We Went To The 2026 Spring Auto Fair In Charlotte, NC!

Donnie. Yep. Oh, what are you doing? Man, we're out here at the auto fair this year. We're gonna walk around and see if we can find some parts for some old vehicles. Look at the sun. That's beautiful, isn't it? America's home for racing. The Charlotte Motor Speedway. We live here in Charlotte and it looks like there's a pretty good crowd. It's the spring auto fair, so we're gonna walk around and see what kind of trouble we can get into. I mean, see what kind of fun we can have. How much money Thunderbird special. Ronnie, I got the first purchase of the day. What's that? We're taking it slow. There's a lot out here. We're gonna be here a while. All right, we're down here at the end of the, uh, I think, is this the Bluefield, Donnie? I think it's, I don't remember, but usually this whole, it goes all the way to the track, um, and the track, yeah, I mean, you can see the track, but usually you are all the way down into that last wall, not that one that you see curving, but the one past that all the way to the asphalt. Um, so this year it's a little, little bit lighter. Donnie is the fall in the bigger one or is the spring on the bigger one? I can't remember. I can't remember a lot of the younger generations getting out. So it's getting smaller as we go. Yeah. Now we still got tons of, it is full all the way to the other end of the it looks that way, but you, you go just past, uh, the starting line. Basically you're, you know, you're basically at the starting line winter circle. There's nothing that way, but the other way there's plenty of stuff. So we'll get out on the track here in a little bit and look at the cars too. And we'll see if it looks like there's less cars than usual or not. And then it's also worth mentioning that there's, there are, there's a parts corral outside too. So there's like a flea market outside and inside. The last time we came down here though, this was full. Well, every time we've come down here, this was full all the way over to the asphalt. So there's hundreds of vendors, all the way to the asphalt and the two corrals outside was full. Yeah. So there's hundreds of vendors missing just inside. So we'll see. We're going to walk around some more. Nice signs. Look at the Zenith one. Zenith radio long distance for the best in radio. Nice Pepsi. All right, folks, we made it inside the garage down on the pit. Thank you. It's trying to break apart. We're looking for jegs in particular. Donnie has a, a meeting with jegs. He wants to get some parts. I kind of like the, uh, I kind of like that flea market part outside better, but I mean, some stuff you need new. They don't know where they told us jegs was in here. Yeah, but they don't have parts. They don't have nothing. They're giving away free hats. That's why they had bags. They got free hats. Yeah. Okay. We're going to keep looking folks. Okay. Now I did see some stuff outside. We got to film for the people. All right. So we've made it down here to pit row. And the, uh, a lot of the stuff is like newer than what Donnie and I are interested in. How old are you now, Donnie? 46. 46. So when we were coming up in the nineties, we got our first vehicle. We were buying stuff from the sixties. Um, the seventies was too new for us. That was junk back then. Anything from the seventies was junk in the nineties. And, uh, this stuff's all from the nineties and the two thousands. So to us, this is like, I mean, I understand there are very nice cars and some people are really into these, but to us, these aren't interesting. I mean, I don't, I can't even tell them apart. You can show me three or four of them. I have no clue what the difference is now. I'm not trying to put them down. I'm just saying I'm, I'm from a different era, even though I'm not that old. It's 400 horsepower car and 300 horsepower. Yeah. It's that kind of stuff. So we're, we're trying to get down here to some of the older stuff, which is more our speed. There you go. There we go. What's that? About a 64? Is that a 64? 64. Yeah. Okay. So here's the next problem. These are too nice. We never had anything like that. Joey had a 64 Impala, but it didn't look like that. There we go. That's pretty nice. That's beautiful. Yeah. These are, these are like a hundred thousand dollar cars. I mean, it's out of our league. You can see a lot of this stuff is newer. Now there is, oh yeah, that's kind of sad. Donnie, we got to walk down here and look at the Corvair club. They want to see the Corvair club. There's only 15 cars. That's a sad state of affairs. We'll turn you off when they start the music back. But so we used to come up here and the Corvair club had like, I don't know. What do you think Donnie? 