There are lots of opportunities to have fun with your collector car. It all starts with a casual drive to a cruise-in at the local A&W or similar drive-in. As you meet new people, you likely gravitate towards cars like yours. This means new friends and invitations to join a car club. There are car clubs that welcome all makes and years of cars, but there are also those clubs that focus on one particular brand and or make of car. Although my wife and I belong to several car clubs and have cars from all the Big Three American car manufacturers, we often find ourselves favoring one over the others. Such is the case with the Music City Mustang Club.
It is not just the cars or even the people, but also the activities. There are clubs that like to have shows, others like to cruise back roads, some just like to meet up and eat out, others like to go fast activities and track days. When I was younger, my main interest was in speed competitions and making the car faster. Then, as kids came into the picture, it was more about the daily drive and trying to make a collector car practical. The next phase involved showing at the local level. That was followed by cruise ins. Now, it is mostly concourses and cruising.
The cruising is not just about the car, beautiful twisty back roads, but also the destinations and the people. We recently hosted one such Music City Mustang cruise. We did not participate in the cruise itself because we were the hosts of the destination! My wife and I have hosted such events in the past, including some three day events for the TalladegaSpoilerRegistry.com, which I administer/own. This was a “garage visit” where we had the opportunity to show off our small collection of cars and tell about the interesting back stories on each one, noting why the car was important and why we chose to collect it. Although this was a Mustang Club and we have three Mustangs, our visitors were just as interested in our non-Mustangs as they were in our Club cars. That was not only surprising but also pleasing.
We also have a large collection of memorabilia, with each piece having some personal importance to us. The visit also included a time for questions and answers as well as an excuse to fire up some of the more rowdy cars. We live outside the city, so there is no issue with disturbing neighbors!
After a couple of hours of automobile camaraderie, we all jumped into our Mustangs and headed to a local BBQ restaurant for some excellent lunchtime eats. We are already thinking about doing this again next year and how we can step it up a bit. Maybe we can also motivate some other Club members to do a garage visit.
Photos are courtesy of Club Member Gary Allen….I was much too busy having fun to take pictures.
