Our 2024 Car Criteria is Up!
We had a group call with the volunteers to update our car criteria for the season, and it went well with unanimous agreement. Before you get your undies all wadded up about what’s changed, let’s first start by covering this in an overview. It helps put it in context just like that swamp donkey who’s sitting next to you at breakfast at Denny’s.
E@RTC, as we keep saying over and over, is not a Cars and Coffee, nor have we ever been, and with good reason. We think that’s the death sentence of all car shows and why we’ve lasted fifteen years while all others eventually get shut down. Our entire goal is to consistently make your Saturday morning trek to the show the best car event you can find anywhere. We want to attract rare and exotic cars and the spectators who love them.
As just about everyone has observed, the cars with the lowest perceived value tend to also come hand in hand with the worst behavior. We’ll let a butt clinching psychologist figure that one out. Know any? Another way of thinking about it is, if some of them weren’t such toolbags, maybe your cars would hold a different image, and more would be welcome at shows. Hmm?
We’re not a modded show, we’re not a paint show, we’re not about stickers, kits, wheels, exhaust or our favorite, “rare color.” Too loud, and you don’t get in, no matter what it is. We still have to be a good neighbor in Redmond.
We’re about the bones—the make and model. It doesn’t matter if you have the most beautiful Civic ever made, it’s still a Civic, and that’s not our market. There are other car shows for that. Stickers on your car are more likely to get you turned away than accepted in. We’re about original rare and exotic cars. We know we have a finite line we have to draw somewhere besides your forehead.
When we update our criteria, we do so with the idea of the size of our event and what we think you all most want to see. We reflect back what we think you care about. It’s not about us volunteers; it’s about preserving and strengthening our brand that you care about collectively. We’re about the Ferrari and not the fuzzy dice. We’re about meeting and upholding your expectations for a quality event.
We went through each car brand, make, and model line by line and updated to reflect what we think is the right mix, and some of us bloodied our foreheads to define that grey area for all of you. We’re limiting quantities in some cases so we have enough room for other cars you want to see most. We know it means those of you who are borderline and limited in quantities may not always get in, so show up early if it matters that much to your mom.
Each season, we receive and answer hundreds of emails and messages about criteria, and we’re working to reduce that workload, so we detailed some makes that were getting out of hand. Porsche is one example. Take a look at it, and if there is something that requires deeper clarification, let us know.
Please read our criteria page before you write us. Tell your friends to do the same thing. Tell people you don’t even know. Just tell people there is a criteria page, and that would help us a lot.
By the way, that criteria page is often referenced for other shows and is becoming a show standard known as “E@RTC” qualified, so we spend a lot of time weighing our thinking. We think it’s a good thing that you all helped us create this definition and we will live up to it.
Special Events
In the next week, we will be announcing our dates for our special events. We’ve added one more special day this year, so we’re up to six. They are in this order: Opening Day, German Car Day, Italian Car Day, Retro Day, Rare and Collector Day, and British Car Day. Our season ends sometime in either late September or early October, depending on weather. We usually pull off between 20 and 22 shows each season, regardless of rain days, of which six will be special days when we use the center of the mall.
Leaving Early
We also modified one of our rules. We have too many who want to leave early, and we don’t allow you to do so without special permission BEFORE you are parked. Once we know, you will be parked near an exit, so we’re not walking you by a lot of spectators. We know the real reason you leave early is to showboat. What people really think is you have no friends.
On special event days, no cars parked in the mall center will be allowed to leave early. If you tell us and you plan to do so, we will park you in the other lots that are safer to get you out. This is a safety matter. If you can’t be there until 11, then you have to tell us before you get in. No excuses, and besides, we’ve heard them all, and get real, your significant other can’t possibly end up in the ER that often on a Saturday morning. Just help us out here. It’s not like we’re asking for a kidney.
We’ve added some additional maps to the site to clarify where we park on normal Saturdays versus special event days. Some get so confused.
We’re always looking for more volunteers, so if you’re interested, just write us.