Car Show Lows and Highs

[GTO Man]

From the shows you attended this year what were the best and worst experiences? Will you attend that show again next year if you had an unpleasant experience?

Topic

[Garibaldi]

Hi Mr. Skeets, welcome to the forum!

Quote:

I was at the show myself.

Are you talking about the Janesville show?

[mr_skeets]

Thanks for the welcome. Yes I was helping at the Janesville Show. Again Gordie Boucher and I didn’t know there was a problem with the voting until weeks later some other people seen me at another show. I’m not happy that some people would be that shallow to such a think. I have been in touch with Gordie Boucher and told them of the concerns of other people of this. They told me ” It didn’t seem to look like that took place.” What ment was there wasn’t such a noticeable difference in the total votes casted with the amount of people that were there. No I do work for them. I have purchased cars from them. They are new at doing shows so they are learning what or what not to do. I for one will still help them and try to stop somethings that you all have voiced your concerns about. You to can help by helping them with ideas. Of coarse things will be a little different but with input from all, they would like this show grow and be liked by all. And you know as well as I do not all will be happy. I know they still plan on this Labor Day for 08 to have the show again. Sorry for late reply but with the weather ( I plow snow ) this is the first I been on the computer since sunday.

[circletrack]

Thanks for your input and suggestions. Shows are hard to put on and many of us attend several throughout the year and see good and bad. Gordie Boucher has some great ideas, I’m sure the show will get better with time.

The free food was very nice to see last year, I can’t remember any shows that do that, it’s usually the opposite with HIGH prices and poor food!

I’m a firm believer in that you should be able to only win in one class, that way everyone gets a chance at an award. The only rule against this would be for those shows that give “special” awards away like Police Chief, Fire Marshall, etc., as you have no control over how those are given out and the judging shouldn’t reflect that.

As for the Mustangs, I have nothing against them, I own one myself! And yes this is a Ford dealership and I don’t recall if they had a cutoff for years, so as long as you have a class for them there is no reason they shouldn’t attend.

I do laugh every now and then when I see the one new Mustang with all the awards and the albums of where they’ve been. No offense to that person, but I imagine judging a brand new car (or one less than 2-3 years old) is quite hard as there should be nothing wrong with it, unlike the cars from 30-40 years ago.

[mr_skeets]

We do have the same view about one award per car. That will be that way this year. They didn’t know that the Best of Show is dropped from the class they are in, now they do. The one new mustang that you are talking about with awards and book of places that it has been is my wifes car. She is proud of her car. She to is new to shows but that the way she is. The fact that it is 1 of 54 that was built is special to her. I myself don’t care about the dust collectors (trophies). We were a local at the show and won nothing, no big deal. The mustangs did have two different classes, 64-86 and 87-present. If the show does grow they would like to split alot of classes up. In 06 they were going to be only Ford show but figured to open it up to all makes & models. They didn’t want Anyone left out. So when you get flyers this year give them chance. Contact Sean Thompkins @ Gordie Boucher and give him some ideas. Not that they will be able to everything that all would like but it will give him something to think about. I to have ideas just from how other shows that we have to that seem to work. Got to go. I’ll check back tonight.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible that a local car club from the Janesville or Beloit or Rock County area could step up and volunteer and help this dealership turn this show into a great show for 2008?

I did not attend this show last year, but afterwards, I did hear people talking about the show and some of the negatives issues that came up.

Marshall

[moparkid25]

Quote:

Is it possible that a local car club from the Janesville or Beloit or Rock County area could step up and volunteer and help this dealership turn this show into a great show for 2008?

I did not attend this show last year, but afterwards, I did hear people talking about the show and some of the negatives issues that came up.

Marshall

I think Marshall’s got a good idea. No offense to you Skeets, but if you could get some extra help from people who know how a car show is to be ran it will only benefit you and Boucher for shows and attendance down the line thumbsup.gif

[jonmandude]

I will add that nothing, absolutely nothing, kills the reputation of a car show quicker than locals only voting for locals. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard “It seemed like locals did the voting and all of the awards went to locals’ cars. We won’t go to that show again.”

[Anonymous]

Jonmandude is absolutely right!

You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to Mayville, even if they have a 2008 show.

Even though I did get back a cursory response from the Chamber of Commerce that my concerns had been passed on to the car show organizers, nobody was willing or able to address the issues themselves from last year’ s show.

[mr_skeets]

Well you know that is what I personly don’t like about people & participant choice shows. It is in the back of your mind that voting for the buddy’s car. I can’t say that didn’t happen but I sure would hope that it didn’t. The was a car that drove all the way up from Chicago and had to leave early won his class. That wasn’t local, he was called and told he won and was happy. To date he still has not came up to get his trophie, but it is still in the mangers office. A lot of shows say that have to be there to get the trophie. They didn’t want to judge the cars themselves because they didn’t want people thinking that this car or that car won because they bought the car from them. So no matter what they or any show does someone not going to be happy. Talking we these guys tonight to let them know what people would like see. They don’t have a problem with making changes. They were very happy with the turn out they had. They want to have fun doing the show and hope those of us that come are having fun too. If it gets to be more work than fun who want to be there. I know I don’t. Again I feel bad that so many people were not happy. One thing I want all to know is that I’m not not taking offense to all your concerns. Please feel free to tell how you all feel. I really hope that some of you even all of you would give them another chance. But sure will understand if you don’t.

[jonmandude]

Years ago I was involved with a group called Around Mad City car club. We did a show and judged it ourselves. The way we did it was had a meeting and decided who could be the most unbiased. We also based our choices on those persons experience and knowledge. I judged suspension and chassis, another judged paint, another interiors, another engines. We all walked around separately and were not allowed to discuss our choices with each other. No one person could pick a car as a favorite. It took about 3 hours to judge about 50 cars.

I know now that many people do not like to judge. If they own a business that works on cars, they feel compelled to vote for a customer for fear of losing that customer because of a childish “why didn’t you vote for me” tantrum. It becomes easier to vote for the people you will see often over the ones that you may never see again. That is why I don’t care about awards, too many people take it too personal. This is a fun hobby and should be. It is not about awards or money, It is about sharing a passion for the thing called a car. That is also why I tried to keep the Lube award small and fun, not serious.

If you are going to have serious awards, you have to be serious about the voting.

[Eclipse_Tuner]

To be honest, I was not at all happy about the Gordie show….mainly because of the treatment we recieved from the some of the attendies, as well as the show personnel. The impression we got was that the import/tuner scene was not wanted nor appreciated there.
Not to mention hearing my wife be called a “hoochie model” by one of the dealership employees (jokingly or not) was enough to completely turn us off of that show.

[circletrack]

It sounds like there is plenty of work that can be done to make this show better. I’d take the suggestions we have made here and show it to those in charge and see what happens. I have a feeling this show was created to be something for the locals to do on Labor Day and grew from there?! I could be 100% wrong, but I know there weren’t many from around here that walked away feeling good about the show and I can’t say that about many shows in/around the Madison area.

[Author]

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