Car Show Rant

Came home from a cruise night recently with a half dozen flyers for car shows on the seat. Entry fees ranging from ten to twenty dollars for a one day show, most of them offering nothing but dash plaques for the first 100 cars.

Is it only me that doesn't understand why the car owner is supposed to provide the profit for a car club show? After spending all this time and money building a car, someone wants me to pay them for the privelege of having other people look at (and get fingerprints all over) it.

Now, I drive my car to 3-4 cruise nights a week, but I refuse to pay entry to a car show where I see the same cars that were at the last cruise night.

Does anyone else feel this way, or am I an odd ball?

Bob

 

EXACTLY the reason I go to local cruise nites BUT out of town/State car EVENTS on the weekends.

The reason I don't go to local car "shows" on the weekends has nothing to do with money or that it's the same cars as what I just saw at the local cruz nite during the week BUT for me I really enjoy meeting new people, seeing new places and actually driving Big Olds long distances. That's how I want to spend my free time and money.

BTW, "HI Bob"

 

your supposed to collect all the flyers and put em on someone elses seat just before you leave that way you wont read em when you get home and get pissed off Dont bother me at all cause i dont have a car together right now so im not attending any shows to speak of. Ive been doing this car show shit for ever and it never changes. 20.00 for a 1 day show.. fuck em
Dave

 

yeah..im getting sick of it too..i do the cruise nights and a few small venues..where donations for a good cause are being held. Got fed up with it this last fathersday at bishop park show in wyandotte michigan..came to the show with my wife and kid..rolled right into the show area..parked my car set up our chairs and went walking to see the different cars. No body said or stopped me on the way in to say i had to pay an entrance / show fee..when we got back to our car some BITCH was yelling in my face that if i dont register NOW shes going to call the police and have me arrested and my car towed..(could have just said "hey did you know that this is a payed show or something like that") They were lacks in letting me into the show area with out stopping me on my way in so as far as i see it they were not getting their shit done...I fuckin packed up my shit and left..And will NEVER attend or show up there again!!

 

I'm with you BeeJay. I'll walk around a car show but I don't show anymore either. One reason already mentioned about paying to show and the other main reason, I had three cars damaged at three different shows in one year. That did it . People can see my cars going down the road from now on and I end up with less unnecessary repair work. Steve

 

Don't go.

 

There has to be a pretty good reason to go to a show any more, tired of the $20.00$30.00 everyone seems to think I'm supposed to pony up for some cause they have an interest in. Lot of them are becoming "for profit" type ventures.

 

I've kind of given up on the local cruise nights and my car club. They both seem to be dominated by geezers sitting in folding chairs, restored mid-sixties musclecars, pepto-colored full billet catalog street rods, stupid time-out dolls, and doo wop music......

Just gonna be a "lone wolf, no-club" kind of guy, I guess....

 

In my humble experience a cruise night was always free, at least the ones I ever did. A car show(the outdoor ones) usually was, unless it's a big one, or a charity show. However, not being able to part with $10 or $20 for a charity show is kinda low down.
As for damages at a car show, I guess they had no parenting...my folks would have rung me up for touching. I also don't know who started allowing people to climb on and in cars for pictures. That's pure horse#@&^ !

 

I don't pay to get into shows,nor do I attend many that have any judgeing. I spend the $20 on flowers and chase MY wife around.

 

$20? Thats cheap. The GoodGuys show was $80 for a new member. I refused to bring me ride to that. The NSRA event last weekend was $63. Now granted, those two events do give away decent door prizes and the potential to win bigger prizes, but its still priced way out of line.

 

The last show I entered was a real joke. About 200 cars in all. 30 prizes awarded. 5 went to the car dealer that sponsored the show, 4 for brand new 2007 cars and 1 for a ok 32 coupe. The remaining 25 awards went to 13 Mustangs and 11 55-57 Belairs and one 55 210. Now don't get me wrong, 'stangs and tri-5's are cool but they aren't everything to all people.
There were some killer cars there that were ignored by the judges.