50 cars or something like that. Now it looks like there's 10. And we're here on Friday, but it's about 11 o'clock. So, I mean, everybody that's coming, you would think would already be here, but maybe not. It opens on Thursday. You get some deals on Thursday if you come, but the deal is a lot of people aren't here on Thursday. We'll check out these Corvairs. Now, last time we came here, there were cars almost around the entire track. Two rows. Now on the, on the end down there, there wasn't two rows, but there was one row. Remember that Donnie? Yeah. So you'd have to walk the whole track, which is a mile around at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. So we're going to show you the Corvairs. I used to have two Corvairs. One of them I never got driving, but the other one I drove as my daily driver for a little while. Remember that thing, don't you Donnie? Yep. All right. So if you don't know about the story about the Corvair, it had the engine in the back. This is the Corvair truck. And since the engine's in the back, you don't need a drive shaft. So the center of the truck is low and they call it a ramp side because there's literally a ramp that goes down on the side. These were production trucks that they sold a ton of. Yep. About these is that, uh, an original one that's just kind of beat up, you know, just an original one. They're not worth much. You can buy one for a couple thousand dollars running. Yeah. Now you can't, this one is obviously very nice, but so there's the convertible. There's two body styles. This is the, the, uh, older body style. And then this is the new body style after Ralph Nader tried to destroy the company. Yeah. It's a nice convertible. There's a later coupe. This is 69. 69 was the last year, I believe. And they only made so many. They were up on fumes by then. This is another of the newer body style, which is the late 60s versus the early 60s. Same here. The late 60 ones are much more desirable and they had more trick engines. Let me show you the engine in the back of this. It's a nice convertible. Four carburetors. That thing is going to push you down the road. The interiors are very simple, but just beautiful. Very nice. This is the later ones were, were a little more advanced than the early ones. I don't know if they've got an early one here. So this is my favorite. This is the Lakewood 1961. It's the early model. And, uh, they called their, their, uh, their, uh, uh, station wagons, the Lakewood. And again, the motor's still in the back. So look what they did here. There's vents back here. So you get air down to the engine. They're a little more desirable than the four doors and the two doors of the early ones. They stopped making those after a while. I don't think they made it the whole time. I think in 65 is when they changed the body style. And they, they stopped the trucks and they stopped the station wagons. Here's an early one. This is a 64 two door convertible. The shame is there's no, like just the normal ones out here. Here's another ramp side. There's no, they don't have any, uh, they don't have any normal ones, Donnie. Nope. They're all the high end ones. The nice ones. Yep. That's what happens. All the normal ones was cheap when it got disposed of. Yeah. I paid, I think $1,500 for mine and it was running when I bought it. And, uh, it was a 64. That was a few years ago, but yeah. And then I bought a 62 convertible, which was a normal one, but it just happened to be a convertible, um, for 800 bucks or something like that. So, uh, but these later ones were more desirable because they fixed a lot of things. They had, the early ones had like sway bar. They didn't have a sway bar and things like that, but they all had independent suspension. And, um, you know, they were considered unsafe because of Ralph Nader's book, unsafe at any speed, but they did a congressional investigation into that. Like a committee looked at it about 1971 because Chevy was kind of pissed that they ruined the car with one book. And they kind of decided that out of the, they took like seven different vehicles from different manufacturers from like 1962 and compared them all. And out of all of those, which were similar size, you know, economic economy, small cars, medium sized cars, the Corvair was actually the safest. So they, they really got a bad rap. Um, but they were very popular. So they sold so many and yeah, some people wrecked them, died, rolled in them and all kinds of crap. But if you compared it to the amount of people that wrecked, died in Chevy Yeah, it was less. They were actually a little bit safer because they had independent suspension. So it was a great car, but, um, it's day is kind of came and went. Now, like I said, they used to have like 50 of them up here, so maybe they will tomorrow. But, um, yeah, I always liked the Corvair. All right. We're going to walk this way and check out some more stuff. All right, Donnie, what do you think? Man, they look pretty