http://www.drivingsports.com/blog/20...ment-127840494

 

heh . . . interesting . . . won't stop me from finishing my ride . . .

 

i've been thinking the same thing for the past couple years. building a car now has become far too much about how much money one has and paying someone else to build it. who can take pride in paying someone else to build your car? that's weak imo. build it yourself, get dirty, bleed, cry and then you can brag about it. there's no challenge in swiping the credit card or writing a check out of your trust fund. i'm not saying everyone with a quality car is like that but i've talked to some of those guys and they really know nothing about cars, just how to pay to build one.
gone are the days when an enthusiast could build a car in his/her garage by himself on a blue collar salary and expect to do well in a show. with the cost of everything so much higher, it's pretty much impossible for anyone with an average job, a house payment, maybe a kid or two, to build something competitive.

my first LS i built back in 2000 actually got 2nd place at the nopi nationals but now it wouldn't even be noticed. i had an eagle talon tsi the year after that and actually won 1st in it's class at the nopi nationals. funny thing about that is i built another talon that was even nicer than that one a couple years later and didn't even place.

 

thats why i stopped caring

 

Very well written article. Funny that he mentioned 2003 was the best year, that was the year I won 3rd place at NOPI (didn't plan too).

I pretty much agree with what he said.

 

I'm only building my car for myself.

I wouldn't enter any shows unless I get sponsored and I had to.

 

I haven't entered a car show for about a year and half now. I still go to support my friends that enter though. I only placed in 2 shows I entered before, both 3rd. I still think car shows are fun and probably would enter again if I can get my car up to par. The single largest complaint I have would be a combination of category placement and judging. For some odd reason, even though the big name sponsors come to Hawaii to do shows, it is different than the mainland. Here, we do not get to choose what category we compete in. If you have a nice modded Lexus, you might end up in the Lexus Class or perhaps the VIP Car Class. If you happened to be a girl, you might end up in either of those classes or perhaps the All Girl Class. It makes it very difficult to set your car up as you have no idea where you are competing.

Also, most of the time we don't get to see our score and where we did well and were we need improvement. The judges come around, judge your car, take your mod sheet, wright stuff down, then they are gone. If you don't hear your name called at the awards show you have no idea how you stacked up. HIN IMHO was one of the worst shows I've participated in. Sure, its all good for the party scene and half naked women, but the show turns down the lights like a night club and as a car show it sucks since you can't really see the cars and their mods anymore. If your car has no lighting (Have to purchase tech power as well) it disappears in the semi dark.

As for being sponsored. My car club has a sponsorship and I will never be sponsored again. Too much politics and headaches. From now on I rather pay the extra money and skip the free stuff and discounts to be independent of any sponsorship contract.