As I was driving down Nova Road, here in the Birthplace of Speed, I spotted this open wheeled Ford racecar on a trailer heading in the same direction as this olelongrooffan was. The driver turned down Clyde Morris Blvd. and this olelongrooffan headed over to meet Manuel Labor for a couple hours.
Anyway, the next morning, the Tuesday before the Daytona 500, I was surfing around these tubes, still trying to find gainful employment (no such luck) and I stumbled upon an article on the Daytona News Journal website about a gathering down at the Daytona Drive In Church.
Can you Counters guess what this olelongrooffan did?
Yep, I grabbed my sometimes trusty old Polaroid (thanks again bus), jumped in my olestationbus and went down to check out a bunch of old racecars and such.
This is a cool old Mercury.
This one is a Studebaker.
This one is based on a VW chassis and was built in 1977.
I thought this was kind of funny
given that it was on the trunk lid of this Hudson Hornet. Oh, and check out the license plate on the #6 car.
And its sister car. I saw these up at Amelia Island with the Kid a couple years ago.
I never did get the story on this rare 65 Ford Two Door Coupe.
I have seen this 59 Chevy over at the Turkey Rod Run nearly every Thanksgiving almost for as long as I can remember.
And it was sporting the same license plate as that old Doc Watson mobile. This olelongrooffan didn't notice that until I was typing this up.
Yeah, it was sensory overload that day!
Another 59 Chevy, this one is a Biscayne. I am going to guess the other is more upscale, either an Impala or Belair, based on the body long chrome trim on it.
And a sweet old Pontiac. My Uncle Frank had one this body style but his was a ragtop.
And I guess David Pearson has driven this car a time or two.
Check out how long those old wheel lugs are.
And a vintage, period correct NASCAR label.
And a couple of really old school race cars. I don't know what they are but they looked pretty cool.
There were plenty of civilian cars around too.
This lime green Challenger has got to be worth some real coin, although not as much as just a few years ago.
I had to get a shot of this. I thought it was pretty funny.
And a 74 Pontiac Grand Prix. Back in the day, one of my older sisters had one of these but her was brown with black vinyl landeau top.
And now Counters, if you are getting thirsty may this olelongrooffan offer you a Manhattan?
A Kaiser Manhattan that is.
I struck up a converstion with the kind gentleman who owned it and found out some pretty cool stuff. The coolest is that up until last summer, for the prior 35 years, this sweet old sedan had been residing in an old chicken coop on a farm up in Pennsylvania.
It turns out the farmer's widow, who owned it had parked it in that coop when her husband died and it surfaced at her estate auction when she passed. The new owner told me all he did was change its bodily fluids, install new hoses, spark plugs and wires, new points and condenser along with a new distributor cap and it fired right up!!
A new set of rubber shoes and she drives like new.
Gotta love a good story like that.
The dash board is kind of funky, needless to say. It looks like bamboo but appears to be plastic as I am confident if it was bamboo, it would have rotted away by now.
And a great patina.
Notice the recurring theme in most of the photos of this car? It reflects the little dip across the top of the windshield and back window and the designers of this car even included that feature on the sides of it. Pretty cool and much like the Henry J this olelongrooffan saw last year.
And the owner of that Henry J had a similar stock certificate.
And when was the last time an operable wing vent much less one in the back door!
A dang nice clean old car.
Parked right next door was a Buick Super.
And a grainy shot of the interior of that Super Buick.
And another. Note the handles on the back of the front seat. And that chrome thingy in the center. Well, Counters, that is an ashtray back when they still included them in automobiles.
Early 60's Ford Fairlane
A long and lean Mercury in a brilliant torquoise.
A sweet oleragtop
And she looks good from the rear too!
Twin Oldsmobile Futuramatics.
The only difference between the two, other than that dealer supplied visor on the one in the rear, the wheel covers and the exhaust system, was the one with the visor had an early split windshield.
And a Falcon Gasser.
I struck up a conversation with the owner of this open wheel race car. He was wearing that US Flag bearing jacket and sitting on the rear wheel.
Apparently this car won the Canadian Grand Prix back during the year this olelongrooffan was born and the Daytona International Speedway was built.
I was told it has Chevrolet underpinnings.
I strolled over to catch a sight of this topless 55 Ford.
The ignition on this is located in the same spot as on my olestationbus.
It is a pretty sharp looking ole race car.
Well, after looking around a bit, this olelongrooffan struck up a conversation with one of the dudes wearing a "Living Legends of Auto Racing" jacket.
Are you Counters surprised?
Anyway, I inquired about the event and was informed it has been going on, since 1993, on the Tuesday prior to the Daytona 500 and at low tide.
I was curious about the low tide part.
He mentioned that in about 10 minutes all these cool old cars would be heading down to get on The World's Most Famous Beach for a brief parade.
Well, Counters, this olelongrooffan immediately headed back to my olestationbus and made my way down to that beach to hang for a bit.
A few images of those sweet, nostalgic automobiles follow.
And a shot of my perch on that overcast Tuesday in February here in, mostly, warm and sunny central Florida.
And, of course, because this olelongrooffan can, a short video of the parade is included.
And know this Counters, even though this olelongrooffan has been without a real job for the last 21 months, I still remember how to
Celebrate Life.
1 comment:
Always did like the old race cars, you could tell a ford fm a chevy
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