Totally disheartened with the whole car thing *Mood-hoover content*

[Sealtainn]

When I had my modified Ka and took it to shows, there were people who would come and look at it and come out with disparaging remarks but at the end of the day, I did the car for me and nobody else, if other people don't like it then that was their tough shit. Had a group of lads come up to me at Silverstone and ask "Why do you drive a Ka? It's a girls car" so I just looked at him and replied "Because I am not worried about the size of my penis". His mates laughed at him and they wandered off to try and take the piss out of someone else. 

I used to be really into my Fords and didn't have time for much else but the car scene has become rather cliquey with lots of bitching behind peoples backs and general nastiness, I haven't got time for that shit - I am very WYSIWYG and if you don't like it then don't let the door hit your arse on the way out. At the end of the day I am into cars whatever they may be.

[mouseflakes]

it's usually the great unwashed that ruin car shows for me, in all honesty. A load of fat, mouth-breathing wasters waddling about with a tribe of near-feral kids in tow, placating them with promise of Greggs & McDonalds on the way home as Mum chugs on a roll-up, screeches at little Kanye and Morgan-Anna while contemplates a new roman numerals tattoo that she doesn't understand but thinks looks "dappy", and Dad scratches his hairy belly which is poking through between his sunday-best trackie trousers & his replica football shirt (despite his physical state suggesting that the last sporting activity he took part in was a game of darts and that knackered him out). He's the type of bloke who worships at the alter of Clarkson, owns a 72" telly and is fluent in txt-spk. She has 4 kids by 4 blokes (none of which she see's these days) and knows the benefit system inside out. The kids insist on leaning up against your pride & joy with sticky, ice-cream splattered fingers and even fucking sitting in it for selfies without asking permission...

 

You mustn't care what these people think of your car. Killing them with fire is a waste of fire

 

Jeeezus! Look Taff, I said I was sorry about my youngest leaving snot smears on your paintwork and I was only joking about your car. We were having a nice family day out until then, do you have to drag it all up again? Blimey - talk about holding a grudge....

[oldcars]

You also meet some great folk at car shows. I had done a run and then a show with the Reliant last week. Met a really nice old chap that used to work for Reliant and he was telling me some stories. Great to meet these type of folk, just ignore the prats, you meet them in all walks of life.

[sierraman]

The people that walk round talking loudly and at length about every car as if they are fucking narrating the day. In that monotone dulcit tone they start quoting specifications and horsepower. Bore off!

[DVee8]

Astra coupe you say. Styled by Bertone? There for it is a supercar. Fuck them all

[CHRIS1980]

If you don't like negative remarks FFS don't join retro rides,that's why I came here. I also hate when someone says your car is something it's not and they are adamant that it is. I once had a heated debate with woman at work who was convinced I had/or someone had put a mk1 golf front on my 1275GT mini. I got so annoyed that I said to her I wished someone would put a different face on you FFS. Killed it dead. Then the time my mate was filling his BL tat up at the petrol station when this old fella comes up and told him he's filling it up with petrol,that's right my mate said. He replied that it sail SDL on the back,so it's a diesel. No that's the trim spec,no I think you'll find it's a diesel! No it's a petrol this went on until said bloke nearly bust an artery. At car shows you will find all sorts of folk. As for people sitting in cars,if a family come over and look and respect your property I usually offer the chance to have a sit in it,which goes down well. As it goes they are not...no never the chavvy sort.

[CHRIS1980]

Astra coupe you say. Styled by Bertone? There for it is a supercar. Fuck them all

Astra coupe= Firenza Magnum of the future.

[D Spares & Tyres]

I was at a car show on Sunday with the Astra Coupe. It was open to all classes, the event was mobbed and it was a great day overall.

 

I had my car looking what I thought was mint, bonnet up and generally at its best. However, throughout the whole day, only 3 people commented one it, one of which was a "its still a Vauxhall".

 

Even my wife says it will never be sought after and perhaps in 20 years time I can get a proper classic car.

 

Honestly just feel like selling up right now.

 

2k cash takes it away!

Twats like that rarely even own a classic or a car of interest. Every negative comment I get at a show I always ask what they have and usually don`t have anything.

 

You will always get it. My 1.6 Capri used to attract `shame its not a 2.8` or the P6 Rover that had a CD player `thats not original` My answer of `thats cos the original sounded crap so I chucked it` used to upset the pedants` ( I didn`t chuck it by the way)

 

Like what you like, fuck em all.

 

I do get pissed off with moderns at a show though, I could walk round Tesco if I wanted to see them

[Split_Pin]

Tell you what, I did fit silver-on-black number plates to the car once I got inside the showgound. It made a few people look deeply confused, knitted brows and all.

[Angrydicky]

The Astra is a bit new for me to be interested in, but you should definitely take it to Billing as all Vauxhalls are welcomed and you get owners of Vauxhalls right up until the present day attending.

