.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Unhinged: A Parting Shot Regarding Car Show Behavior, Or “Hit Me With The Bumper And See What Happens”


Unhinged: A Parting Shot Regarding Car Show Behavior, Or “Hit Me With The Bumper And See What Happens”

I’m the kind of person who has a temper best described as “long fuse, high-yield”. I can tolerate incredible amounts of stupidity, ignorance and general BS before I finally switch gears and turn into the angry human most people initially perceive me as. A car show should be the last place on earth I should be getting angry at, but I’m sad to say that this weekend, one guy managed to set my temper, along with several other people who were just trying to have a good time at the show. No, he wasn’t doing burnouts or donuts or blasting stupid music or anything like you might expect at a car show. Nope…instead this guy was revving his Challenger at people as if he was going to run them down simply because he wanted to put his car where they were.

somernites orph 15102In this picture (taken a couple of minutes after the incident) I’m standing in line along with about twenty other people for some tasty and seriously unhealthy fair-food. Hey, I’ve got my weaknesses, and funnel cake is certainly one of them. Behind me (in relation to this picture) is a family with a three year old girl playing, fairly oblivious to what is happening. Nothing wrong until the Challenger tries to park in that spot. He pulls up to where the line of people are and revs the Dodge, thinking that the line of people will move. He then moves forward into the line, trying to muscle his way through people, with his nose pointed at the child. People were screaming at him about the girl being there and this guy could have given a shit less. He is well within the “show” area, which has been marked off. People are walking around this zoned-off area to look at the cars and enjoy the music from the live band, and there was more than enough room for him to jockey the Dodge around without trying to drive though a line of people. He backed up, then apparently not satisfied with where the Challenger was, pulled forward with his nose aimed towards me. He got to within four inches of my left leg before he backed into the space and shut down, completely unbothered by his actions.

Leaving a car show with your tires spinning draws attention. Doing stupid stunts in a public area is irresponsible. But this guy was close to hitting people with his car just trying to park and it was clear that he wasn’t doing this by accident. You don’t rev your engine at somebody warning you that a child is in the way of your car if you aren’t trying to intimidate someone. If you are one of these jackasses who tries this, do society a favor and stay the hell at home. A car show is a family event when it’s in a public arena like this and nobody needs your attitude problems. It also makes keeping myself out of jail that much easier, because if you had hit me with your car, dude, I can’t promise that my boss wouldn’t have gotten a phone call Friday night.

somernites orph 15103

 


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

33 thoughts on “Unhinged: A Parting Shot Regarding Car Show Behavior, Or “Hit Me With The Bumper And See What Happens”

  1. mooseface

    What an ass.
    One can only hope that his behavior got reported up the line to the folks hosting the show.

  2. Cletus T Rickenbacher 3rd

    If you pull up, revving your engine, that close to me, I promise you are gonna have a really bad experience. Your paint, and your nose, are both going to suffer damage.

    (I guess my fuse is a bit shorter than yours)

    1. JKady

      That’s kinda what I was thinking, especially if that crowd includes kids. At very least you will be needing a trip to the body shop, if you push it farther, the body shop and the ER.

  3. Tedly

    I don’t get assholes like that. Maybe he was trying to be as close to the funnel cake as possible?

  4. orange65

    Being a jackass at a car show in a new car? This guy has an issue to begin with. He should be escorted out for his actions first off. But why do they allow new cars to participate in car shows? I can go to the dealer and see one just like he is driving. Big deal! I happens here as well and I still don’t understand it.

    1. Tedly

      A cool car is a cool car. I got no problems with modern rides being in shows, but douchebags acting douchey? Oh yeah, that’s where there starts to be a problem.

    2. BeaverMartin

      I agree. My neighbor had a “show car” that he bought right off the show room floor. No mods, just a stock Hemi Challenger. It was a cool car of course but to my mind car shows are for cars people want to see. How long is it until some one buys a stock Focus and hits the show car circuit. I don’t think they have to be old but there needs to be some sweat equity, customization, or uniqueness there.

    3. jeff

      Exactly. New, stock cars shouldn’t be allowed. Nobody came to see your new Corvette or Charger. Cool car, maybe. But car show material? Nope. And customized doesn’t mean a chrome license plate frame, dash protector pad, seat cover, or plaque. I always want to ask these guys how long the dealership let them go on their test drive. Or, that there’s a great car show with tons of cars they’d fit into swimmingly going on at the local Wal-Mart…..every day…

  5. cyclone03

    Entering a show or cruise if people are walking around they generally make way if they are coming toward me. If I’m coming up behind a very light throttle tap usually gets them out of there coma. I’m also on the lookout for the little runaways. I have never tried to bump anybody out of the way, or had too.
    I can’t believe this guy didn’t get tossed….

  6. loren

    I’m kinda amazed there aren’t more problems mixing cars and people in big groups. Calling the problem guys out would be one way to discourage them, it would take only a couple good publicized incidents to spoil it for everyone.

    …But the one time I saw people actually get run down in front of me, it was by an event employee at the (huge) old Rt. 66 show in San Bernardino in a golf cart, yakking instead of driving. No one appeared too hurt but it was stunning to see. Then he got the hell out outta there.

