car shows

Chris Obert

Chris Obert

autocrosser, X driver
Here in town there are two car shows every Saturday morning. I am usually busy on Saturday mornings, but a recent change allows me to attend these shows.

So I took my 850 Spider (because it's also up on ebay and has a bid!), I was hoping to get some local interest in it to drive the bids up to the reserve.

At 7 I arrived at the first show which is a hot rod & classic car show. A few foreign cars do show up, but there are a lot of high boys & chopped rods. The 850 got a nice reception, and a friend that brought his Berlina Corsa replica also got a lot of attention.
At 8:15 we went to my workshop & traded his Berlina Corsa for his Jolly which I had just serviced on Friday, and went back to the rod show. It's amazing how much attention the Jolly will get from car guys.

At 9:15 we left for the other car show. I had never been there before but had heard from the California Melee folks that it was a sports car show, and often the participants take off for an improvised tour afterwards. We got there & found lots of British cars in the parking lot. Matter of fact every single one was British. The 850 got some attention, but the Jolly got lots more. I was talking, and asked one of the guys if there is any advance tour planning so I could determine if I wanted to go on one of the tours with them & plan my time for it. Ends up they do sometimes announce their destination, and that today's tour was going to Bruce Canepa's place (go there if you are ever in Scotts Valley California), and then to an Italian place for lunch. Probably about a 20-25 mile tour... Then the 'organizer' took me aside and told me that they really discourage non British cars from participating in their events and that I would be welcome in a British car, but he would rather not have us participate in our 'normal' cars.

I would be the last one to feel that a Fiat 850 Spider & a Fiat 600 Jolly was normal, but to each his own...

I told him that our local Fiat club puts on tours and encourages members & non members to participate on our tours with whatever vehicle they feel comfortable in driving, and he responded that they discourage it because if it was allowed everyone would show up in their normal cars and not drive their British cars because they can be so hard to drive.

I am so glad I own Italian cars. As soon as my Siata Spring restoration is completed I will bring it on one of their tours just to screw with their heads...
 
That has to be the lamest thing I have ever heard. I would have let them know how lame that really was, and then left.
 
This One Kinda ! a Nerve..

British history is full of social class distinction. Even to this day there is much social class factors operating on every level of British society which includes cars.

It seems to me this event is an example of Brit centric automotive media and collector car folks in the US. In many ways the US is an extension of UK culture. If the US and UK did not work together during WW-2 and US service folks did not grow a fondness for UK roadsters, what would the US collector car market be like today? These UK roadsters are more like cars from Detroit than different, I do believe it's one of the prime reasons why US car folks like them. On a technological and engineering level, these Brit roadsters are very dated designs, even when they are compared to similar cars of their day.

Granted the Brits did much during the initial industrialization of western society, but they hung on to stuff long after others have moved on. Today, the Brits have little if any real production car industry. In place of that, they have one of the most active race car "cottage industries" anywhere.

Yet, Brit car folks are quite car aware. Their car magazines are among the best English language publications anywhere (Race Car Engineering, Sports and Classics, CAR, Auto Italia...) compared to US based magazines like Classic Motor Sport, Automobilia, Hemmings, Euro Tuner, Motor Trend, Road and Track (Once a really good publication) Car and Driver..... and reflect their understanding and attraction to interesting cars.

And, it seems US car folks HATE French cars and generally don't like Italian cars.

I would like to hear some feed back about this from X owners in the UK on this topic.
 
The same class distinctions that Bernice writes about seem to be so ingrained into British motoring that they are evident to someone like me while watching the British motoring shows presented on Discovery HD Theater.

One of these shows is called Auto Trader and is shows on Tuesday nights. The same two guys that do Wheeler Dealers (Mike and Edd) also do this one. Each show consists of two plots, the A plot being Mike (the salesman) working with a guest buyer who's going thru a vehicle selection process, and the B plot being Edd (the wrench) showing another owner some maintenance tips.

It's very curious to hear the buyers discuss their selection process. They place just as much if not more emphasis on how any given vehicle portrays them to the world as they do to the price, suitability or potential repair spots of the tested vehicle.

Another example that strikes close to home is the Wikipedia write-up of the X1/9, which by the way has a decidedly British point of view. The X is noted as being considered by the Brits as a "hairdresser's car," a term that I've heard more than once on the AutoTraders show, too.
 
Oh, those class distinctions run both ways...

As the owner of both Brits and Italians I get it from both sides... when I'm hanging with the Italian fans I get comments on the "truck-like" nature of british rides... when hanging with the Brits I hear all the fix-it-again... stuff (which I find funny as I spend much more time wrenching my british iron than I do my X or Spider). But there is nobody, and I mean nobody, that has their nose higher in the air than your average Ferrari owner...

Then there are the Asian and German car fans that think we're all nuts...

I find it all quite silly...
 
Hello Jim,

Well, back in the day, Ferrari owners were not this way. Back before Magnum PI, before Ferrari became a public object of desire,
Most Ferrari owners were serious car folks.

One look at the for sale ads in the back of Road & Track for the 70's and even the early 80's shows the Ferrari market prices to be quite different from what they are today and the folks who own them are quite different too.

Back in my exotic car shopp days, I got a taste of what some owners were like over a decade. Some were very ordinary folks who simply loved their car, others were folks with too much money, too much ego and too much social status.

Ferrari owners who wrench on their cars seem pretty much limited to car folks who simply enjoy their Ferrari on many levels. These Ferrari owners are un-common today.

