Does anyone bring their Montes to cruise ins, cars and coffee or car shows? This is my 2004 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Tribute Series car. It is a 36,000 mile, one-owner (I am the second owner). With all documentation including the Certificate of Authenticity, this car is number 2,705 of 2,883. I recently purchased this car and it has been a hit at cruise ins. Also included is the original window sticker, all manuals, original sales literature, a Dale Jr. book with CD, Dale Jr. racing jacket, cover and many other items. Many folks have never heard of one or seen one before.

 

Ive taken mine to car shows and cruise ins before.

I've not had great experiences with car shows. I took it to several back when I was in high school / college / early adulthood back when I was keeping it pristine all the time. They were generally smaller / local shows - within a few hour drive, so the classes tended to be pretty broad. But my Monte was never competitive when lumped in with "all modern FWD", or "all 90s USDM", etc that kind of thing . Two things irked me the most: the apparent buddy system between the car show regulars and the judges (whose roles were flip flopped at the show the following weekend), and giving awards to people that didnt do anything besides write a check (especially classes like the 90s USDM - someone pulls up in a stock vette or viper then I instantly have no chance since my car wasnt $50k+).

I also didn't personally get much positive interaction out of it. The 'muscle car guys' tended to hate anything FWD - even more so because it had the Monte Carlo name on it. The FWD friendly 'import crowd', generally hated anything US made. So at most there would only be a handful of other people in my same boat that had any interest in the car at all - often Grand Prix owners as at least they recognized Id done an engine swap.


That's why I shifted to cruise ins and have stuck with them instead as I get older. I like the lack of pressure of competition and the free 'come and go as you wish' attitude. We've got some cruise ins around now that you can go to before dinner and come back to 90% new vehicles after (so maybe Ill pop by the same spot 2 or 3 times the same day). People aren't worried about not bringing out their car because it may not fit into the class system correctly or because their project car is only 80% done - anything and everything shows up.

Sometimes Ill hang around my car and get a lot of discussion, other times there's no interest in it and I spend all of my time instead walking around chatting about other's cars and just leave when Im done making my rounds. You're not stuck at one spot for 8 hours waiting for awards youre not going to win anyways like a traditional car show.

I will say my new favorite thing (during the busy season) is to string together multiple cruise in spots with some actual cruising in between. A lot of the spots are repeated every Fri or Sat, so I can hit a few of those amd sprinkle in a stop at a one off event also to mix things up. Really gives a lot of variety in people and cars and I get some seat time too.

 

I have taken my blue 2004 Monte to many car shows over the years and my 2000 Black Monte has seen it's share of events. It's a great time to hang out with friends and check out some cool cars.

I usually don't have a problem with people at these events. I have certainly heard my share of "This is not a REAL Monte Carlo as it's FWD". But that is not very common. I don't care about winning awards, but I do listen to the cars that do. My only complaint (and I may see it from a different set of eyes) is you get to the 2000+ awards. The event could have some really AWESOME cars, but they are not your "muscle cars" and 95% of the time, those cars never get a mention. These can be imports or FWD cars; instead awards go to the Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs, Challengers and Chargers (maybe a GTO). Again, I am not looking for a win, I am just looking at these events that had some really cool stuff and sadly felt they were over looked.

Still does not stop me from going and having a good time.

 

I still go to them if it isn't real hot out. lately it has been terrible to go as the heat will really slow you down.
I have won a few awards too, Upsets me when I enter the show Category I belong in and a few guys enter it so they can win and they don't belong in there one of them had a Corvette and there is a Firebird guy that will switch his years to get the win. Here are some photo's I do see a few Monte Carlo's at these shows. Most of them frown on my entry as they hate the 5th Gen MC, but its all I got so I have tried to make it special. I get some lookers because I fly 2 flags the Stars and Stipes and the Dale E flag. Mostly because Dale and I looked alike and then I have this sign on the door that says ( You are Driving with the Intimidator's twin) sometimes I will walk up on someone when they are looking at that. This is usually good for a conversation or more fun stuff.
Back in 2015 I was stationed in Tennessee as part of a disaster response team. The people down there would stare at me constantly and won guy indicated he was a personal friend of DE.
He said to me " You SOB I knew you faked that crap in 01 you should have called me to we could go fishing and hunting again" I just laughed!
But it was that way every day for the 7 months I worked there.
So a friend of mine had that little sign made especially for my car. Haha
I never go anywhere and try to look like DE if anything I would try and where a discuise I have one thing up on him.... I was born 150 days before he was so he looked like me.
The wheels I have on this car came off a Dale Jr MC they were a nice salvage yard find. 135.00 for the set and the tires were like new.
This year I have taken my 2020 Blazer just because it has a better AC in it. Kool me down for the drive back home.

