And it just, you know, like I say, now I'm able to live my dream and go out there.
You know, the people in this hobby are just fantastic because it is a passion hobby.
You know, you don't go out and buy a new Mustang or even an old Mustang,
unless you at least have some passion for the heritage of those cars.
And all the memories, you know, everybody has a story to tell and
the egos get checked at the door.
That's the best part of it.
You know, you can have a guy that has a room with 200 prime examples of American muscle
and he goes, walks in with you with the t-shirt and jeans on just like I do.
And, you know, it's that to me is the best aspect of the hobby is that
that ability to, for people to kind of like not have to brag, not have to show off too much.
Although they certainly can, but I have an example of that.
We have what I'm super excited about this year.
There's a gentleman out of Colorado by the name of Wayne Speckley.
And Wayne is just an incredibly successful business person and, you know, just a great guy.
He and his wife, Robin, they're just fantastic people.
He has literally hundreds of cars in his collection and he loves off-road racing.
So he kind of got into the off-road racing thing with the Strap Broncos,
which he has shown with us many times.
He actually brought the original Strap race team hauler from Colorado with
a Strap Bronco on the back several years ago.
But anyway, he got involved in this off-road thing and ended up meeting Shelby Hall,
who's the daughter of Rod Hall, and Shelby is the granddaughter, actually.
Shelby had always raced with the family and been to all the races with dad and grandad and,
you know, went to Mexico and did the Baja and all that.
Well, that planted the seed with her.
And now with the assistance of Wayne Speckley, she has her own race team.
So they're coming in to do a very special display for us that has
both older Rod Hall race trucks and the newest that she's racing right now.
And she's just a super, super lady that's very passionate again about the hobby,
racing, very big on women's involvement in her hobby.
And they're bringing in this fantastic display with half a dozen trucks and,
you know, a bunch of Rod Hall memorabilia from back in the 70s and things like that.
And here's a guy, he doesn't need to be doing that.
And he comes to me.
We literally sat down at the show last year and he said, Hey, I got this idea you might like,
but if you don't, that's okay.
I understand because it's not really a true muscle car, but it's kind of a muscle related type thing.
And, you know, sure enough, he tells me what he wants,
has visualizing.
And it's like, that is fantastic.
And Matt Shelby, she's just a, you know, just as passionate as you and I are about the hobby
and sharing the stories.
I think it's interesting that you see such a diverse array of things.
Like you said, you know, okay, so the trucks aren't,
I guess, technically what you would call muscle car, but it's, it's all in the same vein.
It's right.
You know, you can, you can see, you know, the personalities and the people that are doing that.
You know, so of course it lends itself very well to, you know, to McCacken.
I know I mentioned, you know, there's so many things to see.
What stand out cars or exhibits are you most looking forward to this year?
Because I mean, there's, there's, I know you're going to say all of them, you know, because,
you know, they're all, they're all amazing.
But, you know, you look at these and it's, you know, these are like the candy items.
These are, you know, if you're not already, you know, if you're not already just overloaded with
things, there's candy and everything.
You know, that's what I like to call it.
And those are things that people are just going to gather around and say,
I, I can't believe this is here.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Well, being somewhat of a Mopar guy, our red carpet display, we always rotate between the
big three because we don't want to be pigeonholed as being a Chevy show or a Mopar show or
Ford show.
We wanted people to know that we have all brands, even American Motors and Studebaker,
as you know, but the red carpet this year, we're featuring B-Body Mopar Hemi Convertibles.
So I have 19 of them confirmed right now in another five pending.
So again, to your point, when we're talking about the wingcars, to see one of those cars
is, you know, something that'll stop you in your tracks.
Imagine walking in the building and seeing two rows, face to face, all Hemi, B-Body,
you know, Coronets, Roadrunners, GTXs, Coronet RTs lined up and they're all Hemi Convertibles,
you know, among the most sought after Mopars of all.
So that, that really gets my heart beating.
And I was just out looking at one that's been hidden away for over 10 years.
It's a black 68 Coronet RT Hemi Convertible that was fully restored to perfection.
I mean, probably far better than perfection and has never been shown anywhere.
And just a stunning car.
