MUSTANGS, JAGUARS, AND BEETLES—oh my! New Mexico puts its full-throttle love affair with cars on display with nearly 500 vehicles expected to participate in this year’s shows and cruises. “Each car has a story,” says Craig Vencill, Main Street Days cars coordinator, who started working with the fair in 2002. “Every driver is a walking encyclopedia of their car.”
Take Vikki Snow, president of the New Mexico Council of Car Clubs, which represents more than 60 clubs throughout the state. Snow, who has been showing her 1969 Wolfsburg Edition Volkswagen Beetle named Blue at the fair since 2018, enjoys the diversity of rides shown each year. If you enjoy cars, she notes, you are going to see one you like. Some, like her Blue, which won the ribbon for Most Cosmetically Challenged in 2018 and 2019, might even be a little rough around the edges. “I don’t care what kind of car you have,” she says, “as long as you have a love for it.”
What started out as part of the fair’s Main Street Days in 1938 has expanded beyond the Saturday and Sunday shows—with their popular 3 p.m. grand rollouts featuring specific models, hot rods, and classics—to include two Friday night cruises this year.
The evenings showcase a mix of eras and styles, all seen under the canopy of the fairgrounds’ lights, as an opportunity to share more cars with more people. “Even if the VWs are from Germany and the Jaguars are from England,” Vencill says, “this is an Americana show.”