 

I so far have never had problems with negative comments at car shows. As for judges, they need to judge on the condition and presentation of the car, not whether they like this generation or not. Spectators always seem to love the car, as many didn't know the Tribute Series even existed. I have shown Corvettes, Mercedes, Maseratis and Bentleys. Each with many trophies because of their condition and again, presentation. I am not looking for trophies, but to talk to the folks and show them my cars.

 

I bet you've got some great reactions doing that!

I will say Ive never had anything bad said directly to me. People seem to save that for when they get online behind an anonymous keyboard. Some of the older MC online forums were pretty brutal to anyone not RWD.

But I have overheard TONS of trash talk from people chatting with their buddies while looking at the car, not knowing I was the owner standing a car or two over.

To be fair, the smaller shows back at home were targeted at the old muscle cars. All of the ads featured old stuff and the classes were clearly heavily biased than way. So I probably should've expected a lack of interest. Unfortunately it was the only local car shows we had until the import scene got big enough to start having some of their own (as they were equally disliked as I was at these classic car based shows).

Probably also worth mentioning I only did shows from probably 99-mid 00s, so the modded FWD stuff hadn't really caught on in mainstream popularity nationwide at that point. Maybe it's a different vibe today / theyve got some newer blood running things?

That sounds great and all, but there's absolutely no way to actually enforce that at small town local shows. Plus if the judges this weekend didnt give trophies to their buddies, then their buddies arent going to reciprocate at the show across town next weekend, lol.

I had several times people would roll up in a dirty, stock newer vette and immediately sweep the modern car class just because they had a vette (viper being the other common one). That gets pretty old when you've got an enormous amount of work/time into your car and spent hours cleaning it up for the show.

It's not that Im particularly chasing trophies. But if Im paying money to enter a contest and they're just awarding stuff to their same buddies again and again, then Ive got no interest in funding that. That buddy group can bankroll their own trophy collection. Ill stick to free cruise ins and support the event by patronizing the businesses that run it instead.



On a side note related to Cars and Coffee - social media has really ruined that scene IMO. Way too many people doing live streams / vlogs walking around being loud and not paying any attention to their surroundings. Then you get the massive surge of people the last hour or so to watch and record everyone leave - hoping they catch a wreck or something else to go viral. Absolute hordes of people lining the sidewalks with their phones out.

 

Originally Posted by drivernumber3
Mostly because Dale and I looked alike and then I have this sign on the door that says ( You are Driving with the Intimidator's twin) sometimes I will walk up on someone when they are looking at that. This is usually good for a conversation or more fun stuff.

I bet you've got some great reactions doing that!
I have a couple of books that are filled with photo's to show people they seem to like them!
Dale himself was giving me some sh*t at a venue unlike racing during the off season back in the late 80's. He said to me after we sat down for a lunch ( You have no idea who I am do You??) My reply was your just some Bozo that looks like me! I thought he wouldn't quit laughing!! fun memories. and I didn't really know who he was!!

I was at this Carshow and the Judge came by and was checking stuff off his sheet and I suggested he take a look at my Story board, I put this out by the car and it shows all the stuff I have done to the car over the years. He told me he didn't have time for that and kept checking off his list. Mine being a former daily driver is not great as fas as paint goes. these clowns Judge all paint jobs the same 20 is perfect and I thin 12 is the bottom end. I can't compete on that scale with some one who has a car that is newer in my class. Se ythe photo has my story board by the front wheel. I brought a few trophies along so they would see I have won something in the past. It didn't make a difference. Lol

 

I have never brought past trophies to a car show for any of my cars. I think it intimidates the judges. Storey board is good, a well-put-together binder with descriptions and pictures of any and all improvements to the vehicle helps too. As for a judge indicating he does not have time, I have never experienced that attitude. Be nice, friendly and not pushy. Charm the judge and be polite and they will every time take the time to hear what you have to say and what you have to show them.

Best in Class European and Best in Class British in same day.

 

You really go all out on your car show setup - looks really nice!

Did you have a company make your display board?

 

Nice cars!