I was wondering where everyone was Saturday night as well. I overheard someone saying there was another party somewhere else nearby. We were parked downtown both nights...had a blast both nights!
me and some buddies went to pops place lookin for them because he was handin out flyers trying to get a party goin out there and he didnt have much hot rodders either. herad a party in cerro gordo too but dont know how that went?
Thanks for all the compliments (and thoughtful criticisms). Ryan, thanks for your thoughts and helping put things into perspective in other posts. The Pileup was partially modeled after the LSRR, so it's only natural that we get compared to them. Likewise, there are a number of shows that modeled themselves off the Pileup (Symco Shakedown, TorqueFest, Rust Revival, etc), but are doing there own thing and improving on our shortcomings. I appreciate all the congratulations, but the Red Shirt Army are the ones that make the show happen. I'd also like to point out that our wives and girlfriends are the real unsung heroes of the day. They support us, whether it's watching the kids or chipping in and running things. They all helped and we couldn't do it without them. For example, if you liked Clinton, thank Diane (Craig/Kansas' wife). If it wasn't for her and Craig, we wouldn't have had such an awesome place for a pre/post party. Sorry I missed the post-party. It was the first one I missed, but I had 2 sick kids to help. I heard it was one of the biggest turnouts we've had at a post-show party.
"but I feel like it’s shows like the Hunnert Car Pileup and the Lonestar Round Up that make this world of ours. They are important…" These two are extremely important, popular, and respected events in this "world" of ours , however , let us all not forget the other equally significant music & car show events across the globe that helped create what we all enjoy today. A-Bombers old style weekend - Est. 1995 BilletProof - Est. 1997 Viva Las Vegas - Est. 1997 Road Agents Rumble - Est. 1997 Road Rocket Rumble - Est. 1999 Congrats on another successful event Chrome Czars ;-)
Thank you axle, it's hard to mention great shows in the midwest without mentioning the Road Rocket Rumble whom also on a give year can pull 800+ cars. Kudo's to the Czars on another great year and terrific show.
....and now that Goodguys Indy will be in September instead of June, I imagine the Road Rocket show is going to get a lot bigger quick.
Thanks a ton guys. All of you are what really make the show!!!! It's so great to hear the positive comments on the show. Everyone puts in a huge amount of work before and during. And this thread is appreciated more than you all know.
Nobody's going to mention the Symco Shakedown? We had 350 hot rods for our 2nd year and 15 bands including the Afterdarks and Deke Dickerson. Certainly going to be a contendor in the coming years. Sorry for the shameless plug but someone else started it Now back to talking about the pileup. This was by far the easiest year for parking inside. We didn't even touch the surface of space available. Everyone was great except a few frustrated people that were overheating. Totally understandable. Magnet and I joked briefly Sat morning about just "piling" the cars in instead of organized parking. It would make for a crazy hour and a half, but would certainly give the show a different feel. There were a LOT of cars overheating and having to wait in line for 1-2 hours to get in to a 8 hour show isn't very fun for a lot of people. Especially after driving 7-8 hours or more to get to the show. The food vendors and commercial vendors were awesome. I saw lots of great artwork and a lot of awesome cars. Some bad ones slip through every show, and not everyone agrees on some that don't make the cut. This goes for my show as well, but there were enough good ones to more than make up for it. Maybe next year a few more tents could be put up around the music stage. That would certainly be appreciated by the spectators. How about having the music stage in the middle of all the vendors? My only complaint was there was a ton more walking to do here than in Morris. My feet were fried by the end of the day!!! Having real shitters was nice. Hot stinky porta johns aren't my favorite. Is there any way to pre-qualify cars with some sort of sticker so they can just cruise through the gate preinspected? Sticker cars on Friday night at the pre-party maybe or have somewhere you can go to get a sticker on Friday night? Then any stickered cars can get in a special line(maybe the rear gate?) to get into the show faster? It would make gate inspections a lot faster and easier on the volunteers. If someone takes a sticker off and puts it on something not worthy, you can always kick them out during the day. I am sure a couple of those people would be easier to handle if you could park cars 45 minutes faster. all and all, good attendance and a good show. It is always good to see my friends from across the US.
