Hot August Nights.......Where are all the cars?

In Reno for HAN this past week, and I was a little disappointed. I'll have to check with the organizers and the newspaper to see what registration was, but it's got to be way down from years past. Yeah, the big casinos had the usual show-n-shines and the drag races, and the I cant-believe-were-not-dead concerts, but for just being around town, it was way different.  Used to, during this event you couldn't turn your head without seeing 3 or 4 musclecars on every street in town. And the mix was very cool and diverse. You'd see '32 Fords done in "American Graffiti" style, '40 Fords and Willys coupes done in '60's gasser style, Hemi Belvederes and AMC Rebel Machines, and a myriad of stuff that you didn't see every day, or may have forgot about. Not so this year. Everything was down across the board. Let me explain it this way-The only Chevys I saw were '55-57s, '60's and '70's Camaros, and '68-72 Big-Block Chevelles. Seriously. I didn't see one '60's Impala SS, I didn't see ANY '50s, '60s, or '70s 'Vettes, and I only saw two Novas. No '58 Chevys, no El Caminos, no '70-72 Monte Carlos, no Nomads.  Fords were even worse.  Even at the shows and events, it was all '60's Mustangs and a few '55-57 T-Birds.  No Thunderbolt Fairlanes, no 427 Galaxies, No Torinos, No Cougars, No Shelby Cobras, no Lincolns with suicide doors, nothing but a sea of Mustangs. Base-model Mustangs. Plenty of 289 coupes and fastbacks or 351 '69 and '70 models, but I only saw a few GT350 Shelbys, and I didn't see any GT500s or any Boss 302s or Boss 429s. Sad. The Mopar guys didn't participate much either. Any Mopar display was all 1968-70 Chargers. A few 'Cudas and Challengers here and there, forget a Hemi Superbird- I didn't even see a single 340 Duster all weekend!!  No Hemi Darts, no 413 Max Wedges, and -surprisingly-very few Road Runners. The Non-Chevy GM tents were equally disasppointing.  A few '60s GTOs and Firebirds, and a couple '60s 442s and a '70 Buick GSX clone. No tri-power 2+2's, no Gran Prix's, no Rivieras, no Toronados, for god's sake-I think mine was the only Hurst / Olds I saw. The only thing I can guess is the economy really is tight, and people arent't coming from all over the country any more-I saw a lot of California, Arizona and Oregon plates, but none from Texas or Oklahoma, or Colorado, or wherever like in years past. Whether driving it or trailering it-I guess it just got too expensive for some people this year. Gas at 4 bucks a gallon-greedy motel owners wanting $100 or more per night, a lot of people just said the hell with it-we can't afford it this year.  That's too bad, it really is a cool event. Hopefully the economy will turn around and more people can come out next year.  I don't mean to be cynical-but I was aghast at the lack of diversity this year. Maybe all the really cool cars are from the midwest and those are the people that didn't make the trip.  Any how, that's my take on Hot August Nights this year.  Mastermind