When I lived in Hannibal, there was a running joke how the drinking water, pulled straight from the Mississippi River, was only slightly less thick than a milkshake as the anecdotal cotton filter at the water treatment plant only caught the large suspended solids.
How does that apply to this car show? There were more cars than I’ve ever seen here, making them thick on the ground, and I’ve done my best to filter out all the large, solid steel conveyances we as a collective group have less interest in. What you will see here is the potable stuff, such as this 1961 Rolls Royce that caught my eye.
Maybe it was the two-tone blue; maybe it was the right-hand drive so the mailman could easily use it. Maybe it was harkening back to my English ancestry (speaking of, despite my German oriented last name, recent revelations show I am over 75% British derived; I have no German in me).
Yet there is limited appeal with that engine lost among a sea of stuff.
All areas have their particular sense of humor. The owner of this Rolls exhibits fine, Midwestern humor; we really don’t drink beer from champagne glasses. That’s getting to be too pretentious.
Mason jars work out much better for fine dining.
I digress.
This Impala never had the hood opened fully the entire day. It was as if the engine was playing peekaboo with passersby.
Getting in closer for inspection, a pleasant surprise was awaiting wider discovery. Seeing a straight-six Impala at any show is a wonderful change of pace. The black looks great on the car and the rally wheels did offer some visual diversity.
Looking inside almost made me cheer. As icing on the six-cylinder cake, this Impala has a three-on-the-tree transmission. More shows need more cars like this.
The 1967 Camaro is a car I almost routinely ignore, but this one warranted numerous looks. You may see a little something odd on its scalp.
Here’s a closer look at the vinyl on the roof.
This is a dealer installed option, called the Mod Top. It was designed by George Barris and came in a variety of colors as seen in the literature displayed with the car.
But it gets even better.
This Camaro is a 350 SS. Looking inside, it was a first for me to see in two other regards – it has a column selected Powerglide and a bench seat.
One Camaro enthusiast walking up behind the car exclaimed “this car is awful!”. I looked at him, smiled great big and said “It gets better with the bench seat and Powerglide – I think it’s awfully terrific.” Upon hearing that, he agreed as he knew he’d never see another one like it.
Seeing unrestored interiors at a show is always delightful. The inside of this 1967 Plymouth Belvedere looked quite inviting and it exuded an intoxicating old car smell – the best of show in that regard.
The exterior had a pleasant degree of patina on the flat surfaces.
There was a little bit of patina near the badges on the vertical surfaces. What’s that? Oh yes…
This is an unrestored, factory Hemi car. Incidentally, while it is a Belvedere, it’s a Belvedere GTX.
While nowhere near as rare, a 1966 Ford Falcon Futura Sports Coupe (the name is as long as the car, it seems) isn’t a car in which you can easily find multiples.
This Falcon was purchased new by an older lady who knew what she wanted. It has a higher trim level but mighty few options.
With so many V8 transplants, it’s always good to see something as-built at a show and this Falcon is certainly in that category.
However, there are rare times when seeing a car that is no longer as-built provides an equal opportunity for enjoyment. This Cadillac is one of those instances and perhaps you see where this is going.
Originally uplifted by what I am presuming to be Miller-Metoer….
The owner took a hearse, a car with a finite number of uses, and converted it into a pickup, providing infinite uses. Built on a commercial chassis, and powered by a 472 cubic inch (7.7 liter) V8, one will be hard pressed to overload and/or strain this Cadillac. The rear wall of the cab came straight from a Chevrolet pickup.
Some of the work seen on other cars at the show was of a much different nature than found on that Cadillac. This mural, found on the underneath side of a hood, is one such example. What do you think the car is?
A similar Monte Carlo, of course. This Monte is of the 1978 to 1980 era.
There is one car left to show.
This 1936 Chrysler Airstream was breathtaking. An amazing car is so many regards, it deserves its own writeup. Stay tuned for that.
While there aren’t a lot of cars outlined here, I’ve tried to provide the most unique or lesser seen on display. It looks likely I’ll be going again next year, so we’ll see what that brings.
I like the Caddy ute, I shot a Lincoln locally that had a similar treatment, the Chevy six is different most of the local assembly cars here were V8s they had to be pre ordered on GMs import licence and since that was the top of the local range buyers went for the 283 option or 327 in later years, we even had auto trans available from 61 onwards and Pontiacs occasionally but not regularly, that has to be a one off Camaro, how well did those Barris roofs sell anyway.
I know exactly the smell of a 60s Mopar interior, my garage was once a temporary home for an unrestored 1968 Plymouth Fury, even some years after it had moved on, I swear on a hot day when I walked into that shed after being closed up for a week, I could still detect a hint of its delightful aroma.
Or maybe it was just wishful thinking…
Oh, I would have been in heaven at that show. Finally, something to offset the plethora of muscle cars, Mustang/Camaro/Challengers, and all the other boring stuff that invariably overruns pretty much any weekend car show nowadays.
I love that Camaro – it’s just the car I’d love to have to take to a Camaro meet. The only thing that could have made it better would have been an original straight six.
And when is the last time anyone saw an early Camaro with factory wheelcovers?
For a second there I thought we were being treated to a third Mitsuoka CC!
That Cadillac reminds me of a “flower car,” which ran behind the hearse in the procession and was used to haul the flowers to the cemetery. Some also carried the casket (with the flowers placed on top of casket).
