NJ Region AACA Spring Meet, May 2025

May 5, 2025 RichardReina Car shows, Events Annual Spring Meet, NJ Region AACA

Which cliché do you prefer? “Wait ‘til next year.” “We can’t control the weather.” “The show must go on.” “It is what it is.” “This is how we’ve always done it.” Frankly, I am out of explanations why the NJ Region of the AACA continues to remain locked onto the first Sunday in May as the day for our biggest and only official car show of the year, and does not consider a rain date. A little background: for as long as anyone can remember, this show, formally called the Spring Meet, had been held in the vast parking lot of the Automatic Switch Company in Florham Park. There was an understanding that the lot was there for the club’s use every year. In fact, I knew of the show (colloquially called “Automatic Switch”) years before I joined AACA. But 2015 was our last year there, as the company shuttered operations in the U.S. and moved offshore.

The scramble was on for a new location, and the Mennen Arena in nearby Morristown, an indoor sports venue, was selected. One issue was that we would be sharing the lot with people attending events at the Arena. The lot also was completely covered with solar panels, seen as an advantage should it be hot and sunny, as the panels would provide shade. This brings up the next issue: We were at the Mennen Arena for four years, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and it rained every year. The panels became a source of water dripping on our cars and ourselves.

COVID meant no shows for 2020 and 2021, but for 2022, we had a new location: a school parking lot in Denville. It was sunny that year and we had a decent turnout, but the lot was not visible from any highway, and I think the club wanted the possibility of “drop-in” attendees and spectators from those who were driving by. In 2023, for the first time, we used a car dealer’s lot. Nielsen Dodge on Route 10 in East Hanover agreed to host, which meant that dealer personnel spent all of Saturday evening moving cars from their front lot to provide room for us. The weather that year was sunny, and we had a such a good show that all parties agreed to return for 2024, which may have been the wettest Spring Meet I’ve ever attended. For 2025, the Nielsen franchise wanted to share the wealth, so they offered us the lot at their Ford dealer in Morristown (which is not located on a major thoroughfare). That show was yesterday, May 4, 2025, and it rained again.

I heard an unofficial count of 33 show cars on the ground (including my Alfa, which I drove in the wet last year as well). In its heyday at Automatic Switch, I was told that the Region could regularly attract over 200 cars. The lower turnout can also be partially attributed to competition from an increased number of local car shows, and I will cite a lack of venue consistency (The Ford dealer is the fourth different locale in the last ten years) which may keep non-members and spectators away. Still, there cannot be anyone involved with the NJ Region who sees this as a successful trend. My personal suggestion would be to find a lot that does not involve moving automotive inventory, and schedule the show for a Saturday, with the following day as a rain date. There will be a postmortem at our June meeting. It should be an interesting discussion.

By mid-morning, some rows were filling in

Let me bring up some happy news about this year’s show. Regional members who volunteered to work the event were there in droves. I want to especially call out Chairperson Pete, Registration Chair Vince, Chief Judge Craig, Sarah at Registration, Trophy Chair Jerry, all 16 (!) volunteer judges, and the Admin Team who tallied the results. There were many other helping hands. The conditions on the ground did nothing to dampen the effort and enthusiasm they brought to the day.

Oh, and there were cars! I dodged raindrops to photograph as many as I could. Scroll down below to see the vehicles driven to the event by the brave souls who refused to let a little moisture dissuade them from participating.

PRE-WAR

MUSTANGS

EUROPEAN

CADILLACS

FIFTIES

MODIFIED MUSCLE

THE REMAINDER

THE WORKING CREW

NJ AACA Spring Meet, May 5, 2024

May 5, 2024 RichardReina Car shows, Events Annual Spring Meet, NJ Region AACA

To quote Mark Twain, “In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.” And he didn’t live in New Jersey! A few days ago, we hit a daytime high of 89 degrees F; on Sunday May 5, the day of our one and only judged car show (The Spring Meet), it was 50 degrees F and windy, with intermittent showers. The inclement weather resulted in a less-than-ideal turnout of show cars, yet the good members of the NJ Region were there in significant numbers. For the first time ever, it appeared that we had more judges than we had cars to judge!

We were expecting most of these spots to be filled.

I had pre-registered my ’67 Alfa Romeo, and spent most of the week detailing it, so I was determined to make the 40-mile drive to East Hanover no matter what the forecast. As was done last year, the dealer on Route 10, Nielsen Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram, hosted the show for us, and shuffled their considerable inventory to make room. Upon my arrival, I was directed to park in the class I had registered for, HPOF (Historical Preservation of Original Features), which by the rules of the NJ Region is a “Do Not Judge” class. But it quickly became apparent that of the 17 or so classes, many would remain vacant, while the other classes had only one or two cars in attendance. Within a few minutes, the Chief Judge asked me if I would be willing to move my car to Class 7, where my Alfa would be the only judged car. I agreed with the request; there was another car in that Class (coincidentally belonging to the Chief Judge) but it was labeled as a “Do Not Judge” car.

Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and … Cadillac?

Given the small number of vehicles and the large number of judges, many judging a show for the first time, it was decided that ALL of the judges would move from car to car together and judge via consensus, with final point values resting with the Chief Judge. This turned out to be a fun exercise, very similar to the two Judging Schools that the Region conducted earlier this year.

Class judging, meaning, the whole class judges together!

An eye-opener for me occurred when several vehicles which were alone in their class were awarded a “Second Place” trophy. The rationale given was that the point deduction totals were large enough that at a National level, the car would not have attained a First Place award. (Without diving too deeply into it, at AACA National events, cars are not judged against each other; rather, cars must meet a certain point threshold to earn a First or Second place showing. This also allows more than one car per class to earn a First or Second.)

Judging started about an hour earlier than scheduled and moved along at a rapid clip. Tallies were completed by 12 noon, announcements were made, trophies were awarded, and the official closing curtain dropped on the 2024 NJ Region Spring Meet by 1 p.m. The Alfa won two (uncontested) awards: first in its Class, and an NJ Region Membership trophy for “Best Unrestored Car” in its class. Despite the lack of competition, I was honored and humbled to be so recognized. Only at the end of the show did the pace of precipitation pick up, and the ride home on Interstate 287 was less than fun (but not lacking in thrills). Yet I made the 40-mile trek in just under an hour and was able to safely tuck the Alfa away until next time.

THE CARS

The 2-seater class: Japanese, British, and Italian

This ’67 Mustang was the one vehicle for sale at the show: asking price $50k

THE PEOPLE

Registration Chair Vince; Spring Meet Chair Pete; Chief Judge Craig

Bob (his ’50 Ford) with NJ Region Prez Paul

John P gets down and dirty to judge that undercarriage

The coffee & tea lady had a big smile for everyone

Bob informs Craig of the multiple deductions on Dick’s Model A

The 2014 AACA NJ Region Annual Car Show

December 24, 2023 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Car shows, Events AACA NJ Region, Annual Spring Meet

How is it that I keep coming across photographs that I had forgotten I have? I was looking through my photo album from 2014 the other day, searching for something which has now completely escaped me. But while doing so, I noticed car show photos which did not look familiar to me. Researching my blog, I found that I’ve documented the AACA NJ Region Car Shows for 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019… but not 2014. Well, here they are, in all their Kodak glory (ALL photos below were taken with my trusty Nikon EM which I’ve owned since 1982).

We didn’t know it then, but 2014 would be the second-to-last time that the NJ Spring Meet would be held at the Automatic Switch Company’s parking lot in Florham Park NJ. After our 2015 show, the company announced to us that the lot would no longer be available due to planned long-term renovations. It was a shame for several reasons: the location had become well-known to show-goers, the lot itself was immense, and the location was ideal for Region members who resided anywhere in northern and central Jersey.

The 2014 show was also the 2^nd time I had entered my Alfa Romeo. Glancing through the images reminds me of how delighted I was to finally own a show-worthy car which could be driven to and from the venue. Another highlight I note in my images is the greater number of import cars on display, a count which seems to have dwindled within the club in recent times. (I know I’ve called out that my Alfa has been the only non-American vehicle in some recent AACA events.)

To my followers: thank you for reading my blog! February will mark 9 years since my inaugural post. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My friend Sean with his Pontiac Grand Ville convertible

ABOVE: This Alfa GTV was tastefully modified, but (obviously) not AACA-eligible, so it was not judged.

Trophies are awarded by class. At the end of the show, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each class line up to receive their just rewards:

NJ Region AACA Spring Meet Car Show, May 7, 2023

May 7, 2023 RichardReina Car shows, Events AACA NJ Region, Annual Spring Meet

The New Jersey Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) held its 70^th annual Spring Meet on Sunday, May 7, 2023. The show, traditionally hosted on the first Sunday of May, was in a new location this year: Nielsen Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Ram on Route 10 in East Hanover NJ.

The last few years for our Spring Meet have been rocky, to put it mildly. After literally 60 years at the same location, the club was forced to move, and we spent a few years holding our show at the Mennen Arena in Morristown NJ. (These links will take you to those shows in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.) But between unbelievably bad luck with the weather, combined with Covid shutdowns, we never had a good show there. Last year, we were at a school (link here), which had its positive points, but many didn’t care for the parking layout. This dealer offered us a spacious lot emptied out for us, and we finally had the weather on our side, with a sunny, warm, and slightly breezy day. There was a great turnout of show cars (my extremely unofficial count putting it at around 150), and a large number of spectators helped by our location along a busy 4-lane Jersey thoroughfare.

