Let's talk car shows

[Ronkh]

It's just HOT

 

[4u2nvinmtl]

For those of you who participate in car shows/cruise nights, when did you first decide your car was "worthy" (for lack of a better term) of entering them?

I've always loved going to them and thought it would be cool to be able to participate someday. Well, with the recent purchase of my GTO, my interest has certainly peaked. My Goat has a decent list of mods (nothing crazy though) and I personally feel it's gorgeous, but the last thing I wanna do is be that guy people are walking by wondering why that car was entered lol. I guess if nothing else it's a bit intimidating since I've never done it before and don't personally know anyone in my area involved in that scene.

I decided my car was "worthy" after leveling/removing the orange peel to get that show car reflection. I got validation by going to local (Mopar) car meets to get outside opinions on whether I should enter a Jeep into a car show at all. At every car meet I attended I had a few people admire the Jeep longer than even I would and then come over and ask how my Jeep doesn't have any orange peel. I've noticed some muscle car guys get kinda offensive when their up against Jeep at the car shows and at the track. I'm not one to get intimidated. Some people respect my car and my work and others don't regardless I have fun and that's what it's all about for me.

Some car shows play favorites and give a feel that it's 50% popularity 50% show car finish at most but not all call shows. I personally prefer the old timers car shows even though I'm young (30's vs 50's-70's) because they are in it for the prestige of optically perfect paint on amazing classic cars, but my Jeep is rarely welcome as it's a "modern Mopar" (aka black sheep) to the old timers but they are always respectful and brutally honest and I prefer that than stanced wanna be's giving me pointers and wiping on my paint. With that said as a Jeep SRT8 owner that's debadged, I frequently get that look by people walking by wondering why there's a Jeep next to the hellcat, but people who drag race know why...

If you live in a large city like I do you need to pick and choose your car scene IMHO.

 

[4u2nvinmtl]

Speaking of advertising. ...how do you guys go about advertising in any shows you're in?

The "end game" for me when I started picking up side work a couple years ago was to get to where I could kinda pick and choose what work I do and do more "fun" vehicles. Shows and cruise nights are obviously a good place to advertise, but I don't wanna do it in a "trashy" way

Typically I see stickers on the cars detailed by pros in exchange for a discount or free detail. One detailer once asked me to put his company logo sticker on my car when I detail it myself, I was appalled and honored at the same time (just said "no thanks"). Detailers normally just put some business cards or flyers (with pricing) under the wiper for people to take.