    Now that’s some irony. a guy in the position of setting behavior rules, but himself being what amounts to a hit-and-run, the lowest. Stick around long enough and you’ll see it all.

  7. 75Duster

    The guy with the Challenger is a asshole who should have been escorted out by the event organizers.

  8. sbcbird

    oh wow his car is so special that it needs to be out front. I mean come on how many people could go buy that exact car put on those wheels and drive it to a car show. If I had tons of money I would love to buy the next model up in the same color, buy the same wheels and follow him to every show just to park next to him. maybe show him some humility that way.
    I don’t mind new cars at smaller car shows with plenty of room but even then I hate it when the new car has hardly any mods, but then I couldn’t stand the chance of going to a car show and having to look at the license plate number to know which car is mine.

  9. ksj2

    You played it all wrong Brian.LOL.Should have “acted” like he hit you and then turn suddenly to whichever side of your back is that you have problems with.Sue him and take his Challenger away from.Gives the rest of us a bad name.Bet it was some guy named Zack who had a front seat full of Oreo’s.LOL.

  10. Kevin

    What do you expect from someone who brings a new car to a car show?
    If you can see the same car in a Piggly Wiggly parking lot, it doesn’t belong @ a car show!

  11. ImpalaGuy

    Nobody has addressed the issue of the handicap parking space. I don’t care if the area is for a car show or not; don’t park there unless you have the proper placard or plate.

  12. Rob

    I’m guessing the guy is handicapped – being a complete DICK is a form of handicap, I guess. LOL

  13. Evil Genius

    If it were my daughter… He’d be part of the lubrication system in that POS and I’d have a new keychain made from his teeth.

    1. tedb077

      Can’t say I disagree with this statement. You act like a d-bag to me, it’s one thing. Threaten my wife or kids, game on fella. Attitudes are appalling at so many shows anymore, I rarely attend any these days.

  14. Gary Palmer

    Why he didn’t get tossed is beyond me. Its twatwffles like him who get shows shut down because of rising insurance rates. He will be the first one who complains when that happens.

  15. Somernites Cruise

    Guys,this was at the Friday night block party held by some local businesses in conjunction with Somernites Cruise weekend. Rest assured if that idiot had acted like that our event (held on Sat.) we would have tossed his butt out!

  16. ratty

    Sorry, but I don’t even understand most car shows. Some are very cool, like the vintage car shows, with museum level antiques that many of them actually drove to the event, or the ones with big swap meets selling amazing rare muscle car parts with sellers that will spend more time talking to you than selling you anything, and of course the car shows with great food (yes, the delicious greasy food our cardiologists warn us about.. that’s what I’m talkin’ about!). But so many of them are these look-at-me-I-waxed-my-car-a-hundred-times-aren’t-I-awesome? collection of sometimes very cool restored muscle cars, but they barely drive them if at all. To me it’s like, what’s the point of owning a muscle car if you’re just going to baby it like some snooty old rich lady pampering her French poodle? Or run-of-the-mill late model cars that you see everywhere, who cares? Is this a car show or a car dealership parking lot? I don’t know, I’m all about ‘All Go and No Show’, I spend all my free hours trying to up the performance on my car, not spend all the money on waxes and over-priced paint jobs. Sure, I’d love to have some decent paint on my car, and I definitely appreciate nicely done bodywork, a skill I’ve yet to learn, but when the look is more important than the performance, it goes against the whole point of a performance car to me, they just become ‘All Show and No Go’, even if their roots are muscle it just becomes a fashion show. The last couple of car shows I’ve by accident rolled into, thinking ‘oh cool check out those classic cars, let’s go check it out!’, with my rattle-canned Bondo-sponsored (I wish! lol), street/stripper ’66 Chevy, I’ve actually had curses thrown at me because I was more performance oriented than fashion oriented, how dare I roll into their little nose-up-in-the-air gathering with my dented no-paint car. Sure, there are always nice people at car shows who will chat you up about their car, but too many of them are just there for some lame ego boost to brag about their muscle car that has never been to the track much less driven hard. And forget the fake-race cars with performance parts barely bolted on, that couldn’t run a number if they tried. So when you complain about some d-bag at a car show, it doesn’t surprise me at all. My apologies to the nice car owners who just like to spend a nice sunny day with friends talking cars, you guys and girls are awesome, I’ve just found too many a-holes like the one Bryan experienced in this article at car shows… Maybe I’ve been just rolling into the wrong car shows, just sayin’ what I’ve experienced more than a few times.

  17. jbell

    his ass woulda been pulled out the window and the ignorant beat outta it. what a total dumbfuck.

  18. Chris J

    I’m not condoning this guys behaviour. But, when going to a car or bike show, people DO NOT MOVE. I’ve had jackasses stand in the middle of the road while I’m driving and they are oblivious to the loud car/bike behind them. Making your way through a crowd with a clutch sucks. Especially when you know people hear you and just stand there like an idiot and get angry when you rev.

  19. Chris J

    Obviously the disabled and children are the exception here. And you never use your vehicle to bully.

  20. shannon

    should come and check out the show scene in Australia, it’s so relaxed, it’s ridiculous.

Comments are closed.