I think I'm gonna try to make it up to the Shakedown next year...it all depends on where my wife and I end up living or if we are done with the move in time.
Pay attention, son! It's not all about you, but I did mention you earlier in this thread. I'm sick of answering these questions, but I'm going to do it again, since no one is listening. OTOH, maybe someone will come up with a way that will work. Do you want to set up the show all day Friday, then spend all Friday night inspecting cars while missing the party, then do it all over again a few hours later? Further in advance means that changes will be made before the show, cars will be changed because the approved car didn't get finished, or the owner decided not to bring it because of the weather, which means it has to be re-inspected, checked off a list, etc over top open headers. 10 seconds per car turns into 30-45 seconds. Pre-registration for a show in October in the Midwest doesn't work. We tried it before, and it dramatically SLOWED down the process. It's not the inspection process that slows things down, it's trying to get 1000+ cars through a gate and paid that slows things down. We got nearly all of them inside the gates in about 2 hours this year. The rest trickled in over the following hours. They did come in the rear gate. How would you handle the cars that weren't pre-approved who show up at the wrong gate? Or those that want to park next to their buddy who pre-registered, but they didn't? It would happen A LOT regardless of how many signs we put up. Nope. It dramatically slows things down as I've stated several times before. How would you do that once they've walked away from their car? Believe me folks, we spend a LOT of time discussing various options and looking for solutions to improve everything about the show, but you can't please everyone. We get 1000+ cars paid and through a gate in a few hours (2 hours this year!!). I still say it goes pretty smoothly. A 2nd gate would help... but then everyone complains about lack of control. You can't please everyone. I think the show went great. Not to mention it's run by 9 guys, 1 Dumb Whore, and 180 volunteers working in 2 hour shifts spread over 11 hours. I'm glad most people can come out and enjoy the show, and see past it's blemishes and glitches.
Thanks Axle! Billetproof gets left out of things like this a lot on this board for some reason. BTW, Chrome Czars, way to rule it yet again!!! It's very hard to make even the majority happy and it sounds like you guys did it!!
amen and thank's for a great show / next year I will be the guy that has shinny valve covers on for shoes but not on my truck we will learn some how thanks
Sorry Joe, didn't see that in your post. Does the fact I had the pileup poster on the front page of the Symco site for months and months make up for it? I love your van by the way, great billboard. For the size of the show, your right, it does go pretty smoothly. But, I saw a lot of people overheating this year. I don't remember that from Morris. Last year wasn't an issue but the year before was just as warm and I don't remember too many. I totally agree pre-registration won't work for the pileup, that is not what I am talking about. Just too big of task. I am not doing it at Symco for 2011 since it is a PITA! I am talking about giving the car some sort of ID so the inspectors at the gate wouldn't have to check as many cars in those 2 hours. If it has a sticker, bam, it speeds right ahead. If it saves only 5 seconds on 300 cars that is almost a half hour faster that the cars get in. I guess what I was thinking would be to have some sort of checkpoint to go to on Friday night to get stickered. It could be in Clinton. Nothing special, just 2-3 guys in a parking lot inspecting and stickering cars as they come through. Then at the gate all the cars with stickers go to a different line that just takes admission. Could it speed things up? I don't know. More work, yes, but that would mean that probably 500 people would get into the show faster? If you could let these cars in a different gate? that would certainly speed things up. We had LOTS AND LOTS of inside parkers this year. Some of those folks could work that gate next year.
The cars got in fairly fast though. Granted, some people overheated...but overall entrance went quick. I worked from open till 11, and before my shift ended, the lines were gone. If you take one line at a time, people are going to shift lanes cause the other one is moving faster...dont think so? Just look at any interstate durring heavy traffic. I think things flowed smooth as they are.
