Antique & Classic Cars Blog

When other people do dumb stuff at the wheel, we point it out on this site.

So, in the spirit of fairness, when I have done something dumb, it’s time to ’fess up. Two nights ago, I was heading east on 38th street going to help a friend pull an old refrigerator out of his basement. On the way, my wife called me. I took the call pulling up to the intersection of 38th and Hiawatha.

Yes, the light rail passes right through there. Because I was distracted on the phone, I stopped a reasonable distance from the traffic light but not before the pivoting warning arm for the train.

Ding, Ding, Ding went the warning bell, which took a second for me to process because, as Pee-Wee Herman puts it in Big Adventure, I was “trying to use the phone!”

A long bar to stop jabbering nincompoops starts coming down on top of my car (luckily, depending on how you look at it, I was in my wife’s Golf and not my classic MG). This bar settles on the top of the car about the time the fact that the train was soon coming settled on my distracted brain.

Fortunately–again depending on how you look at it–John Law was sitting at a red light on Hiawatha at the same intersection. He flicked on his spotlight and shined it in my windshield with a pretty clear meaning: Hey idiot, the train’s coming.

“Uh, honey, I gotta go.”

I threw it in reverse and backed up a few feet. Fortunately the guy behind me had left a little room. As soon as I was back where I was supposed to be, the officer shut off his light and roared off, no doubt annoyed he’d had to deal with that low-IQ situation on the way to some genuine law enforcement priority.

My car was not on the tracks—yet sitting near them with a warning hazard blinking in one window, a patrolman’s spotlight shining in your eyes and a large, reflective-striped barrier plunked down on top of your wife’s car is no way to demonstrate the moral high ground.

Can you believe another summer has dashed past us?

If you’re looking for one more opportunity to gather with a lot of cool cars–and a good cup of coffee–fire up your fun car and head out to the Auto-Motorplex in Chanhassen tomorrow morning between 8 and 11 a.m.

Last month brought out a large collection of Porsches, sport VWs, beautiful and quick machines by Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Maserati, along with some good-ol’ American iron. Some 300 collector and sports cars were on hand.

The sounds are as good as the views. Here’s some shots from last month. (You can Mapquest from the Auto-Motorplex link–it’s an easy drive from the Cities out 62 to 212 to 5, then left on Audobon.)

A few years ago I had my British Racing Green Triumph TR6 in the driveway and was tinkering with something when I noticed a silver-haired woman, probably in her 70s, staring carefully at the car.

“Do you like Triumphs?,” I asked. “I know nothing of cars,” she answered, “but it’s very pretty.”

Such is the joy of motor vehicles–they appeal to the eye as well as the senses.

Saturday mornings at Diamonds Coffee Shoppe in NE Minneapolis is a nice opportunity to study the many forms our 2-wheeled vehicles take, from scooters to dirt bikes to cruisers to crotch rockets.

It isn’t a club gathering, just an informal collection of like-minded riders who like to sip a cup and talk shop, to put a few bikes together and admire them.

The weather was perfect–overcast, when time stands still because there are no shadows to grow long.

With even light, it was also a nice morning to play amateur photographer.

If you’ve got a bike–or even if you know nothing of motorcycles–swing by some Saturday around 9:00 and take in a little steel-and-rubber art and a good cuppa joe.

You’ll be glad you did.

If your Sunday’s open and you’re trying to fit a few more good car events into the summer, from 7 am to 4 pm Sunday the 21st, the Northern Lights Car Club is throwing its annual car show and pig roast at the Blacksmith Lounge in Hugo. (You can click on the flyer at that link to read all the details.)

Thanks for the reminder to reader Jerome, who is a regular attendee and anticipates some 500 cars. Yee-hah!

(Folks driving big American iron, please be careful not to back over a little red MG. I’ll need it to get home.)

Doesn’t take much of an excuse to put some cars together, get talking and have some fun with like-minded folks. People with the same make or era of car have been doing it for decades.

Luis Fraguada and Tyler Christopherson have an even broader thing going. You got a cool car? Like coffee? Then why not get together the first Saturday of every month to park, sip, talk, learn, laugh and then move on to the rest of the weekend.

