MECHANICSVILLE, MD – Spring is one of my favorite times to take out my 2011 Mustang and attend a car show. But last spring, the weekend of May 4 and 5, 2024 brought heavy rains to central Maryland and forced postponements of three great car shows to the south and east of my home. The first event to reschedule was the Spring Open Car Show, presented by the East Coast Drifters car club, to be held at the Mechanicsville Moose Lodge in Mechanicsville, Maryland, on their new date of May 19. I was fortunate to attend this excellent event for the first time in spring of 2023 and was impressed by how well the show was organized. It was open to all years of cars, trucks and motorcycles. The club said there was a Top 70 for trophies, plus many “Best Of” awards. What I found though, that previous year, was that this Top 70 was only for the older cars. There was also a separate batch of trophies for our newer models, and I received a nice award for my 2011 V6!
This show is judged by points by members of the club. These volunteers do not have their own vehicles in the event, so their efforts are completely unbiased, which is an unselfish assignment. The ride is 72 miles, or around an hour and a quarter, with driving into the country in southern Maryland after getting off the Capital Beltway – so depending on the traffic and weather it can be a long ride, but certainly an enjoyable trip. I do not recall the number of entrants the year before, but it seemed like well over 200 that were spread over a huge, grassy field next to the Lodge. This was a great location for a big event.
The weather, however, interfered twice more with the scheduling for this excellent show. It was postponed again from May 19 to July 13, but storms and excessive heat forced another change all the way to September 8, and renaming the event to the 2024 (Fourth time is a charm) Fall Classic car show. Hopefully the milder weather in the fall would allow this event to happen. Finally, after many months of excessive heat and rained-out shows, the weekend of September 8 promised better weather. In fact, that morning required a light jacket for the start of the day.
The ride to Mechanicsville was enjoyable and uneventful while listening to Sirius Radio. I soon pulled onto the Moose Lodge's property a few minutes after 9 o'clock. I was assigned entry number 231 and directed to a lower field near a baseball diamond that was near where I parked a year earlier. I saw that the show field was filling quickly. In fact, the East Coast Drifters later noted that, "Unfortunately, we reached capacity at 9:45am and had to close the field." They said there were over 300 cars, trucks and motorcycles in attendance. This was an incredible turnout!
Usually, the judges do not look at our cars for several hours, so I took the next hour and a half and recleaned everything. It amazes me how a car that sits in a garage all week gets so dusty! And those beautiful polished-aluminum wheels? They are like brake dust magnets, and always require cleaning once I park on a show field. But the weather was perfect with light breezes and no threat of rain, so touching up my car was pleasant duty. Occasionally a spectator stopped to chat. In fact, I had a long discussion with one person who was looking to buy a Fifth-Gen V6 Mustang, and he wanted to know their differences. By noon, the jackets were off and we were back into warmer weather!
When we registered, we were given our scoring sheets and I looked mine over. The club was using a brief, 100-point system, broken down into four areas: paint and body, engine and compartment, interior, and trunk compartment, with each valued at 25 points. This was fine but a little unusual in that our trunks were given the same value as the other areas. Many shows do not look at trunks or place less emphasis on them, but mine was ready after I pulled out all of the cleaning gear and my lawn chair.
Once I had my Mustang ready, I walked around the show field a few times to look at the many interesting cars and trucks and take pictures. During one trip my Mustang was judged but I was not there, and so I never met that person. We were not required to be there for our judge, but it is a good idea to stand by if a judge had a question.
Later that afternoon we were called to the center of the field for trophy time. The East Coast Drifters had a Top 70 set of trophies for the 2000 and older cars that were awarded first. These were followed by my class, with 25 trophies for the best late-models, and I was fortunate to receive one. After these awards, there were 12 specialty plaques given out, followed by another 19 trophies for other cars, trucks and motorcycles. This was 126 trophies and plaques in total that were individually called out. Short of attending a national show, I do not believe I have ever seen such an impressive array of trophies!
After the awards, I spoke with the club member who was their master of ceremony for a few minutes and thanked him for the excellent show that the East Coast Drifters held. They also announced their spring and fall 2025 show dates. This was an absolute gem of a show! The turnout exceeded their expectations, the facilities were excellent, and the club members were very professional. They took the time to judge every vehicle that was there, and the awards were generous and impressive. I am greatly looking forward to attending future East Coast Drifters events.
FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL
