Saturday, October 25, 2014

Car show - Petal Fall Festival

Had a car show at the Petal Fall Festival.  I was one of four '80's high tech muscle cars there ... the other three consisted of a '89 Fox body Mustang GT (blue hardtop) with aftermarket wheels, a 1986 Buick Grand National (black hard top) with aftermarket wheels, and a bone stock 1982 Collector's Edition Corvette with Crossfire Injection engine.  Still like that Corvette.

Once again, it became a contest of not what you had or what it represented but how much you had spent.  Car shows lately have turned from individual effort to how much an individual is willing to spend on a car.  It's hard (nigh on impossible) to compete with a bone stock (albeit restored) 1986 Pontiac Trans Am that you've got close to $20 grand invested in over 8 long years when the guy two cars down has almost that much invested in the just paint job on a brand new Challenger.

I'm going to quit going to car shows, or more likely quit going to car shows that don't have a more tiered judging layout.  I already avoid any car show which has a category which includes "1980 to present" as one of the judging lines.  I'm also getting tired of the "Buy it on Friday, show it on Saturday crowd" that is appearing with their super modern cars and expecting those cars to be taken in the same type of respect as the older cars.  Sure a brand new Hemi Challenger is cool, but it isn't as cool as an original 1971 Hemi Challenger.  The problem, of course, is that the people who judge these events are locals (yokels) who don't know jack about cars other than the "oooh" and "aaah" factor.  I go to car shows to see old cars, not brand new ones.  If I wanted to go to a show with brand new cars I'd walk into the local dealership and put a plaque on the windshield of a Hemi SRT8 Challenger sitting there in the showroom.

That's kind of what it's become lately, at least locally.

Anyway ... here's pics of the '86 TA on display.  I got a lot of compliments on the car but sadly she didn't place.  You have to wonder about the IQ of the judges when a bone stock 1977 Chrysler four door hardtop (with the engine bay "detailed" with black Krylon rattle can using a liberal amount of overspray) places and gets a plaque and none of the meticulously restored and kept '80's cars even get a mention.

Oh, well ... once burned twice wise.

If you're going to a car show and taking your toy, make sure you understand the way that judging will take place and if it's stacked against you from the start just head on back home and save the money on the entry fee.

This was the first (and probably last) Petal Fall Festival car show that I'll attend.  Next year, I'll take the TA somewhere else.  There were, in fact, three shows that day.  I picked this one because it's my old stomping grounds.

Car shows and club meetings are winding down now for the winter.  Maybe the TA will have better luck next year but if the current trend in judging gets worse I doubt it.