Dan Shaefer started a similar thing a few years ago with Wheels of Italy, embracing all cars, motorcycles and scooters (and any other wheeled thing) from the Red, White and Green. Cars and Coffee is similar but not even nation specific.

If it’s cool, if it’s a car—whether classic or modern sports—start it, drive it, park it…for a bit, have some java and go on with your day.

Last Saturday, over 300 classic and sports cars stopped by the Auto Motorplex in Chanhassen. Huge variety. Good sights. Good sounds. They’ll be back first Saturday in Ocbtober….

This coming weekend, Sept 12-14, the amazing Brainerd International Raceway is celebrating its 40th anniversary, as well as completion of it new 2.5 mile 13-turn road circuit. There’s going to be food and music and lots of track use, including you if you wish. Motorsports enthusiasts of all levels will have opportunity to get out onto a major raceway.

Two friends and I have in its infancy a scheme to go racing next year in a ‘71 Midget. We won’t have dough for a race motor, but we should be able to get four lighter wheels, some racing tires, roll bar, racing brake pads, 5-point harness and probably a better seat, as both of my friends are taller than I am. We’ve gotten clearance from one of the two spouses involved. This plan hinges on sign-off by the other…. If it falls through, I still may look into it because I’ve gotten so excited about the prospect just thinking about it. (TR6 has be done first, I’m told.)

So if any of you out there have ever given thought to buckling in and rouding a track, the coming weekend would be a good way to see more of what it’s all about. There will be lots of different events making use of the track and many, many people familiar with all of motorsports’ opportunities here in the state and region.

Another excellent use for your classic or regular car this weekend is to point it at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, drive there and have fun!

My family was in town, so according to the law of brothers, we competed in everything all week, from mini golf (Science Museum and Course in Richfied on Portland Avenue) to pool (Brit’s, downtown Minneapolis) to kid-Green-Beret-qualification contests at a playground jungle jim (“you have to slide down this pole, touch the sand with your hands only, then climb back up; if your feet touch the ground, you have to go again…”).

My brother Kirk slaughtered me at mini golf and destroyed me at pool, but we fared equally doing jungle jim stuff and I pulled ahead, most importantly, shooting the star at the state fair. Since our kid days firing BB guns at plastic army men set up on saw horses, we have competed as marksmen.

(Let me pause here to add a picture of these cool Dodges we saw to keep the whole car thing going…)

Here’s the result of that contest. Ahh, signing your name on the target card…is there anything greater that can be done without a sports car and a hundred miles of winding country road?

We also did the climbing wall (only grown-ups to do so, as far as we could tell, but grown up is such a realative term).

We took my MG, which allowed us to wedge into a curbside spot in that residential neighborhood opposite the fairgrounds and not pay for parking. The savings went into brotherly competition at the fairgrounds— “which cup are you trying to throw the whiffle ball at? –which cup are you aiming at?! –OK, you didn’t say which cup, so I win that competition.”

So take your classic–and your brother–and head over to the fair this weekend. And if you go to the crossbow shoot at the midway, be sure to look at the signed bullseyes… and if you ever meet my younger brother, be sure to say, “hey, didn’t your brother outshoot you at the Minnesota State Fair?” He’ll appreciate it—and I’ll appreciate it more. Thanks!

(Although we split into separate creatures millions (hundreds?) of years ago, the similarities between man and pig are still obvious.)

There is a Buick, Olds, Pontiac car and GMC truck show tomorrow, Saturday 8/23, at Lupient, Golden Valley, 7100 Wayzata Blvd. My friend Tom, who is in the Buick Club, says he’s expecting several hundred cars.

Show runs from 9 a.m. to three p.m.; there will be food and refreshments. No charge to view the cars.

Summer’s teetering on the brink of fall; if you haven’t seen all the classics you need to see, or gotten your own out as much as you’d like, here’ s a great chance to make up some ground.

When my brother and I were little kids, there was a museum on the Pennsylvania turnpike called Automobile-o-rama. Every year when we drove from our transplanted home of PA to my parents’ familial home in Minnesota, my brother and I would clamor to stop at this glorious assortment of antique and classic cars.