 

 

Twats like that rarely even own a classic or a car of interest. Every negative comment I get at a show I always ask what they have and usually don`t have anything.

 

This. I've had several people tell me I need to respray/restore the Somerset. Not one of them actually own an old car, they all drive euroboxes or company BMWs. Some just won't take no for an answer when I tell them I'm leaving it exactly as it is (cos it's 62 years old and unrestored). Amazing how many people think they have the right to tell other people what to do with their property.

 

Punters at car shows are always a bit of a mixed bag. I'm fortunate that I've never encountered the notorious ones that sit in your car without permission, or let their kids clamber all over it, but maybe that's because I'm not a great fan of shows. I prefer actually driving my car to sitting in a deckchair behind it, drinking coffee from a flask and reading the Daily Mail. I get a lot of old people, all smiles because they learnt to drive in one, their parents had one, it was their first car they bought for a fiver in 1971. Then you get the 'proles' most of whom look inside, take photos and look all around before noticing the Austin of England badges and declaring it to be "one of them Austin Englands".

[EssDeeWon]

Dicky, I keep meaning to tell you each time I see you at the Lawns.... 'you need to get that Somerset sprayed M8'

 

Na seriously, I was at Helmingham Hall last year. I heard one person moaning because someone else turned up in a Marina (the star of the show in my opinion) then another guy walked over to a lovely SD1, looked at the 2600 badge and said 'Ah wrong engine' and walked off. I thought what a twat, i bet his 3 year old boring POS is parked outside with 'Baby on Board' tags in the back window.

[sierraman]

Sometimes you do see some really gopping 'restorations' at a car show. I saw one about month back, proper bird shit welding, respray done in a wet shed, engine blocks painted in situ with a four-inch brush. But I'd keep my thoughts to myself. I wouldn't go up and say 'mate that's fucking shit, it looks worse than when they dragged it out the barn'.

[alf892]

I like to try and enjoy the prats.........by a combination of massive misinformation and taking the piss without them noticing.

 

Since I adopted this approach car shows have become fun again as 'the prats' with the newly learned facts that my 1947 Rover was built when Ford briefly owned the company and the engine would happy run on paraffin as long as you swap the coil leads around. All stated with quiet authority and starting each sentence with...'as I'm sure you know'

[Alexg]

People tend to look and comment on cars when they know the owner's not there staring at them. I rarely sit by my car at a show except maybe to have a break, grab a bottle of water/camera or something, and I'll then get a small number of usually pleasant folks having a nose. Stand a few feet away however and you'll start seeing a bit more interest, which unfortunately includes bullshit from local dross.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I understand why you are disheartened. Realistically, I do want people to like my car -  and when  sometimes they don't, I am slightly disappointed. It has never put me off owning my car though.

 

It is an XJ40 - a car which has spent quite a long time being looked down on by the multitudes. There are even posters on here who say they'd be embarrassed to drive one. Oh well, such is life. Don't let it bother you. For what it is worth, I think your Astra Coupe is a good looking car.

[anonymous user]

and that's why I don't do car shows anymore.

 

In the past I have been told I did not deserve my car because I didn't look after it, I was only going to the show to have a look, but got waved onto the field; it was an old Morgan that I did 30k miles a year in, including using it for work and production car trials. At one show I did have to persuade a chap that putting his daughter to sit on the front of my 1937 Morgan was not a good idea, as that big nickel plated thing was the radiator the car was hot and she might get scalded. (That's the last time I took a Morgan to a show, I was only invited by the club to put it on the stand as it was a rare one, they wanted the car, but not me, I spent the day being ignored by the clique, left as soon as I could and never went back.)  I was told my Mk1 Fiesta was no good because it was not lowered and didn't have alloys, I had thought people might like to see a totally standard one. Why had I brought the Trabant, they're awful, well it was the only one there and I thought people might like to see one. Now if I ever do go to a show I dump the car in the public car park and try to have a quick scoot around making a quick exit before I have to talk to anyone.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I haven't been to a car show for a while - but I do enjoy them. I have never exhibited though - my car stays strictly in the car park.

[Christine]

Some guy told me, VW "brought" his conversion of a hatch into a pick up, to copy . This is how the 1st Caddy truck came about ... and mine wasn't a real Caddy Sport as it had a mk2 golf grill .. yeah right... Yes i know the wheels were aftermarket , i did keep the proper ones with it though ..Do i miss it , no ..

Sadly ,now pineappled.. fook knows what engine is in it now !

 

 

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Someone told me my Jensen was a fake because the badge should have said Jenson.  I shit you not.

 

People often say of [insert any old car here] "they all rotted on the forecourt, mate", even when standing next to an example of [that car] that is 30 or 40 years old, unrestored, and not rotten. 

