Thread: Anybody goin to the LA Roadster show?

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Like the title says, anybody goin? Myself and a few others are pullin out on Sunday morning for the trip out I-40. Will be in Pomona on Wednesday.
The 7th Annual Great Greybeard Adventure begins.

Yep b there saturday

Well heck, you are certainly travelling in comforted this year, no more sunburnt head and air conditioning to keep one at the right body temperature. Enjoy yourself with your friends and be safe out on those highways.

They scheduled the F100 Western Nationals for 6/17 this year and I'm already committed to that....so if I make it to the Roadster show, it will have to be Sunday. I'm a little bummed....

Originally Posted by randyr

They scheduled the F100 Western Nationals for 6/17 this year and I'm already committed to that....so if I make it to the Roadster show, it will have to be Sunday. I'm a little bummed....

Pullin out Sunday AM Randy, gotta get my passenger back to catch a flight on Tuesday in OKC

Well we went saturday and it really sucked everything was disorganized vary few cars were there there was a down mood with alot of people there most of the vendors were disapointed there was alot of swap meet people ther but not many buyers there was talk that the show was turned over to a new promoter and not many people were happy and sunday we all meet at the moose lodge for bloody marys and breakfest and bench racing we had four people came in and said they just came from the show and the gates were locked this was about noon sunday haven't herd what happened

It's pretty clear that this year's show didn't live up to those of the past few decades, the troubling thing is that the inevitable demise of this show, as will happen in time to probably all of them, has been greatly accelerated it appears. It will be interesting to get Don's take as a long distance participant. For all those internet warriors I've read across the www. who are celebrating that "greedy" promoters losses they should be careful what they celebrate...........if they're actual participants and not just letting their mockingbird mouths overload their hummingbird butts.

It does appear that an experienced promoter underestimated his clientele, and maybe his ability to "get it right", even though he's a member of the LA Roadster Club, and successfully promotes the GNRS repeatedly (as well as other events). A reality is that the LAR club is comprised of a bunch of old goats, much as the entire hobby is. They are dropping off as they age, just as the largest part of the overall hobby participants are. That doesn't mean sudden death for this hobby many of us still enjoy, but it does mean at best a slow decline and the necessity to accept changes that will be needed to adjust to fewer participants. Which is one of the troubling things about this event. For many months there has been a bunch of online, and likely in person stuff in SoCal, that leads to a self fulfilling prophecy...............if they choose to boycott the event, it will end up with poor attendance. Which is what looks like happened.

Now what? Some of those yapping dogs are crowing that they "showed those guys a lesson." Well, yes they did......but if they think that will automatically lead to a better event that emulates the past, they may be in for a surprise. Nobody HAS to do this event, it's a WANT to do it thing. It's pretty much a given that the club members are too old, and insufficient in their desire to run the show anymore. Thus they sold/rented the rights to it to a "pro". He ended up with what I would guess is a bad experience. People tend to avoid repeating bad experiences.........well, at least the brighter ones. So now the promoter has to evaluate if the market is sufficient to support this thing without a bunch of volunteer labor. Hiring labor means higher operating costs, and the bulk of the past participants still available to participate apparently have sent the message they aren't willing to pay a sufficient amount to make this thing fly. If that's true, there just may not be any more LARS in the future. Most of the crowing class aren't willing to do the hard work to put one of these on...........hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them won't support anything that passes the operating cost along to them. If this event was on your bucket list, and you haven't made it out there, you'll be the loser to the extent that your desire may never be able to be fulfilled. It's sad. So far it appears that the bulk of the blame is falling on the "greedy" promoter. He deserves some, it appears poor decisions, not "greed", caused some outcomes that undermined the value of this event. But the hobbyists who "boycotted", if that's what happened, hold some of the blame as well. They need to carry some water too to make an event like this succeed.

Well said, Uncle Bob! I don't know too many of the gory details but I did go to the show on Sunday morning. It was a ghost town compared to any previous year that I've attended. I've heard that many of the "freebies" given to the roadster owners in the past were now "pay for" items so they just didn't show up. I guess time will tell if somewhat iconic event will be saved...

The years I lived in So. Cal. I never had a desire to attend LARS as I'm not that in to roadsters. It sounds as though what happened this year is somewhat similar to what happened at Topeka with the change of ownership around 2007/8.
I started going to Topeka in 1995 when it was a fall event and in all my drag strip years it was one of the best, Parking was great, handicap right on the strip, close to the tunnel on the pit side and camping all over the place. After a couple of rainouts, 98/99 I believe, I quit going till it was scheduled over the Memorial day weekend starting in 2002 I believe. With the change in owner ship came massive and ridiculous changes to camping and parking which, IMHO, drove fans away and I haven't returned, but it's my understanding that the latest owner has restored some of the parking that the other idiot took away. His handicap parking was anything but and he should have been reported.
Anyway, if something like this is happening at LARS I can understand. It doesn't make any difference what car/s and celebrities show up, if you piss off the fans, who pays the bills, you're going in the toilet.