I've been attending this show for many years but have to say it has really declined in recent years. The parts swap, car corral and drag racing are all still pretty good, but the midway that used to feature most all of the major vendors / manufacturers is almost non-existent (IMO)
2026 Mopar Nats
- Thread starter BZaar
- Start date
MOPARMITCH
Well-Known Member
I live on the East Coast so it's a little bit of a trip for me. But I have been twice. I think it was 2013 and 2014. Everything was pretty lively at that time. I had restored a highly optioned 68 Plymouth Roadrunner and took it for judging. I got second place for original 68 Plymouth division
don selleck
Well-Known Member
I was there friday and spent the night in the campground. Went down there to see Jackie440 from Stevens performance, picked up some steel for a friends 69 Charger resto. Agreed not what it used to be. Did have a few beers watched the burnout contest, and ran down the track in golfcarts around midnight. Was still pretty fun. Rumors of it might not happen there next year, but nevertheless rumors.
MMoparDan
Well-Known Member
I've never been to the MOPAR Nats. I'm on the east coast also. I do go to the Chrysler Nats in Carlisle every year.
mrmopar340
Well-Known Member
Roanoke valley Mopar show is Sept 5th at the Salem civic center. Roanoke valley area.
MMoparDan
Well-Known Member
Wow 39th Annual supporting St. Jude. How is it I've lived here since 1989 and never heard of it. I don't see any information about tickets, is it pay at the door? ANd how much?
I am also on the east coast (NJ). It's 7.5 hours for me to go to the Mopar nationals but I have been there in 1990, 1992, 1993 (Indy) and then 1999 to present excluding 2020 (because it was cancelled).
I first got the idea to go to the show in the late '80s when I read about it in the car magazines. Those early shows were great. The show was jam packed with vendors, a great manufacturers midway, swap meet, car corral were all packed. Then after the show, cars were cruising everywhere. A lot of cruising on Brice Road and burnouts in the hotel parking lot. Large crowds of people lined to streets to see the cars and sometime promote burnouts and they even saw a superhero named Captain Mopar. He drove (I believe) a Christine era type Dodge Coronet. It was a really nice car. He wore a blue spandex suit with a cape and the pentastar on his chest. It was the biggest and the best Mopar show bar none in those years. It was the place to be if you love Mopars and these type of activities. The years somewhere around the 2000s were also great but Brice Road started a downhill trend due to Columbus installing a lot of low income housing there. However, the town of Heath, Ohio welcomed all the craziness. The Chief of Police in Heath was a big Mopar guy in what I call the "Heath era". Mopars were allowed to cruise the streets and due burnouts while any locals in Chevys or Fords were given tickets for burnouts. The chief of Police even had a '72ish Dart painted in the police car paint scheme. I'm not sure if it was actually used as a police car or not. It was during this era that Chrysler itself attended the event and it was also the last time I ever saw Captain Mopar. I always wondered exactly who he was. He never gave up that secret identity! At some point Chrysler stopped attending and I don't know if it was just a budget thing or they saw the decline starting to happen. Those years at Heath were great. The show was great, the nightlife was great even if I was just watching on the sidelines. Unfortunately, things started to change. The Chief of Police (I assume retired) and the show started to decline. I am guessing the decline started about 10-15 years ago but really starting picking up steam 7-8 years ago. There was one last gasp for the nightlife when people would cruise and do burnouts at Buckeye Lake but (again I assume) too many locals were getting out of control and they put a stop to that. Now it is like Carlisle where you're pretty much only option is to hang out at the hotel at night. Although they do have a party at the Dodge dealership on Route 79 on Saturday night. It is free to enter and they set up a burnout box with a grandstand. I'm not sure if it is the fact that burnouts are legal there or that 90% of the people doing burnouts were local folks with brand X cars but it just didn't do anything for me. They used to always have an 80's hard rock/light metal band play there but this year they had an 80s top 40 band. They were better on some songs than others. The car show was at my estimate about 65% new Chrysler vehicles and 35% old cars. The best thing about this show for me was some young guy in a Chevy truck did a burnout and blew something up. It was leaking a lot of transmission fluid and had to be towed away. That was my favorite part of the show. We stayed about a 45 minutes and went back to the hotel. I'll include a photo of the Chevy going on the flat bed.
Getting to this years show I can honestly say it was the smallest I have ever seen it. The mnaufacturers midway is a joke. There's pratically no one there. The swap meet was always smaller than Carlisle but this year there was a bunch of empty spots. That possibly could be due to the date change. In our modern age getting folks to attend stuff isn't as easy as it used to be but Carlisle works hard to put on a show that has interesting and has things to see besides show cars and a swap meet-yes it does not have racing. The Mopar Nationals doesn't really do much of this. Don't get me wrong it was always my favorite show but there's no denying the decline. Twenty years ago I would tell folks 'you gotta go to the Mopar Nationals' at least once. Nowadays I would not advise someone coming from far away to go to it.
I also heard the rumor that it might not be held next year from a worker at our hotel. It all comes down to profits. Mr. Belinda will have to decide if it is worth it. Some people say it should be moved to a better facility? I was always against that because I didn't want to lose the night life but now that there is no more night life I really wouldn't care at all if they moved the show. I just hope they do whatever it takes to try to get the show out of its death sprial.
