This nonsense has got to stop...

Took my autocross car out to another local car show. Had a great time and saw a lot of really cool cars.

I also saw this:

What is this? Why? I've seen it before and it's always creepy.

It just needs to stop...

I had a customer today with a Ford Shoebox. He was taken back when I said I loved the cracked glass and rust on the door bottoms. Told him that mean it was a driven car instead of a show car. A car driven means way more to me than a piece of metal painted pretty. 

I really dislike the whole "pouty stuffed kid" movement at car shows, it creeps me out. Who the berkeley thinks those are cool or even funny?!

I stopped going to shows where the owners put out crybaby dolls.

No more bluehairs in poodle skirts, no more beach boys music, it's much better now.

You should have moved the doll under the front wheel.

The whole composition of that photo is ... 

The atomically crappy ebay "angel eyes", The "does not play well" sign, the wooden bumper with excessive bowties, the cheap tire shop "ultra" brand wheels, the sign bragging about his 3:55 gears. After all that, the crybaby is almost a welcome distraction

I knocked one over at a show about 10 years ago. Thought I hit somebody's kid. When I found out what it was, I wanted to find the "owner" and light it on fire in front of him. 

Wow. I think we may need like a whole box of Snickers for you guys. Has somebody missed their nap?

My hometown has a yearly car show in August. It's the same cars every year, that are only seen in public for that ONE day, with everything seen in the above photo. I stopped going a few years ago because I've seen the same cars 10 years in a row.

Now I did see a restored '49-'50 Ford sedan in black with white walls going the other direction in traffic. I about broke my neck trying to get a better look. That guy actually drives his car because I've seen it multiple times throughout the year.

SVreX said:

Wow. I think we may need like a whole box of Sickers for you guys. Has somebody missed their nap?

You have an irrational hatred of tiny homes.

We have an irrational hatred of crybaby dolls.

I'd say we're even. 

You probably think a Wile E. Coyote in the driver's seat of a Plymouth Roadrunner is still neat. 

I quit going to car shows over 20 years ago. Fuzzy dice and curb service trays were silly back then, so I see it's gotten sillier since. Although they are  'car people', they are not my type of car people. No doubt, there's some good owners and restorers out there that don't resort to gimmicks. I can talk w/ those folks and appreciate their enthusiasm and builds. Same indifference w/ the local Mustang club, I never joined because similar BS and it appeared like you had to avow hate for all Chevies. 

Former co-worker FoggerII used to bust my nuts over me buying new trucks, he claimed he couldn't afford a new truck although he bragged he had $30K in an old Ford show truck. Got to the point that I was ready to shop an out of state 'show winner' truck just to shut him up. Somebody beat me to it and knocked him off the show truck podium. I laughed inside. 

I don't miss car shows at all.

I -hate- the bullE36 M3 stories.

Like the time someone's dad melted the head off his Camaro because he was running airplane fuel.

Or the guy who had to tell me that he owned the ONLY factory twin-turbo 2nd gen Firebird Formula (that's what the two scoops are for!) because I had a Turbo T/A.

The best car conversation I had with someone was talking with a lady who told me all about the MGB that her and her dad dragged out of a field somewhere, cleaned up, painted and put back together for her first car.

THAT stuff is great to hear and impresses me a whole lot more than hearing about Bubba's non-existent "car that was exactly like that Packard except it was a Ford and it was green".

I'm not sure what that legless gimp doll thing represents.

But, I don't go to car shows because the stink of desperation combined with stacks of bullE36 M3 approximately as deep in reality as those sad lonely men's cars are in their imaginary past is berkeleying depressing.

Go to a vintage race instead. Men willing to destroy their dream car for a shot at 37th in the feature are much more interesting and exciting to hang with.

I'm a little surprised,  I thought the crybaby doll fad died out years ago - I used to see them all the time, but then they finally disappeared.

WHen I used to go to Nissan meets, there was a guy who had a turbo 6th gen Maxima and he did it up with the stuffed kid. Never really got it, personally.