And, you know, our friend Joe Jordan from Wisconsin, he's a collector of B-Body Hemi Convertibles.
He has three of them coming.
So he's got a B3 Hemi Roadrunner convertible and 70 Hemi,
70 Roadrunner is my all-time favorite muscle car anyway.
So that one gets my heart beating.
But talking other bands, Shelby, you know, it's the 60th anniversary of Shelby.
So we've got Colin Coburn.
We tapped into his vast network of friends and the cars that he's gathered for the GT350,
60th anniversary display are over the top.
So again, seeing 165 real GT350 is a treat and we've got a whole row of them.
GT350, ours, I mean, just fantastic cars.
So that's that's exciting.
Some of the kind of off the wall things we throw that I would consider unexpected.
We do anniversary displays for the key years.
This year we'll be doing class of 65 and class of 1970.
So 70 is an easy one because there's so many cool 1970 muscle cars between the colors.
And, you know, the new Challenger came out.
You got the redesign on the Camaro and the Firebird.
So that's a no-brainer.
So that was, I hate to say easy, but it was almost easy to find prime examples for that.
But in the class of 65, a really neat thing happened and that I knew I had to have some
Chevelle Z16s in the mix with the ultimate gold to have one of each color.
We managed to do that.
I've got seven of them coming.
So we do have all three colors and I've got restored and unrestored.
I've got a barn fine type car in there.
So it's a real diverse group, but they're all real 65 Z16s.
So I'm talking to one of the enthusiasts.
He said, hey, you know in 65 that Z16 wasn't the only hot thing that Chevy did.
I'm like, okay, I'll bite.
What are you talking about?
He goes, well, talk to anybody who had an L79 and they'll tell you an L79 would
kick butt over a Z16.
Kind of laughed and find out the guy has a collection of 65 L79s.
And he came to the show last year as a spectator.
One of his friends told him he's got to see it and never show the car with us.
And he's like, hey, how about if I load a truck up with some L79s and we put those,
you know, on the opposite side of the Z16s and you let me tell the story of how strong
these cars are.
So sure enough, that's six of those cars come in.
So yeah, it's just, you know, just fun things like that.
And, you know, unexpected.
So another one like for class of 70, everybody knows what an old 442 W30 is,
but how many are really familiar with the, as I call it, the small black little brother,
the W31.
You know, that was another performance offering geared to be a more affordable
alternative for those who, you know, wanted to get into the game.
And my partner, Stefano Bimby had a, of Nikki Chicago.
He is a huge Oldsmobile fan and he owns several W31.
So he put some feelers out and he has a spectacular group of W31s.
And again, it's a car.
First, a lot of people don't know what they are.
So we kind of introduce that.
And those who do know what they are, again, you hardly ever see them.
And we've got a fantastic display of those coming in also.
You know, Bob, when you think about McCacken, what is one thing that, for you, maybe on the inside,
what's one thing that people don't realize about putting a show or an event?
Because it's really an event.
It's not just a show, it's an event.
But putting an event like this together from, I know the answer to this first question,
I know the answer to this first question.
From when did you start planning for the next year?
I already know the answer is the day after this one's done.
But what does it all entail for you to be able to do this?
And do you ever get time off just to kick back and go, okay, I need to break for a weekend?
Well, yeah, I mean, I live and breathe this stuff all the time.
And in my off time, I'm usually at a car show or doing something like that.
I mean, I am an avid water skier and wakeboarder.
And I have grandkids that I'm very involved with.
So that's my downtime or, you know, my alternative is spending time with the grandkids and my family.
Getting out on a boat.
I was out there last night just floating around reading a book, just chilling.
It's super busy here.
I mean, but we have assembled such a fantastic team.
And so many of the members of our team are people that started out as people that showed cars with us.
And, you know, maybe they came to us and said, Hey, I've got an idea for this or that.
And when that happens, my, I'm generally going, Hey, that's a great idea.
How would you like to come in, you know, jump on board and help us out with that?
And a lot of times they say yes.
And because they are people that don't need the job per se, you know,
they don't need to come in and make whatever trivial amount of money we may give them.
They're passionate.
And it's kind of like they want to see, they want to backstage pass.
They want to see the whole thing and how it comes together.
So our team, whether it's the guys that run our outside.
