Local European car show moves to Trumansburg Fairgrounds

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

For 10 years Ithaca’s all-European car show, Euro Meet, has been raising money for the Ithaca Children’s Garden and bringing together European car enthusiasts from across the state and beyond. Now, the car show has outgrown its former space and will be making the move to the Trumansburg Fairgrounds, and the proceeds from this year’s event will be going to the Trumansburg Robotics Club, FRC 5254 Hype. The event, being held on June 16 starting at 11 a.m., is free and open to the public.

“It started in the Hi-Way Hi-Fi parking lot and they were hoping just to have a few cars and it very, very quickly grew and outgrew the Hi-Way Hi-Fi parking lot,” said Bill Overbaugh, one of the event coordinators and a European car enthusiast himself. “So, then they looked around in Ithaca and they found the Children’s Garden.”
But it’s time once again to expand the operation. The Trumansburg fairgrounds will be able to hold about two or three times the number of cars that the Children’s Garden can, but Overbaugh said they aren’t planning on hosting that many cars. At least not yet. The upcoming event is expected to showcase around 125 European cars.

“There are a lot of car shows in our area and 100-150 cars is a really good number for a car show,” Overbaugh said. “As someone who goes to car shows, if you see that number you know it’s a pretty well-respected show. What’s unique here is that it’s all European cars and we’re still able to bring those numbers in.”

Part of the event’s success comes from its sponsors, including the Volvo Club of America.

“Ithaca, being a very Volvo-based community, that has a lot to do with it,” Overbaugh said.

 

But Volvo’s drivers aren’t the only ones who come to the show. Porches, Volkswagons, Audis, BMWs and even some of the more “odd-ball” makes, as Overbaugh describes them, like the Lotus, Renault, and Trabant, travel to the Euro Meet. This year the event is adding motorcycles and plan to continue growing in the future, a real possibility with the space they now have.

The event’s organization committee chose to sponsor the Trumansburg Robotics Club this year. The robotics club mission meshes well with the interests of the event organizers. As Overbaugh describes it, the event organizers decided that supporting the robotics club was the best way to support the future of automotive advancement. The students of the robotics club could very well be the future of automotive technology one day, if their passions are encouraged to thrive.

“It’s a way for kids in the Trumansburg High School who are not big into sports, or not into music, but really like working with their hands, it gives them an avenue,” said Overbaugh.

The move to the fairgrounds could be permanent. The event organizers enjoyed working with the Trumansburg Fairground Committee who are working to keep the space, one of the last local fairgrounds in the area, open and operational.

This car show differs from others, Overbaugh said, in several ways. Often, car shows will be an all-day commitment, but Euro Meets will only be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s just a bit more casual. It’s geared toward European car owners that also enjoy driving their cars, not just keeping them in museum-grade condition.
“We do have prizes but they’re not over the top,” Overbaugh said. “So, I think that attracts a clientele that really wants to drive their cars and enjoy them, as compared to perfect, museum-quality pieces that are spotless, worrying about every nick and piece of grass that falls on the car.”

In years past, out-of-state enthusiasts have traveled in for the show. It helps that another big, European car show happens on the same weekend in Cazenovia. There’s overlap between attendees to both shows, including Overbaugh and his own collection of European cars. He has six.

“My dad was into cars and we like to say it’s an inherited disease,” he said. “But, specifically for European cars, I was an exchange student in Hungary through the Rotary International and when I was there shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall and there were all sorts of cars that the West had never seen. It was something that really intrigued me, all these cars that had been built for the last 50 years that nobody knew anything about.”

He said he has always had an inclination toward weird, odd-ball cars like the Polski Fiat, a tiny car with only 23 horse power, no leg room for the back seat, and an odometer that counts in kilometers. Attending the show with his cars was how Overbaugh became involved in the coordination of the event. This is his first year as one of the volunteer coordinators.

The event will feature food from Razorback BBQ and live music. The event sponsors include Overbaugh’s own company, Ehrhart Energy, as well as Detail Johnny, and eEuroparts.com. The show is funded both by sponsorships and registration fees, which are kept low to be able to include as many car enthusiasts as possible. Costs to put on the event are kept low when organized and coordinated completely by volunteers.