A quick defense of lots of the folks who were at Luft; I drove from Dallas to San Francisco, down the PCH to LA for the show, and back to Dallas to get back for a work week starting this past Thursday (with a helping hand from Hi-Tec in Marin who had a replacement hi-torque starter after mine pooped the bed in Albuquerque; found some good steep parking lots to stop at in the meantime!), and I can speak for several of the other cars parked around me in the show that there were more than a few high-mileage, hands-on folks in attendance. The road-trip for me was 4,006 miles, and we had a blast. Had an awesome time meeting so many people, and ogling some really special cars. Got some great advice for a few future projects on the car as well. My 3 year old loved it too, though I'll admit he flew with my wife to San Jose to meet up this time after we had driven from Dallas to Indianapolis for Luft 7 last year. My wife wasn't about doing that again!
There are plenty of big check kind of folks at Luft, and I wouldn't poo-poo the whole event because of those people. And I'm not convinced that having a lot of wealthy people putting lots of money into great restos, builds, and shops is such a bad thing for the hobby at large. Either way, we met so many great folks, and after road-tripping for the last two are looking forward to road-tripping to the next one too! Plenty of memories to be made, even if your checkbook isn't so huge.
