Unpopular opinion. I'm so frustrated I hate car shows/cruises.

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HankRearden

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I've gotten back into going to car cruises/shows the last few years because my kid was getting old enough to drive and I figured if I could get him interested in cars instead of video games it would be a positive. But damn these are miserable experiences(at least in my area).
It is always the same crap. No one actually drives these things. They putter into the show area way slower than normal traffic. Sadly most of the participants seem to be on a day pass from the retirement home. They are better versed at discussing which adult diaper is more comfortable than what they enjoy about cars. I was at a "cruise" a few weeks ago that was poorly attended because it rained(guess these things don't have windshield wipers) and a geriatric gentleman had to be ambulanced away after he collapsed on the concrete.
Meanwhile there was a crowd of other incoherent geriatrics who saw fit to surround the man while offering no assistance. It took a youngish retiree to think to call the ambulance and my 17 year old to decide to support the mans head and neck and check his blood sugar while waiting on the ambulance. Now before you get butt hurt and say Im busting on old people Im not. I grew up savoring every bit of information and life experience I could glean from my grandparents,great grandparents and their friends. Still today when going into a new job or work site I look for the guy with some grey in his beard first to get some insight into the situation.
What I hate is that being in the car hobby has become the rolling equivalent of sitting on a dead pecker bench at a mall.
I would rather see 1 kid passionate about their fart piped equipped rice rocket than see another hundred bitter 75 year olds that are no longer capable or interested in driving,maintaining or building cool stuff.
Did I mention that blaring surf rock serves only to make any of these gentlemen I try to engage with struggle to hear a damn thing let alone carry a conversation?

Why the hell cant we have other car related events?
Like miniature scale power tours where we maybe hit a few local landmarks and picnic.
Really anything beside standing around passing out and polishing non functioning knobs or chrome while we criticize the cars of others because they don't use the same wax?

How the hell am I supposes to convince a teenager that this hobby has any value when this is the representation?

Am I crazy? Am I the only one? Does everyone here over the age of 65 want to beat me to death with their cane?
 
LOL.... why we just take our "show" on the road. Get another car so the kid has something to drive!
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Yes where in PA.
Although I have to agree on most of what was posted. I've seen fist fights over a piece of plastic award.
Yes I'm past the 65 club. I Like to go to a show to walk around and just look. Then take my car for a nice ride.
 
Yes where in PA.
Although I have to agree on most of what was posted. I've seen fist fights over a piece of plastic award.
Yes I'm past the 65 club. I Like to go to a show to walk around and just look. Then take my car for a nice ride.
Clarion county
 
I’ll add that I hate resto Nazi’s, the guys that tell me I fucked up the engine build which always proceeds to….

You should have (hate those two words by themselves)
Used *** part, that part, engine to small, etc…

Followed by, Why didn’t you (next two hated words at a car show)
Build a stroker, use this part etc….

The all knowing know it alls.

It flips me out when they say how much HP and I answer I don’t know. They say why not? I say I did t dyno the engine… ether followed by why not or what do you think it makes it not the same previous question of how much power do you think it makes worded differently.

When they say what do you think it makes, I always say I’m not a human dyno my guesses normally suck, but I’ll say, oh, I’m not sure but I’d guess over 400.

What a mistake that is! They say the dumbest ****.

So one day I decided to just lie, see what’s said, and I have an answer to what ever they say….. cause I’m a lier on purpose!

(Dickhead) How much HP?
(Me) 422 @ 6200.
DKH No way! BS!!!! That thing makes 340/350 hp
Me Really? Well, I don’t remember you in the dyno room.

That gets ignored. Now seriously. Imagine you dyno your engine and some used up dirty *** wipe is literally yelling loudly and sometimes screaming at me I’m a lier even though I repeat myself “I don’t remember you in the dyno room.”

Oh yea, people are better at HP guesses than the dyno is at telling the truth.

Gotta love these A holes.
 
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I’ll add that I hate regal Nazi’s, the guys that tell me I fucked up the engine build which always proceeds to….

You should have (hate those two words by themselves)
Used *** part, that part, engine to small, etc…

Followed by, Why didn’t you (next two hated words at a car show)
Build a stroker, use this part etc….

The all knowing know it alls.

It flips me out when they say how much HP and I answer I don’t know. They say why not? I say I did t dyno the engine… ether followed by why not or what do you think it makes it not the same previous question of how much power do you think it makes worded differently.

When they say what do you think it makes, I always say I’m not a human dyno my guesses normally suck, but I’ll say, oh, I’m not sure but I’d guess over 400.

What a mistake that is! They say the dumbest ****.

So one day I decided to just lie, see what’s said, and I have an answer to what ever they say….. cause I’m a lier on purpose!

