33rd-Annual Oktoberfest Classic Car Show at Wilson Bank & Trust ends the Mid-Tenn AACA 2021 car show season

The Mid-Tenn Region AACA finished off the 2021 car show season with the 33rd-Annual Wilson Bank & Trust Oktoberfest Antique Car Show on the Wilson Bank main campus. This is always one of the biggest car shows of the year in the Nashville area, and the car count and quality didn’t disappoint. With 553 vehicles entered, it was the largest turnout in the history of this show. Perfect weather and strong participation meant that there was something for everybody at this long-running event.

Inaugural C-10 Nationals finds home at Nashville Superspeedway

If you’re a Chevy truck lover, the Nashville Superspeedway was the place to be last weekend. Hundreds of trucks filled the infield for the C-10 Nationals, and there was a little something for everybody. First of all, it is nice to see the track getting used for racing and other fun events like this. It didn’t have much of a draw when it was being used as a Nissan storage facility. The swap meet, truck show, and autocross competitions were definitely more appealing. Now it would be nice if there were a tree or two down there for a little shade, but that’s what pop-up tents are for. All-in-all, it was a great turnout for a first-time event.

11th-Annual Southeastern Chevy/GMC All-Truck Nationals brings 1,300 trucks to Lebanon, TN in 2021

2021 marked the 11th year for the Southeastern Chevy/GMC Truck Nationals, and Brian Ashley and his team have made this one of the biggest truck events in the country. Held July 9-10 at the Wilson County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Tenn., some 1,300 trucks found their way to the enormous show field. It really is an impressive turnout, as are the 27 specialty trophies that are given out at the end of the day. Bullock’s Bodywerk’s hand makes each award by artfully welding gears, timing chains, and other car parts together into one-of-a-kind keepsakes. Incredibly, the Hover Motor Company ’63 Chevy took home the hardware for “Best Survivor,” an award that I will be proud to display in my garage.

Light Up the Pike and Hendersonville Cruise-In offered choices last Friday night

Hendersonville was a busy place last Friday night if you were an old car geek. Did you want to go to the Light Up the Pike (LITP) Car Show at Long Hollow Church, or did you want to go to the always popular Friday night Hendersonville Cruise-In? Either choice was a good one. I popped-in at both of them to see what was what. The Long Hollow Church show probably got the most attention. In addition to the car show, they had all kinds of family games set up, and they set off a huge fireworks show at the end of the night. The weekly Cruise-In was a little light on attendance, but there were still plenty of good cars there to check out.

Huge turnout for the 25th-Annual AACA Wilson Bank Spring Meet in Mt. Juliet

I haven’t been to enough car shows lately, but I’m sure glad I didn’t miss the 25th-Annual AACA Wilson Bank Spring Meet in Mt. Juliet over the weekend. This is always a good show, and this year’s edition didn’t disappoint. There were cars crammed in every little crevice of that place. It has been quite a while since there was a local AACA show, and I think everyone decided to get out of the house. This was in spite of it being a cloudy, somewhat rainy day.

 

15th-Annual Fall Redneck Rumble

When you schedule a car show on a day as nice as it was Saturday, you are going to have a huge turnout. That was the case over the weekend for the 15th-Annual Fall Redneck Rumble, which roared into the Wilson County Fairgrounds with the always-popular car show and swap meet. If you could survive not getting run down by an ATV or golf cart, which seem to multiply every time they have this event, you will enjoy one of the more unique automotive events in the Nashville area. I was there for quite a while and took a lot of pictures, so if you read all the way to the end you may check out the album.

Park Place Cruise-In

When I was at the Hendersonville Cruise the other night, someone handed me a flyer for a Thursday afternoon cruise-in at the Park Place Retirement Home in Hendersonville. This event was mostly for the residents of Park Place, and they had a nice set-up with root beer floats and popcorn. Truth be told, it was too hot out for most of the residents to come out from under the awning to look at the cars, but a few of them did venture out of the shade. Late-model Corvettes dominated the show field thanks to a strong club participation, but there were a few other interesting things out there as well. This wasn’t a very action-packed car show, but it was a nice little thing to do for the people that live there.

