More and more these days you are starting to see more “lifestyle” grassroots types of shows and events popping up. It seems you could fill every weekend during the summer hitting all of the gatherings for cars, trucks, bikes, etc. With this, comes a lot of events that fail because they are done for the wrong reasons, have poor planning, or just have a bad vibe overall. These things can easily ruin it for everyone. When we put on our Eastwood Summer Classic event we had to avoid those very same pitfalls, it really is a chore to put on a automotive gathering!
One show this season that was put on in a near “perfect” manner was the “Rats, Rods, Rust +Race Event. It is put on by the folks over at Philadelphia-based Hotrod Hoedown. This event was the first of a few this season held at a hidden gem called the Simeone Museum. And as the title suggest, anything from vintage gassers to rusty rats were welcomed to show, and like-minded individuals were urged to attend.
I showed up early, and was pleased to see cars lined up early. Many of the swap meet vendors were in place as well, and they had a wide variety of nostalgic “stuff” to browse through. Regardless of some heavy traffic on highways bringing you into the show; vehicles were rolling in steadily. It was nice to see such a wide variety of vehicles cruising in, a nice break from traditional Hot Rod or Street Rod shows where the cars tend to blend together.
After viewing a pretty diverse show field, I took my free tour of the museum and gawked at the extremely rare collection held in the Simeone Museum. I really do suggest if you are in the area to come check it out. There is hundreds of years of racing and automotive heritage in that building, some so rare you may never see them again! I’ll be doing another entry soon with my photos from inside the museum, so stay tuned.
After picking through the swap meet, and grabbing a new shift knob for I was thoroughly pleased with the event, and very happy I made the 1 hour drive to check it out. I want to thank everyone that put on the show for such a nice laid back event at a perfect location. I’ll definitely be back for more of your shows, and hope I can bring my pile of rust next year!