Another year of "Cold" August Nights.....

Hot August Nights-the annual musclecar festival is here again. And once again it's disappointing. I hate to sound like a nay-sayer, but it's nowhere near as cool as it used to be. For one thing-You don't see any really cool cars anymore, and nothing rare. The GM section is all Chevelles and Camaros with a few GTOs and Firebirds mixed in. You might see an Olds 442 here and there,or a Nova SS here and there but that's it. No 409 or 427 Impalas, no 421 Pontiac Catalinas, no Buick GSX's, no Hurst / Olds, no W31 Cutlass / F85's, no Rallye 350s, no T37 Tempests and certainly no COPO or Yenko or Baldwin-Motion cars. The Ford section is almost all Mustangs. Generic Mustangs. I haven't seen any Boss 302's or Boss 429's this year. I haven't seen any Shelbys. And definitely no Cobras, no Thunderbolt Fairlanes,no 406 or 427 Galaxies, no 428 Fairlanes. Very few Torinos. A few 67-73 Cougars, but no Mercury Marauders or Cyclones. Very few Thunderbirds. The Mopar camp is all 68-70 Chargers and '70-'74 "E" bodies-"Cudas and Challengers. I haven't seen any Super Bees, no GTX's, very few Road Runners. No Hemi Belvederes or Hemi Coronets,no winged cars-I haven't seen a Superbird or a Charger Daytona at HAN in 5 years. Hell-this year I haven't even seen any 340 Dusters!!!  And the entertainment is an all-time low. We used to get the Beach Boys, and Jan and Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, Credence Clearwater Revisited ( the band without John Fogerty ), The Guess Who, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Paul Revere and the Raiders, John Kay of Steppenwolf. You know-people who actually had hits on the radio in the '60's and '70's!!!  Now we get local garage bands. Doing oldies badly.  They used to have real 1/4 mile drag races at the old Stead airport or at Fernley Raceway. No more. Now they have 1/16 mile drag races in the Nugget parket lot. Are you kidding me???  1/16 of a mile???  A 1/4 mile is 1320 feet.  An 1/8 mile is 660 feet. A 1/16 is 330 feet.  I could win top dog in my 4wd Subaru Forester for 330 feet!!! How fast do you go? 35 mph?? Really???  The badass, big block cars spin their tires for that duration.!!!!   The stupid Barrett-Jackson Auction? You want me to pay $50 to watch a bunch of rich people bid on other rich people's trophys? Last year a bunch of shit went through. I mean no RAIV Judges, no LS6 Chevelles, no L88 Corvettes, no Boss 429s, no Thunderbolt Fairlanes. I really don't give a shit that some fool paid $30,000 for a 403 Olds / Th350 10 th Anniversary T/A or $25,000 for a 2bbl 351C '72 Mach 1.  And the hotels are full, and the restaraunts are full, and these assholes have the "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" attitude. Except your not in Vegas- and Fuck you your not a high roller your an out of town asshole acting like a prick that you'd never do in your own city and your lucky that the hotel or restaraunt worker doesn't want to lose their job, because if they had an alternative, they'd kick your ass into next week, which is what you deserve.  It's sad-but what used to be a cool thing is now an annoyance. "Oh shit, all those assholes are coming to town next week." When that's the sentiment of the locals, you've got a problem. But our local government doesn't care. They just want to raise the motel rates, and write tickets. Yeah, that's the way to promote tourism!!  Sad, because once upon a time-in 1986 when it started-it was a cool thing. Mastermind