wyldpny

Well, we got back from the Mustang Fest show in Aibonito late yesterday afternoon and WOW!! All I can say right now is what an amazing Mustang show we went to yesterday!!
Check out some of the pics...
Here we are cruising with some other Mustangs to the show.
To get to Aibonito you have to drive down the middle of the island and through some of the rain forest:


Then a quick pit stop at a McDonalds in Cayae to meet up with a bunch more Mustangs:

Arriving at the show grounds in Aibonito:

Just a few pics trying to show some of the over 250 plus Mustangs that were on display:




My stang among the rest of the herd:

wyldpny

Our group arrived a little after 9am and over the course of the morning and into the early afternoon Mustangs just kept driving in. Their were so many Mustangs I gave up trying to get pictures showing asw many of them as I could even trying to take some wide shots.
Then it got to be in the afternoon and it was time for the judging to award the top three best of show Mustangs of the day. This meant that the judges had to pick out 6 finalists out of almost 300 beautiful yet in most cases very different Mustangs. Even the same model year Mustangs would not have two alike since everyone personalizes their car if even a little. That didn't mean that there were not some totally stock Mustangs to pick from as there were plenty and there were also quite a few vintage Mustang models also to pick from.
Here are the finalists all lined up:

Amazingly my car was called up as one of the 6 finalist! What an honor that was just to be called up as one of the 6 out of almost 300:


Then the judges had to make the call and announce which 3 Mustangs out of the final 6 would be crowned best of show with either a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award.

They announce the first winner: el 1r lugar para el mejor de la demostraciĆ³n va a
First place best of show went to this stang:

Second place best of show went to this stang:


Then it got very interesting since the first two stangs that took 1st and 2nd for best of show, though all have similar features like mine, also have a lot that my Mustang doesn't have like thousands of dollars in stereo and video equipment all through their cars plus playstations or X-box 360 game systems in their cars. As if that were not enough, they also all have massive chromed Superchargers or Turbochargers in their engine bays that put out huge serious HP numbers. I of course created my car on a bit more of a realistic budget and so went for a bit more of a stock classic look. Yes I have the vertical door hinges and a few other special and unique features. But I felt that I was playing with the big boys even though I felt that I was still growing with m y car and felt way overmatched at this point in time. Yes my vertical doors are considered a high end mod which may have been one of the main reasons I even made it into the final round. Many Mustang purists also do not "approve" of mods like vertical doors as they say it takes away from the classic style of the Mustang. I disagree with this since I believe it is a mod that lets the car owner have their cake (classic and/or stock look) and eat it too (lift the doors up and you go from stock/ mild to wild). See, when the doors are down and you open them normally you would not even know someone has that feature.
Anyway, so now there are three Mustangs left including mine of course all hoping for the last trophy of the day, the still very prestigious 3rd place Best of Show.
Now it is important to point out that the other two Mustangs still waiting along with me all have similar set ups to what the two winners so far have, including massive stereo systems, DVD players with screens in their sun visors, in their head rests, in their side doors, in their trunks, plus the massive engine mods, etc.

Then, finally, the announcement comes out through the loudspeaker for that final award, again in Spanish of course:
el 3ro lugar para el mejor de la demostraciĆ³n va a
I was leaning up against a tent pole near my wife and since my wife knows some Spanish she was doing her best to translate some of the award presentation for me.

3rd place for Best Of Show goes to...............

wyldpny

It seems that, at least at this show, to make it into the best of show category you had to almost fit into the "boys with the most toys" theme. Luckily not everyone felt that way, at least the judges anyway, since I at least made it into the final cut and I certainly don't have hardly any toys like some of these others. But like I said, I believe that having the vertical doors among a few other mods helped me get in which may or may not be a sad commentary on the gauge that was used at this show to choose what cars qualified for best of show.
I also realize that the vertical door mod is not for everyone, but I like it not only for the obvious WOW factor, but also for the fact that people will only see this mod "if" you actually lift your doors up. When opening your doors the normal stock outward position no one would ever know you also have this extra "up" feature. On my you tube at the track video the guy I raced against didn't even know I had this mod on my car and he knows Mustangs as well as anybody as he is the director and a teacher of the Autotech school in Aguadilla.

But I certainly do not want to take away anything from any of those who win best of shows since I have seen many best of show cars over the years and they were/are all deserving of that very prestigious award with a lot of talent, effort, time and expense put into their awesome cars.
And that was certainly true of the Mustangs that made the final cut yesterday for best of show, as they too were all truly amazing cars with a lot of talent, effort, time and expense that was put into them and any one of them were certainly deserving of one of the three elite best of show awards.


So anyway, if you didn't guess by now, third place went to...








Me

Now I have certainly won my fair share of awards and trophies over the years with the many different cars I have owned, but I have never won a best of show before so I guess this was sort of new territory for me LOL.
I was obviously very thrilled and honored to not only make the final cut but to actually place and get a best of show award was truly amazing and my wife was pretty proud too. We were on a high the whole time on the drive back home.

1999mustang2000

very nice cars
they never have ne car shows like that around here

BIGBODY45

congrats

alkureg

It would appear that spanish speaking car shows like red mustangs and lambo doors.. I don't think I'll stop by any of those if I see one.

my94pony

ehh all the finalists had vertical doors, idk to each their own but i saw a few classics in there that get my vote

wyldpny

Well, not all of them were red

wyldpny

Yeah I agree. Some of the classic stangs were just as worthy:


I'm not sure if the styling bar looks right on it but still a nice classic: