THANK YOU!! The Edelbrock Group could not be more appreciative to the car enthusiasts of the Mid-South who showed up to the Edelbrock Cruise-In on October 7! Overwhelmed is often overused, but in this case, there is no better word to describe how we all felt about the turnout. We had planned a cruise-in since our grand opening of the new headquarters last year and couldn’t be happier with how many people attended. Undoubtedly, the Memphis/Mid-South area car culture is among the most passionate in the nation.
The great part about the Mid-South is that people can drive their cars nearly year-round, save a few super-cold weeks when we might get an ice storm or snow. On the other end of the spectrum, air-conditioning is virtually a requirement for those brutally humid summer days. This year, the heat was excruciating, and rain seemed to always fall on the weekends, so people were chomping at the bit for Fall to take hold. Luckily, as the calendar flipped to October, the forecast for the 7th called for clear skies and temps in the mid-70s.
The only problem with the summer heat is that show promoters fight for the cooler months. Come September and October, it’s not uncommon to have anywhere from four to eight small community shows within a 100-mile radius around Memphis. Throw in a few large regional shows, and it can severely dilute the number of enthusiasts who can participate in your event. It can be nerve-racking!
We have a few veteran car show participants and organizers on the marketing team at Edelbrock. When we met to schedule the date, we had a pretty good idea of what we were up against for an October show. The biggest hurdle was Cruisin’ the Coast along the Gulf of Mexico, some six hours away. CTC is one of the (if not ‘the”) largest car events nationwide, with over 10,000 cars registered (and an estimated 5-8,000 more that don’t register). It takes place the first week of October, and many Mid-Southerners attend religiously each year. We knew we might lose some folks to CTC, but determined that many people skip the final weekend because it is gridlocked by Saturday, so we hoped to catch quite a few on their way back from the coast.
The second hurdle to overcome was the local events. There are many festivals and charity car shows this time of year, and we really didn’t want to step on their toes as they do so much to support the community and spread the love of the collector car hobby. With most shows, the awards are given out by 3:00 p.m. It became apparent that the best way to minimize our impact on the existing culture and still get the most “bang for the buck” was to have our cruise-in during the late afternoon. With everything in mind, we scheduled the date for October 7 from 3-6. The only things left were to get the word out, figure out what else we would do, and see who showed up.
The “what else would we do” part came together nicely. On two previous occasions — the grand opening and Hot Rod Power Tour kickoff — we offered manufacturing facility tours. It proved a popular draw for people to see inside the plant and warehouse, so we knew it would go over well again. Our Will Call store was recently reopened, so we offered participants the opportunity to purchase apparel on-site while we offered some “scratch and dent” items for discounted sales. The tech line guys were also on hand to answer questions.
With the time set from 3-6 p.m., we ordered a couple of food trucks for folks who wanted an early dinner. Fresh off his win at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, Clay Millican happened to be in town and was more than happy to bring his Project Dentley truck and talk to his fans (check out his video from the event here). Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mark Campbell played emcee on the microphone, giving away swag every hour. Neal Racing just wrapped up its successful debut season in Funny Car Chaos competition, finishing 14th in points out of a field of 75 cars, and brought its “Burnin’ Love” Funny Car to fire up for the fans. It was a big hit!
As the day dawned, we figured we should have a good turnout with the perfect forecast. However, as luck would have it, a large annual charity car show in nearby Collierville, Tennessee, changed its 2023 show date to the same day. It was a blessing in disguise as a record-breaking 265 cars showed up. Most of those vehicles made the couple-mile trek to the Edelbrock Cruise-In as soon as the awards were over. With some people showing up as early as 2:00 p.m., the front lot of approximately 100 spots quickly started filling up. By 3:00, we were already redirecting vehicles to the huge overflow lot. By 3:30, collector cars had filled the overflow side of the lot and started parking on the spectator side. By 4:00, only a few spots remained!
Because it was a free cruise-in, participants didn’t have to register, so there was no official car count, but a quickie count of spots this morning yielded an estimate of around 300 cars. We asked Mark Campbell for his impressions on how the day went. “We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day weather-wise, and I was blown away to see how fast the parking lot filled up,” he says. “I said beforehand I would call it a success if we have 60-100 cars. We based the overflow parking on the Hot Rod Power Tour kickoff party and even added a few rows. I couldn’t believe it when we blew past that mark. Obviously, we have many car people here at the Edelbrock Group, so we are so happy to see our community come out and hope they all had a fantastic time.”
Indeed, we at EGN mirror Campbell’s sentiments, as does CEO Chris Douglas. “Not only was I happy with the amount of cars, but I was impressed with the variety and age mixture of the attendees,” Douglas states. “With this being our headquarters, it is important that we build a strong connection to the local/regional car community. We look forward to making this a semi-annual event in 2024, and we’re excited to be a new location for the monthly Cars & Coffee Memphis!”
And yes, that is breaking news! Edelbrock will open its parking lot to Cars & Coffee Memphis on the first Saturday of every month starting November 4. C&C was looking for a southern location to give enthusiasts from South Memphis and North Mississippi a shorter drive to participate. The Edelbrock Group HQ is a perfect location, so if you are in the area on the first Saturday of the month from 9-11 a.m., come on out and join in.
Again, to everyone who came out to the Edelbrock Cruise-In, we thank you for supporting the event and can’t wait to do it again. Keep an eye out for an announcement on the Spring 2024 date!
