Have any Opponauts ever successfully organized a car show?

"Noah - Now with more boost." (antriebverliebt) 02/26/2016 at 13:58 • Filed to: None

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Bentley for your time. There are loads of enthusiast cars - GT-Rs, Caymans, 911s, Miatas, Subarus, etc. in the massive parking lot outside of my office, and even more in the surrounding lots within the business park. And it’s still winter. I bet there will be even more when the weather gets nice, and it would be cool to gather everyone together for a cars & coffee.

I can think of three hurdles I’d need to overcome:

1. Getting permission from the office park/or a local business. This stage, I imagine, is where I’d encounter the most resistance. AKA fall flat on my face...

2. Contacting all the car nuts. Maybe well designed fliers with a link to a Facebook group for the event? With a smaller one to stick under people’s wipers? I’d add “networking” in there somewhere and start making the rounds a few weeks before the show.

3. Setting up an appropriate date/time. My instinct is to go with a Saturday morning like most C&C meets

MonkeePuzzle > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:07

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sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. If it’s too successful you end up with douches doing burnouts and crashing.

I say just organize a meet up of friends or opponauts in your area and proceed together to an existing event, like C&C

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:12

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I did help out organizing one back during my freshman year in college. We used a local Advanced Auto Parts lot and got approvial from the town too. It lasted three meets till the town shut it down due to assholes racing down the main Ave

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:18

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I’ve not set one up, but I’ve been a judge. I actually was a judge for a car show before I had a driver's license.

JustJim > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:43

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Saturday like most C&C meets. If you have a regional C&C what is the logic of competing with it? Our C&C here in Indy has changed location 3 times. The newest location isn’t optimal but its the most logical. Possibly the best course of action is put flyers on those cool cars you see out your window and find out if you are alone, or if other enthusiasts want to help out? Hit the local high-end mall and flyer the rides you think the showoffs might want to swagger around to prove they are better at being cool than the average guy.

camaroboy68ss > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:46

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I’ve helped set up and run many car shows over the years from small shows to really big events. Depending on what your looking to do it’s going to be a lot of work. For something “simple” like a cars and coffee you would need a to get a location first and foremost

Then pick a date, if there is a local website that posts car show dates look at that. If you want a big turnout avoid having your event on the same day as a long standing and established event because most people will go to that over your new event. If you can’t avoid that then try adjusting your show time so that people could attend both, not likely but you will draw a few people.

then advertising you would need to give yourself about 3-6 months for this if you actually want to get interest and participants. Make a flyer and hit other local shows and put then people’s cars, make a Facebook event and then put it on different car pages..

Really to set up and execute a one day show takes a good 6 months to plan. If you were doing a big typical show with awards and such you need a year. My Camaro club has one big show a year and it pretty much takes a year to organize and do.

JGrabowMSt > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:48

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I have, and holy hell is it hard. There are easy ways to everything. Shoot me an email if you need help and I’ll help you as best I can. There’s a lot of red tape, so I stick to doing meetups only in small groups now, like Oppo Meetups.

You need to have connections with local police, town clerks/administrators and word of mouth goes farther and faster than anything else. It’s not always a good thing, but there are ways to keep things calm. Consider the first one to take 2 months to organize if you don’t have connections. You’ll have a lot of answering to do whenever someone does something stupid, but if you organize the area right and you make sure there’s a single way in and out, you can keep people mostly in line.

A couple other Oppos actually have done massive meets, along with organizing C&C events (Bergen County NJ is organized by a commenter normally on Jalopnik).

Also, you will not be able to enjoy the show if you organize it. You will be able to take things in, but there’s no stopping to smell the roses.

Noah - Now with more boost. > JGrabowMSt 02/26/2016 at 14:50

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hmm yeah I have zero connections here and I’d love to enjoy the show... perhaps, as someone else suggested, organizing a meetup to drive to a cars and coffee would work better. Thanks though! I will definitely shoot you an email if I have any questions.

d15b > camaroboy68ss 02/26/2016 at 14:50

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This. Gotta figure out insurance if the venue requires it.

Noah - Now with more boost. > camaroboy68ss 02/26/2016 at 14:51

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3-6 months! Damn... I did judge/volunteer at my College’s car club shows but the planning was always left to the Prez/VP. No wonder the planning meetings began three months ahead of time...

camaroboy68ss > Noah - Now with more boost. 02/26/2016 at 14:55

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Yeah and this would be for a simple meetup. If you are doing a full tilt show then you have to factor in trophies, classes, raffle, food, entertainment, etc. easily add more time in prep. Once you get a show going annually it gets a little easier though, but not much.

camaroboy68ss > d15b 02/26/2016 at 14:57

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Usually you push that onto the lot owner and then have a waiver for participants to sign.