The mid 1950's until the early 1970's saw an explosion of chrome, horsepower, and hot rodding. In no particular order, here are some that I liked from that era, and one modern car that looks back with fondness on that era.
1959 Olds Fiesta - The Fiesta nameplate first appeared on Oldsmobile's top of the line convertible in 1953, then went into hiatus, until it was revived for use on station wagons from 1957 to 1964. This was one a surprisingly large crop of wagons at this year's show.
Hemi Cuda -Legendary Motorcars of Ontario, CA, had a nice crop of restored pony cars, including this nice Barracuda with the 'Shaker' hood option (the scoop is on the floor to the left of the car, the better to see that big motor. Legendary Motorcars restores a lot of the cars featured on 'Dream Car Garage", but neither that guy with the funny accent nor his plump sidekick were anywhere to be seen, which was OK with me.
1970 Monte Carlo - Monte Carlos were also well-represented this year. This 1970 Monte Carlo was built by Bruce Kimmer's Heads Up Racing LCC in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Also present was a mid-80's Monte transformed into a Dodge-Magnum-like sport wagon. I'll get that picture up in a later post.
1970 Buick GSX - Skoal (of chewin' tobacco reknown) was running a contest to win the nice Buick GNX convertible pictured here, but to win, y'all had to come inside their tent and sample a chaw. No thanks!
1955 Chevy Sedan - Lot's of Tri-5 Chevys, of course. This was a very clean 1955 4-door in the popular (at the time) Pink and Black two-tone scheme.
1968 American Motors AMX - Almost no AMC's at this show, which was disappointing. With their popularity starting to rise with collectors and hotrodders, I though I'd see more. This Big Bad Orange 1968 was pretty straight, but the wheels were a bit overdone for my taste.
2005 Holden Efijy - Holden's Efijy concept from 2005 was a nice tribute to the lead sleds of yesterday, much as Ford's '49 show car. This one packs a breathed-on Corvette engine good for 645bhp (and smokey burnouts). Sweet!
