Car Shows and Get togethers

In the last couple of weeks my wife and sons have been taking the Herald and GT6 to local car get togethers. The have been at the local Eagles club and the a bowling alley.

It has been fun to see other cars and talk with the people but I have noticed one thing around these parts. Everything is American made. I see from time to something from Europe but other then my Triumphs everything is US made. I see T buckets, trucks, muscle cars, model Ts and As and some old 30-50 land boats.

I get a lot of attention because I have something different but I can say that you can tell the muscle car guys because they walk right by and want nothing to do with these little cars.

What have most of you guys noticed when going to the weekly type get togethers at your local drive-ins, bars, clubs?

The other thing I have noticed at a couple of the car shows is they normally don't judge on European cars. You normally fall into the 60s category and then they normally have best of Ford, Mopar and GM.

Well, what do I expect from a bunch of farm boys who judge tractors, pigs and cows. (no offense anyone being I grow up here, I guess I am the odd one)

Tom,

That just goes with the territory. You do tend to see more british/european stuff at more cosmopolitan locations, but keep in mind what the average midwesterner saw as cars on the road in the 60's.

Here in Phoenix, where we have a lot of british/european cars, we *still* have to convince many of the shows to create a "foreign" car category or two.

And it's not just the british cars. I get much of the same reaction when I show up in my Studebaker.

Jody

Tom, basically it comes down to geography, what's available and what's popular. I see you are in Minnesota. I suspect few LBCs found their way there when new resulting in minimal exposure at best, resulting in little to no "fan" base or supply support. One way our beloved little cars gained popularity was following WW II when returning soldiers either brought them back with them or found ways to get them back here after returning. Probably not many GI's returned to Minnesota per capita again resulting in little to no interest. Kudos to you for championing the cause in a vacuum of support and interest!! Perhaps it is as Kevin Kostner said in "Field of Dreams" - if YOU build it, the LBCs will come! :laugh:

I think Peter's got it. I've seldom experienced much "snubbing" at local cruise-ins and car shows with my Herald; in fact, it's usually just the opposite. Even the muscle car, rat rod and T-bucket guys around here seem to at least admit foreign cars existed once and still do.

But then, the Albany, NY, area has always been a pretty good one for foreign cars, either because it's the capital of NY or because of our relative proximity to New York City. If you can name a foreign marque of any nationality, I'll pretty much guarantee it was sold new in the Albany area. We even had at least one authorized Fairthorpe dealer back when! Possible exceptions might include truly scarce makes such as Goggomobil or Lloyd or Tatra, but I suspect that anyone around here that really wanted one of those didn't have to drive further than the NYC metropolitan area to find someone who did sell them!

I have a feeling it's a few factors. First, the climate of MN most likely is a bit too severe for British cars. Or look at it this way. How many people do we know of who had the money to have their Triumph, MG, etc, for the good weather, then had a Ford, etc, for the bad months when our cars were new? My father had an MGA in 1958 that he had to keep in a heated garage a few blocks from his house or it wouldn't start during the colder parts of the year, and that was in Cold Spring, NY. Not nearly as cold as MN. He also had an older Chevy for awhile as a bad weather car. He used his TR3a year round, but it was a bit more reliable and tougher he says. Now, part of the appeal of many of our cars when they were new in the 50's-60's was you could do rallies, gymkhanas, even race. My father was a member of the Poughkeepsie Sports Car Club in NY, and Lime Rock was 90 minutes away, Watkins Glen was 6 hours before Rt 17 was built, and my father also frequented Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Thompson, Montgomery, etc. All were an easy daytrip away. Even if you didn't race, you could see a car like yours in action on the track. That's part of the appeal. I only know of Brainerd up your way, unless you come further south and east. Most likely it just boils down to American iron was cheaper, easier to get and maintain, and could handle the weather better. Plus, with no racing, not much enthusiasm was generated.

