Although the cars may be up to a hundred years old, local tradition requires that the winners be roadworthy enough to be driven to the show. There is scorn for "garage princesses." The cars people admire most have been tagged and insured throughout most of the years they've existed.
This is possible because of the local custom of buying a second car as a showpiece.
The typical local motorist's first car is a clunker. He bought it secondhand, to have something to drive to a minimum-wage or student-labor job, and chose the most recent, most popular junk car possible because most of the working parts already needed replacement. Although he may later remember this car fondly, he is currently embarrassed by it, and may even buy one of those "My other car is a..." bumper stickers. The day when the auto parts store guys tell him "They're not making those any more," he'll be glad to sell the thing for scrap and buy another car, probably an economy model, probably also secondhand.
Meanwhile, when he can afford it, he buys the showpiece car. This may be a blatantly impractical model; it may already be a "classic," or it may just be a very, very expensive car. It will sit in the garage and nonverbally tell people "Somebody in this house has surplus income" for years during which it's driven only when the working car, or truck, is not working.
Actual road trips are taken in old Ford Escorts, Chevy Cavaliers, Toyota Corollas, and Honda Accords, or if a new car has to be bought, in Ford Fiestas, Chevy Sparks, Honda Civics, and new Toyota Corollas; or in pickup trucks or minivans.
Driveways hold Bel Airs, Chevelles, Mustangs, Corvettes, Camaros, Lincolns, Cadillacs, Beemers, Mercedes, Lexus, Volvos, and Miatas, which are tagged and insured and driven, if all goes well, fewer than fifty miles in a year. If the family fall on hard times their tags may be taken off. If the owner is desperate they may be sold, with an eye to their future value as antiques.
Some people do drive the more expensive of two or more motor vehicles the family own, if it's the one that gets better fuel mileage or the one that's still covered by a warranty. If people have a Prius, they drive it. However, Bel Airs seen on the road are usually on the way to or from a car show.
When these vehicles converge on a local town, road conditions become...well...nostalgic. Oh the roar of engines lacking mufflers! Oh the stench of exhaust systems lacking filters! Real antique cars have never had these innovations. Some of them never had seat belts, either, and some are so low-slung that oil pans, as well as any muffler or filter the car might have, seem likely to fall off if anything as big as an incompletely squashed rabbit happens to be in the road. In a part of the world where private roads often demand a minimum of 19" clearance, a car with less than 12" clearance still makes a statement.
From time to time it's good for middle-aged and older people to note some ways in which "the former days" were not better than these. Vintage car shows are jolly social occasions and generally bring business to the towns that host them, but automotive technology really has improved.
Amazon book link? But of course. For every vintage car fancier there's a book in this series...
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