took it out on the teenage 4H girls who volunteered to direct spectator parking. I asked them about. They just shrugged and smiled as if to say "some people are just assholes. what can you do?" That's the right attitude No hatred. If you don't mind walking a distance to check out stock cars... there were a bunch in the spectator lot. In all seriousness, what's in the show is IN the show. We like stockers, too, but Stock is neither custom nor hot rod, and you can see them at ANY show. By the same token, why not let any car in? Street rod, muscle car, tuner, etc? and give them their own lot? That's called "Good Guys Shows" besides, there's nothing to keep them in those lots. One of the things that makes the Pileup special is its exclusivity. Thanks for all the compliments and constructive criticisms. We love hearing from you.
Big thanks to all the organizers and volunteers. It was awesome to have such a good time close to home! Can't wait for next year!
I want to thank the Chrome Czars,Red Shirt Army and all other volunteers for putting on a great show.I've been to Morris,and I really like the Progress City venue a whole lot better.I like walking the grounds without rubbing elbows with other spectators.I do think the vendor area could be somewhat bigger,although I think a lot of people were trying to escape from the heat for a moment.I don't own a hot rod or a custom,but I do like taking pics of those that do,I seen some really cool rides Saturday and I hope you guy's intend to keep the pile-up in Decatur for as long as you are able to.Can't wait for next years show. Here is the link for pics I took. http://public.fotki.com/62704/2010-hunnert-car-pile-up/
I had a great time at the pileup this year! The venue was perfect. This was my fourth Pileup and probably the best one. I loved Clinton. Great planning Chrome Czars!!!!!
The Jalopy Journal
