Some friends of ours stopped by last night and the disscusion turned to car shows and all the great ones we have gone to. Then the talk turned to shows that were truly awful. We had both gone to different shows that were really terrible. Nearly every show we have ever attended was well organized, clean and fun. But there is one that stands out in my mind as the the most horrible car show experiance I have ever had. It goes like this: About 9 years ago we got a flyer for a car show that was taking place fairly close to where we live. It was to be a two day show with the proceeds going to the local Ambulance and EMT's in the township where the show took place. Instead of awards, the top three cars would recieve cash prizes. I was pretty new at the car show scene and it looked like fun, but there were a few red flags that did catch my attention. First was the day of the show. It was to take place on the opening day of trout season. Here in Pa that is in early April which tends to be cold and rainy. The second was a space on the flyer asking how much your car was worth.:16suspect The price ranged from $10,000 to $50,000. I skipped that part because how much my car is worth was none of thier business. If they did'nt like it they could give me back my $15. On the day of the show we showed up at where the show was to be held. It turned out it was taking place back in the woods in a housing development! The guy at the gate was the one putting on the show. The first thing he asked me was how much my Maverick was worth. I told him the only ones who needed to know that are me and my insurance company. Why did need to know that? He said he did'nt want any JUNK at his car show, all the while looking at my Maverick like it was a piece of crap. Well that pissed me off and I demanded my $15 back. He would not give it to me. I gave him a choice: give me back my money or let me pass, because if he did'nt do one of the two I was going to leave and call the police. He threw up his hands and told me to go in. I should have just left. The ' show ' was taking place in a part of the development that was under construction. The ' road ' where the cars were being parked was nothing but rocks, gravel, water filled potholes and mud. All the cars were being parked in the mudhole that was the shoulder of the road. The only bathroom facility was a port-a-john on the site where a house was being built. You had to climb over a rock pile to get to it. The electrical line he had provided shorted out the DJ's equipment. He got pissed and left. There was no place to get a drink or something to eat. The gnats, black flies and mosquitos were eating everyone alive. It was an absolute joke! We stayed about an hour and a half. In that time we saw car after car drive down that muddy road, turn around and leave. We finally had enough of this crap and did the same. As we left the guy putting on the show was fuming because people were leaving. He was expecting hundreds of cars, but when we left there was only about 25 cars. I wonder why? We did not return the next day, but someone we know did. They told us that the guy's demands to know what peoples cars were worth plus his insulting behavior had people leaving in droves. As it turned out, NOBODY came back the next day except the poor EMT's the show was supposed to benefit. Even the guy putting the show on was nowhere to be found. I have no idea if anyone ever won the so-called cash prizes and quite frankly, I doubt if anyone even cared. That was the worst car show I ever attended. What was yours?
The worst car show I had gone too was the "huge" anual local Pismo Beach Car Show. Really. The show was great. Theres great food, great cars, good music, nice people, and I love the beach (I surf a lot) The only reason I dont like it is because I completely disagree with who wins it every year.
My old Ford club went to an indoor show years ago, and right behind our row of cars was an indoor hamburger stand, the exhaust was venting inside the building, and the grease was flinging all over everyones cars. We were at the back of the building, but made them clear a path so we could leave, some guys had Shelbys and Bosses, so they didn't want the grease on them.
I'd have to say the World of Wheels show was the most unenjoyable I've been to so far. Me and some guys I used to work with went last year. Had to park about a quarter mile from the building, then once you finally get to the building, you get to walk what seems like another 3 miles through the Georgia World Congress Center, up and down about a dozen escalators. Too much money to get in, and then once you are finally in there, there isn't really anything super special to see. The old saying comes to mind: it was real, and it was fun, but it wasn't real fun...
I haven't really been to many bad car shows, been to a few great ones tho. Keep up the "bad stories" so I can read and laugh
The one that comes to mind...and it wasn't really that bad...just had some annoyances, was an indoor show at the Biloxi Coliseum. It was a Mustang and Ford show on one side and Corvette show on the other side. The clubs split the facility to help out on costs. Well guess what...both clubs had their own p/a systems. They spent the entire weekend trying to talk over each other. And I tell you what else...a few of those Corvette guys are okay but the rest of them will tell you real quick that their s### don't stink. They were real aholes. You could walk over to their side to see some of their cars and they would just ignore you if you had any kind of Ford related shirt on. We actually set some of them up with different people to see if they were actually doing this...and they were! :16suspect Oh well...I think/hope the Mustang club learned their lesson.
I went to a show last year that wasn't a real good experience. First of all, the show was in the parking lot of a gym and was on a weekday and started at noon. I guess the show was designed for folks laid off of their jobs or for house wives and third shift workers. I get there after work at 4. I see a Dodge Truck with a boat load of trophies in the bed. A whole lot more trophies than the dozen or so cars on display. I parked and started to look at the cars and I quickly notice that I am the only spectator. I also don't see many car owners with their vehicles. I saw 2 cars with Mustang II suspensions, that I was interested in, but couldn't find any owners to talk to. It turned out that they all had lawn chairs clumped together between 2 cars and they were just partying away. I went up to the keg club and asked "who owned the red Falcon and it gets real quiet when one guy says "I do - what do you want?" Now everyone is staring at me. I just said "nice car" and walked away. I did see only 1 car owner, away from the group, waxing his Corvair. I went over and talked to him for a while and finally left. As I'm leaving, I'm realizing what a waste of time that was. Since then I have had only good experiences.
Right! But at least we did get a big laugh out of the "donked" out Corvette! We couldn't believe they let that guy in! It was horrible! A purple 72 with 24's...almost looked like a 4X4.
Here's the story our friends told us about the worst car show they ever attended. A new car club was hosting thier first car show and they would be judging the cars. The club had rented a nice park, the weather was good and the turn out was pretty good. Along with our friends Mustang, they guessed there was around 150 cars or more in attendance. Everything seemed to be going rather nicely, and then all Hell broke loose. The club's president got into a very loud verbal argument with the other club members. Apparently he was not happy about the way they were doing things. Everyone at the show could hear the fight and our friends really thought it was going to come to blows. Eventually all the club members packed up thier things and left, leaving the club president on his own. Now this one guy had to run the show, check in the newly arriving cars and park them in thier correct classes, judge ALL the cars, tally up the scores, present the awards and tend to the after show cleanup all by himself...AND he had to do it all in less than three hours. The guy was totally screwed and royally p*ssed off. In the end he resorted to recruiting some of the car show participants to help him do the judging and score tallying. Then the PA system died during the awards presentation and he had to scream out the winners names so they could hear him. Our friends Mustang did win an award, but they were almost too scared to go get it because the club president looked like he was about to start throwing the awards at the winners. Our friends don't know if the club ever got back together again, but they swore if it did they would never go back to any of thier shows.
there is a free car show a few times a year at burley park camp grounds near howard city MI. Its combined with a huge flea market /swap meet. We just drive the Gran Torino into the car show and park, then go to the flea market. No waiting 45 minutes in line, and no cover charge to get in. therefore no owners are ever at the car show, they are all shopping.
