Car Show Stories - Some people like my stories but there is no accounting for taste.

My buddy talked me into taking the Mondial to one of the local car shows today and I agreed, mostly because he was taking his 1961 Chevy Impala. We have many such events up here in the N. Georgia Mountains and this was one of the small ones. And I am not including the weekly public square informal events that to go on for much of the year in almost every county court house square.

The biggest official show is held at the Georgia Mountain Fair grounds bordering the lake a few miles away from my house. It is a large festival with rides, serious craft shows and other attractions. It can attract many hundreds of vehicles scattered all over the wooded covered hills and lake side beaches. One arena is a fenced off area of the semi-landscaped parking lot that alone can hold a thousand cars.

Think of a show that has 25 of the more obscure vehicles you may never encounter like late 1950s era Chevy Cameo "Pickup Cars". The precurser to the El Camino and you get the idea. Its the only car show I ever went to with a nice 1955 two door Plymouth Belvedere. One year the South West American Automobile Restorers Association - or whatever its actual name - held its rotating area meet at the place. Think of a large car show with more brass cars then you have ever seen in one place times about five. And then suppose it was curated by either the Smythsonian or the British Museum. Of course we also have Model A, Model T, Cushman motor scooter and three wheeled Harley events (think 1950's ice cream vendors ets.).

I have been to more car shows in my life then is good for me. I often still go because once in a while you still see something new. A couple of years I go at this very event I noticed two things new to my memory. The first thing was a factory cabin heater on a Model A Ford. I can't imagine that not none of the countless Model A Fords I have seen did not have one, but this was the first one I ever noticed. It was at this year's meet as well. When you start waxing poetic about Model A cabin heaters that might be a sign you have had an adequate fill of car shows and might consider going on the wagon. It should be a caution.

But at that same car show I witnessed the single most spectacular paint job I have ever experienced in my entire life. Bar not one single one. In fact, it did not at first even register as a paint job. The entire 1960s era Chevy looked to have been entirely custom molded and laser cut from one single block of crystal clear multiple and subtlety hued Lexan. And here is the weird part. It did not look like an excess bass-boat-bling. It was beautiful!

It was a wonder. One of the wonders is that it did not come across as a bad replica of an automobile bass boat. The colors were not carnival calidescope. The metalic did not sparkle like a fake CZ diamonds. It did not dazzle in a way that would embarrass someone who might be wearing real Emeralds. It was indescribable. So much so that I doubt it really qualaified for a car show at all. There would be no way to judge it!

I talked to the owner. He explained the color was custom selected over many months, consisted of many dozens of individual layers set down sequentually over a 24 hour period of time. And there was no way it could ever be touched up. But here it was lined up at the county court house square without velvet ropes or anything to keep me from scanning my actual eye over every surface from a distance of less then one foot. (I did very conspiculusly keep my hands folded behind my back.) It only cost him $25,000, I think he told us. The surface had no imperfections. More comparable to a space telescope mirror specification then to "Hey John, this car is really really STRAIGHT!"

I am now reminiscing over my car show event history and might as well close up with two things nearly unique in car show vueing history on this planet. First, I watched from a few feet away as a Tucker drove into my local Rockville show. Only 51 Tuckers were ever made and they do not often show up at routine car shows. And when the do it is not clear to me they often drive through the entrance gate to their assigned space. But my local show had that requirement. Why that particular Tucker owner wanted to attend this particular event is unknown to me. But here he and it were! He was fun because I learned the Tucker used a variation on an air cooled helicopter engine still in production. At least that is my understanding.

The final thing to talk about, and then I will go get a beer, is that I personnally witnessed a man killed at that same show at another time. For years I had privately fumed about the danger of the venue. I am nearly certain I brought it up to the local people on the ground on more then one occasion but I had no standing. The problem was so self evident it seemed logically impossible to believe it had never been addressed. Specifically, many many of the entrants were arraigned in parallel rows along a steep hill about one or two hundred yards from side.

I mean a steep hill. Roll your car down and pop-start it steep, but on grass. Let your car get loose from the top and it will hit 10-15 mph at the bottom which was the main walk into the show, and then half way up the other opposing hill and back again. So steep kids used it for sledding in Winter. The amazing thing was only one man was killed.
I watched the entire thing developed right in front of me, about 50 yards away about 2/3 rds up the slope. An elderly gentleman had been carefull following an event worker, creeping his classic old Rolls Royce into his alloted space. But instead of stoping he kept creeping forward down the hill. About half a dozen people immediately noticed what was happening and started pushing back on the front but it kept creeping forward. The entire event probably took about five seconds.

All the people pushing in front jumped up and out and in every direction and avoided what came next. The car simply creeped into the car in the next row in front. There were people in lawn chairs and one of them was pinned between the two cars. It did not take long for the Rolls to be moved back. It seems certain to have done so under its own power for there was no delay. I did not notice any damage to either vehicle.

The man was not dead; he was conscious but imobile. Our local 911 guys and emergency truck were only minutes away but they did not remove the man. After what seemed a long time a helicopter landed and took him someplace. I made a judgement that if he lived that long, and a helicopter was taking him to one of our local world class trauma centers (Wahington D.C. Baltimore etc etc) he most likely would be OK. Weeks late I learned he was not OK. He was dead.

I wondered what would happen the next year. Certainly there would be very considerable consquences none of which I ever investigated. However, the next year each car was individually guided to the allotted space, but this time an attendant had a large and very adequate looking wheel chock at the front.

And then it occurred to me that if an attendant with such a wheel chock had been in attendance the previous year it would have taken a brave attendant indeed to jump down in front of that Rolls to place that chock. And it was not clear to me a giant Rolls still in gear would be stopped. I did not notice if people in lawn chairs down slope had been temporarily evacuated. If not? Something like it could happen again. I should have taken notice. Fifty years between fatalities? Who knows