As you have probably surmised, I like car shows. If you go looking back through the archives, there are many posts from the shows I have attended. Fairfax had 2 shows a year, and they were both very well presented and attended.
Last year, I stumbled across the announcement of the CAE Car Show in the summer. There was a blurb about receiving an invitation to present, so I sent in an e-mail with my request. It was fairly late, and I don’t remember the specifics, but was declined, albeit rather brusquely.
So when the announcement of the 2025 show came out, the theme was described as:
” If your car fits the flexible Four seater Convertible definition and is of show quality“
So, I thought I would enter Scarlett, my 2007 Lexus SC430. It’s a 4 seater by definition, but no one would actually want to sit there. Don’t why Lexus did it this way, marketing I guess. The rear space is nice to have for hats, coats and such, something that Scarlett’s predecessor, a Honda S2000 did not have.
My e-mail was submitted in January, shortly after the theme announcement was made. The response, frankly, was rather amusing:
The theme for this year’s show is Four Passenger Convertibles, by that we mean a convertible vehicle that can accommodate four adults in comfort. Think the large convertibles from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s from GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The 1920’s and 30’s also had many builders producing open touring cars. In Europe many manufacturers offered big convertibles, both in the past and today. All true four passenger vehicles.
The Lexus 430SC is a four seater in name only, not in practical reality
H’mmm, okay, as it were.
So, the show arrives on the calendar and I got up and out fairly early as last year I didn’t, and the show got very crowded while I was there.
It was still before the actual show starting time when I arrived, and was able to park in the lot right next to the venue. Parking can be a real challenge in downtown Williamsburg, and this show being the same day as one of the 2nd Sunday Craft Fairs in Williamsburg, it can get quite crowded.
Walking through the fence to the exhibit, a fairly old Range Rover is backing into a spot, but most of the vehicles were already in place.
Only a couple of the particularly notable shots taken are presented here. The entire tranche is provided at 2025 CAE Carshow.
It would have been interesting to see the back seat in this one. While I don’t blame the owner for not wanting to expose his probably sizable investment in the reconditioning of the interior to the weather, it is kind of adverse to the spirit of the show not to have the top down. It wasn’t the only one with the top up.
Now, that’s a luxurious back seat!
Nice old Buick.
These Austin Healey’s are interesting cars. A co-worker had one he bought for himself when he graduated from the Naval Academy. He said his had been parked in a garage in a house in owned in West Virginia for a long, long time. This particular one was right-hand drive. It was nicely fettled, but I have to wonder why you would buy a right-hand drive, as there are plenty of left hand drive model still around. Dunno.
There were a couple of 57 Chevy’s presented. This one was very nicely done.
Nice looking old woody.
And another
There were some cars that were of particular interest as I passed the by, with the words “four seater in name only, not in practical reality” reflected in my mind as I walked around these examples:
And just for laughs, here is the backseat of Scarlett in all her glory:
Yea, definitely not someplace you would want to sit for any length of time, but then the same could be said for the four examples from the show.
We were crossing the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry a couple of weeks ago and there was a Bently convertible on the ferry with three people in it. It was curious that the woman in the passenger seat had her seat pulled fully forward so that her knees were literally touching the dashboard. This left a modicum of space for the poor guy in the back seat to sit. So, Scarlett is definitely not alone in this characteristic.
On the website front, in going through the postings, I’ve noticed still an awful lot of fat finger issues over the years. So, I’ll keep working on that. I’m also building pages with all the images currently in the media library on the site. Many more pages than posts, so it might not make any sense. My goal is that at some point it makes a little more sense.
Next time, I’ll talk in some length about my latest ChatGPT adventure.