Don't get me wrong, I really like these cars on many levels, but some of the folks who own them today really, really put me off.

Then, there are Porsche owners... which is another story all together.

Bernice


Jim W said:
As the owner of both Brits and Italians I get it from both sides... when I'm hanging with the Italian fans I get comments on the "truck-like" nature of british rides... when hanging with the Brits I hear all the fix-it-again... stuff (which I find funny as I spend much more time wrenching my british iron than I do my X or Spider). But there is nobody, and I mean nobody, that has their nose higher in the air than your average Ferrari owner...

Then there are the Asian and German car fans that think we're all nuts...

I find it all quite silly...
Click to expand...
 
publications.

The people who own British cars have more time to work on publications and take pictures because of the continuous non-operational nature of their cars. Sort of like gardening. You spend months and months work on getting to the end product only to have it all over within a couple of minutes. :shock:

All kidding aside, I personally think if that is how they want to play the game, then they are missing out on a bunch of fun people with great storys and even bigger hearts.

Eric Armstrong
 
Fiat call to arms..

Let's ralley together the local Fiats and crash their next car show :laugh:

Just kidding of course. I used to go to a lot of non-Fiat events with my old 79 X and most often I got a lot of attention and a reasonable amount of respect. However I don't recall if I ever attended a mainly British car event.

Sad...Very sad.

-Tim
 
Some clubs are better than others...

The MGCC of Washington holds a huge rally in April, the Tulip rally. It's attended by literally hundreds of cars, from Citroens to Corvettes, Fiats, MGs, Minis, etc. It's a great way for clubs to get out there and enjoy some scenery for a good cause.:woot:

http://www.mgccnwc.com/tulip.htm
 
A Call to Arms Answered!!

Hey fiatmonkey, you say;
"Let's ralley together the local Fiats and crash their next car show"

You mean like this? :dance:



There were a few noses pushed out of joint on this day! :laugh:

British cars; been there done that....once!
Italian cars; Been there, still there after 37 years!
 
what a shame

I own British (Minis), Italian (X), and Japanese (MIata). The guys here with British don't mind if I drive the X on a run. All are welcome, except for the annual British car show, which I understand. Unfortunately the local Italian car owners never seem to do much around here. There is an annual show, but no drive after it. I contacted the local head of the Fiat club, who drives an X, and he never responded to my email. But the British car guys have runs several times a year, and they respond happily to emails and requests. I really don't understand why the local Italian car owners don't do more. The MIata group is constantly doing things, but it is a much younger crowd. In fact, I'm the oldest fart there, but they don't seem to mind. I can only guess that the Italian cars here locally are all garage queens. I can't remember the last time I saw one on the road, except mine which is driven several times a week.
 
Same here in St. Louis. The I car scene is all but non existent. THere are a few of us that get together on occasion and go for a drive, but other than that, tryign to get people together is alot like pulling teeth.
Last summer I was invited to brign my 128 to the local MG club. THe pres of the club said it didn't matter if it was Brit, or Italian, as long as it was cool, old and european.
I neve did make ti to a show, but would like to some day.
As far as crashing the Brit scene, I tried that last year at Road America. I was a HUGE group of Triumph guys with thier cars parked neatly in rows. All of the cars were in incredible condition. Seeing this, and no other Fiats around, I crashed the Triump[h guys. I parked my Spider right in the middle fo the group. I was shocked when several of them complimented me on the car, even though it was not in the best shape. Several of them told me that the Fiat is actually more fun to drive than the Brit cars. THey commented about the FIat being better designed, cheper for parts and service, and all around more fun. I was floored! I was expecting them to start trash talking! :shock2:
 
I've mentioned this before...

...in a post some time ago.

During the summer month's here in the New England I could probably find a Brit car show to go to almost every weekend within a 100 mile radius drawn around where I live. For example, "Day of Triumph" was last weekend, there are two other shows/drives in August and at least another two in September (all within an hour or two away). And a couple of these are multi-day events!... However, when it comes to Italian shows, outside of the couple times a year the handful of us N.E. X drivers get together, there is only one significant (or insignificant for that mater) Italian Car show that I know of (which I unfortunately just missed).

I have no idea why this is...
 
I agree with Jim on this one... Brit car owner and clubs simply do more with their cars and events. It shows in the parts suppliers, the cars they drive and own and what they are willing to do with their cars. We get the Triumph Register news letter several times each year. It is nicely printed in color, well done and simply nice by any standard.
Jim W said:
...in a post some time ago.

During the summer month's here in the New England I could probably find a Brit car show to go to almost every weekend within a 100 mile radius drawn around where I live. For example, "Day of Triumph" was last weekend, there are two other shows/drives in August and at least another two in September (all within an hour or two away). And a couple of these are multi-day events!... However, when it comes to Italian shows, outside of the couple times a year the handful of us N.E. X drivers get together, there is only one significant (or insignificant for that mater) Italian Car show that I know of (which I unfortunately just missed).

I have no idea why this is...
Click to expand...
 
If I may speculate~

Weren't the Brits still importing after the Italians stopped? (High end stuff notwithstanding) Didn't the Brits bring in boatloads more of their product than the Italians did? I'd even go so far as to guess that the Brit cars rusted a tad more slowly than the Italian cars did so there could be even more of them still around. I'd say part of the reason for the "trouble" is that there's more of them than there is of us, not to mention that they are probably more left of center than even Italian car owners can be accused of being!:laugh:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top