First SLC Autopia Car Show

[Jngrbrdman]

EricZ, SlackerQX4, and myself have spent the last several weeks promoting and planning for a different kind of car show. Being Autopians, we have been more than sickened at local car shows when the winners have swirled cars or less than Autopian standard appearances. We decided that it would be cool if we had a car show where the modification of the car was cool and everything, but it was how clean the car was that mattered. Not a dental-mirror-white-glove kind of car show, but one that would seperate the Autopians from the rest of the pack.



We had a little mini-meet back in August and the planning started then. We booked a place at a park on the east side of the city that is very well known. We didn`t use anything but the parking space, but we had plenty of grass and shade where people could relax and toss a football or whatever they wanted to do. It was a good thing we had the amount of parking that we did because we filled it. Between EricZ and his friends passing out flyers at the University of Utah parking lot, and also promoting on several message boards, we had a pretty incredible turnout. I counted over 35 cars at one point. We had several people arrive late and missed registration to be judged, but they popped the hoods and showed off their work anyway. Wash Me even came out to it all the way from Boise. He had been in Vegas the morning of and shined up the car right before he arrived. You wouldn`t have been able to tell that car had just come off a near 1000 mile road trip. He would have placed for sure. He was a real credit to Autopia.



I discovered halfway through the event that I had a fingerprint on the lense of my camera so some of the pictures have a sort of celestial glow to them. There were more people than me taking pictures and I just need to get them in an album so you can see the cars that were there. They did a really good job shining them up, I can say that.



There was a really high German car presence with all the VWs and BMWs that were there. The imports were represented by a few Integras, S2Ks, and even a brand spanking new WRX STi (a week and a half old). The only domestics present were a yellow Cobra and a Chevy pickup truck. Everything else were Japanese or German. The awards went like this: 1st: 2001 Integra 2nd: 2000 New Beetle 3rd: 1997 BMW M3 We had 3 Honorable Mentions to a 1991 VW GTI, a 2002 VW 337, and the 1982 Chevy C-10 pickup. They were all just really good examples of Autopian style detailing. That 337 didn`t have a swirl on it and it was an AutoX car. It was so sterile you could eat off of it. They were very nice. It was tough deciding on winners.



Awards included a great goodie basket that Jennifer laid out containing supplies sent by David. It was hard giving awards of cleaning supplies to people with already immaculate cars, but I think that what we gave them will help make their cars look even better for next year. I`ve been talking with an organizer of another annual show and we will most likely be combining the event next year together. Hopefully we can make the Auotpia Car Show an annual event and create more Autopians out here in the mountains. From the looks of the cars out here I`d say we need them. A huge thanks to David for helping out with this event and to everybody who came and helped out and participated. It was a great success I think.



Here is a sort of pasted together panoramic view of the event. We had a lot of traffic from people just walking through the park on their way to other gatherings stop by. Cars were lined up on both sides of the one way street.

[Jngrbrdman]

I`ll post more pictures of the cars in an album so dial up users like me don`t die when they open the thread. :p This is the award we printed out for them that Jennifer designed. We printed it out at Kinkos on really nice paper and framed the First, Second, and Third place awards. We printed the Honorable Mentions out too and left the framing to them. I think they looked pretty nice.

[RegalGS]

Man, looks like it was one heck of a turnout, and a great show. Too bad I had to work, or I would have been there. Can`t wait to see the rest of the pics!

[Jngrbrdman]

It was a really great turnout considering the limited amount of promoting we did for it. Vwvortex did a great job at making their presence known. When a dozen cars all rolled in at the same time it was a sight to see. We had two packs roll in like that. It was great. Definitely one of the memories that being an Autopian has given me that I`ll think of often. So far nobody is posting on the other boards that it sucked or anything, so maybe it went ok for everybody else too. We had plans for a BBQ but that fell through at about 30 minutes past the last minute. lol Oh well.... It still went well. I only wish I could have entered. I would have shown them all how it is done.



Oh, that was another thing... EricZ is a detailer for the Porsche dealership in town and they loaned us their runabout car to detail. We did half of this older red Audi that was oxidized to hell and really nasty around the trim. You guys know how much I love those before and after kinds of pictures on red..... Anyway, I`ll make sure to include those in the album too.

[Blue-Sun]

Sounds like a fun time! I wish we could have a turnout like that at our failed Chicago Meet this summer.



I wanna see pics!







you are the man!

[imported_SlackerQX4]

There were a lot more cars that showed up than what jngrbrdman posted above. Such as a C5 Corvette, a red Cobra, a 350Z, Infiniti I30, Mercury Mountaineer, and a few I can`t remember.



Some people left early, or just drove by and decided to join the show.



Here are a few more pictures, I will post more later:



E36 M3





Dinan stage 2 BMW 330xi. You can see Jngrbrdman, and the leg of EricZ (standing behind jngr) in the background of this pic.

[imported_SlackerQX4]

Here is one of the S2000:

[imported_SlackerQX4]

Engine of the Integra that got first place, I don`t have any other pics of it. Maybe Jngrbrdman does.

[imported_SlackerQX4]

Side view of the Dinan Stage 2 BMW 330xi:

[imported_SlackerQX4]

Some VW guy took this picture of the show. The Northeast part of the parking lot:

[imported_SlackerQX4]

The second silver E36 M3 at the show. What kind of BBS rims are those? The other one had a carbon fiber hood







In the reflection of the M3, you can see the 2002 VW 337 that got an honorable mention.

[wash_me]

I was little unsure about entering my car in the show, maybe that’s why I was late . After seeing the other cars I felt my car did belong in the show. I can’t wait until the next car show now. Getting to meet people in person that love cars as much as I do is a treat. Jngrbrdman put on a first class car show and getting to talk to him about products and cars in person was priceless .

[Jngrbrdman]

Originally posted by SlackerQX4

Some VW guy took this picture of the show. The Northeast part of the parking lot:

There is that 337 on the end there, geekysteve. Pretty nice looking car. That is the one that took an honorable mention.



I forgot about the 350Z. It was one of the new convertible ones too. There were a lot of cars that got there after registration was done. I`d say we had at least 40 or 45 cars total show up for the event. Next year it will be promoted bigger and we`ll have more sponsors. I want to get some cards made up with the Autopia address on it. I have it on my business card so I just left those out for people to take. I highly doubt they need a detailer but everybody could use a shot of Autopia now and then.

[BradE]

Looks like a great show Tony! I noticed the 337, my first thought was, Steve drove all the way to Salt Lake!?!?!?!

[Jngrbrdman]

The cars that won would have been real competition for any Autopian car. They were just so clean it was amazing. I think that most of them knew what kind of standards they would be held to. The ones who had their engines detailed 3 weeks ago were wishing they had spent a little more time touching them up I think. Steve would have been proud of that 337. It seriously needed to win, but there was that BMW that was older than the VW and it was in nearly as good of shape. A 2002 silver VW should be near swirless. A swirl free 1997 M3 edged it out by a little. :xyxthumbs