Oh, what a show!

Over the weekend my wife and I went to a car show hosted by ODMA at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach. The weather was warm and comfortable. The overcast skies provided superior conditions for photo taking. The cars ranged greatly in make, model, and year, the oldest in attendance of which we believe was a 1909 Franklin.

That was the particularly interesting part to me. It is nice attending car shows with such a variance in age of vehicles. There were many pre-war cars in attendance. They are always a pleasure to see.

Not only was the large attendance of pre-war cars interesting to me, but also the incredible kindness by the owners of the vehicles. Never have I been to a show where people have been so friendly and enthusiastic about sharing their car. My wife, beautiful as always, looked like a southern belle and was offered many times to sit in vehicles to get her picture taken. She basked in the attention and experience and I was one incredibly proud husband.

We enjoyed ourselves very much at the show. It was a unique and rare experience and I am so glad that people in the car culture world have such warm welcomes to strangers. My wife and I are looking forward to more car shows this year, and certainly for the return of this show next year!

My wife in what we believe was the oldest car at the show, a 1909 Franklin.

My wife in her favorite car at the show, a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible.

Michigan Motor Filled Weekend – Woodward Dream Cruise and Pure Michigan 400

I am so unbiased when it comes to car shows. While I am not the biggest fan of certain brands or models, I appreciate them none the less. I drove up to Michigan for the Woodward Dream Cruise and absolutely had a blast. It was great to see such an array of vehicles along with such a passionate and considerate individuals. The car culture does have its stereo types, which are normally very level headed people. Today was no exception. I was proud to walk up and down Woodward, almost on automotive overload! There are so many vehicles to see! Since they cruise sometimes you have to be quick. From Ferraris and Lamborghinis, to Bricklin SV1, Volkswagen Thing, Datsun 240’s, Bentley, Kaiser, Mazda RX-7, DeTamaso Pantera, Audi R8, any and all American muscle and sports cars, many global markets were represented by a vehicle I spotted throughout the day. The list is just too large to remember.

I walked a ton. I attended in 2012, so I knew what to expect. This year I decided to walk a bit further in the Birmingham area. That was well worth it. It was so classy up there and I spotted a Jaguar E type. Beautiful vehicle.

I was delighted to see an amazing family zone sponsored by Kroger, Chevrolet, Hotwheels, and a radio station local to the Detroit area. Kroger had a Hotwheels fun zone for kids to play with cars and track and even purchase cars thanks to Kroger who stocked them from pallets they had available. Well done. If I had kids, they would have been there a while. And I certainly would not have minded.

Fiat/Chrylser/Dodge/Jeep/Ram/SRT/Mopar had a very cool display. While I did not quite get anything free (and they might have had something, I just didn’t ask) they had a very fitting mix/remix rock DJ for ambient music, crazy epic vehicles to display like the Hellcat Challenger, the Charger with the 707 horsepower motor, along with the new 2015 Pursuit Charger, Vipers, and a monster truck. Very fitting, energetic, and inclusive atmosphere. I enjoyed it. The other venues had cool give aways. Ford gave you a die cast 2015 Mustang for signing up for emails, and Chevrolet gave you a free shirt for completing a scavenger hunt fill in the blank card. I enjoyed that.

I had dinner at Vinsetta Garage. Absolutely delicious. Certainly a must eat at place if you attend the cruise. I sat down at the bar and ordered a whole cheeseburger pizza to which I ate the entire thing. It was absolutely delicious!

After that I finished off the final hour and a half of the cruise sitting at the corner of Woodward and 11 mile just enjoying everything. Such a splendid day.

On Sunday I then ventured over to the Irish Hills in Michigan for the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway! It was overcast and cool, which was delicious weather for the cars! They were hauling butt! I watched Jeff Gordon get his third win this season holding off Kevin Harvick! The sounds and smells of racing, it just can’t be beat!

All in all, another fantastic All Out Octane automotive filled weekend! I hope you enjoyed reading. Stay tuned for another blog of my next adventure!

A Weekend Full Of Wheels

The weekend was an absolute blast. There are so many automotive events that happened this weekend. I’m really going to share the events I attended and make a brief comment on a topic of great relevancy at the current time.

First up, Friday evening I went with my dad over to the Ashtabula county fair in Jefferson Ohio. My grandparents live near there and I’ve heard so many things about the how great the demo derby is at the fair. Well, in my opinion, it was interesting, not quite like other derby’s I have been to. It was a patience game and very slow, strategic, and inconsistent. With that said it was very interesting to experience a different way of doing things, although it was not exactly the best way. I did enjoy the time and experience I had with my dad and uncle who accompanied us. On an entertainment scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, I give it a 6. It receives a “passing” grade mostly for the different way of hosting the derby.

Next up, Saturday evening, I called an audible and instead of going dancing, My dad and I stopped on our way home in Norwalk Ohio at Summit Motor Sports Park for the Night Under Fire. Best decision ever. I absolutely love drag racing. Four funny cars, two top fuels, gassers, top fuel bikes, four jet cars, and one jet semi….made for such an epic evening. And top it all off with a $100,000 fireworks show, it was just incredible. But it still didn’t stop there. After all the racing we got to go down and see the cars and meet the drivers on the track! I was so super pumped because I had never been on the track. But it still keeps going BECAUSE…remember I said two top fuels? Well, one of those just happened to be the lovely, talented, and fastest girl in motor sports, Brittany Force! I GOT HER AUTOGRAPH! I was very happy. I still am.

It all accumulated to one epic experience. Summit Motor Sports Park knows how to put on a SHOW! A legit, fun, safe, involved, entertaining show! I give it a 10 with all the accolades possible! Sheer happy epicness! I walked out of there with the biggest smile ever!

So that’s pretty hard to top. Almost impossible. Which, I will say right up front, the car show I went to on Sunday afternoon did not beat Saturday evening. I give Sundays car show in my little town of Tiffin, an 8. It is hosted by the Amvets and they have really great music, food, prizes, and of course cars. Lots of them for such a little town. I wandered around by myself just enjoying being in the classic, stereotypical car show atmosphere. I had been to the same show two years ago and that was great then as well. I was very pleased to see that it was still going strong, even after I missed a year.

So that was my incredible automotive weekend.

To just comment on the tragic incident regarding Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward Jr. It is very sad that a life has been lost in the motor sports realm. The magnitude of this event is going to impact aspects of the sport in all levels. I believe Kevin did not make a wise choice by getting out of his car. I believe that Tony should reflect on all the events of his recent years on dirt and evaluate what he should do moving forward. It is saddening to see the effects of impulsive decisions, no matter acted upon or spoken, this has caused a great ripple. I am praying for healing and wisdom.

Now that I have gotten all that out, hopefully I will be able to get back to blogging more and sharing all things automotive. My goal is to go to the Woodward Dream Cruise this weekend. I will hopefully have plenty to say about that and am looking forward to sharing. Thank you so much for reading.

Brentton