I am working on show car classes for our upcoming car show and was wondering exactly signifies prewar cars. I have been getting conflicting years. So far, I have heard 1940 and earlier, 1942 and earlier, and 1945 and earlier. Additionally, some say it is the body style rather than the year. Any help would be appreciated.
I've heard that 1948 is the usual cutoff line, because for civilian production, the 46 and 47 design was unchanged from 42. There was a pent up demand for cars, no need to restyle. Not sure how accurate this is across all makes.
Make up your own rules. Who's gonna question it? If you're running the show, you make the rules and folks have to abide by them. Just go with an arbitrary year (say 1941 for pre-war since that's really when we got involved) and 1945 forward for post-war. Make a war-years class for anyone with a 1942 civilian production car or for any true military Jeeps, Deuce-and-a-half, staff car, tank, whatever..........Should be a relatively small class but, promote it on your fliers as a way to honor our military history and those who wrote it. Give them a special parking area and invite any local military to attend.
I gotta agree with @lothiandon1940 '41 and earlier is prewar, unless you are going to have any european cars in attendance, then 1939 would be more suitable. '42-45 would be a small but interesting class of war-time vehicles. '46 and up, while many are similar to their pre-war counterparts, are still different enough.
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