Pretty much the same thing goes on here in the northeast... A couple of weeks back a friend and I decided to drop in at one of the local "Cruise Nights" that happens every Friday evening in one of the local mall parking lots. I brought my Stag, he brought his Qvale Mangusta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qvale_Mangusta)... and outside of a Sunbeam Tiger and Lotus Europa that showed up, we were definately the odd-balls. For the most part it was all 50s,60s and 70s 'murican stuff... and mostly of the "muscle" variety. There were quite a few spectators however, that did come over and look at what we brought (mostly to ask what the heck it was), but the main interest was obviously in the Detroit stuff...

Still had fun though...

If you check out the recently posted picture of my TR250 (look at Random Gallery Posts) you'll seem my 1976 Trans Am in the background.

For twenty years, guys have been banging on my back door wanting to buy the Trans Am. They have to walk right through the car port where the Triumph is parked.

Nobody has ever asked about buying the Triumph. I don't think anybody has ever even acknowledged it's existence. They just want to know about the Trans Am.

Go figure.

It is good to know that I am not the only one to like these little cars. I did get one guy at the show on friday who told me I had the neatest car on the lot. He was talking about the Herald.

The attitude is not at all surprising to me. Back in the day, these cars received little acclaim on this side of the pond, relatively speaking; those of us who were fans were few, and it remains that way.

Quirky lot, we are! :smirk:

I have been to shows all over the Dallas Ft Worth Metroplex. Everything from your po-dunk parking lot shows to your indoor convention shows. I show a MUSTANG and feel out of place!



In my opinion, if your car is newer than 20 years old, it must be modified. So I run across a lot of classic mustangs camaros and such. I never cared for such muscle cars. Being a kid of the 80s, chevy belairs were classics while gtos and chevelles were old POSes that no one wanted, now for some reason they can go for 6 digit prices?!? The new cars kinda tick me off. If theyre SRTs, or cobras they show up to shows stock and win... ...well no crap they have excellent paint! The cars 2 weeks old! This is another reason I think such cars should be modified. 1) if a car shows looks like your average grocery store parking lot, thats boring, and 2)it just says to me that all you have to do to win anything is test drive a car and enter it. The last Fun Ford Weekend I went to only one classic won, and everyone else who won had a 3yo car or newer, most from that year. I didnt go next year, and surprise surprise, FFW no longer exists.

Probably the best shows are the podunks parking lots I speak off. Theres more variety. Depending on which ones I go theres typically some classic Zs, riced out scions, some Mitsubishi 3000GT, some VWs (typically new) and then a but load of domestics (Model As and Ts included), ... ...we also have some bikes and trucks show... ...but Im never impressed with either. To me, all bikes and trucks look alike, an a 30yo pickup just looks like an old truck to me. It has to be 50yo or older for me to even consider it special (even though I will still admire the devotion given to it)

Why I consider myself an odd ball? Well for the longest time my car was a v6, so many people thought the car was awesome until they looked in my engine bay. For some reason it was no longer cool, even though before it was. Now after the engine swap Im still stuck. Everythings blinged out, everythings souped up. I cant get any more HP out of my car and keep it N/A. But since there are so many 400+ hp mustangs out there it doesnt matter if my car can beat brand new GTs.

Its also a daily driver, so Im never going to have good paint. Anytime they offer a "street driven" category, I always loose to cars with 2/3 or less mileage than what Ive got. Once they had a daily driver award... ..went to a new (though altered) truck. You can tell he never went off road or hauled anything

I have never seen a triumph at any show, ever. I think I saw an austin healy or morgen once. I rarely see a ferrari or laborghini, but sometimes one may show up. Pretty much the coolest classic imports I see are either the 1st gen Zs or a beetle. Ive seen enough shelbys (new and old) and enought ford GTs to yawn at them. There are 2 weekly/monthly g2gs that Im sure would have a great diversity even though Ive never been. One is the DFWs cars and coffee. The other is ricekiller.coms DFW g2g which get more than 700 cars every week with everything from your "look at me Im special" mustang to a brand new alfa romeo. They do stuff in minnesota too

https://www.ricekiller.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=eed720852e9e3b3461195e9366264d9f&f=138