good. The, uh, there's a bunch of different ones here. We're trying to find something for sale to get you guys Usually the ones for sale are over on the other side. We'll be over there in a little bit. Look at this Impala here. It's a four door back in the day. And then, so again, in the nineties, you could buy these four door Impalas cheap, cheap. Okay. Look at this 1965 Mercury Comet. We've got a 64 Mercury Comet, but ours is a two door. Let's see if it's a Caliente. Nope. It's a 202. Yeah. That's the one we've got. So we've got this same car, but ours is a 64, which was the slightly older body style. So ours isn't as nice. They got hit where? In the Assisa. In the back, huh? Some nice stuff out here. All right. So we're going to mute it. If this part has a bunch of, uh, different music in it, it's cause we're trying to hide from the music playing. All right, folks that are playing really famous music. So we might have to mute all this, but, uh, this is the Falcon area. Let me show you this Ranchero down here. That's incredible. With a bow, woody sides on it. I don't think that was original, but it looks great. All right. Look at this beauty. I love these Mustangs that have the, like the, the complimentary colors like this, how it's two different Browns. It's got the, I guess that's pony interior is considered. Look how beautiful this car is. The color is just excellent. How are you doing today? Mach one. Is it? Yep. The sign's always got a little piece of it messed up. The very top right is screwed up. They never quite get it perfect. It must be really hard to maintain that thing perfectly. Donnie, look at this thing. 1959 Plymouth Belvedere. Thanks Donnie. Does that one look familiar to you? I'm looking at the coyote rabbit. The road runner over there. The coyote on the top. Wiley coyote. This, this 59 Belvedere don't look familiar to you? Ain't that Christine? Yep. Christina, uh, Christina Belvedere. Let's look at the front. I don't even want to be able to tell by the front. No, I don't think it's quite right. It was a slightly different, might've been a different year. It might've been a 58 or something. You can tell by the steering wheel that it's coming back into them. That's true. And it's playing that song. What was that song? Uh, uh, you're mine and we belong together. That looks like the right seat. Beautiful. That's a nice car. Okay, let's look at these, uh, Plymouths over here. I think those are Plymouths. No, it's a Dodge DeSoto. It's a DeSoto. DeSoto Adventurer. I've never seen that one. 50, 1956. Look how beautiful the seats are. So nice. I guess it's not a Dodge DeSoto. It's just a DeSoto. That's the manufacturer. The National DeSoto Club. There's three of them here. You know, tell them about crushing cars, Donnie. Crushing cars, they got up to, I guess in the late nineties, they got up to, uh, about 15 cent a pound and everybody crushed them. There was even like a, there was a, what was that called? Dollars for cars? Or what was that called? Dollar. Cash for clunkers. Cash for clunkers. There was some kind of government program where you, you got money to, I don't remember how that went. They paid you like two grand for any car that went to the dealership as a trade in. And you could bring them in on a wrecker or whatever. A lot of these old cars, in the nineties, we used to go to junk yards and they'd be full of stuff like this. I mean, literally like even that, the DeSoto type stuff, you know, fifties stuff. Edsels. Do you remember that whole field of Edsels? Yeah. A whole field of Edsels, you know? And so you could theoretically pull one out that was pretty complete and take it home, rebuild the engine and get it going. And, um, but they're just not around anymore. They're so heavy that they crushed them to get the money out of the steel. We're back to the new beautiful stuff. I thought I saw some, we got to go there and look at the Chevys right over there to the right. Now again, people, these are the top dollar, super, super nice ones. Um, but you know, you, you, you come to the auto fair, you got to check out the 57 Chevys. I like the station wagons. The Nomads. Is there anything that screams vintage car more than a 57 Chevy or a 57 Chevy Nomad? I mean, 57, the sedan or the Nomad? The Nomad, they also made a, uh, something else that looked just like the Nomad, but it wasn't a Nomad. It was a Chevrolet, uh, damn, I forgot the name of it now. Here's a Corvair too, that's been all subbed down. They put a 350 or whatever. It's not a 350. What's in it? 355. So here's the, um, here's the story about that. In 1971, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tested first and second generation Corvairs against four other small cars and found them to be as safe as, or safer than the others. They were issued a 134 report. So anyway, someone has taken the rear engine out