Who do the Voodoo Hoodoo? I do!

The Voodoo Hoodoo is a fun, punk rod lifestyle-type event that draws in a wide variety of hot rods and customs. They had been holding it in Bowling Green, but this year brought it down to Tennessee Speed Sport in Goodlettsville. The show was originally meant for cars 1972 and older, but a last-minute rules addendum opened it up to just about anything. I like this location. Tennessee Speed Sport is a cool, old-school speed shop, and it fits this type of event. Also, the backdrop under the highway bridge gives the whole thing kind of a gritty city vibe that fits in with the cars and music they draw to this thing. You see some things you don’t normally see at this show. Here are a few of them.

Nashville Corvette Club hosts the Touch of Gold Car Show

Last Saturday I thought it would be fun to go on down to Brentwood, Tenn., for the Touch of Gold Car Show, which was held at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home. I figured if I went to the other side of town, I might see some cars that normally don’t hang out in my neighborhood. Also, since this show is hosted by the Nashville Corvette Club, it seemed like a good place to take my old ’93 Corvette. As you might expect, there were a lot of Corvettes there. That’s not all there was, though. Probably half the entries were other kinds of cars, so there was a little something for everyone. I actually attended the Tough of Gold Show a few years ago at a different location, and then as now I was impressed with the quality of entries that make it to this event.

Red Boiling Springs Fall Meet celebrates 63rd-Anniversary

Last weekend, the Middle Tennessee Region AACA recognized the 63rd-Anniversary of their Fall Meet, which was held on the picturesque grounds Thomas House Hotel in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. According to my calculator, that means the first one was in 1956. That’s even older than this Chevy Viking 60 Howe-bodied fire truck, which was bought new by Red Boiling Springs Volunteer Fire Department in 1959. Tradition runs deep here. Many of the club members have been attending this event for decades. Even the hotel has been here since 1927. All of this history is great news for show-goers. Organizers have been doing this long enough now that there aren’t too many hitches in the operation. This year, 328 vehicles showed up. That’s a successful effort in anybody’s book.

38th-Annual Bowen Campbell Auto Expo returns to Moss-Wright Park in Goodlettsville

When a car show has been happening in the same place for 38 years, someone must be doing something right. In this case, that someone is the AACA Sumner County Vintage Vehicle Club, and that something is the Bowen Campbell Auto Expo, which happened last Saturday in its traditional location, Moss-Wright Park in Goodlettsville, Tenn. They always have a big turnout at this show, and it seems to draw some of the nicer cars from around the Nashville area. I hung out there all day with my ’63 Chevy truck, which would not be considered one of those nicer vehicles, but I was surrounded by good stuff. It was a hot day out there for sure, but that didn’t seem to keep people from enjoying this Labor Day weekend tradition.

Fun at the 45th-Annual Frog Follies

The Frog Follies. Just the name sounds fun. And for 45 years, pre-1949 street rods have been converging on Evansville, Ind., for one of the biggest street rod conventions in the country. With more than 2,000 cars in attendance, the name isn’t the only thing fun here. Most entries here follow the classic street rod recipe—take the shell of an old car and replace everything with modern components to make it drive like a new car. But a few traditional hot rods sneak in, along with a stock (“before”) example or two. You might even find something newer than 1948 in the car corral or amongst the large swap meet. The fact is, with a show this big, there was something for everybody within the gates of the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center.

Buncha' crazies at the Green Hill Church Red, Hot, & Blue Community Celebration and Car Show

It was so hot on Sunday that nobody in their right mind would spend the afternoon outside. And yet, 105 cars and trucks showed up for the Green Hill Church Red, Hot, & Blue Community Celebration and Car Show, and every one of them was brought there by deranged people. In their defense, they did have a nice, shady place with a giant tree and a picnic shelter, and there was a band and grilled hamburgers and stuff to help keep their minds off the weather. Mt. Juliet dignitaries like the fire and police chiefs gave out some plaques, and there were some better-than-average door prizes provided by the show sponsors. Overall, they did a really nice job putting this event together. But the heat—blech!

The heat was on at the Operation Stand Down Car Show at Cornerstone Church

If you wanted to see a bunch of cars, Cornerstone Church was the place to be last Saturday. This one was a fundraiser for Operation Stand Down, which is an organization that helps homeless veterans get back on their feet. I’d say the majority of the entries here were late model Mustangs and Camaros, thanks to some pretty strong club participation. But there were plenty of other nice things to look at if Pony Cars aren’t your thing. It was very hot over the weekend, but that didn’t stop people from getting their cars out. The drive-through judging looked like it was running a little slow based on the long, stagnant line, but I guess that’s why they call these “car shows” and not “car races.”

Boogie down at the Hot Rod Boogie Car Show

The Nashville Palace was the place to be for the 5th-Annual Hot Rod Boogie Car Show, which was part of the big Nashville Boogie Weekender event. While musical acts like the B-52’s rocked inside, the cars kept people outside. Sure, it was over 90-degrees this weekend, but these cars stayed cool in spite of the temperature. They also had some vendors out there selling vintage clothing, stickers, and whatnot. You see a lot of promotional material for this show throughout the year, so it’s no surprise that they draw a nice selection of cars and trucks.

C4 Corvette Gathering and Revin' Up for Kids Car Show collide at the National Corvette Museum

There was so much going on last weekend at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., that you are about to read a triple story. First of all, I brought my ’93 Corvette up there to be a part of the annual C4 Corvette Gathering, which drew fourth-generation Corvettes in from all over the country. While I was there, I entered the Revin’ Up for Kids Car Show, a multi-make show that raised money for foster kids. And finally, I made a tour of the National Corvette Museum itself, where I was able to see some of the most significant Corvettes ever, including a display of Corvettes that belonged to U.S. astronauts. It was almost automotive overload. I was just barely able to handle it all, and I will surely never be the same.

24th-Annual AACA Spring Meet features factory stock in Mt. Juliet

You might think that having a car show on the same weekend that Goodguys is in town, on a cloudy, misty day, might not be a recipe for success. And while the car count may have been a little light for the 24th-Annual AACA Spring Meet at the Wilson County Bank in Mt. Juliet, I would still consider it a win. As usual, there were some very nice cars out there. I’ve always liked this event because it draws in a lot of interesting, unmodified cars. I like hot rods, but I also like to see things the way they came from the factory. Many of the car owners at this show do a great job of preserving that history. 

The cars are the best at the Gallatin Square Fest

The Gallatin Square Fest Car Show is always a fun time, so we threw the folding chairs into the back of my ’93 Corvette and staked-out a parking spot. Unlike most car shows where you’re basically on an island and have nothing else to see, do, or eat, this one is part of a festival that includes vendors and food trucks. That means there’s something for everybody at this show. They give out a lot of trophies (they gave a first-place class award to me for the Corvette), which seems to draw in a lot of very nice cars. I love car shows that provide both quality and quantity, so this was a good one to be a part of.

Humongous turnout for Nashville Cars 'n Coffee

I don’t get out to the Nashville Cars ‘n Coffee event often enough. It happens early on Saturday mornings. It’s almost an hour away from my house. I don’t have an exotic car to show off. But when I do drag my sorry butt out of bed, this event never disappoints. The movie theatre in Franklin, Tenn., fills up with thousands of cars. And while not all of them are really what we normally cover on this blog, there are so many different things that everyone gets to see what they like. And so, BHo and I set an alarm last weekend, and cruised on up there in my decidedly commonplace ’93 Corvette to hang out with the other half for a while.

28th-Annual Nashville Auto Fest brings the good stuff out of hibernation

When you have an event that has been going for 28 years, you know they’re doing something right. That’s the case with the Nashville Auto Fest, which made its usual appearance at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds last weekend. Sure, there was the threat of bad weather on Sunday, but every building on the property was still full of classic cars and swap meet vendors. You often see some very high-quality machines at this one, and the 2019 edition was no exception. Strong club participation made it heavy on MOPARs and Volkswagens, but there was a little bit of everything at the Nashville Auto Fest.