Classics are certainly great–and fast and stylish and sexy–but there’s something uniquely appealing in the oldest cars–the wild horseless carriages entrepreneurs created out of buggy parts and engine technology emerging in the railroad and agricultural environs.

My friend Tom, who runs an old-school engine shop in Blaine, has been after me for a couple years to join him in viewing the cars on the New London to New Brighton run. The Brass-Era car event mimics with “New” its otherwise namesake event in England, the London to Brighton run.

The cars hit their halfway point in Buffalo, where the local school provides a nice big parking lot to stage the cars for an adoring crowd scurrying with cameras, as well as a large, comfortable cafeteria for burgers, brats, or hot dogs and a little rest out of the sun.

These cars are inventions and works of art. Something about their craftsmanship, curves, stately leather and brass and tall antiquated wood-spoke wheels sets youthful minds dreaming. These machines changed the way this nation’s European-American immigrants lived, opening up our vast nation to travel for pleasure and widespread settlement.

We’ve all seen Brass Era cars in movies. Hearing and seeing them run live, in three dimensions, increases the thrill fivefold.

These huffing, chuffing, air and water-cooled, gas and steam powered, chain-driven relics have a charm somehow lost on the modern automobile. Lucky attendees saw cars by REO, Ford, Maxwell, Franklin, Stanley (Steamer), Brush, Buick, Cadillac, Duro, Le Zebre, International Harvester Company, Locomobile, Overland, Schacht and others.

Most visitors to this blog have dreamed of unleashing a Cobra or Vette or GT40 or Offy-powered sprint car on a well-kept racetrack. Amazing how these cars that competed with actual horses prompt a different dream–pulling on a pair of gloves and chugging down a country road with your best gal by your side, rarely exceeding the pace of a high-end golf cart.

This event may have you peering at barns in a completely different way, hoping that a car that tops out at fifty sleeps inside instead of one that throws down three times that top end.

This is a wonderful automotive celebration–one created for drivers and mechanics and adventurers.

When next August rolls around, track down the dates for the New London to New Brighton run and bring the family. Believe me, you’ll fall in love with these cars.

Walking the fairgrounds drooling at cars my friends, neighbors and classmates had in high school–many restored or hopped up way beyond the Bondo-fenders ‘n headers condition of yore–was such a hoot, another day was barely enough.

Everywhere you go, superb muscle cars and street machines are scattered around the fair streets like Hondas on 35W. Engines rumble and race in call and response.

A favorite spot again today was beside the dynomometer for the Power to the Wheels contest. This 2002 Camaro acquitted itself very well, showing 640 HP at the wheels. Yo! Doesn’t even have an induction sculpture suitable for the Walker jutting out the hood. The supercharged 398 ci truck engine looked, sounded and performed great.

One of the best roars of the day came from a light green Chevelle that made 1250 HP on the first pull. Had to cool before the second and the friends I was with wanted to see more cars. Unfortunately I didn’t snap a picture–too busy grinning like a fool. Amazing sounds, though, and very well presented car.

Couldn’t help snapping some oddballs too. Most buyers took the Chevette in econo trim, but check the right boxes and Chevy would build one up for the strip just like this fully stock Chev-Voom. Not.

Another curiosity was this front-engined dune buggy. While it’s the same color as the cartoon Speed Buggy, more or less, Speedy was rear-engined. (Cartoons were the soul food of my youth.)

I generally prefer the stock to the Street Machine look, but this ex-327 Chevy turned out very, very nice. The owner got it from California, where it sat under a tree. Water got into the trunk and rotted it out, so it needed some sheetmetal work despite its California home. The 327 was a 2-bbl automatic, as I recall, in need of a rebuild.

The owners, father and son, did this nice body and paint work (or had it done) and threw a Corvette crate motor into the engine bay, which they hopped up with a few speed goodies. Tremec stick ups the creds in my book. They were from Phoenix and this is a Camaro that would be terrific fun to flatfoot on a desert highway.

Here’s a nice trio of American muscle. You can take in sights like this all day….

A lot of people mention this show among their favorites. Rightly so. It’s a lot more than a buncha parked cars.