I didn't sell any sheet metal either, and a pair of AMD quarters for a 67 Dart are still in the package. I was $100 cheaper than anyone else there on them too...

Had a great time. Brought a shopping list and was partially successful.
Definitely scored a few deals/couple things been shopping for over a year, glad I held out as the discounts were deep and the need wasn't super immediate.

My buddy who drove this year actually was shopping for 69 B body sheetmetal, the problem was nobody had the pieces he wanted
on hand.

Didn't get to buy my DMT parts there like I wanted as Jim was packed up, about to leave and helping another vendor take inventory just as I approached
his tent, so I ended up buying some of it from that vendor instead. Seemed like nobody else had cat whiskers so I had to interrupt the inventory count to buy them
which was awkward, but the other vendor was about to pack up and leave due to weather concerns as well.

The weather turned out beautiful Saturday and was pretty comfortable with a good breeze (but no freaky destructive gusts).

Got late in the afternoon and I ended up making a bunch of parts orders on my phone for whatever I couldn't find.

NSS makes me want to get my car done and get it back out, even more than previously...which I needed.
A little inspiration is always welcome.

Buckeye lake was insanity for sure.

Out sick today and watching Jack's Place on YouTube from this past weekends Nats show saw a few cool cars I havnt seen before one was a rough 69 White Charger drag car that was found in a garage in Phila PA I t
was wearing mags ,ran had the rear window taped in,still a cool car!Also a nice white 70 Charger RT with blue interior.Also 70 superbird yellow, needing some work,no headlight buckets had little lights where headlights would be.Think I remember it from years ago.Never saw it on the road.

A couple videos of Kayse (the wife) doing a burnout at the dealership cruise.

Thanks to the buddies that took the videos!

Will do, Thanks

His OE style battery took a dump about a week before the show. he was not happy


I was looking for either NOS or a very nice redone grill and head light bezels for my car. I found ONE restored grille. But at $3600 . I passed.
I found NO used ones or head light bezels

Bought a Nats T shirt, 2 hubcaps and a radiator hose.

Was shopping around for lunch. But Im not paying $8 for a corn dog.

We ate on the way back home instead.

After readin about the Nationals and Carile for the last 30 years, I think I'm going to attend one of te shows next year. Hopefully I can get hotel and flight info early so I will know and plan my vacation properly.

If you are thinking that you want to go to either show next year you need to start looking for a motel now if you want to stay at a place as close as possible to the event.
Most motels are booked a year in advance, make a reservation which can always be canceled if you can't make the trip.

Some of you speak of judging like its such a big deal. Well maybe for a handful of people it is, but for the vast majority its just a place to take your Mopar with like-minded folks - most of whom don't have the money nor the time to devote to a trophy-contending trailer queen - and prefer to actually drive their cars! You can hype up the judging all you want, do your chest pounding, etc., but the reality is, most attendees don't care.

Absolutely.

I've judge for over 30 years, some people don't care, some do. I judged the Mopar Nats for over 10 years and had one guy that brought his 68 Barracuda every year to make sure he got it right, and it was in the modified category. He just wanted to learn and know that he was doing things the correct way and he was a joy to be around! He drove his car everywhere, not all show cars are trailer queens. He probably liked seeing your cars too, the vast majority do too. It takes everyone to turn this big old world, just remember opinions vary...

Having a judged Chrysler car is a BIG DEAL. It would be an even bigger (loss)deal considering all the judged brands, that there weren't any judged Chrysler Corp vehicles at all to represent us. I've never had anything near that good and if I did it would be driven because that's what they were meant for.
It's just a guess but I think 25-30 or so years back, most of us did care.

Seems to me that is an odd sentiment. Has anyone done a survey of attendees as to what events/activities were the reason they attended?

I have great respect for anyone in the Mopar community who excels at what they do even if not a lot of others appreciate it. It certainly takes at least as much time, money, effort, dedication, and knowledge to build a competitive show car as it does to build a competitive race car. Doesn't it? And at some level both become trailer queens. Since the vast majority of our cars are just 'driver examples', those guys that seek to elevate their cars above that and want to compete to see how good a job they have done, is praise worthy. And that applies to both racers and restos.

Personally, I am far more great grateful to those guys that keep super nice original examples of our cars 'as they were' than I am to guys who are still cutting them up and modifying them to go faster with non Mopar parts. There is certainly a place for that and I enjoy it, too. But there are far fewer nice original examples of our cars left than there are heavily modified ones. And IMHO those efforts are worth supporting.

Gotta remember this is coming from Mr Sunshine Stanton.

Exactly!!!!!

Ive been going to the Nats Since the 1st Chrysler Car Club Convention in MI , then St Louis , etc etc etc
Ive been to MOST but not all of them.
Even spent some time as a judge in the past.

IMO the best days of any of these shows is behind us. Look around next time you're at one of them. A vast majority of the crowd are grey hairs ( myself included )

Most of the high end cars have attained a value its not worth the risk to drive them like we did 25 -30 years ago. Thus why a large and growing portion of the cars have shifted to modern Chargers, Challengers , SRTs , PT cruisers , Ram trucks etc etc etc

Carlisle keeps saying they break a record every year with car count. BUT,,,, How many of them are newer models compared to the vintage stuff. Myself dont go to shows to see a zerox copy of Dodge dealership lots.
After a 6 or 7 year hiatus from the Nats I went this year. Sure its down, and I saw a lot of the same newer stuff as any other show.( all brand shows included )
But for me its to see and hang with friends Ive met along the way. Maybe pick up a few misc parts. Seeing some cool old iron is a huge bonus. Even if it's not the same number of or quality of cars as years past. Its till the Nats and I. And IMO the best of them all. Is it perfect? ,,,,oh hell no. None of them are.
When doing an event of this magnitude. there is simply no way on gods green earth you will please everyone there . Thats simply not possible. So you do the best you can with what you're given and move forward.

The biggest difference between Carlisle and the Nats. Is self-owned property versus a leased facility for the weekend. Far more to deal with and have to please one versus the other. As attendees we look at them as a weekend getaway. For the organizers its a yearlong job, 2nd job to most.

So, enjoy them both or the one YOU prefer. Because odds are ,,,maybe ,,,,someday,,,,There just might be a day when we cant.

i stayed home and used the money to rebuild the front end on my cuda and for new tires

I won the burn out contest on Saturday it was a blast !!!

I always have a good time, meet up with friends, fellow Maggie enthusiasts. I didn't step foot in the swap this year, which was a first,, but I've been so blessed to have acquired all the goodies I need. But always looking ( y'all know how it is... )

I do wish they'd organize cars by class ( body ) though. I'll keep going.

Let me address the latter comment first. You are absolutely right, enjoy what we have before it's gone. All of this complaining about The Nats gets old. I started going in the late '80s. Yes, the show has changed but so has the entire hobby. For ME, The Nats was all about the drag racing and the Pro Street cars back then. I haven't watched one car go down the track in the last 10-15 years. But that's just me. I will say that I've been starting to look at drag cars and "hot rods" a lot more lately so maybe I'm starting to move to another stage of the "Mopar Cycle." The bottom line is, there are tons of cars, parts and people. It's all Mopar. So what's not to like about The Nats??

As far as how many cars are newer at Carlisle, boy am I glad you asked!!! I did an analysis on this back in 2016 (I believe) and I was quite surprised back then as I found many of the individual A,B & E-Body classes had hit an all-time high for turnout. I honestly hadn't had time to do another analysis since then but due to a lot of comments on Facebook and now this thread, I decided to take the time yesterday to run some numbers. Due to my reports, I was only able to go back to 2006, but that's almost 20 years. Here are the results:

- All of the late model Chargers, Challengers, 300s and Magnums only increased by 12 cars since last year. We went from 809 to 821.
- Out of the 3156 registered show vehicles this year, only 821 of them were modern muscle.
- Pre-1981 cars increased by 34 from 2022 to 2023.
- We had the most pre-1981 cars we've had from 2006-2023 (remember, I don't have comparable data prior to 2006 at this time, but I don't think it will be any higher than 2006 numbers).
- A, B & C-Bodies ALL increased from 2022 to 2023. E-Bodies dropped by ONE car.
- A, B & C-Body cars were all the highest ever from 2006-2023 (again, I don't currently have comparable data prior to 2006 at this time).

I was able to pull the TOTAL car count back to 2001 and the show grew every year with 1646 cars in 2001 and 2165 cars in 2006. Since the then new LC/LX cars had just come out, I think it's safe to say that the Chargers and Challengers were NOT contributing to the show back then so the classics had to be where the growth was coming from. In fact, here are the total numbers for LC/LX cars for 2004-2006:
-2004: 0
-2005: 49
-2006: 26 (I have no idea why they dropped by almost half that year)

The bottom line is, all of the growth and record numbers we are having are not just from the newer cars!! The older car classes are growing, too, except for E-Bodies. E-Bodies have dropped off slightly (we had 27 fewer E-Bodies this year than we had in 2006 and as noted above, they dropped by ONE car from 2022 to 2023). I personally think this is GREAT news for the hobby. Yes, we are seeing growth from the Modern Muscle Mopars, but we are seeing MORE growth from the A, B & C-Body Mopars.

I can't wait to use this DATA on Facebook the next time someone says that our record number of 3156 at Carlisle is all new Chargers and Challengers!!

Ed B

Thanks Ed,

Appreciate the feedback.

Good news either way