Wheels spinning on car show, swap meet

Friday, March 16, 2001 | 9:06 a.m.

Old cars and old-car parts will fill a parking lot at the New Frontier Saturday and Sunday.

Promoter Darrin Shortridge says more than 300 vendors are scheduled to participate in his first Las Vegas Classic Car & Street Rod Show & Swap Meet.

"And there will be 500-plus classic cars, street rods and exotic sports cars" on display, Shortridge said.

Many of those participating in the event will be from California, where Shortridge developed a following after four years of putting on a similar show in Ventura, northeast of Los Angeles.

Shortridge described the Ventura show as comparable to the Pomona Swap Meet in California, only smaller. The Pomona event, billed as the largest swap meet and car show on the West Coast, is held eight times a year at the 487-acre Fairplex in Pomona.

The show at the Fairplex (home of the Los Angeles County Fair) would be 15 miles long if all the vendors' booths and the cars on display were placed in a line.

Shortridge doesn't plan to challenge the Pomona show and sale in size, but he says his show this weekend will be of the same quality.

"This will be my first show in Las Vegas, but I want to do one a month, or one every other month, in the future," said Shortridge, whose Ventura swap meet was placed on hiatus while he took six months off from his promotion business to build houses at Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

"I'm working on my last house at Lake Havasu," Shortridge said. "When I'm done, I'm going into the car-show business full time."

Las Vegas, he said, will be his home base.

Shortridge, 37, grew up in Las Vegas and in Southern California, where he was bitten by the classic-car bug when he was about 11 years old while working in the shadow of an older brother who was a car fanatic.

"I grew up in an era when (old cars) were the thing. In Southern California, cruising was the big thing," he said. "I lived and breathed (old cars). I used to have over 10, but I've been working 16 hours a day for the past year now so I sold them all.

"I love all old cars. I don't have any favorites."

Shortridge said vendors (selling used-car parts and other merchandise) and people with cars to show and sell are coming from around the country to take part in the debut event. Some will be from Nevada.

Art Kam, head of the Las Vegas Cruisin' Association, said he was surprised to learn about the upcoming show and sale.

"I would like to see something like this go over," he said. "It's a great idea and could be a good thing, a good special event that is other than gaming. People can be drawn to Las Vegas for stuff like this."

Kam's organization represents about 70 car clubs in Las Vegas.

"A lot of people from here go to Pomona," he said. "I have two (vendor) spots there. A dozen other people (from here) have spots there. I would say roughly 50 to 60 people go down there for buying and selling."

Kam said a number of local car enthusiasts have called him trying to get information about Shortridge and the swap meet, but he hasn't been able to help them. He knew nothing about the event or the promoter.

He said he has tried, unsuccessfully, to put on similar shows along the Strip in the past. The problem, he said, is that Clark County requires that any vendor who sells used parts in the county have a second-hand dealer's license. The background check takes about 12 weeks, he explained.

Shortridge said vendors at his sale will have the necessary license. He is eager to launch the show.

"This event," he said, "will allow private owners to bring out their prized possessions and show them off."