I mean, I've got a family.
They unveiled a super bird with us last year, the Coulson family.
The daughter works in our office with my wife, Vicki, Brent and Jeff run our outside,
which has got to be the most unrewarding thing that you could possibly do.
Because between the fact that you can have any type of weather that you may imagine in November
and in our area and the fact that sometimes people are a little grumpy because they just
dragged a 48 foot trailer halfway across the country.
And they don't aren't used to driving in traffic and, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And they do it with a smile and they always have ideas and suggestions.
And I say the show is always a work in progress.
So I credit our staff and my partners in making the show what it is, because we all have the
same passion and enthusiasm for the hobby, but we're also willing to dive in and continue
to make the thing work and be a place that's welcoming to the participants.
And I always stress how much work it is for our participants to do what they need to do
to get a car into the show.
So between, you know, the travel and taking time off and making arrangements with the family
and all that, it's a big investment.
And I realize that that may be what makes our show different is that I have been on the
other side, I've shown cars, I've been a vendor.
And when you have that perspective from the outside, a lot of times that will play into
what we do.
And I'll say, well, wait a minute, maybe we need to do this or that.
Or, you know, let's let's look at a better way to do this.
And we have a lot of logistical challenges in the building.
There's basically one way in the building.
It's like trying to put 10 gallons of water through a little funnel and a very
short window of time to do it.
So everybody has to be constantly on their toes and looking every way.
And I'm also incredibly anal about crazy things like putting two red cars together.
Because they're never the same.
Think of the plum crazy mopars you've seen in the many different shades of purple.
You know, and if you put those two together, then you have the potential
that somebody's going to say, Hey, that car's all wrong, whether it is or not,
you know, but so I'll look at little dots on my floor plan.
My wife will laugh at me every year.
I'll spend hours hovering over the floor plan to make sure that, you know,
the colors coordinate, the cars are grouped accordingly and, you know, that there's
flow so that the stories can be told for the different groups, cars and the
different people.
And, you know, but I credit our team.
We have a fantastic team that's come together.
A lot of them have been with us since we started back in 2009.
Yeah.
Again, I know firsthand the amount of work that's going into it because I've seen it.
And again, shout out to everybody that is part of the team because it's,
you can't, you can't not understand something someone says, you know,
we've all checked into shows or events and everything's there.
It's ready to go.
It's not a, let me make a phone call and call this person.
It's, it's so well done and so well organized.
I mean, it literally starts from the moment you, you, and I want to talk about this too.
You arrive at your hotel, you know, the, the, there, this is so well done that
not only are you going to this show, but all the hotels are organized ahead of time.
You know, many of them are connected right to the building.
You know, yes, leave it to me to walk outside in the snow.
But, but however, but, you know, there's, there's walkways and overpasses that,
that are connected to the building.
So you don't ever have to go outside.
But all this is so, is so organized and complete.
It's, you essentially just have to get there.
Everything else is, is done.
And that speaks volumes to, you know, not just obviously yourself,
but the entire team that's doing it.
We've, we've learned, or I could say I've learned through my experience
and doing different shows throughout the country.
I, I worked for a company that did Autoram and World of Wheels
shows all over the United States.
And I used to run Dallas Autoram and Pittsburgh World of Wheels
and started the basement at the Detroit Autorama.
So I've had experience from that side of things.
And when it comes to hotels, for instance,
that's a frustrating thing for somebody who's coming to a show
to make sure that they can get easy accommodations.
So that Rosemont community, which I stress it's Rosemont
because it's really suburban Chicago.
So I know a lot of people are afraid of the Chicago thing.
You know, it's like Detroit.
It's like, no, not really from Detroit.
I live in the suburbs, but you know, that's Chicago stigma.
Rosemont is almost like an island in our event
at the Donnelly Stevens Convention Center
is in the middle of their,
what they call a Rosemont Entertainment District.
So you have, we have literally seven official host hotels.
Five of those hotels are literally directly
across the street from the convention center,
with three of them being attached,
as I call it via the habit trail.
So you don't have to go outside once you get there.
Right by O'Hare airport,
and all of the hotels run direct free shuttles.
So you can literally fly into O'Hare,
take a shuttle over the hotel,
and you never have to leave the community.
