As I wrote in last week's Upcoming Events post, my goal this past weekend was to participate in four events. With rain showers cancelling the Der Dutchman cruise-in on Thursday evening, that left three shows in three days to do! Here's the big report I promised from those shows.
FRIDAY NIGHTS UPTOWN
After attending the first two Jack Maxton Friday Night Cruisin', I decided to change things up this month and attend the final Marysville Friday Nights Uptown.
The Friday Nights Uptown is a monthly community block party put on by the city of Marysville from May through August. The August event has traditionally included a car show organized by the Mid-Ohio Cruisers car club.
I estimated a crowd of well over 1000
people attended the event Friday evening. 
Along with the cars, there were 11 food trucks to satisfy everyone's culinary tastes, bounce houses for the kids, and live entertainment from the band Wille Phoenix and the Soul
Underground.
With a $10 registration fee, the car show registered 72 automobiles. There were no door prizes, however, the show did have a 50/50 raffle.
One of the first things I noticed about this show were number of vehicles I was seeing for the first time this summer.
Of these "first timers" was this 1963 King Midget.
Imagine my surprise to find a LSA supercharger sitting on top of the engine of this GMC Sonoma. The owner says it's feeding a LS1 bottom end and makes 729 rear wheel horsepower and almost 700 ft/lbs of torque!
It's very rare to see a six-cylinder first generation Camaro these days. I first saw this 1967 six-cylinder belonging to Dave Reed four years ago at the Dublin Arthritis Show. Dave doesn't get a chance to show it very often because of his schedule so it was exciting to see it again on Friday evening.
The car was originally purchased by Dave's mother-in-law from Bob McDorman Chevrolet (now Wyler Chevrolet) in Canal Winchester. Dave spent years restoring the car back to its original form. It's a true classic.
A new crate motor allowed our good friend, Tim Incho, to bring out his 1968 Camaro for the first time this year. Tim's Camaro was also the "People's Choice" pick.
Some of the other "First Timers" at the show were this 1964 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88 convertible, 1955 Packard 400, 1959 Buick Lesabre, and I'm not sure about the last vehicle. It appears to be some former military vehicle.
The Mid-Ohio Cruisers presented four special awards along with awards for the top 10 automobiles the club liked. Unfortunately, the band was still playing during the first part of the awards presentation so I didn't catch-all the names of the special awards.
Overall it was a great evening of cars, food and fun. The uptown location turned out to be a unique venue for a car show.
CRUISE THE 'VILLE (my car is judged before I can finish cleaning it)
Despite the threat of scattered showers in the area on Saturday afternoon, the Cruise the 'Ville show still managed to register 156 vehicles.
I had something happen to me at this show that I've never had happen before at a car show. I was halfway through cleaning my car from the drive back from Marysville the night before when two judges came up to my car and insisted on judging it right then and there! I argued that I wasn't finished cleaning it and could they please come back. They gave an excuse about too many cars, not enough judges, and a threat of rain to tell me that my car had to be judged now!
I certainly understand the pressure these shows are under to get all the automobiles adequately and fairly judged. On the other hand, I just spent $15 to enter this show and should have been given the opportunity to present my car at it's best. It wasn't like it was late in the afternoon and pushing the deadline to finish up judging. It was 11 AM in the morning. Registration had been open little more than an hour. Other owners were able to fully clean their cars before being judged, For whatever reason, I was not, and that was very unfair.
Ok, now that I've got that off my chest, let's talk about the show.
Just like the Marysville show the night before, there were quite a few cars I got a chance to see for the first time this summer.
Number one on the list was this Corvair with a LS7 motor bolted in the front. It drew a great amount of attention during the show.
Not too many turbocharged Volkswagen Beetles with a roll cage out there.
I had never heard of a Morris Traveler 1000 until this one owned by Suzanne Heckman turned up on Saturday.
If there was an award for the most unusual wheels, these two Chevy Caprices would win hands down.
This 1948 Nash Ambassador belonging to William Maloney has only 39,000 original miles.
A couple of rare and unique Mustangs made an appearance at the show. I imagine driving in the rain is a no, no for the one with the air intake filter sticking outside the car.
The Cruise the 'Ville attracted a few Buicks from the late forties. Included in this group was a 1947 Super convertible, a 1941 Special and a 1948 Roadmaster.
A Columbus Police helicopter landed in the afternoon and gave a tour of the cockpit to anyone interested.
