Stuff you hate to see at Car shows

[Dave Rifkin]

Originally Posted by SS427

Based on all the different pet peeves everyone has, can someone post the perfect show car that everyone likes and finds nothing wrong with????

I learned a valuable lesson when I was a young man running an international car club in the early 80's. We had a guy try to join the club with his El Camino that was not that nice and had a lot of the same trinket show items discussed here. Many members of the club made fun of him, his car and his trinkets. When he asked to join the club we took a vote and said no as he did not fit our "molds". He was quite hurt and moved on. Over the years of going to hundreds of car shows I saw just as many different cars with their own character as I saw people with the same and I realized what we may think is a piece of crap to us was possibly the best thing that person had ever owned. I quickly realized that one man's junk was another man's treasure and that we as car people should not judge peoples cars but rather enjoy them for what they are and allow those owners to be proud of what they own.

The owner of the El Camino and how our club treated him literally haunted me for years when I matured enough to realize how I had acted. Out of the blue about three years ago he contacted me after seeing my Facebook page and just wanted to catch up. I confided in him how bad I had felt all these years. He said it really bothered him back then but had gotten over it and moved on but appreciated the fact that I not only kept it on my mind but also apologized to him.

I guess the moral of the story and seeing all these comments and pictures of these cars is someone not only owns them but is proud of them. Who are we to say that they are junk or have stupid displays? I admit I have seen some pretty strange displays and cars but evidently the owner does not see it that way and is proud to bring it to a show and display it. I see many cars at shows today that make me laugh inside but now I actually take the time to talk to the owner, ask them to tell me about their car and maybe ask why they did what they did whether I think it is or not. Sometimes there are good stories behind these cars. I walk away proud that I could make someone feel good if not for just a day. Considering the circumstances of our society today maybe we should all think about doing that. Rant over.

Amen; just because something may not be your taste or meet your standards doesn't mean it is any less important or valuable to the car's owner.
While I admire all of the beautiful cars owned by the members here, my driver quality Corvette was loved and cherished by me.