 

If you have a modern car, it would be rare for someone to come up to you and tell you it's shit, but people think that this is OK if the car is OK.  They are right , of course, because all cars, without exception, old, new, fancy, basic, expensive, cheap, whatever, are shit.  Understand that and you will know peace.    Most (maybe all) of us here understand it.

 

Also, everyone has always owned one of whatever you are driving, or knew someone who once had one (and usually said "it was shit") .  If the car in question was one which only ran to a few thousand in production, it makes you wonder whether they have all had 987 registered keepers.

[panhard65]

Car shows are great for people watching. I took the hearse to one last weekend and got some really unusual punters talking crap to me. A few funeral directors who were actually worth talking to then the bloke who asked if my car was still in service, then proceeded to tell me that he had just taken out a funeral plan and weren't they expensive etc.

I think it is fairly obvious that it isn't in service but there you go. The only way to avoid the negative comments is to not stay near the car to listen to the bores. Although I am no Vauxhall lover and wouldn't regard the Astra coupe as a classic it is still nice to see one that hasn't been barried. We were discussing the old "what makes a classic" thing the other week at my local car club and even the oldies with their flat caps are starting to cotton on to the fact that their clubs will die out unless they get more inclusive of what we think are modern cars. Most classic shows seem to be populated with old giffers so we need more youngsters to show an interest in the hobby to keep it going.

[oldcars]

I like to try and enjoy the prats.........by a combination of massive misinformation and taking the piss without them noticing.

 

Since I adopted this approach car shows have become fun again as 'the prats' with the newly learned facts that my 1947 Rover was built when Ford briefly owned the company and the engine would happy run on paraffin as long as you swap the coil leads around. All stated with quiet authority and starting each sentence with...'as I'm sure you know'

Thats class, im off to make up some shite about my Reliant.

 

As you will know this is a very very early Rialto, built in the Tamworth branch of Reliant. It has the early electric engine........................

[nisfan]

Me, FOAD and derskine went to a How Many Left show, the sole purpose is a once common car now near extinct. Now our cars are nowhere near mint, there all dailys.

You could see people turning there nose up at them as they werent 'shiny'. Never doing another show again, ill just park in the car park and speak bullshit about somebody elses car.

[Lankytim]

Car shows are shit, end of (apart from AS)

 

Fuck em.

[Taff]

I like to try and enjoy the prats.........by a combination of massive misinformation and taking the piss without them noticing.

 

Since I adopted this approach car shows have become fun again as 'the prats' with the newly learned facts that my 1947 Rover was built when Ford briefly owned the company and the engine would happy run on paraffin as long as you swap the coil leads around. All stated with quiet authority and starting each sentence with...'as I'm sure you know'

 

Alf, I am stealing this concept.

 

"assumes slightly nasal twang" as I'm sure you are aware, the MGF was ACTUALLY designed in Ford's plant in Cologne, hence the F in the title and as a result the boot lock is on the continental side of the lid...

[CHRIS1980]

We should start a thread about plausible bullshit we can make up and convince fuckwits with.

[mercrocker]

...And then see how long before it gets on Top Fifth Gear or whatever it is

[Vladimir Putin]

We should start a thread about plausible bullshit we can make up and convince fuckwits with.

 

Thread?  Some of us run world's biggest country this way.

 

 

 

Am just joking you, of course.

[Bren]

The only people worth conversing with at shows are other owners.

 

Maybe we should have our own show that NOBODY else other than shitters can attend. It must be secret.

 

Like fight club.

 

Rule no 1 - don't talk about autoshite.

[Lord Sterling]

Hey IainL, this is Autoshite man, the place for love for unloved vehicles. Few people give a toss about my Rover 800s but do I give a fuck? No, because I have the enthusiasm for it and I know I own something fairly old and interesting, even if it's only interesting to me.

 

Unfortunately car shows have become an attraction for the great unwashed to belch out thier collective ill-informed and unresearched opinions. These people are twats, you can bet that they were as disparaging in thier remarks about other peoples cars too. Sadly this is endemic in today's society, what you wear, where you live, what you drive, where you work etc... are all scrutinised by those who simply have no place/knowledge or real experience to scrutinise others, but sadly these types are simply brainwashed into thinking that they have a "right" to express thier ill-informed opinions no matter how much it affects others.

 

Your car is yours, you love it and so do others here including myself. Keep the car, have pride in it and fuck what others say about it. Personally I reckon the Bertone Astras will have some sort of classic/interesting status some day, there isn't alot of them about...

[mat_the_cat]

I rather fear now for the reaction I'll get this weekend, as I'm going to a 'normal' show with the Stellar.

 

Some of the comments above really sum up what I enjoy about AS. I may not like all the cars we as a bunch of misfits actually own, but what I do like is the fact that we own what we do because WE like it, rather than because it's popular or valuable.