Hello All,
Just wanted to add my pennies as well-
It USED to be that
for a car to be considered a 'survivor' it had to be at least 75%
original. How that was determined was determined by the judging people
before the Nats took place. That- as MANY of you have noted, has
changed. I think I know why. Because 'survivor' status for any mopar
these days will make the car MUCH more valuable. I'm sure many of you have
seen how much a 'survivor' brings at that joke of an auction
Barrett-Jackson. Always more than a correctly restored car of similar
options, etc.
Sorry, memory is getting shorter as I get older, but someone
told the tale of their nicely original/restored 66 Charger getting beaten by a
modified Charger at a show. I am sad to say this is why I stopped entering
my Chargers in shows as well. The Modified Charger is what many in the
hobby are now calling 'day two' restorations. These are cars with period
correct speed/appearance parts. In other words, the car appears as it
would have after the first owner had put on all of the hop-up items that he
would of the day after he bought the car. Generally, this means
aftermarket wheels, headers, gauges, steering wheel, etc.
The thing is that
these items, if done correctly, MUST be from that era or be direct replacements
from that era. A good example is Torquethrust wheels. They never
went out of production. OR Anson aluminum slotted wheels. These came
back into production for this very example.
Now, the problem is that most
judges don't bother to check the authenticity of these items. They just
note them.
All of this is why correctly restored cars get beat by the
modified cars.
Any decent car show will give the 'day two-s' their own
category. Many (most) do not.
So- I just don't show my cars....and it
appears many of you don't either.
This really is ashame.
Why? because,
again as someone else noted, you can now go to shows and see nothing but the day
2's.
Soon enough everyone is going to forget what the original cars looked
like because no one brings them out anymore.
Personally, I go to the Nats
every year. I have since 1989. I showed my Chargers there until
1996. That's when I saw the trend appear. I wouldn't pay the money
now (or lets face it 19 gallons of 94 octane aint cheap, and I would burn 4-5
tanks in a weekend) to take one of my cars to this show. Not to be stuck
in the middle of a huge dusty field and have people pass the car over simply
because it ISN'T modified.
Now- on a positive note-
I did see some very
nice FWLK cars there this year. A 60 and 61 300 letter series cars most
notable. Beautifully restored or just original I don't know.
BOTH stuck
in the middle of that damn field. At least the 61 was near the Dodge test
drive area so you had to pass it on the test drive route, but a crying shame
that two such beautiful cars weren't even given their own areas. This is
on top of a couple belvederes, a coronet, a couple desotos and the 413 cross ram
powered 61 Dodge Seneca? that was the topic of discussion here not long
ago. The people who run the Nats have no idea how to 'run the nats' if you
get my meaning!
Anyway,
Sorry for the rambling,
Charles.
***************************************************
This is just a general
philosophical question to the board that I had to ask myself a number of years
back regarding this same issue.
When it comes to old cars and
the related social aspects, the standing paradigm is that we "have to"
inter-relate by way of this established "car show" medium. It is just the
way it is, or always has been.
Being the type of guy who likes
to think WAY outside the box, I got grew a whole heap weary of the same old
crowd and the same old cars and the same old same old, over and over
again. It was the 3 of us FL guys and the ocean of Chevs, the mags, the
hood scoops, even the poor dope with the really nice original 57 Chev complained
like we FL guys did that if it wasn't a chrome ball and had the engine coming up
out of the hood, it was entirely overlooked by the crowd AND the show
people.
The question I came to was WHY
do we only think of cars in terms of standing around in parking lots all day in
hopes of going home with a gold colored trophy / trinket that is really of no
value anyway ?
Afterall, the power rests with
the guy who shells out his coin to enter his car for such a pointless
venture.
Why do we behave and accept this
behavior as only medium in which to "do something" with our cars ?
****************************************
The best answer I came up with
was the observation that there are really TWO distinct personality types that
are drawn to old cars ....
1. The sentimental,
nostalgic types who enjoy the cars as part of some sort of warm-n-fuzzy they
feel toward their past, or history as a whole, and
2. Those who are more
personality driven. Those who are into the competition and the jockeying
for recognition for themselves by way of the car/s they present.
Then there are the
not-so-cognitive masses who just go to shows and never question why. It is
just "how it is done" kind of thinking.
I fall into group 1. I
love the cars. They are part of a fabric for me. A time when things
were cool and exciting. It isn't just the cars, it's the clothes, the
architecture, an attitude I recall from youth. That is why I like
cars. It is part of the cool stuff.
Group 2 ? Well, since they
are personality driven, guess who organizes and puts on the shows ? Guess
why shows are run the way they are ? It is pretty much self
evident.
But it leads back to my
question, ..... why do we have to accept this medium as the only route to enjoy
our cars as a group ?
Maybe because it is easy.
Putting on a car show is a lot of work. Let the "look at me!" guys do all
the fussing and we just roll in and take advantage of the venue. All good,
until you add the whole "neglected" angle into the equation. Then the
chrome-n-flash crowd dominates.
I do not believe most car people
ever think this through. They just do it because "that is how it is done"
and never consider that there may be other ways of thinking about
it.
I have a car show every day at
my house. And just like at a car show, an occasional person sees one of my
beasts and gets excited. The substitute mailman did this just the other
day. I showed him the cars and he had a great big smile. It was
great. Also like a typical car show, most days it is just me and own
appreciation for the cars. There have been times when I had nearby friends
of similar thinking and we had a lot of fun enjoying our cars together.
That was always good. Better than just about any large car show I can
remember. We expected no trophies and got just as many as we would have
had we taken our cars to a show. It was the same deal, except at our get
togethers, 100% of the people there appreciated the cars, as opposed to
.000001%.
I am done with cars shows as
they stand. I think a new type of show is in order. The cruise in,
the specific FL-oriented gig, or maybe just a bunch of friends who meet up
? You can see my cars, enjoy my cars, pour yourself all over my cars, and
even talk my ear off if you so desire. I am always pleased to put joy into
someone else's day. But that whole "chasing a feather in the wind" game
? To quote good old Lowell George ..... "Thanks, ... I'll eat mine
here".
*************************************************************
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