(Dickhead) How much HP?
(Me) 422 @ 6200.
DKH No way! BS!!!! That thing makes 340/350 hp
Me Really? Well, I don’t remember you in the dyno room.

That gets ignored. Now seriously. Imagine you dyno your engine and some used up dirty *** wipe is literally yelling loudly and sometimes screaming at me I’m a lier even though I repeat myself “I don’t remember you in the dyno room.”

Oh yea, people are better at HP guesses than the dyno is at telling the truth.

Gotta love these A holes.
My experience has been most of not all but most just write a check and have it done.
I do for some things, but the majority I do myself.
 
same cars, owners sitting in back of them on lawn chairs or some type of comfy car. a friend was at a show last week with a car that he had owned in high school, sold and recently bought back in pretty much the same condition it was when he sold it. two women were engaged in quite the conversation with him so I waited to congratulate him on the finding of his car. turns out, all they wanted to know about was the type of chair he was sitting on and where he bought it. yes, the music is loud and makes hearing difficult. there are some younger men with cars, seems mostly newer models but once in a while a 60's or 70's model. maybe they don't care for shows and are just out driving them. that's what I did in my 20's and 30's.
 
I’ll add that I hate regal Nazi’s, the guys that tell me I fucked up the engine build which always proceeds to….

You should have (hate those two words by themselves)
Used *** part, that part, engine to small, etc…

Followed by, Why didn’t you (next two hated words at a car show)
Build a stroker, use this part etc….

The all knowing know it alls.

It flips me out when they say how much HP and I answer I don’t know. They say why not? I say I did t dyno the engine… ether followed by why not or what do you think it makes it not the same previous question of how much power do you think it makes worded differently.

When they say what do you think it makes, I always say I’m not a human dyno my guesses normally suck, but I’ll say, oh, I’m not sure but I’d guess over 400.

What a mistake that is! They say the dumbest ****.

So one day I decided to just lie, see what’s said, and I have an answer to what ever they say….. cause I’m a lier on purpose!

(Dickhead) How much HP?
(Me) 422 @ 6200.
DKH No way! BS!!!! That thing makes 340/350 hp
Me Really? Well, I don’t remember you in the dyno room.

That gets ignored. Now seriously. Imagine you dyno your engine and some used up dirty *** wipe is literally yelling loudly and sometimes screaming at me I’m a lier even though I repeat myself “I don’t remember you in the dyno room.”

Oh yea, people are better at HP guesses than the dyno is at telling the truth.

Gotta love these A holes.
Oh yeah. I hate that "you should have". Back when I used to take my nicer stuff to cruises i got so sick of the "you should haves" I used to tell people "well buy it from me and you can do that".
The mopar crowd is seemingly inhabited by a lot of what i call "number nazi's". "Is it numbers matching?" My answer is yes every number on it matches what I wanted on it.
 
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All reasons why I've pretty much stopped going to shows. Very few of the owners drive the cars more frequently than to a couple of shows and back or an occasional weekend trip, even fewer are well versed in the mechanicals of their own cars (ie, they don't do their own work). The ones that do know anything will be standing around pointing out that nothing on my car is original and the various small oil leaks and dirt that come from actually driving the car distances and working for a living instead of polishing my engine compartment daily.

If the shows allow for new models to attend then there will be some modern muscle car folks running around, which can be a mixed bag. Some of them will be strange modern show cars with lambo door conversions and ground lighting, others will be bone stock "limited editions" etc, but at least most of those are driven some amount. And the owners tend to be a little younger and usually don't ***** about my 18" wheels or how I "ruined" my car with them.

Some of the shows with daily driver or project categories can be a little better, but it seems like those categories are getting pretty sparse. For that matter, I hardly see much in the way of classics out on the road anymore, unless its a weekend morning and I happen to be near a "cars and coffee" or hardware store parking lot show. The only classics I've seen on the open highway/freeway recently were right before Hot August Nights, and sadly the majority of those were on trailers.
 
I know we`re anonymous and say what we feel when we`re online, but if you have that attitude when you talk to some of these old boys, they may shun you off.
Agree with the loud music, I don`t mind it until I`m trying to talk to somebody.
I`ll be 63 in a few months and yeah, most of the guys there have about a decade or more on me.
This past Sat. I went to a different town about 35 mi. away, same deal, you kind of feel out of place. I get it.
They`re the ones that own most of these old cars, just the way it is, and younger guys look at the stupid high cost these days to get in the hobby and say forget it.
My younger brother, 9yrs, got a couple beautiful old goats and said he didn`t like hanging with these older guys and the cars seem to be relegated to garage queens. Oh well, I like showing and talking about my junk, so I go out every Fri. beats setting at home on the puter.
 
