Hi Terry, good points however a few things thought I would bring up. As for fees like registration, I can tell you with 11 regionals and one national (AMO) under my belt here, that the fees go a long way for variety of things. Pre-registration for instance helps determine how many people you 'might' get. But there are straglers like myself who 'wait untin weather channel says no hurricane that weekend' to sign up. Then it is more to sign up day of show. But sometimes worht risk, as some events won't refund money if tornado spewing volcanos and lightning from Zeus pops up in middle of showfield day of event. The money raised also offsets costs like fees city, county, or even host area charges. The National we did in 2001 here in Houston, we *HAD* to have X amount of rooms booked at Radisson.... or we would eat that cost! $64,000 worth of rooms ya'll. 10 Wed, 25 Thurs 70 Fri, 70 Sat, (doing from memory, might have been more) but each unbboked room
would have cost us. Lucky for us all rooms booked and then some, sold out whole hotel. Banquet, we locked in prices for food at roughly $23 a plate/head, but in the time we signed the contract...and up to meet....5 damned managers came and went at that hotel, each one attempted to break the contract and renegotiate it.
Police. With a show of 11,000 vehicles, you will have a armada of police presence. And the taxpayers and city will usually not pick up whole tab....the event organizers will have to pay, and cops (at least in Houston for nightclub door watch) are $60-$70 per hour.
There is massive advertising, tshirts, goodie bags, parking, dash plaques, trophies and tons more I can't even get into it hewre on what it takes money wise to pull off a event.....much less one with 11,000 cars, I am talking a AMO meet planned 5 years of hard work (no pay) in advance, down to the 96 hours of the meet itself then event over and have to straighten out all the bills. I could not imagine the logistical nightmare of a 11,000 car event. Heck, you just saw the huge bike Sturgis meet in ND yesterday got hammers with baseball sized hail and 70+mph (yikes, hurricane force) winds, hopefully it blew of some of the ladies tops, but those biker guys are tough so riding around in hailstorm no problem.
As for people caring less abut your Gremlin, I would have to disagree. People usually remember the car and while you are not around people are smiling, and whipping out cell phones to take photo of it.
I can't comment on the NSRA rules, and someof them like most clubs, are arcane and just fucking stupid. But they are rules nonetheless put there by the powers that be for whatever reason, and my suggestion to everyone, young and old, is if you don't like them, run of a position in that organization then try to make changes as you and hopefully others, see fit.
Back to AMO and the dues, in Houston we had a discussion about people being on showfield as you have to have insurance. There is another HUGE something I didn't mention above! But people might not have wanted to join AMO for $30 a year, but did want to show their car. So it was brought up to have a 'three day pass' membership for something like $10-$15 that would allow them to be on field, get judged, ect. And if they wanted to join....then pro rate remainder for year. Worked great, sort of like buying battery from Auto Zone, if it goes bad in 2 years they prorate it so get new battery for $8.
NSRA is just that....streed rods
A Ford man no join Chevy club but you can still go to their Super Chevy Sunday and check things out.
You take your Gremlin to a AMO meet and it wil be hard to get good, clean photo of it all day with folks checking it out. You take it to street rod meet people will walk past it, their eyes transfixed on the blower in the 40 coupe next to you. It is uh, a street rod.
Good? You represented all of us by going to a meet, whether local cruise night at Sonic, drag strip or even this NSRA meet. Bad? Unless your Gremlin looks like a Zinger with tunnel ram higher than roofline you get lost in shuffle. Enjoy your car for what it is, not what others think of it.
It's why I have enjoyed driving, racing, showing, wrecking, putting back together, restoring, nothing but AMC's since 1976 when got driver licanse and still drive American Motors built vehicles in Houston, Texas in 2009, so enjoy the Gremmie.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 12:46 AM
Subject: [BaadAssGremlins] NSRA
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I spent the last two nights doing my usual thing when the street rods are in town. Riding around where the motels are and hearing the hoots and hollers and thumps up from the crowd. Did here a lot of next years give away car. They give a street rod away every year. I thought sure this would make up my mine about entering my Gremlin next year While I would love to be part of the largest car show in the world. They had 11,000 cars his year. They are saying 14 to 15 thousand next year with the 30 year rule. Still I don't want to be some where that I am not wanted. Still I get the feeling that about about half the shows I go to the car people could car less about my Gremlin it is the general public that love it. Also the cost of the show kinds of gets me. If I wait to the show to register it will cost me a $100 to be in it. The admission to the show isn't bad $35 for a four day event. Catch is you have to be a member of NSRA witch is another $65. While
I am a member of AMO I have no real desire to be a member of NSRA. I am not a great lover of streets rod. Would like to see the vendors though. If you got the bucks you can lay your money down and watch your street rod being built from the parts at the show. You can drive your brand new 1932 Ford coupe home by 6 o'clock that night. So much for cars manufactored before 1949. Their rules were always silly to me and the people who are throwing a fit don't make since. They will let this new car in because it looks like a 32 Ford but wouldn't let a Plymouth Prowler in because its registration says 1993. I guess I can see thier point though. I wouldn't want to go to an AMO convention and see a bunch of street rods there. I want to see AMC cars. There again if they invited them and parked in the north 40. Who would care. If you wanted to look at them you could if you didn't you wouldn't have to.
Terry
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