Can a car show be boring?
Can a car show be boring?
2011 Seattle annual Greenwood Car Show
I never thought I would live to see the day when I got bored at a car show. The annual Greenwood car show held North of Seattle happened to be just the ticket. On a chilly overcast day in June, my wife, daughter and I started at S. 68th St. which is the southern beginning to the show, it stretches one mile up to 90th St. That’s right, there were a mile of cars in this show, be it if you removed most of the sorry looking vendor stands, got rid of the low riders, Donks, Nash Metropolitans and back yard junk, then the claim of a mile of cars might be stretching it. So why am I picking on this car show?
First, I get it, if you live in Seattle, you might as well be prepared for the weather in summer to uncooperative. No sunshine, at least until1:37 pm. Next big problem with how this was set up is the parking. Since this show is held on a closed down boulevard, everything to the East and West is residential. You know the kind of residential where most of the homes do not have working garages, let alone an actual drive way. So on a Saturday morning there are 200,000 people trying to find parking among the tight one way streets in residential areas, what FUN!
Next, trying to take a picture of the dozen or so really nice cars was like trying to photograph majestic mountain peaks on a cloudy day. The amount of attendees meant one was lucky to get only two people in your picture while shooting. Okay, I already know people in Seattle are a little different from the rest of the United States, but come on, why do we need to turn a regular car show into Santa Monica Pier? Ukulele playing tap dancers are not indicative of a good car show.
Compared to California or Arizona Car Shows would you say the annual Greenwood Show is...
This was an open format show, so there didn’t seam to be any rules on what could enter, thus this explains 35% or more of the vehicles that really didn’t belong. I really like great examples of Datsun 240 Z’s & 280’s, but when did 210 four doors become a classic? Honda CRX? Really? Okay, so I know I am getting snotty, but there were more old school Mini Coopers than Porsche’s. I counted all of 5 911’s, and each was a 1978 – 1981 SC.
Were the heck were the 928’s, 968’s, Turbo’s and Speedsters? There wasn’t one Maserati, not one Lotus Esprit, not one Lamborghini.
No old BMW M3’s or M6’s, come on, where are the sharks?
No Buick GNX’s, not one GS455, not one GSX.
No Saleen
Tesla was there but they left there newest sedan at the shop!
No Pantera
No Delorean
No Edsel
No Jaguar XJ220’s
No Mercury XR7’s
No Vipers
There were two VW Golf’s…not a singe Audi?
There was one 76 Chevy K5 that was a 3 out of 10, but no Ford 60’s Bronco’s, no Internationals.
Special note to the dude’s who squeeze 22” plus rims on old Monte Carlos and Malibu’s, a classic it doesn’t make. If you are trying to win “most likely to drive across two feet of water” you won that one, okay. We know you spent more on your rims then you did your car. NEXT!
With the exception to the Mercedes SL300 Gullwing and BMW 3.0CSL, almost any of these cars could be seen in the parking lot at the mall on Saturday night. VW Vanagon’s inSeattleis like surfboards at the beach. Sorry Seattle, if this is the kind of car shows you put on, I will be stuck reading about better ones in magazines and on the internet. There was a few exceptions to the rule, which I will post a few pictures of. I suppose I really like the car show scene to look upon cars I might not see except at shows. Seeing 85% of these cars every week on the open road isn’t something to fight traffic, parking and crowds for. If you were there, let me know your take. Now the Fabulous Fords show at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park,CA, that’s a show. I am willing to pay admission for stretching the imagination. Cheers.