Car "shows" tend to skew older and come with all the typical cliques. "cars and coffee" tends to be more mixed, but it varies wildly.
Plenty of car related events all over the place, but often they're tough to find. Try searching Facebook, Instagram, or other forums for local clubs or groups and see if you can crash some of their get togethers and find some like minded folks. Heck, assign the task to your kid and see if he can help seek out a better suited group.

I tend to agree with your take on the more formal shows though. I dig all kinds of cars and builds, but the more formally organized they are the more they seem to skew old and play 50s tunes while pretending anything newer than 1953 is "late model" despite most of the rods being powered by the same mail order china-laden 350/350 powertrains with more focus on high output AC and paint than anything else.

The next worse are Porsche guys. All they do is stand around and brag about how much they paid over sticker and how much one "just like it" recently resold for, but don't dare squint too hard at the car or you might depreciate it and the owner will have to sue you.. Ugh.

In some places it's gotten so bad that the corvette guys were the only ones not being aholes, lmao.
 
I know we`re anonymous and say what we feel when we`re online, but if you have that attitude when you talk to some of these old boys, they may shun you off.
Agree with the loud music, I don`t mind it until I`m trying to talk to somebody.
I`ll be 63 in a few months and yeah, most of the guys there have about a decade or more on me.
This past Sat. I went to a different town about 35 mi. away, same deal, you kind of feel out of place. I get it.
They`re the ones that own most of these old cars, just the way it is, and younger guys look at the stupid high cost these days to get in the hobby and say forget it.
My younger brother, 9yrs, got a couple beautiful old goats and said he didn`t like hanging with these older guys and the cars seem to be relegated to garage queens. Oh well, I like showing and talking about my junk, so I go out every Fri. beats setting at home on the puter.
Oh ,Ive been shunned plenty. Especially by the numbers crowd when they would look at the custom stuff on my cars. I dont mind a bit.
The one I am working on now will be absolutely hated by that crowd. It already is. It has been sitting in front of my brothers shop and numerous know it alls have stopped to critique it.
 
I’ll add that I hate regal Nazi’s, the guys that tell me I fucked up the engine build which always proceeds to….

You should have (hate those two words by themselves)
Used *** part, that part, engine to small, etc…

Followed by, Why didn’t you (next two hated words at a car show)
Build a stroker, use this part etc….

The all knowing know it alls.

It flips me out when they say how much HP and I answer I don’t know. They say why not? I say I did t dyno the engine… ether followed by why not or what do you think it makes it not the same previous question of how much power do you think it makes worded differently.

When they say what do you think it makes, I always say I’m not a human dyno my guesses normally suck, but I’ll say, oh, I’m not sure but I’d guess over 400.

What a mistake that is! They say the dumbest ****.

So one day I decided to just lie, see what’s said, and I have an answer to what ever they say….. cause I’m a lier on purpose!

(Dickhead) How much HP?
(Me) 422 @ 6200.
DKH No way! BS!!!! That thing makes 340/350 hp
Me Really? Well, I don’t remember you in the dyno room.

That gets ignored. Now seriously. Imagine you dyno your engine and some used up dirty *** wipe is literally yelling loudly and sometimes screaming at me I’m a lier even though I repeat myself “I don’t remember you in the dyno room.”

Oh yea, people are better at HP guesses than the dyno is at telling the truth.

Gotta love these A holes.
I always lie about what I think (or KNOW) it makes. I under value it, by about 200. I lie about the displacement too. When they ask how big my rat is , I tell em it's a 270 hp, 100 over 396. Not my fault if they think 421, instead of 496". When the 522 goes in the 62, it's gonna be a "413", just like the 440 in it now.
 
I've gotten back into going to car cruises/shows the last few years because my kid was getting old enough to drive and I figured if I could get him interested in cars instead of video games it would be a positive. But damn these are miserable experiences(at least in my area).
It is always the same crap. No one actually drives these things. They putter into the show area way slower than normal traffic. Sadly most of the participants seem to be on a day pass from the retirement home. They are better versed at discussing which adult diaper is more comfortable than what they enjoy about cars. I was at a "cruise" a few weeks ago that was poorly attended because it rained(guess these things don't have windshield wipers) and a geriatric gentleman had to be ambulanced away after he collapsed on the concrete.
Meanwhile there was a crowd of other incoherent geriatrics who saw fit to surround the man while offering no assistance. It took a youngish retiree to think to call the ambulance and my 17 year old to decide to support the mans head and neck and check his blood sugar while waiting on the ambulance. Now before you get butt hurt and say Im busting on old people Im not. I grew up savoring every bit of information and life experience I could glean from my grandparents,great grandparents and their friends. Still today when going into a new job or work site I look for the guy with some grey in his beard first to get some insight into the situation.
What I hate is that being in the car hobby has become the rolling equivalent of sitting on a dead pecker bench at a mall.
I would rather see 1 kid passionate about their fart piped equipped rice rocket than see another hundred bitter 75 year olds that are no longer capable or interested in driving,maintaining or building cool stuff.
Did I mention that blaring surf rock serves only to make any of these gentlemen I try to engage with struggle to hear a damn thing let alone carry a conversation?

