Seven types of people you'll meet at a Corvette show or swap meet
Video Transcript [Music] hello friends Romans Corvette owners Lyle at C&S Corvettes with my Friday podcast no to continue a thread I started a couple of weeks ago when I did the seven things you're going to hear at a Corvette Show or swap meet today we're going to talk about the seven types of people that you're gonna easily be able to pick out at a Corvette show or a swap meet now before I get into this I want to put a disclaimer out there that this is purely for entertainment purposes and if the description I give of one of these seven people sounds uncomfortably close to maybe who you are it's all done in fun I still love you don't get upset this is just for to have a little bit of fun on a Friday afternoon when it's raining outside okay so cns Corvettes has been doing car shows and swap meets for 46 years now and I've been here 20 years doing them and in that amount of time you end up getting familiar with the different kinds of people you're going to run into to the point where when they walk on to your spaces or walk up to your car you can go uh-huh I know that guy so I'm gonna give you a little bit of insight into the types of people that we are used to seeing and we have names for them so that's what I'm gonna share with you today again the seven types of people you're going to meet at a Corvette show or swap meet now the trophy hound is the most populous creature you're going to find at one of these shows and what I mean by trophy hound is this is somebody who goes out Friday night well before the show in the dark of night and they begin cleaning the wheels the tires the brake dust every conceivable surface of their car is spotless ready for the show the next morning they carefully drive their car to the show they park they then redo the entire process and then they sit patiently in their lawn chair and they wait with bated breath until the end of the show when the trophies are presented now if they don't win a trophy it is as if they've lost a kidney they are terribly upset it is the meaning for their existence and they get they get together in groups and argue against the judges even if the judges are like the local Boy Scout Troop and they will petition to get their rightful trophy I understand that that is part of what drives our hobby and I have no animus toward those people however guys literally a five dollar trophy go to Goodwill you can buy them all day long for two to three dollars and have as many as you want it really isn't that big a deal but as I said it's part of what keeps the cars going and keeps them as nice as they are so I'm not gonna ding those guys but at the same time if you don't want a trophy just be okay with it no big deal second type of guy you're gonna run across I call this guy the wizard the wizard is roughly an 80 to 103 years old the wizard has been in the car movement in the car fixing game in the car parts game longer than most people have been alive and this person is a really cool person to know if you have a problem with your car talk to the wizard because the wizard can walk up to your car place his left hand on the fender while the car is running and tell you that you have a miss on cylinder six and it's most likely caused by that crack sparkplug how he knows this I don't know but 99% of the time he's right you ask what about this part he's gonna go oh that was a mid-year change in 1957 although the early 57 s had the carryover parts from the 56 this guy knows everything he's like Gandalf and he is a great person to know not necessarily a great ton of fun at parties but if you are into old cars this is a guy you need to have in your phone and you need to make sure that you are friends with him because his information ilysm almost always right and invaluable so just keep a watch out for the parts wizard he's somebody you want in your life the other guy similar to the parts wizard is the old racer now the difference between the old racer and the wizard is that the old racer knows everything there is to know about performance stuff and cool tricks to make 1960s cars go fast he's really good at it the problem is he applies all of that knowledge to cars built in the 90s and the 2000s and 2010's oh that that cars running way too hot you need to get a different thermostat and run that temperature down to about 160 well LT ones LS one they're all designed to run at 210 220 the hell the fans don't even come on on an lt1 from 92 to 96 to like 232 they will not hear it they will attempt to re-engineer the car to what they believe are the best specs based on their experience 45 or 55 years ago so listen to them they usually have really cool stories about stuff they did back in the day most of them probably true a lot of them funny definitely spend time with the old racer but if he's gonna tell you about your car that's less than 20 years old just nod and go mm-hmm okay because odds are he's still using 1960s stuff now we get into a creature here that is still pretty populist but far less popular than the people I've already talked about that's who I call the restoration police the rest of play you've seen them if you have a car and you've been to a show you've seen the restoration police they go around car shows even just simple neighborhood functions and it is their duty they believe to inform you of everything that is wrong with your car you realize that that clamps incorrect you know that that bolt has the wrong number on it you do realize that this car never came with that option these are all probably exactly correct points however you didn't ask so the fact that they feel it is their job to go around and pick apart your car when you haven't asked their opinion can cause some social resonance let's say most of the time it's best just to nod and go mm-hmm okay but if they persist then you tell them politely that you didn't ask for their opinion and usually they go away and find somebody else to pick on so once they start picking on your car without you asking to have it judged you know you're dealing with the restoration police the other guy that I see from time to time I call the endless quest er no as long as I've been doing this there's probably three or four guys I've known in nighttime in 20 years who have been looking for a Corvette not a nice Corvette not a top-flight Corvette they are looking for the Corvette and I have come to realize that that car simply doesn't exist because they have been looking for their Corvette the Corvette that's gonna make them happy for well over a decade they have looked at top-flight cars they've looked at Bloomington Gold cars they looked at custom cars and none of them just none of them are just quite perfect enough so those guys aren't interested in a car they're interested in the quest which again if that's how they want to spend their weekends awesome but it gets frustrating when they're like have you seen a car that maybe you would you know you know what I'm looking for have you seen a car that might fit the bill my answer becomes nope sure haven't because nothing's ever gonna make them happy because they don't want to get to the end of the journey the journey is what makes their life worth living so when you see these guys just recognize them wish them luck on their quest and move on a lot of guys in the Corvette world that populate shows also I call the cigar and gold trim crowd now often times you will be able to notice them not only for the amount of gold they are wearing or the giant cigar they have jammed in their mouths in your tent but you'll be able to notice them because every emblem on their car every conceivable shiny piece is gold now that's not terribly prevalent in the Corvette world it still happens but you get into the guys with the vintage Cadillacs or the Lincoln's or the old big cool cars everything will be gold and these guys are all he's not young but they love their cigars and they love their gold their big gold Rolex their big gold rings and all the gold bling on their car I don't understand them they're a creature that I while I recognize them I don't understand the behavior but they were relatively harmless unless you really hate cigar smoke in which case they can be annoying other than that they tend to be pretty cool dudes now the last creature the last person you're going to meet at a car show is called the scab now we do a lot of swapping stuff with use parts so people come and ask us when we have our stuff laid out hey do you have a such-and-such together of course and we help but you know you're dealing with the scab when you show him apart and he says hmm do you have one a little more broken up for a little less money cuz I'm just fixing it up to sell it there are a few words or sentences that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up but I'm just fixing it up to sell it is one of them mainly because the scab has taken some car that he has found in the forest in a garage under a barn and he is going to cosmetically make it and make it look as much like a car as he can and then he is going to try to pawn it off on some poor unsuspecting buyer my main concern is when he says do you have something a little more broken for a little less money he's still gonna tell the prospective buyer that he got his parts from cns Corvettes I don't want cns Corvettes associated with things that are a little more broken in just a little bit cheaper that's not a good idea for me or for the car owner so when the scab comes around and starts looking for stuff that's just a little more broken than the stuff you've got telling you don't have it thank him for his interest and let him go to the next guy because the scab is gonna do nothing but hurt the hobby hurt your reputation those are the seven people that you will most commonly meet at a Corvette show or swap meet if you have others that you think I should add I may do a second one of these videos I'd love to hear your stories or your names for the people you've met at shows and do something humorous with that too I hope this gave you a giggle and I hope it gets you into your good weekend I look forward to talking to you next week as always hit the like and subscribe button and if you have questions or comments call me up 800-886-5064 this is Lyle at C&S corvettes have a great weekend [Music]