I think a lot of this happens mostly to A-B-E musclecar guys. That segment of the hobby has always had an undertow toward reproducing parts, documenting survivor cars, determining paint dabs, what type of windshield washer fluid was used in which month of the year, etc.

However, take a C-body (or other oddball car) to a show and several things happen:
1. The jerky 'experts' bypass your car completely.

2. The ‘researchers’ who are looking for specific details of your car, to assist their own restoration, bypass your car completely.

3.The people that *do* stop to talk remember the car they learned to drive in, maybe the car their parents had, or maybe they were those parents from years ago. Then they talk about life, not nitpicky car details. You’ll experience more smiles. The kind of conversation where you later think ‘gee, I talked to that guy for 15min but forgot to even ask his name.’