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I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread that lists the car shows in the mid-atlantic area this year. I'll fill it in as the dates become available...
Under the Lights Car Show: June 17th, Lansdale PA
Camaro Nationals: June 23-24, Fredrick MD
Lansdale Cruise Night: Early September
Sun. June 4 The Delaware Valley Camaro Club will host its 12th Annual Riverfront Camaro
Show and 50 Year Birthday Bash. The show is open to all GM Powered Makes and
Models, All Years. Registration 8-11 Judging 11-1 Awards 2 PM
Justison Street on the Riverfront In Wilmington, DE
Stay tuned for more information: www.DelawareValleyCamaro.com
I am interersted in attending the Camaro Nationals in Fredrick MD in June.
I've never been to this event before.
Thinking about bringing the wife for just a a day's outing. Not trying to "show" my jalopy this year (although I may drive it there).
Question about parking:
I may try to arrive around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. I'm assuming this event is well-attended. Appears that most of the attendees get there on Thursday or Friday. Where to park for a day-tripper like me?
Chevrolet Nationals is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Camaro & Firebird at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Carlisle PA on June 23-25 and its looking to be huge! Check out their website: www.carlisleevents.com
I was planning on showing the car at the Camaro Nats in MD, but received an invite to display at Carlisle in the Invitational Showcase. I had spoken with the Camaro Nats Organizers last year about showing there because the last few years it had been the week adter Carlisle. However, in speaking with Carlisle organizers, they tried to keep the schedule different so both could be attended but the way the season schedule worked out it fell on a bad weekend for peak attendance: Fathers Day, so they were forced to move it to the same weekend as the Nats in MD. When I found out Camaro VIN 001 is going to be at Carlisle, I figured that car, which is currently on loan to GM, was hitting the biggest and best shows on this years tour, so that made my decision. For the last few years the GM Nationals (the former event name) was not as big as the Ford and Chrysler Nats at the same location (which are also one of the best events for those brands), so Carlisle wanted to make it the biggest Chevrolet event on the East Coast. Carlisle is truly known for the Corvette Show which is world-class and in the same league as Bloomington and other major Corvette events on the show circuit. So to kick off the INAUGURAL event, Carlisle has teamed up with Chevrolet and GM to launch this as the FIRST Chevrolet Nationals @ Carlisle and are going to have some Historically Significant Camaros & Firebirds for this event.
I'm hoping that the Camaro Nats in MD is as equally as good of a show for those of you who go to that one and as much as I'd love to do both (since they are relatively close) the car will be in the T Building and cant be moved from when we show up on Thursday morning until Sunday night when they close the gates. Hope to see at least some of you there.
Side note:
I bought 3 extra spaces inside the fairgrounds which allow 2 people (in the vehicle) admission for ALL 3 days. The people that were supposed to come with me backed out but I cant get a refund. If anyone is interested in going I'm selling them for $25 each! That's less than 1 person admission and parking for 1 day! I also have ONE swap meet space available for $100 which also gets you parking and admission for 2 for ALL 4 days as vendors can set up on Thursday. The space is DIRECTLY OUTSIDE THE T BUILDING which is the HIGHEST TRAFFIC AREA IN THE FAIRGROUNDS. Because I have a car in the Invitational Display I have to be there Thursday so I can meet you at the gate as soon as Thursday afternoon. If you are going to the Nats in MD its just an hour away so you can hit both shows that weekend. PM me if you're interested.
I'll be heading down to the Camaro Nats tomorrow. Hope to be at the hotel around 3pm and do the 5pm driving cruise. Ill be at the show with the car Friday and Saturday (rain or shine). I didn't get a chance to sign up for the Judged class (I forgot and waited too long like an idiot), so I'll be in the Participant Vote category where show attendees vote for their favorite car in each class on a card that they tun into the voting booth. I'll be in the "modified 1982-1992) class. A few members I know from the NJFBOA (New Jersey F-Body owners Association) are going to be there. Hope to see some people from this TGO board there too.
Had the car prepped and packed up for the most part Wednesday night. Headed out around 10:30 am on Thursday. Hit a mess of traffic just into PA by Bethlehem on rt 78 and was nervous about the dead-stopped traffic building up engine and trans temps, and for that nerve-wracking hour...shockingly everything stayed cool as it should have (180 engine 160 trans). Got to the Clarion hotel right around 4;30pm and checked in after fueling up nearby. Got in line for the "kick-off cruise" and got a map/directions at the drivers meeting. I'm guessing it was about 100 or so cars (only camaros) that went on the cruise. The initial 3 miles was a mess because trying to get all these cars out of a VERY busy traffic area with multiple lanes and traffic lights was crazy. As per the typed out directions we proceeded just a few miles away to a nearby park, where the group reconvened and THEN headed out on the cruise. I have a few videos I took (in the link below) of us lining up at the park and many of the cars rolling out. The cruise was AWESOME once we got rolling. It wound through lots of country roads, through covered bridges, past amazing scenery, and had plenty of terrain for people to get on the loud pedal. At the conclusion of the 90-120 minute cruise it ended back at the same park, and there was a BBQ. I did not attend since I had dinner plans with my wife and we had a long trip and needed food and showers. Hung out a little bit in the parking lot at night with the group.
Friday, woke up, breakfast at the hotel, and checked weather forecast. Since this was the weekend of the big storm heading up the coast everyone had been worried. I headed over to the fairgrounds around 9:30 and my wife decided to spend the day shopping and other things around the area. Since I had not pre-registered weeks ago, I was not allowed to go into the 3rd gen class that is judged by judges... I had to go into the class where participants at the show vote for their favorite car in each category. Mine was class 39 (Modified 1982-1992 Camaro). I was VERY disappointed that nobody was in my class (not just Friday, but Saturday either). Took me about an hour to clean off the car from the 7 hours (in total) driving the day before. Friday's turnout was pretty good despite being a weekday work day for many and the threat of rain. It only actually showered once while I was at the show mid morning so that made it a great day and the grass area never got swampy. There were the usual AWESOME cars in the Legends Class of the main building, and many cool rides scattered through the crowd. I took lots of photos and talked to a lot of people throughout the day. Went back to the hotel around 4:30 and then went out to dinner with the wife into downtown Frederick. Downtown is definitely an historic vibe with brick buildings, architecture and many restaurants built into the area. Later in the night I hung out in the parking lot (which usually gets rowdy) with Bill, Scott, Phil, and a few others and we slugged down many beers. Other crowds of people had full blown makeshift liquor bottle bars setup on truck tailgates, music going, a blender making mudslide and mixed drinks, cigars, etc. Rain came along around 1am so that was it for the night.
Saturday after breakfast and a quick dry-off of the car, my wife and I drove over to the show which had MANY more people/cars in attendance. This year, they also had a special 50 car invitational display (that Scott and Phil were part of). Basically they had invited 50 camaros ...one from each production year... to be showcased. great idea indeed. I think about 45 of the 50 cars were present. I hung out with the NJFBOA guys throughout the day and took photos as well. They did awards around 4 and that took a longgg time ( 1 hour) . After that, the wife and I swung back to the hotel, loaded our stuff up, and hit the road home to NJ. It was a niiiiice ride home with only one dinner/fuel stop. I was sad/disappointed that on the ride we saw a half dozen or more trucks towing enclosed trailers with camaros from the show inside them. I wish these fellas would drive their damn cars instead of trailering them to an event, unloading them, showing them, reloading them,and then trailering them home. That is NOT my idea of fun. All in total, I put 630 miles of the car in those 3 days and even with NO air-conditioning and some spots of traffic, I loved every moment of it.
Check out the photos and videos by scrolling through my album. Sorry some photos are duplicates and some may be out of sequence since I used my iphone7 and a Nikon camera they uploaded a bit scattered. I'll try to go in the album one day when I have time and remove the duplicates/blurry photos.
03-22-2017, 10:32 PM
