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TooTall
06-30-2010, 01:04 PM
Ok so here is the deal. I live in a small town of about 250 people. Our town event is held the weekend of the 4th of July. A few years back I set up a car show durning the festivities which I had 25 entrys but that started off a lot more stuff happening at our towns event other then just a beer tent and band one night with fireworks.

I am on the fire dept and so this year I was asked to do a fire dept water fight compition and even though it is this weekend I am already being asked if I would set up a car show for next years town celebration. Which I would be more then happy to set up, but I had some people tell me they didnt like the classifications of my classes. And after reading the Contour Muscle Car Tuner Car thread I figured you guys would be a good group to ask and as you have entered in more shows then I have(I have mostly entred truck shows)

So since I have a year to prep for this what would be some classes to have, before I had muscle, street, sport, convertible, then a truck class stock and modified and since we are out in the country I also had a antique tractor class. I was told I need a pony car class for the mustangs but after reading your post in MC OR TC a pony car is anything 71 and newer? is what I got out of it.

I just dont want to get too spread out as I am unsure on a sat of the 4th of july weekend what kind of turnout I will get again, and just have two people per class and enter in a class just to take a trophy(was what happend last time)

Ok so long post, I know and I am sorry. Looking for your input and well, would anyone be interested in a show that weekend if there was one. FYI its the little town of Deer Park you drove through if you came to the Amery Auto Cross between Baldwin and Amery.

p51mstg
06-30-2010, 02:13 PM
As a fellow volunteer FF, water fight person and car show chair... wow, we have a lot in common! Anyway, I think I have a way to keep the peace for your car show.

My wife and I were in the same boat a few years back, "our town celebration needs a car show", and I subscribe to the notion that "If it is to be, it is up to me". We started with classes and promptly spent a bunch of money on trophies. That's the way everyone else did it, so that's how we did it.

Some people griped a little, and other people just asked questions... "Why is that car in the modified class?", "Why is that car in the stock class?" Etc. We questioned how we should set up the classes for our 3rd year, when one of our sponsors (who happens to run their own 700-car car show) said we didn't need classes at all.

So, we got rid of our classes! We still have People's Choice, Mayor's Choice, Miss West Concord's Choice, and a couple other local celebrity choices. But, our trophy budget went waaaayyyy down. Last year, nobody complained about not having "any class", and there were no controversies about someone being in the wrong class. Best of all, we doubled our attendance.

But, there's one other little detail: We gave every registered car a lunch ticket, and sold passengers the same lunch for the same amount as the registration fee - five bucks. The meal cost us maybe half of that, which means we were able to donate more money to the local historical society to help them keep the doors open.

Maybe another way to look at it, car owners came for lunch, and we convinced them to all park in the same spot. We turned the car show into a fun place to be, not a competition, and we think many car owners responded to that.

One thing we little town shows have to do is pound the pavement, and my wife happens to be the sales rep in the family - she personally invites anyone we come across that might have a car. We also go to a lot of car shows in the area and hand out flyers. There are quite a few shows with 100-200 cars in SE MN, and we could easily hit 3-4 shows every weekend.

Any MNFords members who were cursing those West Concord Car Show flyers left in their vehicles during Apple Valley, sorry, you can blame me. But, it's a good way to get the word out. We're also all over the internet - every show listing I can find, no matter how irrelevant or unlikely it is that patrons of the site will visit us on the appropriate day.

We also found that having plenty of spectators is really important. Not owning a classic car, I didn't realize how satisfying it is to show off your hard work. I admit it, we were ignorant when it came to that aspect. Last summer, I took our old fire truck to a neighboring fire department's open house, and had those firefighters drooling all over it.

That's when it hit me! We need lots of spectators to drool over show cars! So we moved our car show closer to the rest of the action during the town celebration, and had lots of people complimenting car owners. I think that's another reason why attendance went up.

Here's our web site:
www.wcevents.org/carshow.html
I think we are getting close to "critical mass", and hope to have more insight into running a small-town car show in a month. We're learning as we go, and I think our perseverence will pay off in the next couple of years. If it doesn't, we'll probably be asking YOU for advice! :lowrider:

HMMRDWN
06-30-2010, 04:13 PM
What an awesome idea!

More suggestions for no classes awards....

You could also do a "Top" 10 or 21 or whatever you think matches your anticipated entries. Each car registered gets a number. And then the participants vote for their fav cars/trucks. No need for a class, all you need is the number.

Longest distance traveled
Kids choice
Fire Chief's Choice
Mayor's Choice
Best in Show

TooTall
06-30-2010, 07:56 PM
I will most definatly take that into consideration. Makes it much easier then trying to class them out and then if numbers are larger or smaller then I plotted out each class for there isnt big spaces in between groups, they can just start parking.

Last time I set one up I did attendance vote for the trophies, all the entries got a ballot and then any spectator that walked in were asked if they wanted to vote. That got people talking to the car owners more too, and it played a big role for some people on their voting. For instance one guy had a really nice car and there was another that was very close in the running. The second car won, and the only thing I can attribute it to is the people talked to that guy and he did ALL the work on the car and you could just tell it has eaten up his every last minute in that car. So he won, which made me feel great.

Something else I did last time(which was a huge hit) was a gift bag. I have personally participated in Carlisle All Truck Nationals, driven down to TX for a huge truck show, and a few others. I have always like the goody bags. I contacted a lot of huge auto parts dealers and auto care companies. I had samples from Maguiers, Stoners, Rock Auto and a few more small town local companies. Along with that I also had door prizes from local companies. I was extreamly amazed how well the bigger companys helped out and were willing to send samples with just some pictures of the event and such afterwards.

The more I am thinking about this now the more excited I am getting about it and its still a year away.

MadJack
06-30-2010, 08:34 PM
ya, i'd say that going no classes, and just numbered and choices lol

jaymz
07-01-2010, 07:16 AM
Frankly, I like a combination of BOTH systems. I like the specific vehicle classes (with a Fast and Furious or Street Truck class for my Lightning). The Mayor's Choice or Queen's Choice or "Best in Show" is fine, but if these people don't know Jack about cars, then you end up with them voting for a candy apple red Chevette.

P51: Hope to make it down to one of your cruise-ins someday...when Carl has his dyno there.

Jim

HAULNSS
07-01-2010, 07:45 AM
Some of my favorite shows are a Top 30 format. Several have the Mayor's choice, Dealer's choice, etc. but it doesn't really affect the show other than letting the host or local dignitary participate.

Good luck,
Randy