The largest car show between St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee, returns to Cape Girardeau on Sept. 18.
The 44th Manifolds on Main Street Car Show presented by River City Rodders and Old Town Cape regularly brings in hundreds of attendees to downtown Cape Girardeau.
For spectators, the show will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free to attend. Registration for those wishing to enter their vehicles to be judged begins at 8 a.m. The registration fee is $15.
Rodders president Rick Horrell said he enjoys how the show brings people together not just locally, but from all different regions.
"We get so many cars that come in that we don't normally see at the smaller car cruises around," Horrell said.
The show regularly draws in visitors from all across Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, Horrell said.
The show is more than just a car show, Horrell said. The event being in downtown Cape Girardeau gives those family members who often attend car shows with the one car enthusiast in the family something to do.
The car show will feature more than 250 vehicles lining Main Street and the downtown parking lot across from Hutson's Big Sandy Superstore. There will be awards given out to more than 30 classes for vehicles from 1900 to 2022.
Judges will score each car based on five categories: cleanliness and organization, engine compartment, wheels and tires, interior, and overall presentation of the car.
In an effort to make the event more than just one day — particularly for those traveling longer distances to Manifolds on Main — there is an annual, informal car cruise at Capaha Park the day before the show. The informal event is a way for attendees to meet together and talk and for those in the public to watch the cars drive along Broadway.
There is no judging at the cruise-in, people normally begin to show up around 4 p.m. that day with the cruise on Broadway happening a couple of hours later.