Showcars Melbourne PPG 10th Anniversary Showdown Celebration
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Showcars Melbourne PPG 10th Anniversary Showdown Celebration

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By Shannons - 08 February 2021


Due to recent COVID-19 activity in Victoria, the organisers have shifted this event to Sunday 21 March.

The Showcars Melbourne PPG 10th Anniversary Showdown Celebration is returning to the Moonee Valley Racecourse later this month. We speak to organiser Elvis Barbieri about why you should come down for a look.

You’re celebrating 10 years of Showcars Melbourne PPG Showdown; how’s this one coming together?

It’s huge; our indoor area is all booked out, as is the Shannons Classic Display on the Green. We’ve still got plenty of space for drive-ins on the day, and those cars form part of the show. If you’ve got a street machine, hot rod, muscle car, American car or a classic, bring it down, just so long as it’s something people want to see. You get parking and an entry into the show for $25, but that area is not locked in, so if you can’t spend the whole day, it’s not a problem.

The PPG Showdown has been growing year on year but since the last show we’ve had a pesky pandemic. Has that affected entries?

No, entries are definitely up for the 10th Anniversary Showdown Celebration, big time. We’ve got 125 cars indoors which is about 20% on last year. For Showdown 9 we predicted 600 cars rolling up on the day, and we got 800. The way pre-entries are tracking, I think we’ll smash that.

The venue has had a renovation since last year too, so we’ve got a new front outdoor area on the horse racing track and indoors, the show is split over two levels. It’s like 1500 square metres; it’s huge.

Have you had to make any concessions because of COVID-19?

Of course, our primary concern is the safety of the public and the entrants who are coming along, but we’ve got the hand sterilisers, the QR codes, the 1.5 metres at the entry points and food areas, and a bit more space between the cars to give people more room to move.

Have you got any big reveals scheduled? It seems plenty of people got busy during lockdown.

We’ve got six brand-new builds to be revealed on the day, including a new one from Johnny Z’s. That’s a couple up from last year, so people did get busy. As always, we’re the fourth round of the Meguiars Superstars and will have five invites to MotorEx up for grabs.

Are you doing anything different this year for the 10th anniversary?

We’ve got big names, big cars and we’re going to do some fire ups on a couple of Top Doorslammer drag cars. That will wake some people up! This year, we have XBOSS coming, the pro-touring XB hardtop that was a Great Eight finalist at the 2016 Detroit Autorama. It’s a legendary Australian street machine.

As usual, we have about 60 trophies to give away across heaps of categories, but this year we’re also doing a Holden vs Ford thing. As our farewell to Holden, we’ve got trophies for the best of each brand like ‘Best Restored Holden’ and ‘Best Modified Ford’, that sort of thing.

It all sounds great; got anything else to add?

The PPG Showdown is a family event so, we’ve got bands, the annual charity sausage sizzle barbeque, face painting and a couple of Transformers walking around. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, I think. They’re pretty cool.

Thanks Elvis. For those playing at home, when and where is the show?

The PPG 10th Anniversary Showdown Celebration is on Sunday 21 March 2021 from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Bring your family, bring your friends, bring a cool car if you’ve got one. It’s about time we all got out of the house. We’ve got the approval, we’re COVID safe and we’ll see you there.

Outdoor car display entry: $25
Gates open 7:00am

Public entry: $20 (kids under 12 free)
9:00am – 5:00pm
Free parking

Visit Shannons Club here and follow the link to pre-enter.

Shannons is a large supporter of motoring events within the community. We are working with the event organisers during these uncertain times. There have been changes to the scheduling of many events, so we recommend you contact the event organiser directly to obtain updates.