Louisville was great again this year. There was a larger contingent of late model pickups and daily drivers. Really wish they would reconsider the 30 year rule.
i too wish they would reconsider the 30 year rule. they were padding the entry numbers this year and another guy told me they did it last year. a guy in our club registered on friday and was given a number that was 3 from the bottom of a blank page. he signed it and flipped back a page and it was blank also, they then flipped a couple pages for the next guy. ive been there when there were a true 10,400 cars as reported and there sure as hell wasnt no 10,400 cars there this year. looks like their decision isnt working out for them as planned?
that is one sweet ride. gonna have to get me one of them name plates.. badge of respect.. please ignore my ignorance, but what is the logic in padding the numbers.. seems like the number of cars is the number of cars.. must be bunch of politics and crap.. chris
when i signed in on friday morning...last minute decision....there was no one in ANY of the pre-registration lines...about a hundred in front of me in the last minute decision line..yes, the numbers were fudged
It just looks good to see high numbers on the windshield registration cards. Doesn't make the count any better.
The numbers padding thing might be true in that they are telling vendors and sponsors that they are going to have XXXXX cars there. But you also have to remember that just like any event that does pre-registration probably 1/2 to 2/3 of the cars are pre-registered. That doesn't mean that they made it there though. So if you show up on Thursday noon and are car number 6000 and there are only 800 cars there there were probably 5500 pre-registered cars. The letting in the later model cars is running off a lot of rods and early customs in my view. We went to the local big event and did a walk through Saturday morning and it looked more like a back row in a 70's used car lot than a premier hot rod show. There was even a 71 Dodge Polara 4 door exactly like the one that was my grandmother's last car right down to the color and dog dish hubcaps.
I know local guys that register two cars and only have one just to get the buttons to get their friends in. Its cheaper to register a extra car than to pay to walk in at $14 a day if you are going more than one day. The locals are finding out they can enter about anything that rolls so why walk around in the heat when they can ride. I know one guy that brought his 86 chevy truck in all 4 days, no one said a word.
ok, thanks guys. i follow. i followed the 30 year rule thread from a few days ago and like you... even tho i only had the pictures to view such rare jems.. i saw some cars that really had no business as something i think people would want to see. oo yeah, i lived in wapato ( home of the big potato@), for 8 years in late 90s moved to az 1999-2000 dec/jan( I left when they banned buying beer on the res and as you guessed i lived on the res on red apple lane.. heh, only in yakima can you get a street named for one of there main crops, that and hops.. ).. small world.. from what i can tell from google maps.. yakima has not changed, and the old timers ( ie.. farmers are keeping out progress like they did back in the 90s ) lots of old chevy pickups out there tho, i had a 50's 5 window i drove back then had some old tomato logo on the doors. the standard faded light chevy blue, flat bed.. was a fun truck for what it was. cheap, and i drove the piss out of it. chris.
As a vendor it was the worst show from the commercial end that I have had. I talked to a lot of vendors this year and they were all less than excited about the show. It was my 17th year as a vendor and my last. The NSRA shows have helped make my business successful but I can't afford the Nats anymore. The number of people cruzing the vendor area was slim this year. I supported the 30 year rule but it didn't seem to increase the traffic, at least not this year. The older HotRod crowd have been the people that kept many of us in business and I didn't see as many of them this year. I have heard lots of stories about padding the numbers??? I will continue the smaller shows but Louyville is in the rearview mirror.
To get things back on track here... That's a great coupe sskustoms. I somehow must have missed it in my daily swap meet walk. Maybe next year!
What they have done to the nats is sad. The time to acknowledge their mistake is now, before any more damage is done. Support the vendors that support that sentiment!!
you can always go to MSRA's BTT50's with their 64 and older rule. Has always been a great show with 11,000 plus cars. And they have no plans on changing the cut off date of entrants.
hi jalopy ,maybe we will see you there in the mustang ??? just ribbing you ! great show been going forever ! maybe i will live forever ? see ya mike
I can't belive there were 10,000 cars there. I have only missed a couple years going to the Nats and always looked forward to having a great time. Last year was different and this year was my least favorite and will be my last. I belive Vernon and his guys have gone down the road in the wrong direction. I wish them luck, I think they are going to need it. Cheers! Mickm
Ok I can't hold it in anymore... I just don't get what everyone is so upset about and I've been going to the Nats all my life. If a car guy or gal can't go to a show with THOUSANDS of cars and hundreds of vendors and not have a good time then ? There have always been cars at the Nats that I didn't care for, so I walked past them. Maybe I walk by 3 cars now instead of 2 but there are still THOUSANDS that I really enjoy looking at! They aren't going to go back to pre-49, I don't know why people think continually suggesting that on an internet forum is going to change anything.
Whiners are going to whine. Period. Everybody seems to have opinions. We know they already have something else. Patronize what you like and skip the stuff that bothers you. Life is too short to waste it whining. BE positive and make everybody else wonder what you've been smoking, drinking, etc. The good news is that we've now got plenty of choices. There is at least one niche for anybody. Let's focus on having fun with old cars and trucks. JMHO Al
Bitch, moan, groan, grip, throw a fit, complain, what ever you have to do and then just get over it! It has been two years now since they changed the years. If you don't like some of the cars then walk past them or don't go! Every show out there has cars at it that someone doesn't like. If all of the cars looked the same then the shows would be boring. And to SSkustoms very nice car!
The wife and I noticed that the cars was down, but still had a good time seen old friends and made a few new ones. I think that "NSRA" guys knows they made a mistake, but they won't admitt it!! I feel for the vendors they pay big dollars for there spot and the people just wasn't there, nor was alot buying like in the past.
I think that the vendors could make more money by bringing more parts to the shows. A lot of the vendors have gone to shipping the parts and I know from working at 2 major street rod and classic auto parts shops that this causes people to not buy if they have to wait. The economy is also a big factor in the shows being down and vendors sales being down.
The Jalopy Journal