You don’t see them much anymore, but I’ve always thought one would make a good basis for a Cadillacamino.
” I am over 75% British derived; I have no German in me” —Verflixt! Now I have to get used to your British humour. —Good start with the Rolls, though.
My brother had some sort of DNA test done on a whim, turns out we’re 15% British which seems odd for a Dutch guy.
Anyway, love those sixes and unrestored cars, we’re always an appreciative audience for non mainstream classics here!
Love the Roller. It is so nice to see one without a bottle of Grey Poupon mustard, and I have to say that the Bud Light with the wine glass is a delightful touch. And wow, so much plumbing around an engine from 1961!
That black 62 Impala brings out such mixed feelings. A high-level Impala with the six and stick (and no radio, either) is an anomaly, for sure. Maybe I could learn to love it if I didn’t have to drive it that much. 🙂 The biggest problem is that it suffers from Chevy Rally Wheel disease (a condition that affects 99.7% of Chevrolets of any year or model at every car show.)
And that Belvedere – that car just screams 1971 with the scruffy looks and the underdash 8 track. And the ubiquitous steering column tach for teenagers who think they can shift better than a Torqueflite can.
Yes, that Rolls engine compartment looks like 1981.
Quite the contrast with the Falcon engine bay.
While I think the Chevy Rally is the worst of the OE styled steel wheels of the era I think they are way better than some modern 18″ or worse some of the 90’s designs. For that partictular car I’d go with some repo SS wheel covers, though a set of slots, American Racing Daisy or Cragar S/S would rank ahead of the Chevy Rally.
My favorite is the Falcon but not crazy about the colors the 1st owner chose.
The Camaro is quite unique. The only F-body I’ve ever seen besides this one that had a bench front seat was a Firebird with an OHC 6 engine, a 69 IIRC. Of course, it had the column mounted shift lever. The only Camaro I’ve ever seen with a column mounted shift lever had a manual transmission.
As far the “Mod Top”, just this week I was thinking about different vinyl roof colors. Yet, aside from the “Flower Power” Chrysler cars, none of the pictured patterns appeal to me.
Column shifters were actually quite common in Camaros. Unless you paid extra for the console, you got a column shift. I am convinced that this was one of the genius moves at Ford – no early Mustang ever came with a column shift.
I believe the Strato-back bench seat was only an option in the F-bodies for 67-68. A rarely seen feature, that’s for sure.
We have a guy who shows up every time to Cars & Coffee Richmond in a beater (rusty fender edges) ’67 Camaro stripper: Bucket seats but the column shift (you had to pay extra to get the console to get a floor shift), base six, no radio, although I seem to remember the car has Powerglide.
I love those vinyl top options, especially the houndstooth ones. Red/black on a white car or Brown/black on one of the many other period color options would be very attractive to me. Thanks for highlighting something so different, who knew?
I think houndstooth checks, for the most part, are quite ugly. But that may be because Ford built scads of silver cars in the mid 70s with houndstooth check vinyl roofs with matching interiors. The worst example I would see was a silver Mercury Bobcat hatchback with a grey/black/maroon vinyl half roof and the interior was grey with the seats having the same houndstooth check inserts. To add insult to injury, even though that car was still brand new, the vinyl on the roof was already curling up at the edges.
I recently shot this Belvedere, it is not quite as good a shape as the one you showed us here today. I’ve not had time to do any sort of writeup on it, but it seems to live outdoors so it is in need of some TLC.
Interior
the drinking water, pulled straight from the Mississippi River, was only slightly less thick than a milkshake
As Mark Twain said of the water: “Too thick to drink, too thin to plow.”
Personally I love the flower car. They were never a real thing in my lifetime so they always make me think of the movies and mob funerals.
For the record, the Monte Carlo is a ’78 Landau.
Jolly good, ol’ chap Schäfer! Love the interior and engine shots.
Most or all of the console in the Falcon has to be a modern addition. Kudos to the owner for how well it fits in and how nice it looks.
The Camaro may be my favorite here, as others have said, just because of its simplicity. Outside of the vinyl top choice, it probably better represents the typical Camaro of that year than any testosterone boosted SS.
I’m with JP on the over done rally wheel thing. I think they look good on cars that were produced with them. The Impala did have a period correct service card holder stuck on the dash, probably from some long gone gas station.
The last Rolls I saw at a car show did indeed have a jar of Grey Poupon.
I’m not sure every wood trimmed old station wagon in the Midwest should haul surf boards around unless someone tells me how to get to the beach.
I predict that at some point in the future the Hemi GTX will show up on the web in another one of those spurious “barn find” ads.
Jason I go to the Fall Color Fest car show in Louisiana Mo each year, just a little south of Hanibal as you know. There is a local guy that displays his beautiful unrestored 56 Crown Vic with the hood not fully open. I know him well so I asked him about it. He said it inhibits a judges chances of finding anything in the engine compartment to ding a few points off your score. Said he knows a few guys that do it and suggested it to me . So there ya go.
Thanks a lot for covering this event. Now I want to kick myself for not going, to work on the house. Next year for shur. Cheers .
I believe there has been a letter in the The Times about drinking Bud Light in a Silver Cloud. The Queen Mum never did, and neither should you. You may lose your passport..:-)
Lovely selection of cars, and I cant wait for the Airstream post!
Great photos, but isn’t that Cadillac just a Flower Car that Miller Meteor modified?
It had been a hearse; I talked to the guy who converted it.