rustyroger

Ok, here is the breakdown of the show I attended last weekend;

9 Corvettes,
16 Trucks,
8 Mustangs,
10 Camaros/Firebirds,
4 Mopar muscle cars,
11 Cadillacs,
4 Lincolns -all town cars,
3 TBirds,
4 Buicks,
4 Fords,
7 Chevrolets -5 of them were 55-57 models!,
2 Mercurys -both Cougars,
1 De Soto,
1 Dodge non muscle,
1 Plymouth non muscle,
1 Gbody El Camino,
6 Dayvans, there were about 15 or so dayvans present but only 6 put on the showfield,
1 Excaliber, a custom body on a Caprice chassis as far as I could tell.

And 3 Oldsmobiles, a very nice late '60s 442, an '84 Cutlass Ciera in dire need of paint and my '87 Delta 88.

Ages ranged from a mint '50 Buick which took "best in show" to a 2009 Mustang.
The winning Buick was a trailer queen but I forgave the owner when he told me he had issues with the new tires he had just fitted and didn't want to risk a 400 mile round trip on them.

Just a snapshot of what may show up at a British show, how does that compare with your shows?.

Roger.

Intragration

Roger, as I read your post, the moment I saw there was a Ciera at the show, I looked to the side to see what country this was happening in, because there would never be a Ciera at a show here. Here are a few other things I noticed... You have more Corvettes than usually show up around here, I think they mostly go to their own private functions, many Corvette owners are generally a bit...standoff-ish...here. At any particular show, you'll also only see at most one or two Cadillacs. I'm also a Cadillac owner, they don't get nearly as much love here as the muscle cars and other special interest cars. As for Town Cars, if you're talking newer ones, I can't say as I've ever seen one at a car show my entire life. This is just not the kind of car that goes to shows around here. But it makes sense if you think about it, there are tons of Town Cars still on the road, even older ones from the 90s. There's no particular interest or appeal to them here, they're just transportation. Where you are, I'm sure they're more uncommon, thus the appeal at a show. You probably have a higher representation of trucks, and I don't know what a dayvan is. Other than this, it sounds like a pretty typical show around here.

rustyroger

Thanks for the feedback Mike.

Corvettes and Mustangs have their own one model clubs over here, Cadillac and Pontiac have their own national all model clubs too.

A lot of the expense of bringing a car over from North America is shipping so I guess it makes sense to bring an upscale car over as shipping is a fixed cost. I think that's why Cadillacs and Lincolns are relatively highly represented.

I'm surprised you don't know what a dayvan is, over here it means a Chevy G20 or Ford econoline or similar kitted out with side windows, luxury chairs and other bells and whistles for a luxury interior. I'm sure you have the same thing over there but with a different name?. Check out "Rebelvanners/uk" to see what I'm on about.

Over here just an American car (or "yank tank" as they are often called - sorry all you southern states guys) is a bit different, particularly pre '90s models so you get cars that would be in the running for trophies anywhere in the world mixing with some that wouldn't look out of place in a car park in a poor neighborhood. The Buick, a couple of the Chevys and a Dodge Charger were particularly outstanding, the Ciera was sadly in need of ore tlc than it was worth.

Roger.

Indy_68_S

Very interesting!

The 'Custom Van' craze was huge over here back in the '70s & into the '80s. I remember large numbers of them at car shows back then and there were 'Truck-N-Van' accessory stores all over the place.

Side windows, tons of interior/exterior lighting, body modifications, wall-to-wall(-to-ceiling) carpet, (water!) beds, chrome wheels, lots of complicated painting, and the ubiquitous oh-so-dramatic giant airbrushed murals on the sides (I'm partial to the 'Sacrificial Aztec Princess' or 'Fantsy SciFi' motifs ).

The interest level led to aftermarket manufacturers creating huge array of custom vans available thru regular car dealers. These typically hade huge side windows, plush captain's chairs, running boards and sometimes entertainment like VCR/TVs. By 1990 it seemed every other family had one for vacations.

These were known (at least around here) as 'Luck-Shree-Vayuns' and were advertised constantly on TV.

The SUV kinda killed them off by the late '90s....

fourtwenty

We are having our Nelson Roadkings show this coming weekend I'll try and get a count for you guys and by all means come on up for the fun. The baker street show is on Saturday and the toy run with a few hundred motorcycles is on Sunday. Cheerio

Creativeindy

Issues with tires? Pfft... sounds like an excuse to me. HAHA Trailer queens...

my72vert

Just got back from the summer Auburn swap meet and auction and was suprised by how few Oldsmobiles there were. I only saw 3 cutlass's and as far as parts went, there was even fewer. I guess thats a good thing, it makes all us Olds guys kinda special.

allyolds68

I was at the Log Cabin in Macedon NY two Wednesday ago. They get between 300 and 600 cars every Wed for their cruise night. There was a 65 F85, 67 Cutlass, my 68 442 vert, at least one other 69 vert, another couple 69 cutlass hardtops, a 69 H/O that had been run hard, at least 2 or 3 70-72's and another 3-4 78-88's G-body olds.

It was the first time I've been but will not be the last. The only problem is it's 50 minutes from my house which is a lot of gas, especially when I'm following my uncle in his 97 Carrara 2S

cutlassjoe

I was at the local A&W in Windsor Ontario last night. They had about 200 cars. There were 5 Olds' there. My 72', two 71's, a 69' and a 65' All 442's. We all parked together. It looked pretty neat surrounded by Chevy's, Ford's and Mopar's...

rustyroger

Normally I'd agree with you, however I helped the guy get his car off the truck it arrived on. He showed me why he wasn't risking driving it, I saw two of the tires were out of shape (they were reproduction cross plys). I wouldn't have driven my car to the nearest gas station on them and absolutely not contemplated driving a near perfect 62 year old car 400 miles. Apart from anything alse using such tires would render the car unroadworthy in the eyes of the law (quite rightly IMO) and probably invalidated his insurance too.

I also happen to know he has driven cars to shows in the past, he spent most of this season getting his Buick together and didn't want to miss out on the last major show of the year. I know only around 100 cars turned up, but we have just endured the wettest summer in over 100 years and tunouts have been way down all season.

Roger.