My take on my first MW

[Mongoose]

This was my first Mustang Week so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I must say that I have never been to a car show like the one at MW. At every car show that I have been to in my area, everyone shows up early to "get a good spot" and to start wiping off the car. (We had a car show with 2500 participants that started at noon, and we barely got a spot by showing up at 7:45 am.) So yes I did show up at 9:30 for that reason, but I didn't complain, just came back later and waited in line to get in. Another thing different than any car show that I have been to is the strict judging on cleanliness. Everyone says it is for fun and everyone should relax, but if I have to worry that I got that last piece of lint off my seat, I don't consider that fun and relaxing. I know that cars should be cleaned, but other things should weigh in. I can pay someone to clean my car the day of the show and win an award, but I get no credit for totally building my engine and nearly every aspect of the car. If you just want clean, perhaps you should have Molly Maids as a sponsor and judge! :) My car is a "go" car not really a "show" car, so it isn't perfectly clean nor will it ever be. I really don't want to spend my vacation cleaning my car.

I also expected a dash plaque and a goody bag. Even a show in our area trying to raise money for a youth baseball team had a dash plaque. In MB, I can't imagine that some donations couldn't be made for a goody bag. Heck you can go in any restaurant and get a handful of coupons so I can't imagine restaurants or attractions wouldn't donate something. That would have been better than nothing. Also why didn't the sponsors or vendors donate a little something for a goody bag?

As a suggestion on judging, I do think it would be beneficial to break the cars up into class. From pre-registration you have an idea of how many cars and what body style will be showing up. Just section off an area for each body style with a sign and let people park in their appropriate section when they arrive. The car clubs can display together on cruise-in night. It would be easier to compare cars and make a better decision on which car should win best Cobra, etc. if you had them all together. In a close call between cars, it would be easier to choose the correct car as the winner if they are side by side.

When I arrived at the car show, I was really surprised at the lack of older model cars. I have a 98, and normally it is too new at a show. This time it was too old! I now realize why there is a lack of older cars there as it is hard to compete with new cars unless you have treated yours as a "show" car. I am currently building a 70 Mach, but it is going to be a "go" car not a "show" car either. I like to spend more time on building it than cleaning it.

I have also never been to a show where the cops were called by the people running the show. The area in front of the mall had nothing to do with the car show or cruise in. One quick reminder that when the participants leave please don't do a burn out should have been sufficient. Or ask everyone to leave the show using the side entrance to avoid that area. The constant announcement did get annoying. If after letting the police know the situation and they didn't find a need to come down there, then it should have been dropped.

I have no sour grapes regarding the show, but it just isn't a show for me or my car. I'll just stick to my local shows and Fun Ford Weekend and win a few awards on things other than cleanliness. It really is my fault as I didn't read the judging criteria before I entered. I had fun, but I really don't see me attending again even if I had won an award. I hope everyone has a great time and MW continues for many more years.

By the way, when will the judging sheets be e-mailed out? I left my email address with a lady at the show.

[snkchmr]

Ok, we have addressed the list of suggestions that were posted as of yesterday morning. This mainly concerns the Car Show, but some suggestions center more around the week in general. The first thing I want to make sure everyone understands is why we choose to format the show the way we do. The five Staff each come from heavy car show backgrounds. We have all been on the other side of the judging sheet more times than I care to recount. The Mustang Week Car Show is NOT going to be run like an MCA show. Now, I'm not saying MCA shows are bad, because I enjoy participating in the local MCA shows as much as anyone. What I'm saying is we want the Mustang Week Show to be "different" from all the rest. We would really like for it to be much less stressfull for participants, judges and cooridnators. So, with that, I'll adress this week's suggestions. Some can't be answered now and will have to be discussed as we approach the '08 event.

1. Trash cans in the lot with us
This was an oversight on both the mall and our parts. Trash cans will be in the lots next year.

2. Porta- Jons
The mall dictates a lot about what is/isn't needed. They would rather you use the bathrooms in the mall and associated stores as a way to get you inside (marketing). But, we will have at least two prorta-jons in the lot next year.

3. Dash Plaques
As I said above, we are not MCA. One of the things we have repeatedly got a lot of comments on is the "participant" static decals that each person registered for the judged portion gets. That way you can display them all year long and then save them. I have all my Staff ones from previous years. We are going to stick (pardon the pun) with the static decals.

4. Break out classes and include a Daily Driver and Trailor Class.
We aren't going to be able to do this. Somehow, each year, there are folks that drive hundreds and even thousands of miles to the event and are able to get their cars extremely clean for the show. And somehow each year, folks that trailer their cars in overlook things and don't clean up as well as daily driven cars. We discussed this at lenght and we are not going to break out daily driven vs. trailered cars. It would be a logistical nightmare and make judging even more of an issue I'm affraid.

5. No vendor or staff cars in show field
First, there are only 5 Staff members and our cars are never in the judged show field (we'd all lose to Rodney or Mike if they were... LOL!) We see the issue of vendors', sponsors', and volunteers' cars being in the judged portion. So, that will no longer be allowed. The last thing we need is more drama...

