Your 2008 ECN Review - The good, the bad & the ugly

[Pampered-Z]

I don't see any reason to stop people from voting on what they like and want to win.

Remember the Nats car show is subjective to the person viewing the cars, and that the voting is purely by the people and not by a set of judges assigning points. Why would you ask people to vote if you plan to ignore them and give the win to someone else? Or worst yet chase people away from the event if you are telling them they won't be allowed to win?

Best Camaro and Firebird in class doesn't automatically mean it would win best of show, but logically it should.

My Suggestions:

A) What about next year list the 2008 winners on the ballot. If people still feel it deserves to win again let them vote for it, if THEY want to give their votes elsewhere they can?

B) From the pics it appears some of the cars had their hoods closed. I've been in a few shows where the hood and trunk had to be opened. I think that would make a nice addition as you can see how detailed the entire car is. (I HATE seeing a car with a dirty engine!)


My questions: ( Yah, this is a bad timing too ):

A) Did the car show participants feel the price was good? Would you pay a few dollars more to enter if there were more awards to be won?

B) How did the Racers feel about the cost? Would you pay more if there was more money or maybe round money paid?

C) Were you considering running the buy back round?

*** What did you think of the racing classes? **

[CHRIS67]

One thing that I would have liked to seen (and I'm sure Island Dragway too) is more of a spectator turnout. Just about everyone there was showing or racing their car. It would have been nice to seen some advertisement, even if it was local to the track to bring more people into the show and spread the love.

[BonzoHansen]

I have heard more than once from people regarding what they considered high spectator fees.

[CHRIS67]

Different venues for the show and for the strip then?

[slugger27nj]

I thought it was a good day overall, minus the rain of course. I entered my car in the show not expecting or hoping to win anything, but knowing the money went to the club and seeing it lined up with all the others was enough for me. We also got to see some good racing, and some not-so-good racing (i.e. that obnoxious sounding red honda or whatever the hell that thing was). We stuck it out to the end not to see if I won anything, but to see who did. There were many beautiful cars there, and everyone should be proud whether you won something or not.

Sorry I wasn't that outgoing that day, but I played 7 games (in the outfield) in a tournament the day before. I was whooped, and spent most the day planted in my chair behind the car....haha.

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by CHRIS67

One thing that I would have liked to seen (and I'm sure Island Dragway too) is more of a spectator turnout. Just about everyone there was showing or racing their car. It would have been nice to seen some advertisement, even if it was local to the track to bring more people into the show and spread the love.

In the past we have had a larger spectator turnout. I think we have had threats of rain all 4 years we have held this event, but this year was the only year it rained, and the radar sure didn't look promising. I'm pretty sure that was a major factor in the low car & people count.

Last year we had 20-25 more cars racing in our classes, and another 30 cars in the show, plus additional spectators.

One of these years we will get a weekend with a good weather forecast....

- Justin

[CHRIS67]

Not to Jinx us but maybe we should look into a new sponsor for next year.

http://www.shamwow.com/index.html

[BonzoHansen]

It was raining south of the track well before it rained at the track.

[FESTER]

Overall good day! My car was in the show I dindn't win any awards unlike last year, The only issue I had I seen cars with road grim on rockers,bugs guts,brake dust on wheels,hoods closed,tinted windows (with them up) how are you to judge cars that are filthy and all closed up. These cars should not get any awards! My opinion. You need to do some cleanup on your show and open it up.

Camaroracer1992 and pro90rscam ( I dont know them but remember their cars) were both sweet and deserve thier awards.

SHOW/SWAP would be good for next year, I did sell some things on Sunday like a whole box of NOS parts

[sweetbmxrider]

why do you allow anything to race? its like saying anyone can show? kinda weird

[79CamaroDiva]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

why do you allow anything to race? its like saying anyone can show? kinda weird

it was along side a test and tune day. only f-bodies were allowed in our classes, but until we can draw 100+ racers, on top of show cars and spectators, have to use a track day thats open to the public.

[EchoMirage]

Originally Posted by Pampered-Z

B) From the pics it appears some of the cars had their hoods closed. I've been in a few shows where the hood and trunk had to be opened. I think that would make a nice addition as you can see how detailed the entire car is. (I HATE seeing a car with a dirty engine!)

i purposely kept my hood closed/mostly closed because a huge point in having a 2nd gen Trans Am is the hood bird. cant really see it as well and get the full effect with a closed hood.

