The spring Charlotte Auto Fair has become somewhat of a tradition for me, and something I look forward to every April. This is my third consecutive spring event since 2019, (the 2020 and 2021 spring events were cancelled). My plan was to arrive in Charlotte on Thursday night and spend Friday and Saturday at the speedway.

Since I now work first shift, I'm actually awake early in the morning and can get to the speedway early enough to get a great parking space. I managed to park next to the roadway in the field outside of turn 1.

This lot sits behind the speedway condominium complex, officially known as First Turn Towers.

My spot is also near the Concord water tower, which serves as my visual landmark when inside the speedway.

According to the photo shown above, I'm parked in the dark blue area labeled "Geico Turn 1 Campground" next to Gate 11. Getting inside involved a short walk around to the front of the speedway to the Gate 8 ticket office.

I paid for my ticket and headed inside via Gate 8.

The Gate 8 entrance deposits visitors onto the track in the vicinity of turn 1. The photo above looks toward the front straight.

Looking the other way, (into turn 1), points me toward the First Turn Towers and my parking space.

Welcome to the Charlotte Auto Fair on this dark and gloomy Friday morning.

All of the speedway landmarks were visible, including the infield scoreboard.

I would soon learn that a number of changes have been made to the layout of infield spaces inside the speedway. The Chevrolet Test Drives tent seen in the photo above, for example, has moved from last year's spot in the infield near the showcase pavilions to the section of the infield road course near turn 1 seen in the photo.

I headed down onto the track and was able to get a better shot of the First Turn Towers complex. Surprisingly, a quick online search indicates that condos do occasionally come up for sale, and can actually be affordable, relatively speaking.

This year, the Midway Stage was set up along Pit Road in front of the Media Center. The first band on the schedule was setting up as I arrived.

Two bands were listed for this event. The first band, Kids in America, was setting up and going through sound checks in preparation for their 10 AM show.

I discovered that live music would be featured throughout my visit.

One of the highlights of the 2023 spring Auto Fair is the inaugural Smith Heritage Invitational show, which was scheduled for Sunday. According to the event's website, the Smith Heritage Invitational, "brings together a once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of exclusive vehicles that pays tribute to the history and artistry of all things automotive."

Unfortunately, I won't be here on Sunday. It sounds like I should be, though, considering the list of vehicles shown on the website. The event features something for everyone: pre-war Packards, Lincolns, and Rollers, race cars from the 1950s and 1960s, and several modern hypercars.

In the meantime, a number of high-end exotics were parked in the Smith Heritage Invitational spaces. Most of these cars were from nearby dealerships. The photo above is of a Bentley Continental GTC with no price listed.

The signage with the car says it's powered by a 4.0L twin turbo V8 that makes 542 hp, which is good for 198 mph.

Aston Martin Vantage, no price listed.

Power comes from a 4.0L twin turbo V8 that makes 603 hp.

I don't know what year this car is, or its asking price. But it will go zero to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and top out at 195 mph.

Aston Martin DBX707, no price listed.

The "707" in the car's name refers to its 707 PS, or 697 hp which is provided by a 4.0L twin turbo V8.

Ferrari 488, no price listed.

Power comes from a 3.9L twin turbo V8 that makes 661 hp.

Like most Ferraris, the 488 gets its name from the cubic centimeter displacement for one cylinder. Iin this case, 488 x 8 cylinders = 3,904 cubic centimeters, or 3.9L.

Ferrari Roma, no price listed.

Power comes from a 3.9L twin turbo V8 that makes 612 hp.

This front-engine Ferrari debuted for the 2021 model year with a $225k MSRP, and is named after Italy's capital city of Rome.

Given the rotten weather, there wasn't a whole lot of activity in the Car Clubs areas at this moment. But there were a few nice cars to be seen. The car in the photos above and below is a 1958 Edsel Citation 4-door hardtop.

