Some attending cars posted on facebook

 

Leaving Katie's at 7 am is going to put you in Hunt Valley after the lot will be nearly full.

 

The lot won't be full. They just won't get prime parking and won't all park together.

 

Some more cars to look forward to:

 

For anybody coming to this from the other side of the ditch ... The Police is out in force ... got a $70 ticket for missing front plate. I live two exits past Kent Narrows and saw at least 10 cars pulled over between the bridge and my exit.


As I paid my extra taxes on the side of the road motorcycle club of at least 50 riders past us and the trooper could not finish fast enough to track them down before they pulled off for Red Eyes or the Jetty.


Watch your speed coming off the bridge ....

 

Two cars I was not expecting to see at Hunt Valley.

McLaren 650S



2015 Subaru WRX



And a pair of beautiful Porsches.

 

I had a good time meeting up with friends and seeing some cool cars yesterday, but... I'm going to be honest and say after yesterday I won't be attending HV again.

Rich, thanks for all the effort you put into the event, but there were far, far too many "normal" cars parked in the show car area. No offense to the owners of those cars, but something like a Mazda3 with aftermarket wheels and a big intake isn't a show car, nor is it remotely interesting. There were a lot of cars in the show car area that can be seen in droves in any grocery store parking lot. Meanwhile, a lot of nicer or more interesting cars couldn't find parking anywhere and many gave up and parked on the other side in front of Wegman's.

It was great seeing the McLaren 650S, Aventador, old-school Audi Quattro, and some other stuff, but for the most part, it wasn't worth the drive and especially not worth the hassle.

 

I'm sure Will will take this as a learning experience, as he has done with his events in the past. He's good at organizing his events. Next year will be bigger and better and I'm sure more organized. You could also come up on a day that isn't an anniversary so it will only be a couple hundred cars

 

As much as I hate to say it, I agree with Rich. lol. Kidding aside, we arrived at 7:40 and were escorted to the far back within the salty black snow domes. Was not happy that there were barricades up for the mazda and jetta guys that arrived later than us. It's a shame it is pumped up for quantity rather than quality. Will take Chris' advice and do an occasional romp on an off un-hyped weekend.

 

I hear you, but what are you going to do? When I got there at 6:45, they said "Lotus? Euro. Go there." So I initially parked my fully restored 1974 Lotus Europa Special between a second gen Toyota MR2 and a Scion FRS. And next to them were lines of current/recent mostly Japanese tuner cars. Ok, nice cars for what they are, but my Lotus looked more than a little out of place. Not that it's any better, but a 70's era British car looks, well, not like current cars.

I eventually wound up parking next to a bunch of cars from Treasured Motorcars, who does the wrenching on my car that I can't...or really shouldn't do.
It's all a matter of perspective. Probably 30 or more current edition Camaros came in and parked together. Ok, seen one, seen 'em all. Nissan GTR's? Have to respect Godzilla, but when 20 pull in together, well they all look the same. And while I was amused by seeing a dozen more or less V6 Fiero GT's in a prime parking area, even having owned one years ago I was mystified by their place of honor.

And this will rankle on this forum, but while I respect Porsche for the cars they make from an engineering and performance perspective...to simply LOOK at them, which is what a car show is all about...as an uninitiated most of the 911 variants look pretty much the same to me. The Carrera GT and the older Beck (I think) 356 rally car stood out among the P cars.
And frankly, these days, one current Ferrari looks pretty much like the next, ditto the Lambos. Yawn. And BMW coupes. Great cars, really...but they all look alike except for color. Don't get me started on Cobra replicas or Corvettes. When I first when to HV last November, there were two new C7 Vettes there, the first I'd seen on the road. Saturday? I think I counted 7 or more. They are not a novelty anymore.

The Jag XK150, the McClaren, the Carrera GT, the little British tank looking thing, the new Alfa 8C coupe, two genuine Shelby Mustangs, the Volvo P1800, and some others really caught my eye. All the rest of it was, to me, enjoying a festival auto atmosphere.

I have to admit I don't understand Will's business model. I guess somehow he's making money, but I'm not sure how. There was what, one vendor there? If he were to charge registration fees for his anniversary events (as opposed to the week to week cars and coffee) he might thin the herd a bit of the more pedestrian cars. And make a few nickels too.

Directly facing my car were two reverse image Ford GT's, Lambos, the McClaren, the Alfa 8C's, etc.... THEY probably thought my car belonged next to TR6's or MGB's somewhere else (perhaps rightfully). I was at a car show in Annapolis a few years ago with a Lotus Exige I owned. A woman there with a Ferrari said that she used to own an Elise, it was just her daily beater. She said it was only a Lotus, so she didn't care if it got beat up day to day. Ok.

