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Published on 2 Comments on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of 2017

As the end of the year rapidly approaches, It's a good time to take a moment to look back at the 2017 car show season.  I had planned to write this year-end recap  back in November, but family commitments, Thanksgiving, my spouse convalescing from a total knee replacement, and updates to the website delayed this by a few weeks.

Now that things have started to settle down a bit, let's look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of the 2017 season.

I managed to attend 80 events from January through November.  Of the 80 events, only six did I attend as a non-participant.

The list below reflects my opinion of the events I attended. In no way does it encompasses ALL the events that took place in Central Ohio during the season.  If you attended a show or cruise-in not on my list that you thought was exceptionally good or bad, please share it in the comments.  Feel free to also post a comment if you disagree with any of my choices.

Ok, so let's get started with the Good.

BEST REGISTRATION FEE CAR SHOWS:

  1. Champaign Cruisers 4th of July Car Show at Skelley's Lumbar Company in Urbana, Ohio.  You can tell the Cruisers have been doing this for 20 years.  The show is extremely well-organized. The club even goes as far as to mark off parking areas in the grass with spray paint.  There were plenty of food vendors,  nice door prizes, a unique venue, and great mix of vehicles from Ohio and Indiana.
  2. Vettes, Rods and Classic Car Show at the Creekside district in downtown Gahanna, Ohio.  Hosted by the Capital City Corvette Club, this show has grown steadily every year.  The Creekside district makes a unique venue for a car show.  There are plenty of restaurants in the district to meet most everyone's culinary tastes.  Judging is based on a point system, and awards are presented in two categories, one for the Corvettes and the other for the rods and classics.
  3. Cruisin' for a Cause at the Discover Church in Dublin, Ohio.  This show raises money for a different cause each year.  This year the cause was Duchene Muscular Dystrophy.  In addition to the cars, there's also a craft show and model car contest going on simultaneously.  Each year the show offers unique custom hand-made trophies.  All vehicles are thoroughly judged and awards are based on a point system.

Honorable Mention: The Purple Door Cruise In at the Grove City United Methodist Church, Spring Fling All Corvette Show at the Polaris Parkway Quaker Steak and Lube, and Cabela's Charity Car Show and Cruise In at the Cabela's store on Gemini Place in Columbus, Ohio.

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Eight years ago the Discover Church in Dublin, Ohio held their very first car  and truck show.  The show back then was called Hot Rods for Hatti. In 2015 it was renamed Cruisin' for a Cause.  Each year the show raises money for a specific cause.  Last year it was scholarships for children of the fallen. This year the cause was Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.  The disease mostly affects boys, but on rare occasion can also affect girls.

The show has a reputation for giving out unique custom hand-made trophies.  I happen to have two of them from past shows and they are two of my most favorite trophies.  This year was no exception.  Ark Hot Rods once again provided some of the most unusual awards you'll find at any car show.

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Update:  Maxton has posted their photos from the show to their Facebook page.

Great weather, great cars, and the country rock sounds of the band Jacked Up highlighted the final Jack Maxton Friday Night Cruisin' of the year.

The perfect car show weather brought out 191 Chevys for the final show. It also gave everyone the last opportunity of the season to purchase one of those great Maxton t-shirts.

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Published on 2 Comments on ’67 Chevelle Takes Best of Show at On The Rocks Fall Show

A family wedding on Saturday left Sunday as my only day this weekend to attend a car show.  A friend and I decided to stay close to home and participate in the On the Rocks Fall Car Show at Karric Square in Dublin, Ohio.

On the Rocks Bar & Grill has been holding two car shows a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, for as long as I can remember. I participated in my first On The Rocks show in September of 2012. This year marked the 9th annual Fall event.  All proceeds from the spring and fall shows go to support the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

Despite perfect weather, attendance yesterday was down slightly from the spring event.  The show registered 108 vehicles in comparison to 131 for the spring show.

Once again there was strong participation from several local Corvette clubs.

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Despite the great weather, the two major downtown shows on Saturday saw a drop in registration compared to previous years.

The Performance Classic Car Show in downtown Delaware, Ohio (formerly Blast from the Past) ended up with around 450 registered vehicles.  In recent years, this show had registration figures in the 600-700 range.  The show set an all time high of 750 registered vehicles in 2015.