Why the hell cant we have other car related events?
Like miniature scale power tours where we maybe hit a few local landmarks and picnic.
Really anything beside standing around passing out and polishing non functioning knobs or chrome while we criticize the cars of others because they don't use the same wax?

How the hell am I supposes to convince a teenager that this hobby has any value when this is the representation?

Am I crazy? Am I the only one? Does everyone here over the age of 65 want to beat me to death with their cane?
First of all, the term "butt hurt" seems to be a Millenial favorite...a stupid term that annoys many people.
Secondly, if you're discouraged and disappointed with the situation, what are YOU doing about it? Have you joined a club and made suggestions to liven up the agenda?
Change may take time. Ask around about who is a drag racer, a drifter, a road course guy/gal. The motorsports aspect is always going to be more involved with their cars than the "lawn chair behind the car at the car show crowd".
I'm a member of a Sacramento Mopar club. There are some OLD members that do almost nothing in the club but there are a few around 30 that DO.
 
First of all, the term "butt hurt" seems to be a Millenial favorite...a stupid term that annoys many people.
Secondly, if you're discouraged and disappointed with the situation, what are YOU doing about it? Have you joined a club and made suggestions to liven up the agenda?
Change may take time. Ask around about who is a drag racer, a drifter, a road course guy/gal. The motorsports aspect is always going to be more involved with their cars than the "lawn chair behind the car at the car show crowd".
I'm a member of a Sacramento Mopar club. There are some OLD members that do almost nothing in the club but there are a few around 30 that DO.
Im not much of a club guy. I did the jeep club thing for a while until they made me president and took all the fun out of it. Now I just hang with guys that build stuff and do cool stuff. I'm loving the Rat Rod guys. They seem to be where the talent and creativity resides these days. But there are very few of them here.

I didn't know millennials used "butt hurt" I would have guessed that offended their delicate sensibilities. But If I gave a damn about annoying people I wouldn't have had any fun in my life. But I suppose I would have been thrown out of a lot fewer bars.
 
Oh ,Ive been shunned plenty. Especially by the numbers crowd when they would look at the custom stuff on my cars. I dont mind a bit.
The one I am working on now will be absolutely hated by that crowd. It already is. It has been sitting in front of my brothers shop and numerous know it alls have stopped to critique it.
I`m glad it`s not like that around here, I`ve heard the It needs a Hemi crap a few times but I know it`s just joking. I talk to most every Ol fart at our cruise in, most are good guys.
The few that piss people off the most is the dang club organizers:wtf: and they were wondering why at the end of last year they were down to 8-10 cars showing up. I believed they checked themselves and we`re back up to about 50 again:realcrazy:
Human nature.
Men have feeling too ya know?:rofl:
 
I will absolutely admit that a club with the same leadership for years tends to get complacent and lazy.
Our club had a President that was a dedicated guy but way out of touch with the hobby. The new President is more of a mover and shaker. Club cruises, show-n-shines, poker runs and other stuff are on the Calendar now..
 
Take him to a race track. As soon as I was old enough to drive I left my dad at the shows and cruises and spent my weekends at the race track.
 
I lost my Mopar mojo. I'm not interested much any more. I am the treasurer in a Mopar club and it has become a pain in the azz. Just sayin'
 
I have no interest in shows, car clubs, events or otherwise.

I own this car because I love it and want to own and drive it.

The shows, etc. are external reasons for being an owner and are not focused on the car, but rather on the social aspects of having it and showing it off. The car becomes secondary.

I enjoy my car and don’t care what anyone else thinks about it. That’s internal focus and the only thing I care about.

The car makes me happy and I am happy to have it.

Good enough.

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Notice a pattern? We drive our cars... Hell of a lot more fun than sitting around at a car show listening to someone talk **** about how he would do it differently...
 
I lost my Mopar mojo. I'm not interested much any more. I am the treasurer in a Mopar club and it has become a pain in the azz. Just sayin'
That is unfortunate.
The same has occurred to a few club members that we have had. They got burdened with the bureaucracy of the club and lost some of the passion for the hobby.
 
That is awesome. It is what they were meant for.
If you were closer you'd be invited to come along... Probably another month & a half before it cools down enough to go play again... 106 today, not what this old man calls fun... We generally get in 10-15 drives a year just not many when it's brutally hot... Though every now & then we'll still do it just to blow the dust off & the carbon out...
 
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