 

I'm with ya Bob! I don't see any reason why I should hand out my cash for some goofball people to lean on, touch, scratch and in general treat my car as they treat their POS.

I have actually been tossin around an idea for a show at my work (complete with an old runway out back if you wanna run em). Here's the problem, I don't wanna supply a band or food or drinks or any BS like that. The people comin in should feel free to bring their own food, grill, drinks, you name it. I don't care what they bring and encourage them to bring everything they need for a day. There are grocery stores about 3 miles away if anyone needs anything.

I've told several people about this because of the "show" situation now that you mentioned above. Some have said they liked it, others said no way. Too boring, no music, no food blah, blah, blah. It seems like nobody wants to do anything for themselves anymore. I figured parking yer car, looking at others and hanging out would be cool.

I have access to a unique area that I think could provide a very cool car get together for people that just wanna hang out, look at cars and possibly make some new friends. No trophies, no t-shirts, no raffles, no BS!

The flip side is I would have to clean the place up cuz I KNOW there are a bunch of lazyass, butthead people who would take advantage of the situation and not give a crap about where they put their garbage, dump thier cans, etc, etc.

Bottom line : I think it could be a cool gathering and a fun time. Look at some old cars, run yer heap down a real WWII Navy airstrip, talk to other car guys and gals and pretty much just enjoy the day. But what if someone is doing a burnout and looses control? Suddenly it's gonna be all MY fault!!!

Screw it! I ain't gonna pay someone $20 so I can park my car at "thier" show and I sure as hell ain't gonna be the poor sap that gets sued cuz people are too damn dumb to NOT stand in front of a car blazin the tires. I guess I'll just keep buildin my stuff and drivin it when I can.

 

This is exactly what I am talking about!!! Who gives a crap about trophies or who wins em? No offense 34Hup. Why can't a buncha people just get together and enjoy the cars and conversation without somebody bitchin about something that doesn't even matter??? Forget the judges, the trophies, the raffles, the "power parking" and entrance fees.

 

Well isn't that special.......I'd have to mark that off the list, in the milling crowd next time, not a participant.

 

Kinda related. What I hate is calls I get from some "promoter" doing a grand opening or such for a non-car buisness. Since I have a rod shop they want me to put together a car show to draw people to the event. They get shocked when I tell them it will cost them $500 + depending on size. They assume I would do the work and my freinds with cars would want to spend the day sitting in some hot parking lot just for free, for the fun(?) of it to benefit someone else pockets. Charities OK, I'll talk but not commercial people unless there's money for my time plus the car owners.

 

I only go to the shows advertised for charity. I put a sign in the window saying 'do not judge". The plastic trophy can go to someone who wants it. The door prizes make it worthwhile, the best part is socalizing with people,seeing old friends, making new ones. I ignore the silly stuff,and look at the flyiers,save the 'good' ones, and politly throw away the trash. Life is short,enjoy it fully. Don't sweat the crap..

 

I've always felt that way. We spend a lot of time/money on our cars. Let the public pay to view our cars. It's how it should be. We should be invited to display our efforts, and people pay to see them. However, i don't mind paying for certain events that have a more party like environment. Mooneyes Xmas, Primer Nats, Paso, etc. Also, Paso, and reunions at Bakersfield are a great drive in my cars. Man, if Paso could rope off the park area this last show, and get a lousy 2-3 bucks from each person? WOW, that'd be a grip of cash!

 

I drive my car everyday so the very few times I go to a show I really don't have to worry about it being judged. It aint going to win because it's generally dirty under the hood.

Heck, I may have even forgot to remove the McD's bag out of the back seat floor.

The only time I pay is when I know there are some people going to be there that I want to hang with anyways. Otherwise I park in the general parking area, check the cars for free and go home.

That's about 2-3 shows a year.