WTF am I looking at here?

^^^not a car show guy. 

Then you guys would probably HATE the tradition we had at the SCCA Runoff back 20 years ago when it was at Road Atlanta.  Late at night on the back side of the track at turn 7 we would stage DEAD CAT BURNOUTS!

People driving through would stop and we'd pour small amount of motor oil in front of their rear tires.  They would proceed to do a burnout.  When it got really smoked up we would toss a stuffed toy cat under the spinning wheel and winner would be the person who launched it the farthest.

Ahhh, youth...wasted on the young

No, that sounds like fun!

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :

Dammit!

I thought we invented that back in the late '70's but pumpkins and with dead squirrels!

Haven't seen that - guess I don't hang out at that kind of show.

If I did see it I'd be tempted to make up a miniature noose and rope attached to a fridge magnet. The owner would come back to find the doll hanging from the end of the hood.....

Spot on, OP. I too am sick of "car shows" with doo-wop music, stuffed crying kids, and cars that haven't seen rain (nor any significant changes) in 20 years. That's why there's only 3 car shows I go to anymore.

Team Nostalgic has a car show in Chicago every year on the Sunday before Memorial Day, specifically targeted towards 1990s and earlier Japanese cars. Instead of doo-wop music, they play hip hop and "Puertorican Polka" as I call it. Instead of grandpas cruisermobile, you see everything from restored Celica-Supras to V6-swapped Civics with superchargers sticking through the hood to drift cars to "survivors". On top of this, they have a BBQ and a raffle. I've gone the past 3 years and won't miss it next year either. (if you're interested, shoot me a PM)

The other show I will attend is the local Quaker Steak and Lube cruise in. It doesn't hurt that Thursday is all-you-can-eat wings night, in addition to a live local band (I've heard country and rock) and cars that you can tell actually get driven. Sure some of the cars are the same every time, but I've never gone and not seen something I've never seen before. Couple this with a car-centric atmosphere (my local QS&L has a room with a front-engine dragster hanging from the ceiling, and a "Corvette room" with a 'Vette on a 4-post lift in the middle of the dining area) and I make sure I go at least a couple times a year.

The third "show" I attend annually- well this is kind of cheating but- is a car cruise that I personally host. For four years now, we start out at a local park and cruise about 20 miles to a state park where we cook out, shoot the breeze, and this year we did some hotwheels racing. It's not very big, but it's open to anyone and everyone who wants to come out. I think this year we had 12 or so cars, ranging from a wildly modified 1953 Studebaker (cheating again, it's my dad's cousin, and the car used to be mine) to a basically stock newish Mustang. (if you're interested, shoot me a PM)

So if any one of you reading this are in charge of hosting car shows, let it be known that if you want to appeal to the younger crowds (which you do unless you want to die out), get rid of the 1960s music. I'm not saying you gotta play Snoop Dogg or Ariana Grande but for the love of God, at least update to 1970s or 1980s music. Otherwise we'll just keep avoiding your shows, and as the old codgers with the restored tri-five Chevies die off, so will your attendance.

In reply to TheRX7Project :

The Japanese one would be worth a road trip.   

There's a great show in North Vancouver every father's day weekend. 

French and Italian cars and motorcycles only.

Nice bunch of people to talk to and plenty of weird (french) and sexy (italian) cars to look at. I usually get conned into dragging one of my bikes out there.

Shawn

You guys think those are bad? There's a couple back home who take a pair of them - boy & girl - roller skating. All. The. Time. It's creepy as berkeley. 

Oh oh and speaking of car show nonsense, next weekend starts 10-days of Crusin' the Coast(though to be fair they're having 2.5-days of autox too), but people are already showing up. I saw this monstrosity today, driven by an old white dude. 

It was an Excursion, with the ass end of a Super Duty pickup(presumably attached to the receiver), that had a parts washer tank & other hardware mounted in it, pulling a trailer made from the doghouse of a 40's Ford, on obnoxious billet 20"+ wheels.