7 Valley Street Rods Car Show 2018

With a boat load of cars show under my belt all ready this summer this is one of my favorites. Yes I am a member of the 7 Valley Street Rods club, but this show gets better every year.

7 Valley club members have been doing this show for 29 years now, and it shows. People that visit this show are always saying that the club knows how to put on great car show. I agree. From the free pictures of your car, to the great food. This show has a lot to offer to both spectators and participants.

Hand made trophies are presented to some of the special award winners each year. We have a hard luck award, story car trophies, best custom, best engine, interior, etc. Along with the great looking trophies, participants can win door prizes as well as a hefty 50/50 prize.

During the show there is a silent auction going on with lots of great items to Bid on, and hopefully take home.

This years show started out with a touch of rain in the air. We were hoping this wouldn’t stop people from driving out for the show on Sunday. Well with over 220 entries I guess it didn’t discourage anybody from attending this popular car show. There were a good amount of vendors on hand this year. Pin-striping from Fine Line Customs were there striping and selling their cool products. Dustless blasting, crafts, automotive parts and more made up the growing vendor area.

As the cars roll onto the show area, there is music is playing in the background, and spectators are mingling among the cars. During all of this club members are working hard keeping everything running smooth. It takes a lot of effort from club members to put on a successful car show year after year. Members work through out the year to put on a quality show like this one.

During the show we all have jobs to do before, during, and after the show. Setup, food prep, food sales, parking cars, registration, selling tickets, judging, music, announcements, pictures, vendors, award ceremonies, and tearing down after the show. These are just some of the things that go on during our car show.

This year I noticed a lot of cars, and trucks that I haven’t seen before. It always great looking at new rides that people have brought out to our show for the first time. During the show I have been part of the set up crew and one of two people walking around talking to car owners about their cars, or trucks. I don’t have any problem talking cars to fellow car lovers, so this didn’t seem like work to me lol. This year I was able to read a story about a car, and its owner from the cars perspective. This was pretty cool and I think the show goers enjoyed it as well.

After the awards are all handed out we stand in line and say good by to everybody as they drive out of the park, now this is cool from both sides. I attend a lot of shows through out the year, and I must say for a homegrown show from a local car club this is top of the list. Proceeds from this show go to local charities each and every year.

Next year this show will be changing it’s location to Dwyer park in little York, NY. Please like 7 Valley Street Rods on facebook for more information. Seven Valley Street Rods

Thank you for stopping by, check out my video from This years 7 Valley Street Rods Car Show Automotive Lounge 7 Valley Show

Take care,

John

Norwich Car Show 18

Our second car show of the 2018 season was the 53rd annual Norwich car show. We met up with a few Seven Valley Streetrods members and headed over to Norwich early Saturday morning. My wife tammy and I drove our 2017 Camaro SS over to show it, and to enjoy a ton of beautiful cars and trucks.

The weather was perfect for our full day at the show. When we arrived we drove onto the show grounds, and the volunteers guided us to were we needed to be. Tammy and I had to park on the other side of the dirt road off the main show area. This is were they put the new cars for the show. There wasn’t enough room for all of the cars that entered our class. It was kinda a joke. They acted like we were not part of the show.  Well I can tell you we had a lot of people stopping to look at our Red Hot SS.

Today’s young car fans are into the new mustangs, challengers, Camaros, etc. They could give a hoot about cars built 50 years ago. They like cars from the 90’s to present, they are the cars they read about, and dream about driving some day.

I spent hours cleaning my car to almost spotless condition for this show. I was planning on winning, but I was not going to show a car that wasn’t show worthy.

After we parked our beast we touched it up from the drive and headed out onto the show grounds to enjoy other people’s vehicles on display. I overheard other people in our class talking about how they put us in the handicapp section right next to the dusty road. So I was not the only one thinking 🤔 this.

Tammy and I walked around taking pics, and shooting some video for this blog post. We ran into some friends and chatted with them before moving on through the show. We helped a bit with the APEX Automotive Magazine booth http://apexautomag.com/ by handing out our latest issue and talking to fellow car enthusiast.

I forgot to mention when we arrived the volunteers helped us register for the show and took our $15 for entering our Camaro. Our class was class T. There had to have been 15-20 cars and trucks in our class.  It was not like we had two entries in the class.

The show was very busy all day with entries, spectators, and the huge vendor area. The food was good with great service to boot.

Around 3:45 or so they started handing out the awards to the top three in each class.  After a while of listening to the winners over the PA system we decided to walk over and watch the recipients get their trophies  🏆.

One of our club members Dusty Keys won first prize for his beautiful pickup truck in his class. It was cool seeing these people get some recognition for their time and effort that they put into their vehicles.

‘The show grounds were starting to empty out as the awards were being handed out. Tammy and I hung around to see if we even had a sniff at a trophy. I mean why not stay and see where we stand in this class.

Class s was up next the announcer called the winners to the stage and then said ok now its time for our special awards. We were like what about class t?  I mean we did pay the entire fee, we were giving an windshield card ( filled out by an official), and a very nice show packet giving by the club .

Nothing for our class? Ok I guess but why were we told were to park, handed a packet, and paid an entire fee?  Not cool, it was kind of a bummer being treated like we don’t belong, and then not even being recognized as a class of entries.

We are all there because of our love for automobiles, and the friendships that we have built over the years. The future of car shows is with today’s younger generation. If the industry continues to favor the older cars and not accept the new cars they will be in trouble.

I grew up loving streetrods, and muscle cars of my day, no different from today’s youth. Today’s new car owners love their cars the same as a person with a 57 Chevy.  All of these cars were built by a manufacture, not by guys in their garages. Sure older cars could be modified more buy a cutting torch and some fabrication, but new car owners can personalize their cars as well in their garage just like their fathers did.

We had a great time in Norwich and look forward to the next show we make our way to.

Kruising Knights Car Show

Last Friday my son texted me asking if we we wanted to go to a car show? I said sure let’s do it. So I washed my Camaro friday after work, and put a mush needed coat of wax on her.  My car is not a Show car but it looks good and I love driving it. 

Saturday morning my wife and I meet our son and daughter in law and headed to Central Square NY. It was a beautiful day for a car show. A little chilly, but very enjoyable. Cruz and Janelle drive their Monte Carlo, pictured below. 

We had no idea what kind of show we were heading to and how many cars would be there. Boy were we surprised. After getting sent the wrong way from our GPS, we found the show by following a nice pink 32 Coupe that drove by at a intersection. 

The show is as held in a small park just outside of town. When we arrived the park was 3/4 full of shiny cars and trucks. We pulled up to the event tent and paid our $5 per car. They handed us a bag full of cool things from a flash light to a nice drink koosie from NAPA. Also there was a small program giving us the history of the show. 

This was the 11th year for the Kruising Knights Car Club Show. Along with the Kruising Knights, the local Lions club helps put on this great show. 

It was refreshing seeing cars that I have never seen before. Nice quality iron graced the well groomed grounds. We meet some very nice people through out the day. Inviting them to come to the 7 Valley Street Rod show on August 20th. A few of them said that they have always wanted to go to that show. So let’s hope they take the drive south. 

The lions club did a fantastic job with good and drinks. We grabbed a bit to eat sat under the pavilion, while the music played in the background. All kinds of cars were on hand, from antiques, streetrods, muscle cars, as well as some brand new cars There was something for everyone to enjoy. 

This was a great find as far as carshows go. Nice job to everybody that helped put this show on. Nice cars, nice people, make for a very nice show. 

I’ll see you at the show 

John