Ive actually stopped attending shows because I started seeing the same cars over and over, nothing new. But when I get my GT6 running, I dont care how unrestored it is, Im taking it. I know they'll go nuts over it. Because of what it is, it doesnt need to be fast, it doesnt need to be modified, it just needs to be. Ive already gotten so many compliments just by hauling it here and parking it, that I know it will be well accepted. And if I did ever enter, think about the classes. Ignore 60s car, Ive got import and subcompact nailed. These parking lot shows are participant judged, so all those gear head domestic muscle car owners are more likely to favor my car over your average scion or VDub ricer. They may also vote for the car as well since you dont ever see any of them. I know Ive only seen ONE, in a JUNKYARD, which prompted me to buy this one.

You must understand that there used to be a ford plant here and currently a chevy truck plant. So fords and chevys are everywhere, even if they arent american made. But it is that very thing that makes different vehicles popular. Why on earth would anyone in their right mind buy a nissan cube? because its different! Its so ugly and ridiculous, that Ive already seen 5 on the road! Even though people may shun imports (who can blame em with cars like that) they will admire a gt6. Why? because they dont know what it is. Doesnt matter how old they were in the 60s, they never seem to know what it is. Also, Carol Shelby was a chicken farmer in TX, and what do you think he did? took british cars and raced them out. And if he thinks theyre cool, any blue oval follower will too

It is interesting to get some more options.

I guess now that I think about it, the muscle cars don't do much for me at the shows either. I think the real fun of all these shows is the people you meet and the conversations you have.

I look forward to seeing more pictures of you GT6.

tomgt6 said:

I look forward to seeing more pictures of you GT6.

Click to expand...

You wanna see car porn? Sexy curves, bare @$$ metal, naughty holes? The cars not legal ya know =)

It stinks, we were going to do a bunch of welding this weekend, but the stupid 999 storn has hung over DFW since Thursday. ITS STILL RAINING!

Engines pulled, and pretty much everythings torn apart. Have to remill the crank shaft, then reassemble with new gaskets and such, rebuild the brake master cylinder and clutch cylinder and pretty much all on that sides done. Just gotta fix the body, POR15 the frame, underbody and interior, paint and then we can finally start putting the car together

My only beef is that the big all-types shows lump our cars in with replicas. Thus it is not uncommon for the top awards in 'Sports & Foreign' to go a 1927 'Bugatti' (VW) and a 1937 'Jaguar SS100' (Pinto). These were the top 2 at recent local show. The cars are being shown with the bonnets closed and no indication of what they really are.

Shoot, I wouldn't mind if we were beaten by a real VW or a real Pinto but popular votes are being cast by casual observers who have been misled.

Ah, replicars. How many people have you met who were so proud of their MG-TD (plastic, on a VW pan)? Now a Meyers Manx or other dune buggy-style car based on a wrecked Beetle I could understand, but.... :wink:

Geo Hahn said:

My only beef is that the big all-types shows lump our cars in with replicas. Thus it is not uncommon for the top awards in 'Sports & Foreign' to go a 1927 'Bugatti' (VW) and a 1937 'Jaguar SS100' (Pinto). These were the top 2 at recent local show. The cars are being shown with the bonnets closed and no indication of what they really are.

Shoot, I wouldn't mind if we were beaten by a real VW or a real Pinto but popular votes are being cast by casual observers who have been misled.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean, there was such a kit car at at this one which wasnt participant judged. It was judged on a points basis by real judges, which is why a 170,000 mileage 15 yo mustang has no change and his did... ...because everything on the points sheet was perfect. It really was a good car. I was annoyed that it won though, because yes, hoods and things were closed, so he technically shouldnt get any points for that, but no one else was in his class. So of course he won. It was also a ford only show, but I guess since the engine and frame was ford, it was ok... ...probably why he was placed in a class all by himself

Youve gotta be careful though, sometimes they let you pick your class. If youre running in import, you dont wanna loose to a pontiac pretending to be a lambourghini.

