The 1970 Pontiac GTO in the picture above belongs to Kevin Callahan, one of our recent clients. Mr. Callahan got in touch with us a few months back to inquire about some crowd control equipment for his display.
As a requirement for most shows, the car owners must include some sort of barricade to separate the spectators from their vehicles. In the event of an accident, this shifts liability from the show facility to the individual car owners.
Kevin says most participants use standard stanchions, but he wanted something shorter, as the standard 40-inch barriers end up blocking the view of the car. People also commonly use plastic chains, but Kevin believes this makes the display look cheap. “You’re judged on the entire display,” he says. “It’s about much more than the car.”
After Kevin told us about his beautiful GTO, we knew he needed something special; a system low to the ground, but also able to serve the barricading purpose. So we set him up with 8 gallery crowd control posts. To customize and add to the ambiance of his display, we went with colored belts to match, and customized the base of each stanchion with white lettering that spells out the year, make, and model of the car, as well as its name, “Irish Eyes.”
When travelling, Kevin carries two rolls of carpet, each 10’ x 20’, a large tool box for lights, spare parts, cleaning supplies, and other miscellaneous items, and now, the stanchions. By removing the bases and braking the stanchions down, Kevin is able to place all of the crowd control equipment into his tool box, eliminating any travel hassle. Mr. Callahan has been more than pleased with the gallery posts.
Working with Kevin was really an interesting experience for us, as we haven’t worked with too many car shows. We learned through this experience that it’s absolutely imperative to have quality crowd control when displaying a vehicle at a car show, for both functional and aesthetic purposes.
For those of you interested in learning more about Irish Eyes, we’ve included some of the specs as well as another picture and video below.
High Performance Magazine January 2013
1970 Pontiac GTO Judge Convertible
Frame-off restoration classified as a “Resto Mod”
Completely custom body panels, interior, motor, suspension & electronics
Hand-built, custom-made gas tank
Awards Include:
Best in Show for Pontiac Regionals 2011
Perfect 1000 points at the Pontiac Nationals 2012
Best in Class World of Wheels 2011 – 2012 – 2013
999 / 1000 points at Muscle Car Nationals 2011
998 / 1000 points at muscle Car Nationals 2012