Observations at a local car show

[Ed Jennings]

I took my 67 and 61 to a local charity car show yesterday. There were about 110-120 cars there, including street rods, Model A's, Camaro/Mustangs, a few 60's muscle cars of various makes,a Studebaker Hawk contingent, a few race cars, and a number of 55-7 Chevys. There were a dozen or so Vettes, mostly new ones, several of which arrived in closed trailers! Now,neither of my vintage Vettes is a show car. The 67 is a real high class driver, with fresh paint, new interior, all correct (though not necessarily original) components. I spent hours waxing, polishing, cleaning- you know the routine. It looked really sharp. The 61, on the other hand, has a 20 year old paint job which looks good a 10 feet, but won't stand real close scrutiny.It is also a very correct appearing car, but not NCRS type correct. I did a cursory clean up on it and as an afterthought added a 30 min wax job on Sat AM.

Now to the point of all this: When the public started looking, there was a small but constant crowd of people around my car. Which one? Well, most folks stopped to take a quick glance at the 67 after they spent time looking over the 61. Same went for the trailered in C-3's, C5's, ZR-1's and GSes. They looked, after they got done looking at my slightly-rough-around-the-edges 61. There were a lot of kids there, and they barely noticed the bright red 67, but seemed to gravitate to the 61.

The car show made the late night news, and after showing a pan shot of the field they zoomed in on the 61 and ended the segment with a lingering shot of the interior.

Bottom line: While we in the Corvette hobby seem to prize the midyears above all others, the general public's interest seems to be in "the car like Todd and Buzz had". (I heard that more than once yesterday) I tried to tell one of the judges he was picking the wrong car, but the 61 went home with the trophy!

[Jerry Clark]

Re: Observations at a local car show

Hi Ed:

I have had a similar experiences but in both directions. I have a relatively nice 69 tri power , triple black 69 convert, my best friend has a 62 FI, black also, I polish mine for two hours, he wipes his down then disappears to look around. He admits I have better paint and a generally overall cleaner engine bay. He most always takes home the gold. On the other hand we both shake our heads when someone shows up with a NEW, as in off the showroom floor, C5 and beats both of us. This happens at local "drive in shows". When we attend best of class shows we usually get lucky. The interesting thing that I saw yesterday at a benefit show, they had an NCRS judge at a class show, Corvettes, Chevys, Fords, everything. The guy introduced himself, having seen my car at Cypress, Disney and Orlando, had a talk about Brent Furgeson untimely passing and then they designated him to judge the hot rods. Well a 99, C5 took the "Best Corvette" award, difficult;t to compete with a Vette with 70 miles on the clock for clean, the announcer described it as very clean, no wonder. Think I'll stick to Corvette only events.

jer

[Kent Lowry NCRS # 3053]

Re: Observations at a local car show

I've had the same experiences. Several years ago when I had a 61 and a 66 I used to take them to car shows at the local Malls. The 66 was a top flight PV'd unrestored original and the 61 was a restored second flight (not original engine). The 61 always drew the lookers. The 66 was only admired by a few. An interesting thing about the shows was the difference in interest between men and women. My 61 was usually parked just outside the entrance to one of the anchor stores. As the men and women would come out of the store the women would spy the vanity plate (ITSA 61) and the men would see the whole car. The teenagers would look at the speedometer and say"wow, look how fast it would go. I would wreck this thing in a week. Oh the fun of showing ones toys.

[Tom B.]

Re: Ain't the general public great...

Ed,

I've found the same sort of mixed responses from people at local car shows. Kids are the best and most excitable since, like Kent mentioned, they know how fast the car will go by just looking at the speedometer. I've even had a few think my former 66 was a 58.

But I agree more with Jerry, I'd rather stick to the Corvette oriented shows. At the local "mixed" shows, which year (or body style) Corvette draws more favor just depends on the mood of the day I guess. At those, the 68 L89 I have looks plain-jane "Corvette", and no one notices unless then look closely at the engine. But the engine is exactly what the Ford and Mopar muscle car guys will check, and those guys usually just leave without saying a word. TBarr #24014

[Jerry Clark]

Re: Ain't the general public great...

Hi Tom:

Thats because they know those aluminum heads mean SOMETHING. another disfunction I find interesting is the "Muscle Car" clubs look down on the Vette as a different animal as if it is a second class backwoods cousin, with 427 inches, three carbs and a whole bunch of horsepower available what do they think they are anyhow ?

jer