 

I am in a car club and we have two shows a year. Some of the proceeds go to support the club. Remaining money goes to help people in our community. Last year we donated money to a man with cancer. This year we donated money to a family whose young child's face was mutilated by a dog. They did not have insurance. We also do the Toys for Tots, which toys and donations will be taken at our next cruise in July. Get to know the event because some are for really good causes.

 

If you are paying them, then what kind of services are you recieving in return? If they are forcing/wanting you to pay them to bring your car, then aren't you paying for them to show off your car to the public - who they are also charging admission to? If this is the case, then wouldn't the shows be legally liable for damages that are incurred as a result of them having your vehicle on their premises?

I know most probably have a disclaimer statement, but those disclaimers don't hold up where gross negligence is involved - such as preventing little Johnny from climbing onto the fenders in his muddy soccer cleats.

I don't know, so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Our club still puts on an event every year, but it's a participants event, not a show. We provide lunch, 2 dinners, and breakfast, a place to eat it, have a small (40 mile or so) poker run, door prizes and no judging. There is a show period of a couple of hours downtown on the ocean that helps the locals bring in some people to their small-town businesses and then we all head out for dinner and whatever. For this we charge $25 to cover our costs (about $4500) and make a few bucks on selling T-shirts to cover the rest of our costs. Lots of fun, but we only get about 75 cars every year. And that's fine with us because 75 fun participants have a better time than 250 trophy seeking power parkers. Park-and-sit shows are the norm these days and I find them boring (with a few exceptions, like Hot-Rod-A-Rama), but all the municipalities and businesses have discovered a way to get people to their location and have jumped on the bandwagon. If we put on events that were fun to go to because everyone was actually using their cars I think we'd all have a better time. Static shows are for winter.

 

Seems like there is at least one or two shows a weekend. Gets kinda expensive at $20+ just to hang with your buddies. If they advertise trophies I'm not there.

 

No doubt. Took the 54 on the 300 mile round trip to Columbus last weekend to the NHRR reunion. Lady tells me I need to get in line to register? I said why, I just want to see the cars run. Oh, she said, then just go park.

The best part was the thumbs up from the moms in other cars on the ride there and back. Even the teen boys I had with me enjoyed that as much as the show.

As an aside....being 16 they really didn't get into the car show portion. They really got into the drags though. Again...sitting...well, O.K. Running though was a blast.

 

We've started a non-club monthly event here in central Arkansas. We get a bunch of HAMBers together for a monthly breakfast. After we eat and tell lies, we go out in the parking lot and check out each others' cars, then usually go to someone's house to check out the garage.

No dues, no club meetings, no shows, no trophies. Just people who like traditional rods and customs getting together.

 

I hate time-out kids!!! Just my two cents

 

AMEN Brother....I feel your pain....but hell even the cruise nights started charging around here ....so i park out side hang out for a while then cruise around town, I enjoy driving much more then power parking anyway......

 

I rarely attend cruises and even more rarely shows. The only reason I do go is to keep in touch with old friends and to see what's new on the scene.
I went to a local show a couple years ago that was held in a fenced off area. They were charging entrants AND spectaters! This was at the towns community days celebration. I ask the man in charge of the show if they were having a dance tonight? (I knew they were) He said "yes", Then I asked him if they were charging the band to play, then told him that these cars are the "band" that is drawing the spectaters, and if anything, they should be paying us for the time and money and work we put into these cars. It's absolutely rediculus to be charging the car owners to show their cars, and it never ceases to amaze me that people keep paying! I only go to free events, partially because I'm cheap, but mostly out of protest. What I do most is just drive my car, too bad most of my friends can't seem to just treat their cars like cars and do the same, I think we'd all have more fun.

 

I go to an occasional cruise night and sometimes I just park my car in the spectator parking lot. I usually don't stay long especially if I don't know anyone there.
I check out quite a few shows, but I only register my cars for the traditional custom and hot rod events and don't care if I even get a trophy. I'm there because of friends and to meet more like minded people.