Restaurants, you've got everything from Gibson's
in the lobby of the, the Double Tree Hotel
right across the street.
You've got a Morton's attached to one of the other hotels.
If you want a Denny's or a McDonald's,
that's not too far away.
There's a 130 store outlet mall.
It's a couple blocks away.
Bowling, indoor skydiving, you know, a movie theater.
All of that is right there.
So what I always tell people,
if you come with your family,
which we really want you to do,
if they don't want to spend eight hours at the car show,
like you and I might want to do,
there's so much that you can do in that community
without having to call Uber or take a taxi or a bus.
But on the other hand,
if you do want to go down to Chicago,
there's the L train, which is two blocks away.
You can jump on the L, take that right downtown Chicago
and do your shopping at Marshall Fields
and never have to rent a car or drive anywhere.
So it's really a tailor-made community.
And hotel-wise, because we do such a great amount of business,
I literally go into these hotels
and hammer them on rates in extra perks.
So we have direct links to our hotels on our website.
And we have rates starting at like $146
at the crown right across the street,
which is extra perks, reduced-rate parking.
All these things are things that I work on throughout the year.
And they want our business.
That Rosemount community just embraces what we do.
So they know what we're going to bring
and they know that our people are going to come in
and spend some time in the community
and they're going to spend some money.
Obviously, it's a business.
And it's really worked out to be the perfect place for us.
And because we get so many people from out of state,
that O'Hare Airport connection has really worked out well,
because what I tell people, if you have the means,
how you're reliable, have them ship your car.
The car comes to myself or my son personally.
We can load and unload it, have it in your spot.
You fly into O'Hare, take a shuttle over there,
have a nice steak, have a nice dinner, have breakfast.
And it's all easy to do, which is that's really key.
And even if you're a spectator,
those are things that I look at.
Sometimes I look at an event
that I didn't think I was going to be able to go to
and then at the last minute go,
oh, I could make it out to this event or that event.
Get on Expedia, look for a hotel,
and it's like every hotel is $300 a night.
And that drives me crazy.
So I think we did 2,400 room nights last year
in the Rosemont community.
And now the hotels that are outside our regulars
that we've worked with all along,
now they're clamoring for the business.
So it's like, okay, we can get you connected,
but you're going to have to work with me.
I need a good attractive low rate.
I need some reduced rate parking.
I need some extra perks so that our people on the fly
might want to come at the last minute as spectators
and come and see the show.
Yeah, I know because we were right across the street.
And like you said,
I think it was about two and a half miles
from the airport to the hotel,
which was about 60 feet from the convention center.
So I didn't have to go far.
One thing I also want to talk about,
and we touched on it briefly,
is you want the spectators, you want the families.
And something that I know we personally love is the kids.
The kids are very much a part of this,
whether they, you take great steps to welcome them
and make them a part of that.
Can you explain a little bit about what you do
because they sure enjoy their time at the show?
We do try to do as much as we can to keep the hobby going.
That's my idea is always to plant the seeds.
So there's a lot of little things.
First of all, kids get in for free.
So adults have to pay,
but you bring anyone 12 or under,
they're getting in the show for free.
So with that, we do a scavenger hunt,
which a lot of our sponsors participate in.
They'll give the kids something cool.
It's not like they don't hand them a pencil,
they'll give them something really neat.
Sometimes it's a poster,
sometimes it's a Johnny Lightning car,
but it's fun.
It's just made to be a good fun scavenger hunt.
We do a model car make and take for the kids,
which they can get a free model car.
Compliments of Auto World, one of our other sponsors.
We can sit down and build the car at the show
with some assistance from our staff,
or they can just take the car home, totally free.
Going to a little bit older range,
we do a youth judging program presented by NCM Insurance,
where I handpick car owners that are fun.
And there are also people that don't mind
if a kid crawls all over their car.
So I always look for something
that has a pistol grip shifter in it,
because I remember the first time
as a kid, probably 11, 12 years old,
getting in the car,
put my hand on a pistol grip shifter going,
wow, this is cool.
You know, rum, rum.
So we do that and the kids get kind of,
I'd like to call it a behind the scenes look
at the judging perspective.
