Car show etiquette?

[nvrbdn]

sounds pretty neat to me. no pier pressure. unbias judges. 

[UH60L]

Well, here's my 

There seem to be 4 kinds of "car shows". 

#1) The spontaneous "lets all go here and hang out".  It's literally a modified version of "cruising the gut" / meeting up at the local burger joint.  Very informal, no loudspeaker, just a bunch of car people hanging out.  No rules to speak of, just show up and enjoy.

#2) The cruise-in.  An organized event, usually with a loudspeaker and/or sound system with music (usually oldies, sometimes nothing newer than 1965...).  Usually no trophies, but sometimes raffles / door prizes.  Beyond that, same as #1.

#3) The car show.  Typically put on by a car club.  Always a fee if you want to compete for a trophy.  Sometimes a small fee to do "display only", but usually free.  Judging is usually done by members of the host club and/or by the paying participants of the show.  Usually includes food booths and car parts vendors.  These shows are typically open to any car that shows up, but some are not very open to modern cars, the old cars are the focus of the show.

#4) The concourse car show.  This is the high end, money talks, if your car isn't damn near perfect and in a trailer - don't even bother to register, the judges are specific people with an actual list of things that get looked at, many of us will never have anything good enough to go to one,  car show.  There are, to my knowledge, none of these shows in the city where I live, and only a couple in the whole state.  I've attended as a spectator and quite frankly, it just wasn't as fun as a #1,2, or 3.

There are a few #1s and #2s around here, and several #3s.  My mopar club puts on an all mopar #3 every year but we allow other makes/models to attend with the understanding that they will be display only and not competing for a trophy.  Very few ever show up.  We get a few display only mopars, usually because they show up late (around noon).

In my experience, no matter what #3 show you go to, winning a trophy is either pure luck or pure pre-picked.  There are some very, shall we say, shady car clubs out there when it comes to this.

I always entered my '69 charger as "under construction" when it was still drivable.  At one show, a member of the club that was hosting it arrived with a completely restored 55 or 56 car that was only missing the back bumper.  He had an accident backing out that morning so he took the bumper off and they let him enter as under construction.....and he won the trophy. 

I don't mind paying $15 or $20 to a car show if the money is going to charity and if I have a legitimate shot at winning.  I don't know of any car clubs around my area that do the whole "lets all go get drunk" thing.  I rarely go to any shows now though because the old charger is not running and the new challenger is...well...a new challenger...