and fished one into the middle there. Matt, would you, would you ride that with that engine right behind you like that? Pretty cool. I hit a sign. That's a really nice Nova. That's one of the reasons, Donnie, I don't like the Mustang because I accidentally kicked the sign and about pissed myself because like that one, you can't get within five feet of that car. That car probably ain't been started in 10 years. It's just too nice. You know, it's too, they went too far. So these are all kind of like the, here you go, Donnie. That's what you've been looking for. About a 56 maybe. Those are pretty. Okay, let's look at the inside. Nice kind of original look to it. Beautiful. Check out what else we got in here. That's a 57. I think that's a 56. Yeah, 1956. You can kind of tell by the trim, kind of the only way I can tell apart at least. So I think if they're straight, it's a 55. If it curves down on the back, it's a 56. If it's got the split, it's a 57. This is a 55, so here's the 57. Probably the most famous vintage American car. Freaking candy apple, beautiful red. Look at the seats in it. I don't think those seats are anywhere near original, but they look good. It won best in show two years ago. This one won best in show two years ago. There's a 55. It's got the trim straight on the back. A what? T-bucket. Yep. What is that? I don't think it's that old, is it? Yeah, but I think it's newer. I don't know. I'm not sure. All right, so we're going to head over to the other side of the track where there's some that are individually owned. These are all for car shows that are showing them. On the other side, there's people that just brought one and so some of those are for sale, so maybe we can get you some prices. All right, folks, here's winner's circle. Actually, it looks a lot bigger on TV, but this is how they do it. It's almost like a little patio. I would imagine that all of this is where the press sets up, so it's where all the camera crews and stuff stand. Over there, of course, is where the teams stand after they've won. Over here is where Donnie sits while we're filming videos. Who's the winner? Michael Jordan keeps winning. Did you see that? His team keeps winning. He's the winner. He usually is. That thing looks a lot bigger. Yeah, it sure does. You can't get four cars. Look over there, Donnie. That's probably where all the press stands with the cameras and everything. They set up there and then I guess the car pulls in there and then the people stand over there on the back thing and then that's that. That looks like 10 times bigger than the TV. Yeah, all right, people. We've got some cool rides out here today. Kit. We've found Kit. It's an 83 replica. Then we've got here, to punish and enslave, Barricade. It's a Transformers. Then we've got the Jeep from Jurassic Park. What do you think about that? Very nice paint job. Okay, and then here's the ones. There's more R-Speed, Donnie. Look at this. It's the A-Team van, folks. He pities the fool. Let's see if it's got the proper paint job on it. Let's see here. Now, my buddy Trevor is always telling me about this. The bottom was black and the top was actually silver. It looks black in the show, but it's supposed to be two-tone like that. That's pretty nice. Trevor will like that one. I pity the fool, like Donnie said. Then here's the General Lee. Now, you know, there was about 200 General Lees and they wrecked them non-stop. Let's see here. This probably wasn't ever in the show. Yeah, probably not. It says completely restored and built by Buddy Cram of General Lee Chargers in Troutman, North Carolina. Just a good old boy. Yeah, I like that. Very nice shape. So, yeah. So, we got Kit. We got the Transformer police car. We got the Jurassic Park jeep. We got the A-Team van and we got the General Lee. Now, we're talking. This is what I'm talking about. Now, I understand that I was just saying that they're too new, but this is 80s, folks. This is all right. 60s, 70s, 80s. Good with me. Look at it. It's beautiful. This is, so this is considered like the flea market area. These are the more, it's just cheaper to rent a table out here. So, you get better, much better deals, I think. The stuff inside is kind of the more high-end stuff. The stuff out here, it's more flea market junk type stuff, you know, stuff that's rusty. Needs a little work. I mean, there's still some nice stuff, too, though, but this is the stuff that's much more R-Speed. I would have helped those guys over there. What does that mean? They rent scooters. Yeah. Everybody on the scooter ain't handicapped. That's a good point. There was a traffic jam and there were scooters. A lot of younger people on $20 for a rack. Hey, man. Oreo cookie rack. This is pretty cool. It's not that hot yet because it's not quite noon. We've already walked over five miles, though. It was like seven miles, but I don't know. Got a long way to go, Donnie. 