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Revving up for the Car Show at this year’s Shelburne Street Festival

June 17, 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Michelle Janzen

 

When the weather warms, driveways are filled with soapy buckets and chamois as car buffs get their motors running to hit the road.

There have been auto shows almost as long as there have been automobiles and there is no doubt that a car show does one important thing: it brings a community together.

This Saturday, June 18, Oatman’s will once again be host to the Car Show at this year’s Shelburne Street Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At 2015’s car show, Oatman’s confirms that there were 220 cars on display with trophies being handed out in the following categories; Best in Show, with first, second and third places; People’s Choice Award; Best Modified; Best Original; Most Unique, Farthest Travelled; and lastly Best Hot Rod.

Oatman’s is a family owned and operated business in Melancthon where for more than ten years they have provided excellent quality and service such as Classic Car Restoration, Custom Metal Fabrication and Custom Trailers on a variety of projects and pride themselves on their workmanship.

Last year’s Car Show portion of the Street Festival filled the downtown core of Shelburne, Ontario, taking up all of the closed off section of Main Street and swelling around the corner onto Owen Sound Street. We recommend if you plan on attending to arrive early. With the amazing variety of cars it will be difficult to not spend an exorbitant amount of time looking at one car before moving onto the next car, when the same thing would happen.

The first formal car show was held in Paris in 1898, as shown in records at the Henry Ford, with the first major car show being held in New York in 1900, where there were about 40 different makers showing about 300 cars.

From New York, annual car shows sprung up in Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta. At that time, a lot of people couldn’t afford cars, and they were considered playthings of the rich. This gave average folks the chance to see cars up close, get to sit in them and get a test drive.

At the Canadian National Exhibition, automobiles were first shown in the Transportation Building next to carriages, railcars and streetcars. By 1911, it was all automobiles.

As cars took hold, shows started to get more organized. They started to be sponsored by national associations and became actual trade shows.

In the early days, auto companies had their vehicles perform elaborate stunts, such as climbing up man made hills with a 30 or 40 per cent grades, which toned down by the 1920s when people stated to understand that the automobile was a dependable machine.

When the United States entered the Second World War, automobile companies stopped production and car shows were either scaled back or stopped entirely. But after the war, the automobile and the shows took off.

This was considered the golden era.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime combination of demand for automobiles, economic prosperity and the rise of the auto stylist. With tail fins, chrome and preposterous accessories such as built in record players, Dictaphone and electric shavers, today they are considered outlandish.

So join Oatman’s at this year’s Shelburne Street Festival and take a walk down memory lane, with what will be an amazing collection of vehicles spanning many different decades, models and makes.

Oatman’s sends a big thanks to all of their sponsors and volunteers without whom they say this event wouldn’t be possible.

They also remind Festival goers to be sure to stop by their registration booth, located on Main Street, and vote for your favorite vehicle for the People’s Choice award and make sure to enter their FREE draws for huge baskets with one being geared to children entries and one geared towards Father’s Day.

For more information on the Shelburne Street Festival Car Show please contact J. Oatman at (519) 925-3323 or email to j.oatman@sympatico.ca.

         

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