Some of the overheating had to do with the weather. lots warmer this year than last. We worked the main gate from 9 to 11. We ran out of cars at about 10:40am With two lines collecting money, marking hands and handing out information on the 3x5 cards the inspectors never had us buried. In fact, we had to pace ourselves or we would bury the red shirts parking cars inside. When you consider we processed over 1000 cars in short of two hours do the math. On just 1000 cars in a full two hour period, we would have moved the cars thru the main gate at a rate of 1 car every seven seconds. So we were doing it faster than that. I do agree with the inspectors working deeper down the double rows of cars. They can not wait until 9 to start. The inspectors need to start at least 1 hour prior to the main gate opening. It might create a new bottleneck but one will never know until they try.
Yeah, I didn't mean to be so gruff with my response, Cliffy. I was just sent an aerial photo taken at 10:30. The queue lot was empty. We would still be parking cars at 12:30 in Morris. The inspection/money/parking collecting teams did a fantastic job. They got a pretty good rythmn going, and that says a lot about a great TEAM effort. One of the problems with pre-inspecting the cars in Morris was that cars kept cutting in line and we'd lose track of who was inspected and who wasn't. The lot in the college is very confined so that will be less likely, so maybe it is possible. However, the problem still remains that 9 out of 10 cars that you tell won't get in will argue with you until they hear it from a "real" inspector at the gate. Believe me, I heard it year after year, and I wear a maroon Chrome Czar coat which pretty much says I'm running the show. We'll think about it. Getting cars in faster and smoother is important. Someone suggested taking entire rows at a time, so cars aren't idling waiting for their turn and over heating. Also a good idea. The first cars in the last line called will be pissed, but if it prevents overheating problems, it may be best.
I have said it for years that the single best show in the midwest is the Hunnert Car Pile Up - I do shows every single weekend and I have people ask me where I am going to be next and what are the best shows that THEY should attend............. depending on where I am at any given weekend - I will say - The Milltown, Rumblers Show under the BQE and Rust Riot if I am in the NE....TX is the Billetproof, Day of the Drags, TX Thaw, THEM! Invasion, the Hellions show and of course the big grandaddy of them all is the Lonestar Round Up, if I am in CA I say the Grand National Roadster Show, Santa Maria, Billetproof Antioch, and now the Long Beach Custom show.....but no matter WHERE I am I always include the Pile Up! I say if you ever need an excuse to come to the midwest - plan it around the Pile Up - you WONT be disappointed. Huzzah and 3 cheers for the Czars and the Red Shirt Army In case anyone wants to see video from the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHCv4HbHNaY This is the long 5 minute version - the shorter 2:30 version will be posted later today.
I had a great time at the Pileup! The Czars put a ton of time and energy into this show and it shows. What more can you ask for.... they get like minded hot rodders together, donate the money to charity, and go out of their way to set up the pre and post parties so people have a good time. I was a red shirt again this year and seeing the other red shirts tripping over them selves to help with the show might tell ya something. Their a class act. Thanks again Czars and crew for the hard work you guys put into it!
I have only been twice and loved it both times. The czars hit another home run as far as I am concerned. Later, Dick
Thank you chrome czars for another fun show. All the hard work and long hours of getting ready that you have put in showed. There will always be complainers, but don't let them discourage you. You keep making improvements, and will continue to do so, I am sure. Again, thanks for your hard work. It is appreciated.
The Frog Follies started out small and grew larger each year. It is all ran by 1 car club, the Eville Iron car club. from Evansville, In. They give part of their proceeds to charity, so the whole town of Evansville helps. Boy scout troops, girl scout troups, Civic groups, etc. It is a community effort. I'm sure the Eville Iron Car Club would gladly give helpful advice if asked. Just a suggestion.
I see mine next to a Honda!! Cool pic!! Did the media do that or did you have to pay to have it taken? Did anyone get a count of how many motorcycles were parked out front?? There was a TON when we left!
The Jalopy Journal
