MECHANICSVILLE, MD – "We had a real winter this year," one of my friends commented as we approached the better spring weather here in central Maryland. "Yes, we did," I replied. "And we had real snow to shovel, and real low temperatures to deal with, and real high heating bills to pay on top of that!" There were also many incredibly long, cold stretches along the way, making decent days to work outside on cars difficult to find. Although my 2015 Ford Fusion was generally finished as far as debugging any mechanical issues, I wanted to take it a few steps farther and add additional trim to make it look better if I took it to car shows.
I spent many hours reviewing websites for Fusion trim, and I found that E-bay was my best source for aftermarket pieces for the '13 to '16 Fusions, all of which were similar. I found enough nice-looking parts to conservatively improve my Fusion's appearance. My goal was to add exterior trim that made my Fusion look more deluxe, as if Ford offered a better appearance package. The other selling point for E-Bay was that their prices for many items were reasonable and lower than expected. I could also email the vendors with questions and receive timely replies that were helpful.
I saw where my '15 Fusion had the potential to attend a few car shows, and I made its external changes with that in mind. If an event came where I may be hesitant to take my Mustang because of marginal weather and if the Fusion fit into the classes, then rather than not go, taking my Fusion instead seemed like a good idea. When a flyer says, "All makes, models and years," or "Rain or shine," my Fusion may just get the call.
But as the new car show season approached, I wondered – why not just outright take my Fusion to several events that were appropriate, rather than wait? It is nicely equipped with Sirius XM, a CD player, and quite comfortable on trips. Its Deep Impact Blue paint was also used on Mustangs and would look appropriate when displayed, and it has sporty factory wheels, fog lights and a spoiler, plus all that extra chrome trim that I added. Let's pick a good show and go!
Usually, our season kicks off by mid-April with a few early events, despite the unpredictable weather. One of the best candidates to drive my Fusion to came on a Sunday in late April 27 for the East Coast Drifters Spring Open Car Show, held at the Mechanicsville Moose Lodge, located in Mechanicsville, in southern Maryland. I had attended this excellent event twice before in my Mustang over the last two years and thoroughly enjoyed both occasions. It was open to all years, makes and models of cars, trucks and motorcycles.
The show was 73-miles away and a long ride, but it was a good drive at speed that took about an hour and a half, mostly on the interstates. The event's parking was on a huge, grassy field with enough room for about 300 vehicles. What I liked most though was that this was a judged show by points. The judges were members of the club, but they did not allow their people to enter their own cars, which is an incredibly unselfish way to handle their judging. This looked like an excellent event to take my Fusion to for its first show.
I had planned to take my Fusion to a different show on the Saturday before, and so I completed a four-hour cleanup of everything on the prior Thursday, but storms came through early that weekend and postponed that event. Next up, and also an excellent choice, was the East Coast Drifters on that Sunday. The problem was that my nice, clean car sat out in the rain and wind that Saturday in the midst of our typical late-April high pollen, plus many of our trees unleashed hundreds of those little “helicopter” seedlings, creating quite a mess on everyone's cars.
When I checked my Fusion by the first light at 6 o’clock on Sunday morning with cold and blustery winds, I knew my car would need a “Windex bath” at the show site. The ride to Mechanicsville passed uneventfully and I arrived by 8:15 a.m. I registered and then restarted the cleaning process. I was surprised at how crusty my wheel-wells looked! But an hour and a half later, the Fusion looked show-worthy once more. Even still, the high pollen came back with the windy weather.
This year, the East Coast Drifters separated their parking for the late-model cars by putting us away from the classics. Our newer cars were competing for 25 separate awards. I was in among many Corvettes and Camaros, as well as a few Mustangs, and I knew that this event would be a challenge. In all my years of competing, I had only ever seen one other Fusion. My car was brand new to competition and untested. How would it be perceived by the judges? I do not know how many other late-model cars were at this show; I estimated possibly 25 to 35, but that was only a guess.
Once I had my car ready, I had time to speak with several of the club members and get to know them. This is an incredibly gracious group who try very hard to run an excellent show. They donate many hours in the service of the club and take care of what needs to be done to hold successful events, and they make changes as needed. They also offer 126 trophies, but they do not just go to a trophy shop and place an order for every award. Instead, they order all of the pieces for their trophies and build the awards themselves, thus reducing the cost of their trophies by an estimated 30 percent. This is a time-consuming chore, but it results in great savings that go back to their various charities.
When we registered our cars, we were given our score sheets to place on our dashboard for our judge. I did not see my Fusion during its judging, but I saw that the emphasis was on condition and cleanliness. There was also an area devoted to evaluating of our trunks, which is often overlooked at many judged shows. Their scoring sheets covered the main areas of each car with point scales used for each. I did talk to my judge after the fact while he was looking at other cars.
Later that afternoon we were called forward to the center of the show field for trophy time. They announced their Top 70 classic cars first, and then our Late Model 25 winners were called, and I was fortunate to receive one of these nice awards for my Fusion! There is something truly special about spending so many long hours debugging my 10-year-old car, talking to different mechanics for advice about its condition, researching its history, repairing its cosmetic damage and adding extra trim to conservatively improve its appearance, and then taking it to its first show, preparing it, and then letting it be judged. It completed the circle. My Fusion is my daily driver and now an occasional show car! It drove well on the interstates, and overall, it felt like it was new again. And now it had survived its first real show test!
One other trophy that always amazes me that was awarded, in addition to the Top awards and other Best-Of trophies, was the club's Oldest Participant award. The winner this time was a 91-year old man who was there with his restored 1958 Impala. The next oldest was age 90! Seeing this always gives me great hope for the future. To be in that good physical condition in that age range and still attending shows is outstanding. Finally, if you live within driving distance of southern Maryland and show your car, truck or motorcycle, then you owe it to yourself to consider attending an East Coast Drifters car show.
FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL
