This past Saturday - June 8th - two of the car clubs I'm involved with (
Stratusphere and
ASEC - Avenger/Sebring Enthusiasts Club) held our annual get-together alongside the Chrysler Employee Motorsports Association (CEMA) 24th Annual Car Show at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, MI.
Billed as "the last time to tour the WPC Museum", the turnout was huge. Over 400 cars were registered to show at the event, and the number of spectators dwarfed the attendance seen in the last 4 years I've attended this show.
One of the highlights of the show was meeting and talking to Adam, SRT's Social Media guy - and then Adam went above and beyond and got Ralph Gilles (and his dog, Cuda) to meet with us and talk to us for a bit. One word that he stated a few times when hearing about our groups (not many groups today support cars that haven't been produced for over 10 years that had no aftermarket support to speak of even when they WERE in production) and our dedication (we had folks from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota in attendance) was "Respect." That was a big deal to the folks in the group, and Ralph was gracious enough to pose for pictures as well.
In one image you'll see many of us wearing an event t-shirt - one is made every year and this year's theme was "The Last Crusade" - it's an image of an Avenger coupe parked in front of the sculpture in front of the museum. More than a few folks were impressed - especially those volunteering with the museum who expressed some sadness that they didn't get the opportunity to make an event shirt of their own. A bit of good news - we were told that the museum received the OK to open up on more "special event" days throughout the remainder of 2013. They're also hoping for perhaps a "stay of execution" of sorts with Dodge's 100-year anniversary in 2014.
The other image is our attempt at recreating the t-shirt graphic in real life.
All in all a great show and a great time - I'll try to add more pics as I go through them.