I always thought that a no fee car show would be the ticket. If the cars are the show, why do the owners have to fund the show? Maybe something like a poker derby/scavenger hunt, instead of just sitting in an asphalt parking lot. You can have a few impromptu shows at your checkpoints, make a day of it. Remember our cars look a lot better in motion, the sound of the engine, the smell of exhaust. Being acknowledged for building /owning a special interest car is great. Normally the high buck cars win the judged events, which eliminates a lot of peoples chances. It can get really competitive & you can get a shit load of bitching. At that point no one is having fun, organizers & participants alike. IMHO.
I agree, I’m getting a lot of ideas and am going to change a lot of things in our next show! Still need more ideas and opinions guys! Bones
Thanks Blu, I want a car like this since I was a kid. Looked for years, all over the nation, kinda, looking on c-list , books, driving around. Never found the right combo of condition vs price. Even bought a Station wagon to drive while looking for my dream car. Late last year my brother in law does a job 20 miles from my home, asks the homeowner whats under the car cover? He shows him the Galaxie 500 XL, he calls me, I drive to the next town and I haggle him down from the $4000 asking price to $3500 + new battery and drive it home. Complete new suspension, new exhaustion, new interior, good paint, new wheels and tires, ton of parts, no rust, Oklahoma car. I was pleased. Bones
Well guys, I got a lot of opinions and thanks for everyone that responded. I think, based on your input, I’m going to go with peoples choice, and have voting cans at every car that wants one. People will get voting tickets depending on thier participation, ie tickets for t shirt, food purchases, entering your car etc. I will have for the top car,our state president pick it and have other important folks pick others and have plaques for the top ten. Not chiseled in granite yet, but that’s what I’m leaning toward. Again thanks for Your input , Bones
Late to the party, but here's a few thoughts.... One show I regularly goes to buys 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies, they use the same trophy design every year for every class. They have about 20 classes on their list, if there are only 1 or 2 entries in a class sometimes they will combine that class with another that is close to the same,for example they split Camaro and Firebird 67 to 69, 70 to 81, 82 to 92, if only 1 or 2 show up in 70 to 81 class they might put them in with 67-69 class. There is also a best of trophy for similar types of cars, street rods, muscle cars, pickups, etc. Then also a best of show award, kids choice, and local officials choice. Club cars are not eligible except for kids choice, judges are police, firemen, a club member or two, and sometimes a celebrity guest. Not everybody gets a trophy, but you have a good chance since they go down to 3rd place. Another one I like has already been mentioned by Anthony and 26T, they have free cruise in's through the summer then the big show at the courthouse in Oct. Never an entry fee, no judging, just voting during the Oct show for a few awards, but they usually give away around $5000 in cash in anything from $20 to $100 at a time.
The lower the entry cost, the better chance of more cars. I won't go if I know it's a twenty dollar entry fee. Save the money on buying trophies and also charge less to get in. Or tell drivers the entry charge is a "donation" to the charity and some may give more than twenty! There is a monthly show here that only charges 5 dollars to park/show your car, it is open to all vehicles, but, last month hey had over 2,400 cars show up! On social media, most comments on that show are that "it's only five bucks" to go. My to cents : )
Another one late to the party, but here's my .02 worth.... Our club has been doing a show for 30 years (this year will be the 31st) so we've definitely learned some things not to do... LOL... We also started doing the local Chamber of Commerce show last year, will do that one this year again. If you're doing it for charity, make sure that's known. Do a budget, figure out what your 'break even' point is. Venue costs, insurance, dash plaques, awards all need to be figured. The more 'open' the show is i.e. late-model, imports, etc, the more money you'll make. While every participant gets a door prize ticket, we also do raffle items, show T-shirt sales (which feature the Presidents Choice and Best in Show winners from the previous years show) and a '50-50' drawing to generate some extra cash. Judging. This can be a can of worms if you're not careful. Avoid phrases like 'best' or 'place'; 'club pick' or 'favorite' works much better at avoiding hurt feelings. If your sponsors or 'celebrities' are going to pick awards, make sure they pick first. Stay away from awards that require some sort of provenance (like 'best homebuilt') unless it can easily be proven. If judging is done by the club, do it as a committee or at least several members for each award, particularly if you have a 'Best of Show' award. 'Peoples Choice' is the one that can get sticky; ballot-box stuffing has occurred, it's tough to police that. I'd recommend limiting that category voting to show participants, not spectators but YMMV. And whatever else you do, don't give awards to the sponsoring club cars. Show 'em, sure, but if you award them it'll cause problems. Awards. Have lots of 'em... The more you have, the less chances of pissing off the trophy whores. I know, who cares about them, but they'll bad-mouth your show if they come away empty-handed and that can hurt future shows. We typically hand out between 40 and 50 awards, with as many different categories as possible rather than multiple 'place' awards in limited categories. 'Club participation' awards are good, that helps build traffic. Make sure you have more than one of these in case there's a tie. And wall plaques have become popular; rather than a cheap plastic trophy, these have been well-received at the shows that use them. Home-made 'unique' trophies are popular too, but we reserve those for 'special' awards as it's tough to come up with a lot of those.