And they get to meet some of the owners.
And as I say, I always pick fun owners.
So they, you know, they aren't afraid
to have kids jump around in their car
and get in, get in and put their hands all over them.
So that's always a real fun aspect.
And going to a slightly older group,
our participants, we do what we call
a future generation display,
which I'm really happy about this year.
I've got 14 cars registered for that.
And those cars range from, you know,
something that would never be in a show
like ours.
Otherwise it might be an in progress project
or just a car that's not real pretty
to fully restored cars.
In fact, I've got a young guy
I met on PowerTour this year.
Lawrence Tech graduate,
just graduated about a year ago,
opened up his own restoration facilities
22 years old.
So he's bringing not only his own car,
which is a 72 or 73 Challenger,
but the first major restoration job
that they did, which is an over the top Mustang.
So he's bringing both of those cars in.
We've got several young ladies,
which is always neat.
In fact, last year we had a couple of sisters
that brought in a 68 Charter
they'd been working on.
And they contacted me this year and said,
hey, we've done a whole lot of work.
The car is shiny now
because it was kind of like in primer last year.
And I'm like, absolutely come on down,
bring that thing in, you know,
you're more than welcome.
I've got our youngest female car owner,
13 years old,
1982 collectors edition Corvette,
Metta App Bloomington Gold this year.
Everybody was saying,
you love talking to these kids.
You got to see this young lady with this Corvette.
So come to find out,
she's been playing with Hot Wheels
since she was in diapers.
She's always just been a car kid.
And her grandparents are huge into the hobby.
They're big Corvette collectors.
They saw it, they recognized it.
So they actually purchased a car for her.
It is her car.
In fact, they even jumped through
whatever hoops they needed to jump through
to make sure her name is on the title.
So even though she's far from being of legal age
to drive a car,
she is co-owner of the car.
She is just this cute little thing.
And she came into my booth
and her grandparents introduced me to her.
And I said,
how did you get into this hobby?
And you know, what makes your car so special?
She went on to tell me production numbers,
how her car, what engine it had,
how many cubic inches,
how they made 6,502 of them.
I mean, it blew my mind.
And there was no doubt in my mind
that this wasn't just a kid
who grandma and grandpa bought a car for.
So she's another thing.
I'm really excited to put her on the stage and say,
hey, you know,
there is a real positive outlook
in the future of our hobby,
if we pay attention.
So we do a panel discussion with the kids.
I ask all of them to come up.
Matt Avery from Meekum Auctions
is our host for that.
And of course, John Cramon was our original host.
And you know, we unfortunately lost John.
He's a great friend of mine.
But Matt's picked up the reins
and he is heading that up for us now
and does a fantastic job.
And we give the kids a couple minutes
to say exactly how they got into the hobby
and what we can do to get more people
into the hobby at a young age.
So that's another great feature
that I'm really proud of.
Yeah, I think that's,
I know to us, that's one of the best parts
of what you do.
Because of course, we're very big
in promoting the next generation
and the future generations.
I think the next generation is two generations removed
from the future generation at this point.
But yeah, we very much enjoy doing that.
I know when we were there,
I remember very well, a young boy coming up.
Of course, we had all our equipment and headphones
and he just wanted to record his voice.
He was very interested in it.
And but yeah, I recall him seeing him around
just looking at cars and enjoying himself.
And that's something that really stuck in our mind.
The other thing I want to get to Bob is
you've got some great guests scheduled.
Tell me a little bit about them
because I know a lot of our listeners
will know quite a few of them.
Oh yeah.
Well, Peter Brak has become a good friend
and he'll be unveiling a Corvette with us.
So you'll see Peter in this awesome Corvette
that I can't tell you too much about.
I can tell you it's over the top
as you would expect coming from Peter Brak.
It'll be right up front when you walk into the steps.
You'll see it in one of, as I call them, the hotspots.
And we have a couple of unique special guests coming
that in some ways kind of introducing two people in a hobby.
And one is a gentleman by the name of Lee Qnonas,
which may not be a familiar name.
Lee is, I guess you could call him
one of the original New York street graffiti artists.
And my friend Jim Kramer introduced him to me.
He came, again, he came to the show last year,
was blown away.