79 MGB, $1,200. It's another Corvair. One of the early ones, too. Very nice convertible. This is more the speed that I had with the two carburetors. Engines are actually really easy to work on, and you can see just the simplicity of the design. They're just really cool cars. They drive different, too, because all the weight's in the back, so they break differently. There's a deal with the tires, too. If you have like 28 pounds of pressure in the back, the front's supposed to have 10 less. This would have 28 and this would have 18, and it makes them drive really nice. There was a sticker inside them that told you to do that, but if people filled them all up the same, they drove crazy because there's no weight in the front, so it just makes them real bouncy and all over the road. 73 Super Beetle. Very nice shape. $15,000. Donnie, what are you doing? That's nice, isn't it? Drive it home. $59.95. Beware of the flying squirrel. There he is. He's in the dash. Okay, so we're at turn three, and it kind of goes around to turn four. It's another field. This is the green field, so there's different colors. There's red, blue, orange, and green. There are four different fields. The one that was a little smaller than normal, I think, is blue that we were showing earlier, but this one's the same as it's always been, I believe, or pretty close, and the orange one looks maybe slightly bigger than it usually is. Then you have the cars on the track. There was actually much less, in my opinion. Then you have the cars over by the pit row, and I think there was a lot less than normal there too. The turnout, in my opinion, is probably 70% of what I've seen before. $19.69. Ford Mustang, $6,500. Only 4,131 made. It's the Coupe, not the Mustang. I mean, the Mach 1. Looks like it may have been white at some point if you look up on the hood on the roof. Donnie, what do you think? I think it's been a long day. We've walked a little more than seven miles. We pretty much saw everything, and we got some deals. I got a big, nice old fan. I got some wire. Donnie got some wire that he needs to go and rewire a truck, and there were lots of good parts. Now, an interesting thing we figured out. I'm gonna say this. I think it's true. Now, if y'all get in trouble, we didn't tell you this, but it sure seems like if you park outside and pay your $10, you don't need a ticket to go to Flea Market Park, the outside part. So, it was $20 to go inside, but really, half the show is out here, and there's cars for sale out here. There's a lot of stuff outside. So, if you park, I mean, you park right down at that end, and it's part of the Flea Market, or if you park over here, which we park, you're on that side of the Flea Market, and you don't need a ticket to get in and out of here. Here's the entrance. Now, we're here on Friday. Maybe they change it on Saturday. We bought a ticket up there, but it was when we were actually walking into the track. Yeah, and then they stamp your hand. Stamp your hand on the way back out. So, you can get in and out, but nobody's checked that stamp. Yeah, but we ain't tried to go back in yet. If we went back in the track, they'd check it. So, it's $10 to park, and it looks like you can just walk around the Flea Market for free. And this Flea Market out here, you can get your vehicle closer to the... Yeah, the tables and stuff. A lot of the stuff people want to buy is heavy. I bought a fan inside and then carried it out. It wasn't that far, though. And you can go inside after a certain time. They open it up where you can drive in there. Five or six o'clock in the evening, you can go inside. Yeah, but if you bought something down here, you can just pull up there and stop and then go get your stuff, or if you were parked on the other side, you can get pretty close to the table. Yep, if you've got more than two people, you can just carry it up and put it on the edge of the road and just drive down there and grab it. So, that's what we learned this year. It looks like for $10 parking, you could just go to the outside Flea Market for free, but the $20 you need if you want to go inside. Inside the stadium, but whatever you do, if you come here, make sure you bring food. Yeah, the corn dogs are $12 for a corn dog. We ain't eating nothing here. Maybe that meant corn dog and fries or something. It didn't say, though. The one above it said... It said chicken fingers and fries, $14. Corn dog, $12. I don't see how we're in America. How are we still on the planet Earth if corn dogs are $12? I don't get it. Ice cream cone was $10. Yeah, and nobody's buying any of it. Y'all, if you like what you see, give us a thumbs up for filming. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already, and we'll catch you on the next one. Hope you enjoy the people. We'll see you next time.