[sickness]

i will comment as well .i think the show has gotten 100% better over the last few years .i have been to them all with my camaro and without .my first time showing was not fun at all. i don't even think i found the ballot box that year to turn in my voting sheet.so i took some time off from bring my camaro to the show again till this year.i have to say i think the show and the way it is run is 100 times better.and had my best time ever at this show .there are not to many all camaro or f-body only shows in the area .so i try to attend them all .i think the price to show the car is more than fair i would pay a little more to enter the show no problem.the show seems to be a 4th gen show for the most part .i think more print adds would help that ..there are alot of cruise -in paper that allow you to place adds for free .i know most people in the world have a computer ,but not every one .most promoting for this show seems to talk place on message boards were most 4th gen guys hang.i think more older camaro -firebird would come if they saw a flyer at a car show,cruise,etc...i do think that a camaro and firebird class would be best there were alot of nice 4th gen f-bodies that could have took home an award or maybe expand the classes to top 4 ...that my only advice otherwise i thought the show was a great event .so thank for the great time and the trophys i was totally floored to bring home 3rd for best of show and runner up best 4th gen.thanks clint

[edpontiac91]

Originally Posted by Pro90rscam

That sounds good. I will be there again next year "weather permitting" and stop on by and we'll chat. I just would like to talk with people from the club and show or race participants and have a good time. Sorry to stir up controversy, I am not about that.

No doubt about it, you stirred up some comments. Why do you have to post up the FACT that you spent $85,000 on your car, and nobody came up to you because you think you have the best car. What are you going to do if someone beats your car at a show that ONLY spent $8,500 on their car. Cry foul because YOU think it is better. WE ALL think we have great cars, and some of us do our best with what we have. Your idea that you spent the MOST money on your car does NOT give you the bragging rights to being the best. THAT right goes to the judges and the other owners who feel you may or may not have GOOD TASTE in what you paid for!

[BonzoHansen]

Ed, stop crying, lol.

[79CamaroDiva]

FWIW, i didn't put any money in the car I put in the show (red 67 rs/ss)... I just ran down and grabbed the car out of the trailer. He wasn't there and I know the secret to start it


I also didn't win anything with it, because this year there ended up being some verrrry nice 1st gens, and this was the first year I thought about stealing the car for the day

[camaroracer1992]

i definitely agree with the hoods, and trunk open, to me you can see the total view. As for the bird on the hood, i have the same issue with my airbrushing on there. I usually leave the hood half cracked so you can see the hood as well as the engine.

[Pro90rscam]

Originally Posted by edpontiac91

No doubt about it, you stirred up some comments. Why do you have to post up the FACT that you spent $85,000 on your car, and nobody came up to you because you think you have the best car. What are you going to do if someone beats your car at a show that ONLY spent $8,500 on their car. Cry foul because YOU think it is better. WE ALL think we have great cars, and some of us do our best with what we have. Your idea that you spent the MOST money on your car does NOT give you the bragging rights to being the best. THAT right goes to the judges and the other owners who feel you may or may not have GOOD TASTE in what you paid for!

Ok, so I posted that about what is into it and I agree with you that it does not make it the best car for how much is dumped into it. I have been to many shows with this car and I have been beat out by others that do not have as much into theres as mine has due to the way the shows are run. I will tell you this that I do not do very well at participant judged shows compared to professional judged shows in which the car does well. When I do not place at a show or am beat by someone else, yeah it is bothersom, but I get over it and look forward to my next shows. Basically when I posted about how much is approximately into the car I did not mean it to sound like I have the best car, because there is always one out there better. I wanted to be cool with everyone and the thoughts I posted was just thinking out loud and that is the way I felt when I heard the comment of previous winners being limited to 1 trophy. It is what it is and sorry if my previous post sounds this way.

[BonzoHansen]

With that, let's please stay constructive....

[sweetbmxrider]

Originally Posted by 79CamaroDiva

it was along side a test and tune day. only f-bodies were allowed in our classes, but until we can draw 100+ racers, on top of show cars and spectators, have to use a track day thats open to the public.

understood

[Blackbirdws6]

First off I think the event went well considering the rain. I have a few ideas to break up the show field a bit but I don't think it's right to purposefully hurt multiple trophy winners. Some cars are just that good and depending on what the judges/crowd are looking for, a different winner may result.

The logic is tricky to get around considering that the best of show should also win best camaro/firebird and best in their generation. The only way you can get more diversity of winners is going to be limiting the number of wins a single car can achieve. Limiting a car to one trophy and whichever is more "prestigious" could solve this. Such that Best of Show can only win that and nothing else.