Come to find out.
He's the owner of a very, very wild 65 Dodge Max Wedge car.
We got to talking.
Well, afterwards Jim says,
hey, do you know who he is?
And I'm like, yeah, he's Lee, great guy.
He goes, oh, you need to Google this guy.
He's like an international graffiti artist
and lo and behold, he is like one of the originals
of New York street graffiti.
And I said, jeez, it would really be fun to have you
talk a little bit about what you do
and how you ended up in the car hobby and that.
So he's joining us with the 65 Dodge
and he's going to talk a little bit
about what he's done in New York with his art.
One that you will recognize, Derek Bieri.
You know, there's a name that everybody knows now
and roadworthy rescues and that.
We met Derek years ago on power tour.
My son and I, before he became well known
and I remember my son Ian saying,
you need to watch this guy.
He's going to be a big deal and he's very real.
He's very hands on.
You know, he's not the typical TV reality goofball.
I mean, he's kind of a goofball, but in a fun way.
But he'll be joining us Saturday and Sunday.
So I know a lot of people are anxious to meet him
and he's one of those guys that comes in early
and stays late and so that'll be a lot of fun.
Another unexpected, another one that you may or may not
recognize the name, but you'll know what he's done.
This gentleman that I met out in Arizona
about a name of Pete Siegel.
So I met Pete because he purchased the Tommy boy movie car
and a good friend of mine who does basically
Mustang and Shelby restoration out in Arizona.
Pete was referred to him to restore the car
and Marcus Angel said, I don't want to do that.
It's a mopar.
I do Shelby's and Ford's.
I'm not interested in that.
Well, he was referred by one of his better clients
and the client insisted this was the guy
that wanted the car done in a particular way.
He wanted it to duplicate the way it was shown
in the movie right down to the deer in the back seat.
And you know, here we are fast forward.
Now he bought the car at auction, real car,
not a clone, not a tribute.
And Marcus restored this car exactly as it was in the movie.
So I got to know Pete and his sister
and they were so enthusiastic
and they had so much fun doing this
that it's like, I need this car and I need you to tell a story
about the making of Tommy boy.
So he's going to be there and he's going to share,
you know, a lot of fun stories
and how they ended up picking that car
and working with David Spade
and you know, so many other people that were in that movie.
But he has produced.
I don't know how many movies that you've seen,
but he is like a big time Hollywood producer.
But again, check your ego at the door
and he's a car guy like you and me
and he's going to be a lot of fun.
So I mean, the list just keeps going on and on.
It's just like, we could be on here all day long
and be nodding off, but it's just,
it's, as you can tell, I'm really excited about it.
Yeah, for sure.
I know we're not even going to be there
and we're excited for every year.
We look forward to photos and people talking about it
on social media and usually it starts popping up
the same day, but then of course,
you get flooded with stuff afterwards
and getting to see it.
I think, you know, the important thing, Bob,
is we want it to make sure that we
reconnect it with you, of course, personally.
Because this is such an amazing event.
I've said it before, I'll say it again.
This is a absolute must-see.
Put it on your calendar, plan a vacation around it.
Whatever it is you need to do, if you're into cars,
this is the event you've got to see.
There's plenty of great events to visit,
but this actually makes you part of it.
You're literally intertwined with everything
that's going on there, whether it's yourself,
your family, your friends, your kids.
Everybody's there.
And this is absolutely something
that you do not want to miss.
And if you can't get there this year,
plan on it next year,
because I know it's coming up again next year.
But Bob, tell us again when this is, where this is,
what's the best way to be a part of it, to visit it.
Tell us everything, because I know
people are definitely going to want to check it out.
Yeah, so we're always the weekend before Thanksgiving,
which this year falls November 22nd and 23rd,
where the event takes place
at what's called the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center,
which is in Rosemont, Illinois.
And as you mentioned,
it's just minutes away from Chicago's O'Hare airport.
So it's real easy access.
We do have seven official host hotels,
so it's easy access.
You can book your hotels through our website.
The website is real easy,
just abbreviated version of the name,
which is MCACN, or as we call it,
McCacken, short for Muscle, Car and Corvette Nationals.com,
so MCACN.com.
You can buy, we just put
presale advanced discount tickets on the website
and a couple of area Chicago outlets also,
for those in the area.
We encourage you to be there in person.
I mean, the shows,
the, you know, seeing things on YouTube
and Facebook and whatnot are great.
And there are hundreds of YouTube videos
out there put out by, not just by us,
but by many others,
so you can get a taste of what it is.
But you need to immerse yourself in it,
because it is a show that it's not like
there's 30 or 40 cool cars and 400 fillers.
In fact, I think last year we had more cars
from Arizona and California
than we did from the state of Illinois,
which was kind of a moment of pride for us.
But you do get the opportunity to see a lot of cars
that simply don't go out into the public.
You know, they're from private museums
and private collections with their owners.
Their owners are there to talk and share stories.
And, you know, I often talk about a story
of one of the very high profile collectors
from Northern California
that a friend of mine asked me to introduce him to.
And it ended up they were in the elevator
at the double tree.
And, you know, he saw his Mopar shirt and he said,
hey, do you have a car over in the show?
And Wade answered, yeah, I got a couple of them over there.
And he said, oh, what do you have?
Well, I've got a 70 Hemi Cuda convertible,
a 71 Hemi Cuda convertible,
and a 70 Hemi Challenger convertible.
You know, the guy's job about fell on the floor.
He's like, you're Wade Ogle, aren't you?
And he goes, yes, I am.
It's just another guy in the elevator and a t-shirt.
You know?
That's it.
And now they become great friends.
And, you know, they meet up at the show every year
and they'll do so again
because Wade's bringing his Panther Pink Charger RT-446 back
and his Panther Pink FM-3 Hemi Cuda, you know,
two cars that he, well, he told me the Cuda
hasn't been out of his collection in over 10 years
and, you know, shipping them up from Northern California.
So, and he'll be there with his lovely wife
and their family, his son and his daughter,
you know, talking to everybody.
And, you know, those stories just go on and on.
There's no, and that type of interaction happening
throughout the weekend.
Yeah, that's 100% true.
And a great time has had in the hotels as well.
Oh, yeah.
I can attest to that.
Bob, first of all, I really appreciate you taking the time
to talk about McCacken.
It is always great catching up with you.
I love the stories.
I know I am certainly looking forward to seeing photos
and videos and hearing all about it again.
But again, it's a hats off to yourself
and the entire team on such an amazing job
that you guys do.
It is, I will say it again.
You're going to get tired hearing it.
It is the best event to go to.
I can't say that loud enough.
It's do not miss this one.
Bob, thank you so much for everything.
I really do appreciate it.
Of course, we wish everybody safe travels to McCacken this year.
And we're looking forward to reconnecting
and being back there again, maybe in the not too distant future.
Well, I can't say thanks enough.
And like I say, your endorsement goes a long way.
And we really appreciate it.
And we love what you do.
It's great listening to all your interviews.
And I feel like I'm in great company.
I look at the list of people you've interviewed
over the past several years.
And it's like, wow, that's pretty cool.
So I'm very honored to be able to spread the Gospel of McCacken here.
And again, you know, tell everybody, you got to be here.
You have to see the event in person to really experience it.
I hope everybody will consider joining us November 22nd, 23rd.
Absolutely.
Well, Bob, I will talk to you again real soon.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thanks for riding along with us.
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About this episode
Bob Ashton, the driving force behind the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, shares insights into what makes this event a must-see for car enthusiasts. With a focus on showcasing rare and unique muscle cars, the show features an impressive lineup, including barn finds and high-end restorations. Bob discusses the importance of accessibility for younger generations and highlights special displays, notable guests, and the vibrant community surrounding the event. Set for November 22-23 in Rosemont, Illinois, this indoor show promises a sensory overload of automotive history and passion.
Bob Ashton, Managing Member of the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN), returns for a deep dive into one of the most celebrated car events in the country. Bob shares the passion, planning, and people behind MCACN’s success, the story behind the show's legendary unrestored car displays and Rare Muscle Cars including Shelby GT350s, Copo Camaros, and B-body Mopar hemi convertibles at the Super Bowl of car shows.
Olivia “Liv” Harper, PR, Marketing, & Distribution Executive: www.jpemerson.com
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