[Rallye72]

The concept car was parked in an area where any spectator could go look at it. They had the hood up for view several times while I was milling about. The car was not drawing the crowd that you would have thought it would have. Yes, there were people interested but there was no major crowd around it to fight thru to get to see it. Folks were more interested in John Schneider and the General Lee car behind the Challenger.

Ford sponsored this year. They had a huge display as you entered the tent. They also had two Mustangs up on a platform with dyno like rollers under the rear tires. People were being selected to come up and "race" the cars and the perf stats were displayed on some large screens to one side of the stage.

The Ford guys also had Mustangs and other new product stacked up on "shelves" and on the floor. I think they did a good job. GM also had a big display area but no new Camaro.

I had expected to see the Challenger up on some sort of turntable or something but it was simply back in one of the areas with all the other cars either sold or waiting stage time.

Again, the crowd density was off this year from my perspective. We arrived at the exit ramp around 11:30 and there was no traffic. In past years traffic was backed up for 30-40 minutes. More people started showing up around 1 p.m. but it was still off in my opinion.

I think the BJ guys were doing their best to move cars but for the most part the excitement was not present in the bidding area I'd seen previously. There were some highs but overall I think the car sales reflect the housing slump and poor stock market performance these last couple of weeks.

In some ways these new cars couldn't be arriving at a worse time. If things don't pick up economically the enthusiasts will burn thru the early 09 sales and the rest of the production may fizzle out especially if the new car isn't priced competetively with the Mustang across the board.