The Chrome Czars and the Hunnert Car Pileup #8

I hope it continues as well! Last year was my first year going and I had a blast, planing on driving the '51 down next year.

 

Don't fix what ain't broke. Just improve on what you have. Magnet said on here that the best way to get in was from the North. So after watching the rolling car show from the parking lot at the motel, me and the wife got in the billit laden Willys, which is my driver, and went looking for a way to get up north. I'm not good at finding my way around but I got there. Good thing I had a good point man back in the jungle or I'd still be there wandering around. My current point man (wife) saw another way over the interstate. Went north for a while and turned back to 47. Drove down to the fairgrounds and was waved right in. No problem.

 

Impossible. Grundy was jammed full and overflowing by noon. That's why we got shut down. There was no more room for show cars or spectators. A lot of people never got in after driving a long way. Things got pretty heated. Coming from the north helped, but even if half the people came from the north and half from the south, we would've still ended with the same problem.

 

I got a tip on the Savanna Il old Army Depot just last week. Right next to Mississippi River. LOL

 

Man I sure hope things work out, this is truely one of the best shows around here, and the chromeczars seem to be a great group of people as well.

 

yeah I wanna try and make it next year

 

Bring it to Chanute! Get a few old war birds to hang out for the day. It would be a cool mix.

 

Did the Czars ever think about just not advertising the show for 2010 and keeping it in Morris? Word of mouth only should get all the right participants to the event and will cut down spectators a bunch. Seems like the spectators are the main problem. The grounds handled the amount of cars this year just fine and there was still lots of room back behind the track for parking.

 

We hardly advertise now! Mainly just postcards at shows. We made the mistake of trading a sponsorship spot with CKDeluxe for an ad last year, but the crowds would have been huge anyway. Publications like the Chicago Tribune ran stories on the show and we had nothing to do with that. Morris just cannot handle it, and apparently, don't want to given their lack of support.

 

That's too bad, it seems like the local eateries, gas stations, convenience stores, and hotels would be all over the city to keep it in Morris! They have to pull in some major coin over the weekend.

 

You can't imagine what a bunch of disgruntled local folks can do to the dismemberment of a totally cool event. Old local folks that pay the majority of taxes and support money to the local economy can put a dampener on just about anything if they want to.
After attending all but the first Pileup I could see this coming and if proper planning is done it SHOULD enhance the chances of this great event being sucessful well into the future. I hope the Czars can overcome the growing pains of this event it's about the best there is for the type of cars and attitude this place caters to.

Frank

 

And maybe having the after party in a hanger would be too cool!

 

Man... Imagine life without Metallica...

Dammit.

OR... what if they stopped making chucks?

One of those things you hate to think about...

 

As posted by Hellfish at:
http://www.chromeczars.com/board/showthread.php?t=4726


The Big Announcement
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000; COLOR: #000000" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->As you know, we had a lot of problems with the Hunnert Car Pileup last year. The problems were a long time coming and we’re lucky they didn’t happen sooner and no one was seriously hurt. These events forced us to think long and hard about what the Pileup is, where it’s going, and where its future path should lead. We’ve always said that if we felt the soul of the Pileup slipping away from us that we would rather stop having the show than see it turn into something we don’t like. After some deep contemplation and heated debates, we’ve decided that we, the traditional hot rod community, are still in control of the Hunnert Car Pileup’s soul and destiny. For now. That means the Pileup will happen in 2010! October 9, to be exact.

Pileup #9 on 10-9-10, at 9am.

The chaos that ensued last year made it clear that we outgrew the Grundy County Speedway & Farigrounds. When 9 football fields are completely full of spectators and there’s a 4 mile backup by noon, it’s a pretty good sign that a location just isn’t big enough. So, we started looking for other locations. We investigated every suggestion on the HAMB, the Chrome Czar forum, and a few others. Our criteria was that the location have sufficient access, including multiple entry/exit points, onto multiple roads, have plenty of hotels nearby, be willing to work with us, have some character, and be available on the 2nd Saturday of October. All of the locations could handle the show cars, but only a few could meet the other criteria, and only one could handle the onslaught of spectators we had in 2009.

The new location of the Hunnert Car Pileup for 2010 is Progress City in Decatur, IL!

We’re excited about the new location. It will be a lot like Morris, but a lot bigger and better. It’s not as visually interesting as some of the other sites, but it can handle the crowds, and is big enough that cars won’t be parked on top of each other (so no more complaints about not being able to see cars or get pictures of them!), we’ll have room for more vendors, and will have room for on site cruising. And you won’t have to drive any where near Chicago traffic to get there!

The police, sherriff, site staff and city council are eager to have us there and are working with us to make the entire weekend go smoothly. They are even providing dedicated staff just to handle spectator parking, guaranteeing smooth sailing.

Decatur is about 120 miles/ 2.5 hours south of Morris… so it might even be warmer!

We’ve arranged to have the pre/post show parties at a very cool 1800s era opera house called Snapper's in Clinton, IL (15 minutes away doing the speed limit). We're working out an arrangement with the town to block off the ENTIRE downtown square for hot rod parking ONLY! There will be great, cheap food, and great bands. The vibe is very much like the Red Cent in Morris, plus they have pool tables and may let us have a bonfire. The whole town is into it.

We’ll keep you posted on the bar, hotels, and other details as we work them out.

We are working out a band line up now. Trust us, it's going to be good!

More good news: We killed the swap meet last year because it was too big of a hassle and we didn't have the people power to run it. This year, we asked the Bombers Car Club (Peoria, IL) to take over the swap meet and bring it back! They will be handling it 100%. We told them they could keep all the money as long as we didn't have to deal with the swap, and they voluntarily offered to donate all the proceeds to charity to keep with the spirit of the Pileup. How cool is that?

We hope to see you in October!
The Chrome Czars & Catherine

 

Thank you to all that care enough to see this show through.

 

Great news!!! Not only is it going to be just as cool, but even closer to home. I'm sure some people think otherwise but sometimes you gotta roll with the punches. I can't wait!!!

 

A little farther drive for us GMB's but it sounds cool. I like the idea of having downtown blocked off for hot rods only!

 

yes,

we got our rooms friday! this sounds like its gunna be good, cant wait!

thanks for keepin it going!

george

 

That's cool! Party at Plowboy's!!!

 

HuzzaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Its good news week!

Thanks guys for keeping the show going and all the good stuff you've done so far!

Glenn

 

Great! Now if I can only find time to put the ol' wagon on the road by then, this could be the best one yet. I've been rollin' shotgun with Berto since the shoebox went bye-bye. Anyway, really good to hear the show will continue another year, because as someone else said, it really is just a big, wierd family reunion.