Ah, I love hearing all this whining and caterwauling about cars shows.
It just so affirms my decision to walk away from all the presumptuous nonsense that so many people bring to them. Now that I don't give a rat's *** about what anyone thinks about my car, and have a car that is meant to impress only me, and that I don't see as being a crown jewel but rather a car, car shows are so much more fun!
I've taken my car to three shows, and because I'm not acting like a dick, and have a car that's interesting to talk about, and willing to spread my happiness with my car to others, I usually don't have 15 spare minutes to go looking at all the new cars, ricers, or other cars I used to deem unworthy. I'm busy talking to one visitor after another after another. My poor wife had to go into super learning mode after the first show because she was getting saturated with questions for the better part of six hours... poor girl thought car shows were all about looking at other cars and reading magazines to pass the time.
And I also no longer have to fret about making "Please Don't Touch The Car!" signs, or going bonkers because some little kid touches a fender, or some hottie rubs her jeans on the door. My car is a driver. I know none of these things is going to hurt my baby, and I'm too busy talking to be constantly circling my car with a bottle of insta-shine and a rag waiting for the next particle of dust to land on it so I can go into cleaning mode.
Seriously, if I wanted to spend the day cleaning I would have stayed at home!
And then there's the trophy chasers. You gotta love them, especially the ones who say it's about their love of cars and not the trophies, but then just about screech their wheels out of there the second the trophy ceremony is over.
These folks are so obsessed with every detail of their car, and so obsessed with what everyone else brought to the show, and so obsessed with impressing people who had NOTHING to do with their car!
To me, car shows are nothing more, and nothing less, than what you choose to make of them. If you're the type of person who sees their car as a beauty queen, who wants no one touching it, or wants to see no defect on it; or someone who is constantly judging themselves or their car based on the judgements of others; or feels what they feel is worthy is what all others should feel is worthy, then you're probably never going to get the joy out of going to shows that you should be.
I know there's lots of guys who view car shows like a job, and they're the security detail, cleaning crew, competition analyzer, and CEO. They like judging the merits of others while simultaneously hating being judged by others. And they spend their time after the show bitching and whining about every fingerprint they had to wipe off, how other cars had no business being there, and how they would have fared better in the judging if so-and-so hadn't brought this-and-that to the show. As for my wife and I, we go home and laugh as we say "did you hear what that one guy said about the time he had a Roadrunner in 19..." or "did you see that kid's reaction when he saw the...", or "how funny was that guy when we told him...". Speaking just for myself, I like what we take away from car shows a LOT better than what the more obsessive members of the breed take away.