I participated in the downtown Plain City downtown show two years ago and registration that day was well over 200 cars.  This year the show missed the 200 mark by 11 cars.  I'm  assuming the change in the hours of the show was to attract some cross-over participation from the Delaware show.

It certainly didn't help that Columbus and surrounding area had nine other shows on the schedule for Saturday.  Word on the street had the Jax Wax registration at around 250 cars. If anyone has registration numbers from any of the other shows on Saturday, please post them in the comments.

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As I wrote in last week's Upcoming Events post, my goal this past weekend was to participate in four events.  With rain showers cancelling the Der Dutchman cruise-in on Thursday evening, that left three shows in three days to do!  Here's the big report I promised from those shows.

FRIDAY NIGHTS UPTOWN

After attending the first two Jack Maxton Friday  Night Cruisin', I decided to change things up this month and attend the final Marysville Friday Nights Uptown.

The Friday Nights Uptown is a monthly community block party put on by the city of Marysville from May through August.  The August event has traditionally included a car show organized by the Mid-Ohio Cruisers car club.

I estimated a crowd of well over 1000
people attended the event Friday evening.

Along with the cars, there were 11 food trucks to satisfy everyone's culinary tastes, bounce houses for the kids, and live entertainment from the band Wille Phoenix and the Soul
Underground.

With a $10 registration fee, the car show registered 72 automobiles. There were no door prizes, however, the show did have a 50/50 raffle.

One of the first things I noticed about this show were number of vehicles I was seeing for the first time this summer.

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Published on 6 Comments on Creekside in Gahanna Overflows with Vettes, Rods and Classics

On Saturday, the Capital City Corvette Club once again hosted their Vettes, Rods and Classics Car Show at the Creekside district in downtown Gahanna, Ohio.

This is the third year the club has organized the show. The number of registered cars has steadily grown each year. With weather about as perfect as one could ask for, this year's show set a record with 309 registered vehicles!

Much of Mill Street and the adjacent parking areas were closed to the public starting around 10 AM Saturday until the end of the show.  The street and parking areas were reopened at noon for show parking only.  Cars arriving before noon were able to park in several designated lots until parking opened for the show.   I arrived around 11:40 AM and was parked and off to the registration tent about 30 minutes later.  Next year I plan to arrive after show parking is officially open to avoid all the traffic congestion at the beginning.   All in all, I have to commend the club for the job they did getting all the cars parked. It didn't look easy.

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Published on 4 Comments on The Brands Battle it Out in Sunbury

With 11 events in the central Ohio area on Saturday, it was a tough call as to which event to attend.  In the end, the Battle of the Brands in Sunbury, Ohio won my afternoon.

This is the third year for the show organized by the GTO Association of Central Ohio and sponsored by the Big Walnut Grill and Jets Pizza.

With weather just about as perfect as one could
wish for, attendance exceeded expectations.  Registration had to be stopped at 160 vehicles because the club ran out of window placards.  Parking turned out to be a little tight because a motorcycle porker run had also been scheduled for Saturday.

Registration was $10.  There were no door prizes, however, the Walnut Grill offered a $10 buffet to show participants, and Jets Pizza had two pieces of cheese or pepperoni pizza plus a drink for $5.  There was a 50/50 drawing  which reached a winning half of $150.
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I spent two long days at the Arthritis Foundation's 35th Annual Classic Auto Show & Cruise-in this weekend.  By Saturday evening I was sunburned, exhausted, and just a little bit upset.    Let me explain why.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Chevy Camaro.  To honor 50 years of the Camaro, the show made the model one of the featured marques cars.

I saw more Camaros participate in this year's show than in the past four years primarily because of the marque designation.  On Saturday 68 Camaros from all six generations competed in the class judging.  The previous high had been 34 cars.  Last year, for example, only 18 Camaros signed up for the Saturday portion of the show.

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Showers on Thursday cancelled the Der Dutchman week 7 cruise-in.  Despite the cancellation, about 17 cars showed up including yours truly.  Everyone stuck around until about 7 PM before heading home.

Showers again on Friday evening cancelled my trip to Delaware and the First Friday Cruise-in hosted by the Delaware Vintage Auto Club. This left Sunday as my only day to do a car show over the weekend.  With Goodguys still in town,  there were only two local shows in the area.  It was either cruise at City Barbeque on East Main Street or cruise at the Yacht Club at Buckeye Lake.  I chose to stay closer to home and attend the show at City Barbeque.

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