Antique & Classic Cars Blog

If cities want to improve their streets, here’s the best way: line ‘em with race cars. The show in Hopkins Wednesday night was fantastic, featuring a wide variety of very attractive cars and a lot of nice people around to talk about them.

The weather was perfect, the selection impressive. Many of them lit off to drive back to their trailers, adding hearing to the many senses pleased on this fine evening. (The above Vette’s ferocious roar could probably be heard in Minneapolis.) When the sun finally set, a corner bar with outside seating offered the ideal way to wind down and . . . talk about cars!

Here’s a sampling of the machinery the lucky crowd got to oggle.

An unrestored 1957 Ferrari 250 GT was among my favorites of the show. The patina, old-car smell, and all of Time’s little knicks and pits let you feel the history. The owner fired up the car, whose 12-cylinder engine purred quietly despite having only small diameter exhaust pipes with no mufflers.

The smile on this child’s face is no different from what any adult at the show would have flashed sitting in the same seat looking over the hood of that 50-year-old Italian “barn-find.”

The same man owns this Porsche-powered Elva, which looks like a rocket standing still.

The pipes on the Elva hug the car and the ground.

British cars featured prominently, perhaps because they’re not too expensive and parts are widely available.

This Javelin was particularly attractive. Hadn’t gone to the show hoping to spy something nice from American Motors, but the lines and paint on this car really drew the eye.

Owner Denny Popp keeps his clutch and brake master cylinders inside the car, where he can see them. Nice to know blowing down the straight into some unforgiving turn that you’ll likely get some response when you press the middle peddle.

The ‘57 Chevy stock car also had a nice look. Is it possible to see cool cars and not want one?

Is that a bug in your eye? Or an air intake in your Bugeye?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.