The Special Interest collector cars began rolling in at 8 a.m., for the 9 a.m. start of the Magnolia Village Auto Show. The event was held two weeks ago Saturday, on a blocked off section of McGraw, "In the Heart of the Village," between 32nd Ave and 34th Ave.
The Magnolia Chamber of Commerce and Eric Berge, owner of Werner's Crash Shop on Queen Anne, once again joined efforts to produce both a well attended and a very enjoyable display of locally owned automotive hardware.
Unlike many other car shows in the area, the Magnolia Car Show was purposely a laid-back, totally non-judged event; there were no "People's Choice" awards or other prizes to be handed out, although each entrant did get a "Magnolia Village Car Show" T-shirt.
"We tried to put on a real friendly show, without any competition as to who's car is better," Berge explained, "the object was to just have fun and show your car off."
"I grew up in this neighborhood," he said, "and I know there are a number of fabulous unseen cars just sitting behind garage doors. This was a chance for your neighbors to get their play cars out and just show them off to your fellow neighbors, who in turn might have something interesting in their own garage. It's a great way to meet your fellow car enthusiasts in the Village."
Besides the Auto Show posters hung around the Village and the publicity appearing in the Queen Anne/Magnolia News, Berge worked the phones, inviting many past Magnolia residents, who he knew were car nuts, to come on by with their rides.
Just over 65 separate automobiles entered the show and more than $1,200 will be donated to Northwest Harvest.
A lot of people in attendance, were reestablishing friendships with people they hadn't seen in years. I can personally attest to that, I met a neighbor who used to live next door to me, with her parents, as a high school student 30 years ago. We had a good time catching up on news about each others families.
The thing that attracted all the people to the show, however, were the cars.
Let's start with the oldest one, Ken and Patty McBride brought their blue, 1913 Napier. This was a big car from the "brass era" that was probably built in Britain because of it's right hand drive, although the Napier company did build automobiles near Boston for a few years before returning to England. The company still exists, building jet engines today. The McBrides also brought two other noteworthy automobiles, a beautiful cream-colored 1941 Packard "Woody" station wagon and a spotless, white 1957 Mercury station wagon with simulated wood sides.
Another local car that was on display, is one that I see going past the house all the time, is Mick Summa's silver 1958 Porsche Speedster. I heartily congratulate Summa for actually driving his car regularly and not just letting it gather dust locked away in the garage.
Scott Rooney brought his purple 1970 Hemi Dodge Challenger to the show and it was parked right next to Bryan Boyett's bright red colored 2008 Hemi Dodge Challenger for a wonderful contrast of Dodge muscle cars then and now.
If you were looking for a prime example of a 1950s kustom car, Rick Ricci was in attendance with his 1949 two door Ford coupe. This red cruiser is equipped with an air bag suspension so it could be lowered right to the ground; it has shaved off door handles, hood, decklid and all other superfluous chrome; and has turned down spotlights, custom mirrors, trick polished cast wheels with rear fender skirts and full lakes pipes; along with its frenched headlights and taillights, custom grille and bumpers.
There were a number of pick-ups in attendance, but for me the most impressive was Ken South's 1935 custom Dodge with a Viper engine. Because of a disability, the truck is equipped with foot-controls that not only control operation of the copper colored truck, but also open its doors, the bed cover and a number of other operations.
And then there were Jim Green's two restored dragsters. The first was the B-Boys gas dragster, with an injected Chevy small block, that ran locally from 1959 to 1962. The second was the ultimately cool "Assassin," running fuel and a blown an injected, very rare 427 SOHC Ford engine.
Raced by Jim Crooke in 1967-1968, Crooke was present to don a fire-suit jacket, old-style fuel filter facemask and open front helmet. He then climbed into the car as Green matched the starter motor's cogs to the front of the blower snot, primed the injector with a squirt of gasoline from a squirt bottle and flicked a switch to spin the engine. When Crooke had oil pressure, he flipped the ignition.
WHAP!...rump, rump, rump...WHAP!
When the nitro lit, all the car burglar alarms within two blocks went off.
If you were standing behind the car, you would have smelt the sweet perfume of burning nitro and your eyes would have been filled with tears, but not just from the remembered nostalgia.
Eric Berge smiles with silent satisfaction when he thinks that he brought a running fuel dragster to the streets of Magnolia, even if the engine only ran for slightly more than a minute.[[In-content Ad]]
