Pain in the a** car-show rules!

Kit Sullivan

Registered User
Well, I took the Anniversary car to 'Old Town' last night for it's first cruise. I normally go on Saturday nights, which is the 72-and-older only cruise nights, since most of my cruisers are classic Mustangs.
Fridy nights at 'Old Town' are for 72-and-up, so the late-model crowd is there. I knew I would not relate to all the 'rice' there, but I figured rthere might be a few oldsters like me.

As it turns out...they didn't want to let me in! Thier new rules are that any car of 1988 or newer vintage must have at least FOUR visual modifications, like rims, decals, neon,etc...
I thought they guy was joking! The whole idea of a cruise night is for people to show off a car(or cars) that are special to them, and have been maintained, modified or kept in a certain way.
I don't have any beef with allowing modifications, but to say you have to have modifications is asinine!
The fact that this was a:
a) relatively rare 'Super Coupe'
b) slightly more rare 'Anniversary Edition'
c) freshly painted and in excellent visual condition...

...meant nothing.

For someone else to tell me my car is not good enough to show because it doesn't meet their personal descriotion of worthy is about the biggest insult I can think of.

I have been taking cars to Old Town for many, many years and have participated in many of thier events over the years.
But, no longer.

I have made my last Old Town visit.

(maybe)
 
Show

For many, many years I attended shows, swaps, etc. as well.

I had been an officer in many Chicago area clubs and we held many shows.

Times change and peoples tastes change for better or worse.

Personally, I hate this goofy "ricer", "slammed" and "donk" crap.

Many younger kids love it, let them have their day in the sun as we did.

Solution?, get in touch with other like minded people and establish your own show/cruise night.

This hobby is big enough for us all............just not always at the same place or time.

I set up another meeting for SCCoA and TCCoA members for this month in this area.
 
Many car shows are organized as a way to have fun, but they also need to make money. Thus they try to draw in a specific type of people, and to do that they feel they need a specific type of car that's gonna draw the biggest group of people.
 
I guess I wont be going up there either. I had planned to but if they are going to be that way they dont need me. Unless they want to count my 4 custom wheels as 4 modifications:D .
 
Awe.. come on. The Car Craft Summer Nationals is totally fun.

It just depends on the kind of show and the people. Kinda like the shootout. The shootout was fun because of the people. Pretty much everyone willing to give anyone a hand if the need it, and sitting back and chatting. There is a reason why we like to own these cars, and one of the big ones is the other owners.

For example, we have a local cruise that's part of a local cities summer festival. They cruise through the center of town and restrict it to muscle cars of the early 70's and older cars or unique cars. So we get the really cool old mercs, fords, buicks. But then you get new corvettes, the viper club, and at least two old pickup trucks. Could we get a MN12 in there? Heck no. Do I care? Bah, not really. It's more fun to watch and guess the years.
 
Kit,

It's their loss. I thought "cruise" sort of had the casual, relaxed connotation rather than a fixed, rigid set of entry rules. We have a "cruise night" get-together every Friday evening locally, and anything and everything shows up. Generally, a pretty good time. I don't usually take my SC (take the R/T), but occasionally I do. Everyone gets along with everyone else; from rodders to ricers and everything inbetween.

Since I'm more of the "keep it original" kind of person, I recently joined VTCI. It's for all years of Thunderbirds, and they welcome MN12's. In fact, I'm going to be helping to establish and enhance the concours standards for the MN12's, using my white 89. They have full-points judging standards for the earlier years (naturally), but are eager to bring the newer years up to standard as they add knowledgeable members. It's right up my alley. You might want to check into that club as a way to mingle with more "adults". The earlier cars are pretty cool, too.

JD
 
Screw them Kit your car looks beautiful. They obviously aren't connoisseurs of fine American cars. Corvettes aren't as "rare" as an SC especially a 35th. Neons and loud systems and tribal graphics aren't mods either.

Probably wouldn't let my car in as it looks stock except for tinted windows. Still has stock wheels on it (cobra's are in storage).
 
Nice to see some others here meeting up with the VTCI. I hung out with a Houston chapter a couple of summers ago and it was fun. Generally an older group and their cars were primarily 50's and 60's vintage.
I also considered parking my car with the other "show" cars at some local cruise nights, but decided against it. Most people don't look at a SC as any different than a LX
 
Kit if you ever take your SC to Carlisle I'm sure you'll be rewarded for your efforts. That is the only show I really like besides WFC. Carlisle has no racing, usually I like to go to track meets but sometimes a show is fun. My car is not really show worthy so I haven't been in years. There was 90+ SC's there back in 02 or 03 I think.
 
Whenever I go to Carlisle (about once every 3 years or so...) I will usually take the Mustang, since it is the 'Pride and Joy' of the Kitster fleet.
When I lived in Buffalo, Carlisle was no big deal to attend. Now that I live in Kissimmee, Carlisle is quite a haul for a car show.
 
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