7T1vette

Went to the Corvette Expo in Loudon, TN on Friday. Pretty sad, compared to what it was several years ago. All outside....not that many vendors...few salvaged [stock] parts. Good thing it wasn't raining. Doubt I'll bother with it next year if still an outdoor event.

Mike Plummer

That's a shame this used to be a great event I wonder what the heck happened

gbvette62

Let's see, there was changing it from a Friday-Sunday show, to a Thursday-Saturday show, and then to a Friday-Saturday show. There was also moving it from the Chilhowee Park to Sevierville, then dropping the fall show altogether, to bringing it back at Seveirville and then moving it one more time, to the outdoor facility in Loudon.

As a parts vendor, who attended the Expo for over 30 years, I can tell you that the fall show hadn't been worth doing, since they moved to Seveirville. About 4-5 years ago, the Coopers (who run the show), decided to drop the fall show. When they did, someone else tried to do a show at a college about 60 miles east, off of I-81 (which was a complete flop). The next year the Coopers brought the Fall Expo back, but the damage was done, once you drop a show, it's hard to revive it. After trying for a couple years, they gave up last year and cancelled the fall show again. Once they dropped the show, the publisher of Vette Vues magazine, made a deal with the Seveirville Expo Center, and announced that they were doing a fall show in place of the old Fall Expo. When the Coopers found out that Vette Vues was doing a show at Seveirville, they decided to revive the fall Expo once again, at the Loudon location. For some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to have it the same weekend as the show at Seveirville, and as a result, both shows did poorly. Vette Vues decided not to come back, but the Coopers decided to give it one more try.

You can only play around with an event, so many times, before you do irreparable harm to it.

To be honest, the Spring Expo isn't all that good anymore. I stopped going two years ago, it just wasn't worth it.

Alan 71

Hi,
For me the strength of the Knoxville Expo originally was that it attracted small vendors who were not traveling as far as Carlisle or Bloomington…. so there were different stashes to look through.

I remember the auction as being pretty interesting too. There wasn't yet the amount of hype that pervades the auctions now.

The blizzard of 93!!! I believed the forecasts and left JUST in time!
Regards,
Alan

gbvette62

There were always plenty of deals to be had at the auction. We were there to sell parts, but a couple times we considered going down to buy some cars instead. You could pick up Corvettes there, that you could easily make some money on here in the northeast.

It really wasn't much of a blizzard, by northeast standards, but 12-15 inches in Knoxville, is enough to cripple them for days!

I didn't go in 93, but my partner did. He got out of there as the snow began to fall, and stopped at a motel on 40, figuring he'd wait the storm out, and get an early start back the next morning. He ended up stuck at the motel for 3 or 4 days, playing cards with some truckers, and eating toast, because none of the restaurants could get a food delivery. Of course, he did better than a lot of our friends, who ended up with parts buried under about a foot of snow, and no way to get up the ramp out of the park.