It's tough anyway you cut it but I've had a great time going to shows just for what they are....to show my car. The trophy is honestly icing on the cake for me. Sure we all love our cars and want to win something but I enjoy going around, talking with people and seeing what they did with their car.

It wouldn't sit right with me if my car won because a car "better" than mine won last year and can't win consecutive years.

[Pro90rscam]

Originally Posted by Blackbirdws6

First off I think the event went well considering the rain. I have a few ideas to break up the show field a bit but I don't think it's right to purposefully hurt multiple trophy winners. Some cars are just that good and depending on what the judges/crowd are looking for, a different winner may result.

The logic is tricky to get around considering that the best of show should also win best camaro/firebird and best in their generation. The only way you can get more diversity of winners is going to be limiting the number of wins a single car can achieve. Limiting a car to one trophy and whichever is more "prestigious" could solve this. Such that Best of Show can only win that and nothing else.

It's tough anyway you cut it but I've had a great time going to shows just for what they are....to show my car. The trophy is honestly icing on the cake for me. Sure we all love our cars and want to win something but I enjoy going around, talking with people and seeing what they did with their car.

It wouldn't sit right with me if my car won because a car "better" than mine won last year and can't win consecutive years.

I totally agree with you on what you said, well put. It would give other people and their cars a chance for an award. You never know year in and year out what kind of cars will be rolling into the show or event. I myself believe that winning multiple awards can not go on forever!

[Pampered-Z]

Originally Posted by Pro90rscam

You never know year in and year out what kind of cars will be rolling into the show or event. I myself believe that winning multiple awards can not go on forever!

Agreed, although I lean more towards racing, it still the same. If you don't keep upgrading someone will be better. Just when you think you're done, you're not!


I want to make one point that I don't think everyone understands? Well, maybe you do, but it's still worth stating:

The NJFBOA puts this event on with a very low budget, the club sponsors and what donations we can get, and allot of donated time. Starting with Island dragway basically letting us take over the track for free. If we had the money for an outright track rental, or car count high enough to get exclusive use of the track things would be different. So having T~n~T cars there is just something we can't control right now. I work at a dragstrip and know what it cost. And we really have to thank and appreciate Island dragway letting us do this each year. They would be loosing money with just us there. Trust me, there are very , VERY few tracks that would let anyone do this, you would need to rent the track, and the cost wouldn't be like a track rental for 10 cars. You need allot of money to take over a track and run an actual competition event, full staffing and prep'd lanes is allot of overhead!

The car show works the same way. We would love to give out a bunch more trophies and add classes and other special awards. We do as much as we can with what we have.

A big THANK YOU! needs to go the sponsors and companies that gave us what they did. Although the car count wasn't what we wanted, we did have some money, awards, and lots of other goodies this year! That's a very positive thing as each year we are attracting more interest and getting more backing.

If we could just get the weather to cooperate I think this event would really grow!

[CHRIS67]

OK, new guy here with attending only 2 F body shows so go easy on me.

What if we had the public vote on each generation like what has been happening, but we have some of the founding members/moderators here vote on the best Camaro and best in show out of the top cars that the public picked?

[JL8Jeff]

I thought it turned out well considering the weather. We obviously lost quite a few people who saw rain before they even left their house. I thought about the cost and it's a little more than a normal car show, but when you think about the fact there is racing to watch as well, it's not a bad price at all. Camaros at Carlisle is not cheap and there's no racing going on. I didn't get to talk to as many people at the car show because I was watching the racing time trials. It was the first time I made it to the track this year so I wanted to watch some racing. Dam Hondas! As for the quality of cars in the show, when you see a nice, clean, well done car, it helps you identify what you still need to do to step it up. Limiting awards is a nice idea, but unfortunately it would get subjective to the show staff to figure out which awards to take away from a specific car. Maybe if we set a level for each award/class it would help explain why a particular car did not win something. I think the people judging realized they were voting for a certain car as best of show and therefore wanted to vote for another car in that particular class. I actually liked that there were less classes this year because it takes time to go around the cars to give an honest vote and I wanted to watch some racing and talk to people in the pits. More classes means more awards which means it might raise the cost so consider that. 3rd gen class was incredibly difficult to judge because of the quality of cars and I think that says a lot right there. If we get enough cars in the show we might be able to break it into mostly stock vs modified. I like the location and the fact that there is a car show and racing. A swap meet for people to sell used parts was considered but should be a strong possibility for next year. If can get enough people to come out then maybe we can chase those dam Hondas off the track!

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