I second this, I live close enough to attend, I'm 70 and this music predates me! "PS.....please do not play never ending poodle skirt music"
Been going to shows for many a year and could really give a dam about trophy's. But One did get my attention a couple years back at a show. My car was picked as the VET'S CHOICE done by a group of vets from the local VFW. The award was a very nice American Flag......Was the best award I have ever won & I have got more than my share over the years.
Our “ profits” go to our charity, a local group that provides for children with Cerebral Palsy. If you have ever seen, and I’m sure you have, the work these groups do for these kids, I’m sure you would/are impressed. We keep our cost to a minimum through donations from local businesses and volunteer work from our our Eagles, so that almost every penny of every dollar goes to our cause. The treasury of our organization also makes donations to the cause. We try to raise money and have a good time, a win win I think. Bones
I knew I could count on H.A.M.B.ers for good ideas, got a lot, going to use a lot, our show is going to be different this year from last year because of you guys. I thank you! But.... don’t stop now, I read and consider EACH post. Bones
Ihave been to shows that have awards from the first Mercedes ever made to Mopars from 1969 to 2200. Way too much. If I was the Boss there would be one award for the whole show.
Easy. Lay them in the table. First come first serve. Just like dash plaques. Give me a compliment any day.
I'm putting it on my calendar so I won't forget, looking forward to it. (Edit I don't show a Sept. 31 on my Iphone?)
Lucky man, I've been kinda looking for one myself. I've had a couple convertibles but like the look of the hardtop or sedan better. One of my earliest memories is of my Dad's 65 LTD. Enjoy!
Charley, I hate getting old!! It’s the 29th, not the 31st like I posted. I went back and change it. Thanks
To raise a bit of cash for your trophies (if you're doing trophies) go to your local businesses and ask for donations for trophies, tell them that for a donation of $xx you will have a trophy engraved with their business name as its sponsor. When I was involved 20 years ago, a 12" tall trophy cost us $12, we sold sponsorship for $25 each or 3 for $50. We would have our supplier make up trophies from her left over stock of all different colors, (price break) then we had the participant pick the one they wanted. (no judging) You'd be surprised how many people made a serious color choice to match their car, even had people ask if they could take a trophy to their car to check color, then bring it back and chose a different one. We sometimes had a John Q. Public's choice. We would chose someone out of the crowd, often an older couple not normally involved with car culture and have them chose their favorite. One time when asked why they chose the car, the gentleman hemmed and hawed then differed to his wife, She very openly said, indicating her husband, "Joe had one just like it and I lost my virginity in it." Doh, more info than I wanted, we didn't announce to the crowd why she chose it. We also would announce a surprise cruise after the show, sometimes only a few miles to a picnic area or park where we would have a picnic for anyone that wanted to follow. (spectators welcome) All the fixin' were on us, hamburgers, brats, (Wisconsin) hot dogs, chips, baked beans, etc. We would put a donation jar out, and easily double the money we spent on food. If possible, we would have it on a back lawn of a bar, (arranged ahead of time) then beverages were purchased through them. Always remember that although you have a cause you are trying to raise money for, asking other businesses for support, then doing a bit of advertising for them keeps the support coming year after year. Most of the money we raised stayed right in our community as we helped the families of children with hardship. (Often, but not always terminally ill) We realized that often there are considerable travel expenses to and from doctors and hospitals. Insurance and Make a Wish don't help with those expenses. A simple $100 gas card from our club brought a smile of gratitude to many faces in our community. Businesses ate this up.
That’s one good thing about our show, we have it at our Eagles arie (club house) parking lot. Refreshments are available, wink wink. Come on down to our show, I’m going to one in your state this year! Bones
We have members in our car club that swear they aren't trophy whores but damned if they don't pick a trophy show over a non trophy show. Then at meetings we talk about various shows that members attended and the size of trophies gets praise as does the size of goody bags. This year we will be giving out trophies because too many people will choose a competing show if they give out trophies. Hopefully I can convince members to have a garage night and build some anti-trophies (car parts). Much cooler than soccer mom trophies. We will let the participants judge the top 15. The number on their card can not be any of their picks. No voting for yo self.
I personally do not like car shows that give out trophies of any kind but this thread makes me think of my favorite car show story involving fellow Hamber Josh Shaw. My son Scott and Josh were at the Columbus Goodguy's driving around in Josh's chopped 32 sedan. There was an area marked off as " Pro's Picks only" and Josh promptly drove around the pylons and into that area. When he was stopped by some official he was told "Hey buddy, this is a Pro's Pics only area" Josh quickly replied "Nose Picks? I don't want to be in the nose-picks area" and drove out laughing. I laugh every time I remember that incident.
...try this, set up your trophies, have the 'contestants" use the silent auction idea to bid on the trophy they want to take home, highest bidders win their trophy, they're happy and your club makes more money,...really, I'm just kidding, overall trophies are just someone's opinion of a certain car,...they don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. ...when you go to a show, your own car should be your trophy.
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