6. "weight" higher mileage cars in the show
This is almost impossible to do. Several reasons. We'd have to check them all or have some way to have the computer "weight" that score for one. More importantly, as I said above, there are daily driven cars, with tons of miles on them, that show each year and are immaculate. This would end up causing a way more unfair situation. It really comes down to this... how "new" can you make your high mileage car appear?

7. Food Vendor out in the lot with us
We are in a "Do not compete" situation with the mall. We will look into having the mall contact one of their food vendors to do something outside. We can't bring someone in unforturnately. We will work on this

8. Compensation for Mustang Week Staff
I speak for all 5 of us when I say we don't do this for personal gain. We appreciate the suggestion more than you know, but our single most important compensation is watching everyone enjoy themselves and watching Mustang Week grow. If you want to help "compensate" us, we ask that you spend your money on raffle tickets and 50/50 chances. That money goes into paying what vendor/sponsor/show fees do not. The raffle and 50/50 money covers the expenses that come well before any of the next year's sponsor money comes in. This way, you at least have a chance of winning something for your contribution. Raffle and 50/50 money really saves us sometimes. That is how you can help us keep from digging into our pockets to make Mustang Week happen.

9. Allow extra time in schedule for calculating results. Scheduled time was 6:00P.M. and actual time of presentation was closer to 7:30 P.M.
Next year judging will begin on time. But we can't promise it will end exactly when we posted it would. Judging is not a quick thing and hurrying leads to problems. Plus, the folks putting the 200 scores into the computer and sorting everything worked their butts off and got things out as quickly as possible. We will do our best to keep to posted schedules, but please have patience if things get a little behind. It is not our intent.

10. Rule that no spray paint allowed in show or display areas
As a general car show rule... you should NEVER spray anything near/around another persons car in the show field! Even tire shine or glass cleaner needs to be used with extreme care. The wind can carry this stuff and make a mess. Don't even think of bringing permanent spray paint with you.

11. Separate Vendor class
As stated above, there will not be a class in the judged field for vendors/sponsors. We will deal with this as we approach next years event so everyone stays happy with their display.

12. Possible Location change to Inlet Square Mall
We have looked at this venue a dozen times over the past few years. I even looked at it again the Sunday night after the cruise-in. It just wouldn't work for us when we look at Mustang Week's growth over the past two years.

13. Go ahead and back the time up to regular show hours instead of delaying the start time. We are going to be discussing this quite a bit over the next 11 months. We may back the times up to "regular" times, but we will have to weigh all the pros and cons from and how this will benefit. More on this closer to next year's show.

14. Possibly a mid-week break to allow for rest OR other club events.
One very important thing that everyone needs to understand is that we can't dictate when we "visit" certain venues. For instance, we can't switch the nights for dragnight and the speedway because we are offered certain nights for each. Taking a midweek break would not help us grow Mustang Week. We understand that clubs want a night and folks need a break. Maybe if we move the car show to earlier times, that will allow an evening for clubs to gather. As for a midweek break... the events on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all don't begin until early to mid-afternoon.

15. Possible photography of cars that could be listed as winners and also for participants to buy with Mustang Week LOGO on it. Something we will look into, but can't promise anything at this point.

16. Separate the cars showing from the car displaying and separtate cars by year model. These are both things we, the Staff, decide years ago not to do. We have no way of knowing how many display-only cars will show up. We can only speculate. It would be a logistical nightmare to make this happen without causing all sorts of problems. We want folks to be inter-mingled and be near a varied mix of makes/models. We will talk about it some more over the next year.

17. Goodie Bags. We have a Goodie Table with all the same stuff the bag would have in it. We don't recieve some of the stuff that would go into a bag until day-of the show. Come up to the Staff tents and you will find lots of that sort of info and freebies.

So... that is where we are at this point in our review of this year's events. All-in-all, we think it was a great success. We ask all of your continued patience and understanding and we will do our best to put on the most enjoyable Mustang and SVT-related events as possible.

Our take on things

[GeoSnake]

I have also never been to a show where the cops were called by the people running the show. The area in front of the mall had nothing to do with the car show or cruise in. One quick reminder that when the participants leave please don't do a burn out should have been sufficient. Or ask everyone to leave the show using the side entrance to avoid that area. The constant announcement did get annoying. If after letting the police know the situation and they didn't find a need to come down there, then it should have been dropped.

I take it you may not know what has happend the previous two years in a row on the road out in front of the mall. I also take it you don't seem to understand that if a wreck happened, that was serious enough, the lawyers of those involved could potentially come after the Mustang Week Staff, as we've been warned. Also, if we do nothing and something goes wrong, the County can choose not to issue us permits for what we do. We stand to lose a LOT because of what goes on in front of the mall. We acted in the manner we did to protect participants, spectators and the traveling public. In the past we have made the "quick reminder" about not doing burnouts. We have been ignored, cursed at and laughed at. It is no longer a small issue with the Staff and we will continue to remedy the situation as needed.

We appreciate your concerns, but will address things as listed in the 17 points above. I only hope you had a good time at Mustang Week and can trust that we are working hard to make sure all have a good time.