It’s not rare that car shows around here become dominated by a slew of older folks slowly pacing their way into a venue in chromed-out resto modded mustangs from their youth or newer base model muscle cars. You know the ones: with matching toys spinning on displays in the engine bay and stuffed looney toons animals in the trunk. Madison Motorsports’ 2021 Fall Car Show was no exception.
If I had to sum up the show in one cliche, I’d say it stuck close to the idea that quality is more important than quantity.
This year’s show was smaller than in years past, no doubt due to COVID, but that didn’t stop the community from bringing out the best they had.
In typical fashion, the show was divided into categories, with cars either slotting into the American, Japanese, or Euro groups, each of which had its own designated parking areas.
A five-dollar entry free registered participants in the show with a chance to win best in their class or show overall, but I can’t say I cared too much about the award aspect.
The American category was mostly filled with the aforementioned Mustangs and V6 modern muscle, but there were a few standouts in the show, including a few big-body luxury barges from the sixties and seventies and a rare first-year Dodge Challenger with the classic flip-up headlights.
In hypocritical fashion, my favorite was a classic Mustang painted a gorgeous dark green color, though my obsession with dark green cars may have created a bias. Things got a little more interesting in the Euro category, where a number of BMWs of all vintages had found themselves paired up with a Volkswagen golf or two, including a blue fourth-generation Volkswagen GTI with a beautifully shaved engine bay and air suspension.
The best Euro car had to be either the race-spec E36 BMW 3 series or the purple M3 with the LTW-style wing next to it.
I’m a sucker for Japanese cars, and there were a decent few of them at the show, but easily the best one was an imported right-hand-drive Honda NSX that sat on a real set of MF10 wheels from Honda’s in-house tuning division, Mugen. They’re a rare sight these days, and the rising popularity of older Hondas means values are skyrocketing.
The real stars of the show pulled in after most of the crowd had shown up. Two vintage American cars turned full road course machines growled their way into James Madison University’s C4 lot and instantly commanded the attention of most everyone in attendance.
These were rough and purpose-built machines that definitely weren’t road legal but something tells me the owners didn’t care too much.
Despite the small turnout, Madison Motorsports’s annual show went without a hitch, and the cars that did show up were some of the best the area has to offer.
Hopefully, next year will see a return to a larger show and an even more varied selection of vehicles on display, but until then, it’s satisfying to know that the community is still there and still cares.