A couple of other things that caught my attention from the afternoon were the 1971 Volkswagen "Joker" Bus of Bruce Hoyt, and the emblem painted on the hood of Ed Mechenbier's Corvette.
I noticed only a small fraction of the cars participated in the 9 mile cruise around Clintonville. I'm sure the weather had something to do with that. I know I wasn't interested in participating in the cruise for fear of running into a shower along the way. The thoughts of cleaning off my car after driving in the rain was not particularly appealing. I'm sure many other car owners felt the same way as I did.
The award presentation got underway following the cruise around Clintonville. As luck would have it, the show managed to avoid rain showers all afternoon until the awards ceremony began at which time a monsoon struck the area for about 20 minutes.
Along with 40 "Favorite" trophies, the show gave out four special awards.
The John Corby award went to the 1948 Buick Roadmaster belonging to Scott Trogolo. I first saw this car back in May at a show in Upper Arlington. It's simply a stunning automobile.
Kevin Martin and his 1962 Chevy pickup truck took home some more hardware with
the Clintonville Chamber Board of Directors award.
The 1948 Nash Ambassador of William Maloney received the Tansky Toyota Cruise the 'Ville award.
The last special award, the Brenda Pinnell Memorial award, went to Ron Harmon and his 1939 Chevy.
Because of the rain, I ended up staying until almost 6 PM drying off my car and waiting for the roads to dry out enough before heading home.
Other than the judging issue I discussed earlier, the Cruise the 'Ville turned out to be pretty decent show. It had lots of food vendors on hand, a good crowd of spectators, plenty of interesting and unique vehicles, and the Park of Roses was a nice place to hold a car show. If I go again next year, I'll be sure to have my car fully cleaned by the time judging starts.
POWELL SERTOMA PIG OUT AND CRUIZE-IN
This is my sixth year attending the downtown Powell car show. Year after year it ends up being one of my favorite shows of the season. I don't know if this is because I live five minutes from Powell and I'm familiar with the area, or it's the mix of cars that the show attracts each year that makes me want to go back. I probably work harder to receive an award from the Powell show than any other car show. So far I'm batting a paltry one for six record.
With no threat of rain in the forecast, the show registered 176 automobiles. To ensure a parking spot on the main drag through Powell, I arrived at 7:15 AM. Not surprisingly, I was not the first car to arrive. There were a half-dozen cars that had already laid claim to a street-side parking spot before me.
It's common for a large contingent of Corvette owners to grab a block of parking spaces along the north side of the downtown area.
The Powell show always seems to attract a good mix of classic, late-model, and European automobiles. This year was no exception. Where else but Powell can you see a 1958 Thunderbird, a Lamborghini Gallardo, the "Go Bucks Truck", and something called a "Supercharged Moosemobile.
Porsche owners turned out in good numbers for this year's show. Here are a few samples.
Two of my favorite cars from the show were this 1942 Chrysler Windsor Town & Country Sedan, and this 1957 Chevy Nomad.
The Powell Sertoma gave out over 75 awards this year. Dan "Boots" Longenette from Auto Smarts radio was on hand to help with the judging and present the awards.
The special award winners included:
- Judges Choice - Mike Falk -1935 Ford
- Mayors Choice - Martin Pickens - 1957 Ford Thunderbird
- Fire Choice - Rod and Susie Lucas
- Police Department Choice - Steve and Nancy Kidwell- 1938 Chev
Sponsor Awards:
Elite Land Title award went to Sally Popa with a 1973 Citroen SM
The 1930 Desoto of Chris and Sandra Hayes received the Auto Assests award.
The Auto Smarts award went to John Bedell and his 1969 "all original" Plymouth GTX.
Dave Bratton and his 1937 Ford Coupe received the hand-made "Best of Show" award.
All in all another successful Powell Sertoma Pig out and Cruize-in. My only complaint is the windshield placards only contained the car number. There was no car owner name or year, make and model information on the card. This really makes my job of reporting on the show a lot tougher plus I imagine most spectators have no idea what kind of automobile they're looking at. So organizers please do everyone a favor and include a place on your window placards for the owner name, year, make and model of the vehicle.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Three shows in three days with two of them being pretty much all day affairs wore my ass out! By Sunday evening I felt like a whipped potato. I'm going to think long and hard about doing this again anytime soon. Still, it was great to participate in several shows I hadn't done before, and to see some different and unusual automobiles. We are really fortunate to have such high quality cars and shows here in Central Ohio. Until next time, I hope to see everyone out there cruising.