This weekend my wife and I went to the first car show of the year. I know what you're thinking, "You lucky dog, you live someplace warm." Yes I do; the very tropical Midwest, and in this tropical paradise I live in the best weather of all, Ohio. Where as other states in the Midwest are much colder, have way more snow, and winter lasts longer, Ohio gets the prize for crappiness (like happiness, but it ain't). Ohio warms up, then snows some, then has some freezing rain, then switches to some cold for a few days, then warms up and rains. There is now pattern or reason to our weather, it may even do all of this in one day! Enough about the weather. The car show we went to was the Cavalcade of Customs in Cincinnati, an indoor show that I really enjoy. Besides getting my automotive fix, there are some really cool cars there to see and they are super clean, and I get a chance to talk to other car guys. To me, it's like a big cruise in, guys hanging out, bullshitting about cars, and checking out cool rides. There are some over the top cars and trucks there that you know never get street driven, rare cars that get rolled out of the garage and into a trailer and never get driven anywhere, race cars, and regular guys cars that they can't wait for summer to get their car out. As a matter of fact, all of these cars cleaned up, modified to the hilt, and with super trick custom paint, it reminds me of a full size model car show.
I find it to be a really great place to get ideas for my models because all the latest trends are represented and you can spend a lot of time looking them over. They are also well displayed for the judges and the public to see everything on the car. I typically take lots of detail photos as well as overall shots of cars. There are also lots of old race cars at these events. When a car is too old to be competitive, what do you do with it? If you keep it long enough, you take it to shows so guys can see how it was "back in the day." I have some really cool detail shots of Funny Cars, Dragsters, Salt Flat Cars, and Road Racers by going to indoor shows. Guys are also more willing to spend some time talking about their car because there is really nothing else for them to do all day. At an outdoor show there are usually lots of other activities and cars are coming and going constantly, not so at an indoor show. You do have to fight the legion of sales folks, hey babies in short skirts and low cut tops trying to get you to try a product, and throngs of kiddies being drug around by dads who got the, "if you wanna go ya gotta take the kids" deal in order to get out of the house, but that's not terrible.
Like a big model car show, you see stuff that is well done, cars that are OK, and those WTF cars, but that's what makes it fun. You get to see all kinds of cars and some you may never see if you didn't go. I've seen lots of magazine cars at these and to tell you the truth, lots of them look way better in person than in the magazines. So if you get the opportunity, shake off the winter blahs and go to a car show. I think you'll be glad you did!
"Rat Fink" Ron
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