Ford's disastrous experiment known as the Edsel division debuted for the 1958 model year. More than 68k cars were sold during that first year, which wasn't too bad. But all Edsel production ceased in November 1959 with a mere 2,846 cars sold for 1960. Obviously, something happened.

The explanation for Edsel's failure has included many factors. Introducing a new car line in the midst of a recession is never a good idea. The car's styling has been criticized over the years. But the reality is that it wasn't that outrageous for the time. Large sizes, an abundance of chrome, and big fins defined this era in the domestic auto industry. There were, however, issues with build quality thanks to the way Edsels were assembled. There was no dedicated Edsel assembly plant, and each model was assembled along side of its nearest Ford or Mercury counterpart.

But the biggest obstacle to Edsel's success was the way it was marketed. Edsel's was created to fill a perceived gap in Ford's pricing structure, and was to be slotted in between entry level Ford and mid-level Mercury. The problem was that all of Edsel's products were priced completely within the range of Mercury, which put the two divisions in direct competition with each other.

Now this is quite unusual. I have to admit that I've never seen a garbage truck towing an Airstream trailer at a car show before.

I know nothing about travel trailers other than classic Airstream trailers are quite collectible nowadays.

The surprises continued in the back of the truck. Converting the body of the garbage truck into a grill/smoker is a pretty cool idea once you get past the mental image of the combination of "garbage truck" and "food preparation".

Two more vintage trucks sat next to the garbage truck.

The name "Lagano" seen in the photo above is also on the door of the garbage truck. The "Mack Daddy" B-body Mack was towing a trailer carrying what looks like a Mack EE/EF Series truck, which, itself, was hauling a smaller truck in its bed.

The Cadillac Kings is a familiar name from past events.

This club appears to be for low-rider classic Cadillacs. They were parked in the same area as last year.

Since there wasn't much activity in the Car Clubs areas, I decided to check out the swap meet vendors in the Orange Field, and headed across the infield access tunnel.

I spotted something familiar in the first row of vendor spaces. The grill seen in the photo above is for a 1968 - 71 Lincoln Mark III. I know this because I had one many years ago.

1942 Studebaker M5 pickup, asking $15,000.

Studebaker's line of WWII era pickup trucks consisted of the M5 half-ton pickup (seen in the photos above), the M15 three-quarter ton pickup, and the M15A one ton pickup. Power comes from a 170 CID inline 6-cylinder engine that makes 84 hp. Somewhere around 315 were produced for the 1942 model year before automobile production ceased for WWII, making this an extremely rare truck.

1954 Ford F100 pickup, asking $18,500.

This is a second generation F-Series truck, which was produced from 1953 - 56. Beginning in 1953, model identification switched from single-number designations, (F-1, F-2, F-3, etc.), to the three digit numbering system that is still used to this day. The F-100 represented the half-ton version with a pickup body. In addition to the great patina, this truck also comes with a number of new parts.

A tethered advertising balloon overhead got my attention. I would later learn that Blast-It-All specializes in surface preparation equipment, and is headquartered a few miles up the road in Salisbury, North Carolina.

I headed out into the Green Field to check out more of the swap meet, and came across a 1953 Henry J Corsair that "runs and drives," asking $12,500.

In the years following WWII, Kaiser-Frazier was looking to add a line of entry-level cars built to a price point defined as something, "the average person could afford." The new car was to be compact in size, yet still able to carry five adults. Emphasis was placed on fuel economy and reduced operating costs, as well as designing a car that would cost less to build.

The no-frills Henry J, named after company president Henry J. Kaiser, arrived in dealerships during September 1950 with an MSRP of around $1,400. Unfortunately, a small and economical car didn't work in the bigger-is-better era of the 1950s. Sales were strong in the introductory year of 1951, (almost 82k built), but plummeted in the subsequent years. Henry J was done by 1954. This 1953 model is one of 16,672 cars produced that year.

A 1940/41 Ford pickup body, (i.e. the cab, two doors, two fenders, and one running board), asking $1,200.