Possible Z show need advice

MightyBobo

1. What would be the best day to hold an event?
Fridays or Saturdays work best for me generally

2. Would you attend if it was free? (If the venue had better prizes and food would you pay?)
Free is always good, but if there were some nice prizes I wouldn't mind pitching in some cash.

3. Would you attend if there was a registration charge to enter your car?
Only if I could potentially get something in return.

4. Would you attend if it was catered vs. non-catered.
Yes

5. Marketing Ideas(local clubs,radio advertising,database mailer?)
Scour for your most popular local car guy forums. Make a nice post about it - not a short, "Hey, we're doing this on this day, come on and see us!" - try to make a flashy flier to put up.

6. Pre-registation
Again, if I could potentially win something, I'd pay. Otherwise, most of our car shows like this were a "just show up and park" kind of thing.

9. Kids games ( not sure what?)
Tons of ideas for that...but being a car show, I wouldnt even worry about this too much. Most any big car show Ive seen, people wont take their eyes off their kids, and they wont want to be tied down by watching their kid play games. One idea that might work however - set up some XBox's or PS3's playing some driving games?

7. Prizes (Forgestar Wheels and accessories or something)
Forgestar wheels, some of the accessories like the illuminated kick plates...jackets, hats, shirts - I LOVE collecting car show shirts, or enthusiast apparel.

8. How do you do the classes, by Model: example R34??
Probably easiest to group by model, but if you spread it out too much, you'll have default winners. Sometimes its simply best to make generic ones like "Best of Show" or whatever. Im a fan of "Best Stock", "Best Modified" separation too, since some people go to painstaking lengths to have their car clean as hell, but stock.

9. Do people like this kind of stuff or am I wasting my time. Thought it would be fun.
Back in Omaha, we'd get together for a weekly car show every Wednesday, and on the nice days it was EXTREMELY popular. 200-300 cars was commonplace on those days. But its only as fun as you make it - if its just an informal get together with no aim at all, people will show up, hang out for 10 minutes, walk around and snap a few shots, and leave. Give them something to do, or some reason to make it a group outing with their friends. A raffle is a GREAT way of getting people to stay if the prizes are good! Things I like: enthusiast clothing, racing gear (helmets in particular are awesome, and driving shoes), gift certificates for accessories or to local parts stores - stuff like that goes over well.

__________________
I don't own a car anymore.