Participant judge events are interesting and have just as many issues as ones with real judges. Yeah, I may have a better chance at winning because someone not paying attention to all my body panels decides to vote on a car theyve only seen from 5 ft away, but some may be voted on because theyre parked closest to the judging/registration table, or they vote on their friends, or in cases where brand new numbers are given to each class (class A has # 1, #2, #3, class B has #1, #2, #3 rather than #4, #5, #6, then some people may get lazy and just vote for #1 in each class.)

Andrew Mace said:

Ah, replicars. How many people have you met who were so proud of their MG-TD (plastic, on a VW pan)? Now a Meyers Manx or other dune buggy-style car based on a wrecked Beetle I could understand, but.... :wink:

Click to expand...

I had one guy ticked off with me because I parked next to his cobra. (cobra of the non-mustang type) not sure if it was a real one or replica, but Ive seen so many I really dont care. One of those checkbook restorers too, apparently spent enough to make me question, then again if he paid someone to put the kit together for him, I can see how it cost that)

Anyway, I think he was actually threatened that my car (more stock, and as a v6) would steal his audience. Maybe he thought I was blocking the view of his vehicle, even though there was already someone on his other side... ...I felt a little better after 2 other cars parked next to me proving that yes, its ok for me to park there.

What a jerk, probably was a stupid kit.

Hi all,

I too have been to car shows with the Roadster a few years back and was treated with no respect, one was a hundred miles away and the interest while waiting in line was great. When I got to the registration desk I was told there is no class for your car and was turned away, not a happy camper.
This July I went to a American Antique Automobile Club meet in Spencer,NC for a charity event for the Cub Scouts. I was parked between a 40 Ford truck and a 49 Cadillac. with lots of 60,s Mustangs, a GTO and lots of other mods. I was never treated any better than this, most wanted the history of the Roadster and when I put kids in the dickie seat to take around the area they couldn't believe I would do that.
Well, they gave out best car for classes and longest and oldest, I was just happy to have been a part of it. Then they gave the Best of Show and and old English saying is "Bob's your uncle" or would you believe I got this big two foot thing in the front room. I was in shock and the wife cried like a baby.
One of the big collectors did offer be $30 grand to be able to put it in his museum, this did get the wife excited. NO DEAL!!!!

So, it looks to me like real car nuts are REALLY CAR NUTS, and love them all.

Reqards, Wayne

It amazes me that these so called car enthusiasts are so ignorant as to be uninterested in other classic cars. If they were real gear heads, they would at least show some interest in them. I haven't a clue what a lot of the old American cars are, except for the obvious ones and except for a few I wouldn't want to own one, but that doesn't stop me wanting to take a look at them and ask the owner some questions. That said, many of the check book restorers haven't a clue as to what their own car is about except that "it's got a big/small block V8", after that they are normally stumped - what a bunch of posers!!! The Cobra kit car people are among the worst.

If I am out driving in the TR I will wave at any classic car that is out there; 90% of the muscle car guys don't seem to know what to do about that.

We certainly used to see a lot of British cars here in western and central Virginia probably due to having a number of university and colleges around (UVa and JMU in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg). As a result you have some strong British car clubs and British car shows around here.

Scott

TRDejaVu said:

If I am out driving in the TR I will wave at any classic car that is out there; 90% of the muscle car guys don't seem to know what to do about that

Click to expand...

LOL - I've trained the kids to spot "Daddy's cars" as my 2 year old calls it. Anything vintage and both kids are waving to beat the band at the driver. Kind of cool to see people's faces light up like that when an enthusiastic give and two year old are digging their old car.