I looked at the cars that caught my eye, the others were invisible. But I respect their owners and fans, and if they are proud of their cars, why not?
BUT...no matter what cars were there, it was too damn many. Getting OUT of there was a PITA, and I waited a bit to leave. That place, and the entry/exit intersections and lights, are not meant to handle that many cars coming/going at the same time.

I may head up there a few times this season on a Saturday morning, but on 3 out of the 4 times I've been there, I've had an unpleasant experience on the Beltway, so maybe not so often. But that has more to do with owning a vintage Lotus, which stands for Lots of Trouble, Usually Serious.

 

While I can't offer anymore feedback than telum01 and Scott in SS MD, I agree. When we arrived at 7:40, All I noticed was total chaos. I don't know how it will be pulled off next year when those retail stores open up. Maybe a change in location such as Maple Lawn. lol

 

I'm not correcting you...simply providing information, so don't take this negatively

The 8C is not a new car. The 4C is new...but I don't even know if they're out yet. Smaller than the 8C too. There are only 90 8Cs in the US...the fact that two were at Hunt Valley was incredible.

The British tank is a regular at Hunt Valley. He is the owner of Radcliffe Jewelers. The Volvo P1800 is also a regular.

The sponsors of Hunt Valley Horsepower pay for things that most other cars & coffees don't have, such as the insurance that Will has set up for the lot, as well as the Adopt-A-Road program that volunteers participate in.

If he actually wanted to "thin the herd" which I don't think he does, sure, he could charge a $5 entree fee or a couple cans of food just like the UMCP meet does. But hey, they only get a few thousand cars sooooo...I guess that doesn't work either

 

The 8C's were pretty awesome, especially the convertible. I'd never seen a 'vert in person until then.

The "easy" solution is to actually enforce the show car parking lot. If the show car area is full of normal cars, the interesting cars have to park elsewhere (where they won't be seen) or just leave, and that's exactly what happened. I think Scott summed it up perfectly - it was quantity over quality. And that's something many of us aren't going to be interested in. What's left will be several hundred normal cars, and a few brave owners of the more interesting cars. The higher-end sponsors are going to stop coming - why would McLaren bring out a newly-minted $330k 650S to a gathering of $20k Jettas? Again, not trying to disparage the owners of those cars, but they aren't going to bring in the attention needed for a successful car show.

My suggestion would be to have a pre-sorted list of what would be considered a show car and allowed into the cordoned lot. List marques that are automatic entries (ie, Ferrari), examples of interesting cars (like the twin-turbo Ford Ranger), allow for classic cars (Audi Quattro or a 1930's Buick or a classic pony car, for example), etc. If someone shows up and says "I have an RX7 with an LS-swap" sure let them in, because that's interesting. But if a Dodge Neon pulls up with a body kit and rims, sorry but it needs to keep moving. If people want to show up with a group of 20+ of the same car (like the GTR guys do at every event ever), then they need to say so beforehand so a section can be cordoned off (I don't know if they did give advanced notice or not, just using them as an example).

 

Come on guys, I think we're all missing the point of this meet. Its a 'car' show, for ALL cars. Sure I tune out cars that aren't interesting to me, but obviously the owner is proud of what they drove there (except for me, I know my car sucks). The quality vs quantity argument is moot IMO as this wasn't targeted to any single type of car. All car enthusiasts were invited and they all came out.

Rich does a great job with his events and I'm sure he's his own worst critic. Some things didn't go well, and some things went as planned. At the end of the day, I had a good time.

Takes a lot of *****, time, and effort to do what he does; I congratulate him on a succesful event.

 

My understanding was that the 650S was a customer's car, and they had already sold it. Maybe they even delivered it to the customer at Hunt Valley Horsepower?

And could you imagine trying to selectively choose which cars would be allowed in or not? They just don't have the capacity for that. Not only are there just too many cars, but the "judging" is subjective, not objective.

LS1 RX7, you're allowed in. Civic with $25,000 in motor work but has a dented fender, you're not allowed in. Regular C6 Corvette that costs $23,000 used, you're allowed in. Brand new Civic SI that costs $27,000 you're not allowed in.

See what I mean? Sure, Rich could have blocked off a section for all the exotics, but then he's showing bias towards certain cars/people, and that is not what cars & coffee is all about. It's not an official car show. Don't blame someone else for the exotic car owners not showing up early enough.