For reasons having nothing to do with the car, I was unable to bring the Alfa to the show, even though I had registered it. I did drive up in modern iron, though, because I had volunteered to be a judge. This task needs to be completed because many owners still are in love with the concept of placing 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd, and bringing home a trophy (what I’ve come to call a dust collector). All cars are placed in classes based on decade of manufacture, vehicle type, or make/model, done at the discretion of the club. There are 4 areas of the car which are examined: exterior, interior, engine compartment, and undercarriage. Each of those areas is scored on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. Maximum score is 40. Ideally, the judging team consists of 4 judges, with each judge taking on the same area for all cars in the class. In reality, we only had enough judges to form teams of 2. I was teamed with a club member who said that he is an experienced Hershey judge, although he also said he knew pre-war cars better than post-war. I thought we made a good team as we balanced each other out. He took exterior and interior, and I took engine compartment and undercarriage.

Not as many pre-war cars this year; this is a ’29 Packard

First class we judged: 2-seat sports cars. We had quite a few Corvettes (C1 through C4), a few 2-seat T-Birds, a Triumph TR-6 and a Porsche 912. We are judging to AACA standards: the car should appear as it would have when delivered as a new car by a dealership. The 912 had a number of mods to it, which knocked it down. All the Corvettes were nice, but the ’54 C1 was close to perfect and took first place.

’54 Corvette which took 1st in its class

Next class was a tough one: “pony cars”, which in this case was 5 Mustangs and a ’70 Cougar. Mustang owners tend to be meticulous in their attention to detail, especially if they have ever been judged by the Mustang Club, where the judging is much stricter than it is at AACA. My personal fave was a ’67 Shelby GT-500 fastback with inboard lights. As stunning as that car was, it only took 3^rd! Two other Mustangs were that much nicer.

My co-judge and I tallied our scores and handed our sheets back to the Chief Judge. I sat down for a quick lunch, thinking we were done. We were not. Somehow, “Class 6” got missed and some of the owners were peeved. We were asked if we could tackle it and we said yes. This too was a tough class, as it was American cars of the 1960s. First place went to a ’67 Cadillac convertible, and 2^nd place to a supercharged Studebaker Avanti. But my personal favorite which came in 3^rd was a ’63 T-Bird convertible with the roadster package, in triple black. With gleaming wire wheels and white walls, it was gorgeous. But again, the competition can really be challenging.

To give you some further insight, most cars that we judged scored somewhere between a total of 25 and 38. It would be very rare indeed to score any one area below a “5”, and even if we did, another area might still score an 8 or a 9. No car that we judged scored a “40”, although 2 or 3 did score “39”. Provided there are at least 3 cars in the class (and for us, there always was), we need to deliver a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place score back to the Chief Judge. What if there was a tie? That happened twice. In those cases, my co-judge and I looked at our judging sheets, and one of us adjusted one score either up a point or down a point. We did it as fairly as possible, although we also thought about the overall impact that the vehicle made on us.

ABOVE: Baby Bird parade: a ’56 and two ’57s

Again, I thought I was done. The Chief Judge, Ed, whom I’ve known for 20 years, asked me to accompany him as we still needed to judge cars for “Membership Trophies”. Let me explain: these awards, open only to NJ Region members, are for special categories, including the 3 best unrestored cars in 3 different year ranges. During registration, owners must request that their cars be considered. There are only 2 or 3 candidates in each category, and truthfully we were just giving them a quick eyeball. The problem was that these cars were in their respective classes, and therefore, scattered from one end of the show field to the other, so we had a lot of walking to do to locate them. But we eventually did, and finally, judging was done. Looking back at my photos, I see that I was not able to take as many shots as I would have liked! Including my brief lunch break, I was walking the field and judging cars (four different classes in total) for about 4 hours! I’m sorry that I missed photographing some of the stunning cars that I judged.

This mostly-unrestored Imperial took a Membership trophy

ABOVE: Two of the many Cadillacs at the show: a ’58 and a ’73

The awards ceremony started a bit late, probably around 3pm, but most owners stuck around, and I must admit that I did enjoy seeing their grins of satisfaction as they collected their trophies. It takes many, many volunteers from our club to make this show happen, and I was happy to be part of the team which pulled it together. I overheard that the Region hopes to use the same location next year, so my fingers are already crossed that the weather will cooperate in 2024.