I first got the idea to go to the show in the late '80s when I read about it in the car magazines. Those early shows were great. The show was jam packed with vendors, a great manufacturers midway, swap meet, car corral were all packed. Then after the show, cars were cruising everywhere. A lot of cruising on Brice Road and burnouts in the hotel parking lot. Large crowds of people lined to streets to see the cars and sometime promote burnouts and they even saw a superhero named Captain Mopar. He drove (I believe) a Christine era type Dodge Coronet. It was a really nice car. He wore a blue spandex suit with a cape and the pentastar on his chest. It was the biggest and the best Mopar show bar none in those years. It was the place to be if you love Mopars and these type of activities. The years somewhere around the 2000s were also great but Brice Road started a downhill trend due to Columbus installing a lot of low income housing there. However, the town of Heath, Ohio welcomed all the craziness. The Chief of Police in Heath was a big Mopar guy in what I call the "Heath era". Mopars were allowed to cruise the streets and due burnouts while any locals in Chevys or Fords were given tickets for burnouts. The chief of Police even had a '72ish Dart painted in the police car paint scheme. I'm not sure if it was actually used as a police car or not. It was during this era that Chrysler itself attended the event and it was also the last time I ever saw Captain Mopar. I always wondered exactly who he was. He never gave up that secret identity! At some point Chrysler stopped attending and I don't know if it was just a budget thing or they saw the decline starting to happen. Those years at Heath were great. The show was great, the nightlife was great even if I was just watching on the sidelines. Unfortunately, things started to change. The Chief of Police (I assume retired) and the show started to decline. I am guessing the decline started about 10-15 years ago but really starting picking up steam 7-8 years ago. There was one last gasp for the nightlife when people would cruise and do burnouts at Buckeye Lake but (again I assume) too many locals were getting out of control and they put a stop to that. Now it is like Carlisle where you're pretty much only option is to hang out at the hotel at night. Although they do have a party at the Dodge dealership on Route 79 on Saturday night. It is free to enter and they set up a burnout box with a grandstand. I'm not sure if it is the fact that burnouts are legal there or that 90% of the people doing burnouts were local folks with brand X cars but it just didn't do anything for me. They used to always have an 80's hard rock/light metal band play there but this year they had an 80s top 40 band. They were better on some songs than others. The car show was at my estimate about 65% new Chrysler vehicles and 35% old cars. The best thing about this show for me was some young guy in a Chevy truck did a burnout and blew something up. It was leaking a lot of transmission fluid and had to be towed away. That was my favorite part of the show. We stayed about a 45 minutes and went back to the hotel. I'll include a photo of the Chevy going on the flat bed.
Getting to this years show I can honestly say it was the smallest I have ever seen it. The mnaufacturers midway is a joke. There's pratically no one there. The swap meet was always smaller than Carlisle but this year there was a bunch of empty spots. That possibly could be due to the date change. In our modern age getting folks to attend stuff isn't as easy as it used to be but Carlisle works hard to put on a show that has interesting and has things to see besides show cars and a swap meet-yes it does not have racing. The Mopar Nationals doesn't really do much of this. Don't get me wrong it was always my favorite show but there's no denying the decline. Twenty years ago I would tell folks 'you gotta go to the Mopar Nationals' at least once. Nowadays I would not advise someone coming from far away to go to it.
I also heard the rumor that it might not be held next year from a worker at our hotel. It all comes down to profits. Mr. Belinda will have to decide if it is worth it. Some people say it should be moved to a better facility? I was always against that because I didn't want to lose the night life but now that there is no more night life I really wouldn't care at all if they moved the show. I just hope they do whatever it takes to try to get the show out of its death sprial.
Thank you Brice Road for your spot on perspective.
Going to the mopar nationals [before it began to suck] was like making a lifetime pilgrimage to your favorite religious location. I started with #1 and quit after #13. We would leave Wed morning and go home Monday morning. Beware of canadians on saturday night as they will force you to drink all their hi test beer before they go home sunday. The Chrsyler proving grounds nats was one of the best and back then since we were just driving cool used cars really cool cars showed up like the Daroo, 1st charger 500 etc etc. There was a white cuda with houndstooth interior and houndstooth vinyl top as well. Go figure. We were allowed to go as fast as we wanted out on the high speed oval as well. Yeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and banzaii
#13 at Indy was a shizit show.
It began to really suck with #13 at Indianapolis but it was already sucking at the National Trail racetrack and on Brice Road. If you weren't there for helicopters, cops and dogs in either location you have no idea of what was missed in buckeye & hoosier hospitality.
I hope this is the end of it.
Going to the mopar nationals [before it began to suck] was like making a lifetime pilgrimage to your favorite religious location. I started with #1 and quit after #13. We would leave Wed morning and go home Monday morning. Beware of canadians on saturday night as they will force you to drink all their hi test beer before they go home sunday. The Chrsyler proving grounds nats was one of the best and back then since we were just driving cool used cars really cool cars showed up like the Daroo, 1st charger 500 etc etc. There was a white cuda with houndstooth interior and houndstooth vinyl top as well. Go figure. We were allowed to go as fast as we wanted out on the high speed oval as well. Yeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and banzaii
#13 at Indy was a shizit show.
It began to really suck with #13 at Indianapolis but it was already sucking at the National Trail racetrack and on Brice Road. If you weren't there for helicopters, cops and dogs in either location you have no idea of what was missed in buckeye & hoosier hospitality.
I hope this is the end of it.
Last edited:
mrmopar340
Well-Known Member
I'll be there. I'm one of the show sponsors with 2 spots and small vendor space. It runs 10-4 at the Salem Civic center. We also do a cars and coffee local in Sakem at Lowe's. I was the only Ebody of the show. Lots of new ones there though. I think it's on youtube under Salem cars and coffee. If you want email me and I'll send you more details if you want.
mrmoparnrv@gmail.com
Old B5
Well-Known Member
My dad, brother and I went every year from the early 90’s through about 2015. There was always a big group of guys that we knew go every year. Many good memories were made. The Brice Road days in the 90’s was an amazing experience, and as mentioned before the Heath era was also a lot of fun at night after the show. I think like everything else, it ran its course and fizzled out. The swap meet was always great. Last time we went it was mostly modern challengers and chargers.
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