51st annual Pittsburgh World of Wheels

It's that time of year again kiddies. The start of the car show season in Pittsburgh. The 51st annual Pittsburgh World of Wheels begins this Friday, January 25th. We'll be covering the event in detail in case you can't make it. This year, hot rod legend Gene Winfield will be on hand performing a chop on a one lucky person's car.

There will also be a display of Batmobiles, the Munster Koach along with Butch Patrick, The ZZ Top Eliminator, Herbie the Love Bug, and much more. There is a special BeetleMania display with some of the finest Volkswagens in the city on display. The annual 1961 Extreme display of traditional hot rods, customs, rat rod and more. Drag City USA featuring nostalgia race cars. And two popular events, the Builder of the Year (Chuck Lombardo and California Street Rods) and the charity pinstripe auction benefiting the Autism Society.

So come on down to the David L Lawrence Convention Center this weekend. You won't regret it.

2012 AACA Hershey Fall Meet

If you're in to cars, especially antique and classics. Then you've likely heard of the Antique Automobile Club of America's annual Eastern Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa. Or better known just as Hershey. I've attended the fall meet several times, and one thing that I can say is be prepared. I visited for two days, and that isn't enough. In order to take in everything, you need all four days of the event in order to see it all. It doesn't matter what your passion is. You can find here. Looking for headlights for your brass era classic? Got em. Owners manual for your 63 Ford Falcon? Check. Tires for your hot rod? How many you need? How about a new toy for the garage? There were cars for sale from $2,000 to $400,000.

I spent all of Friday cruising the swap meet and the car corral and found some awesome buys. How about a 1960 Rambler. Completely restored, ready to go with low miles. It could be yours for $9,000 o.b.o. You couldn't even restore this car for that money. I also found a 1973 Ford Gran Torino 4 door. 73k miles, all original paint except for one door. This one was turn key and ready to cruise for $3,995. 1936 Chevrolet sedan, $14,000 o.b.o. How about a 1913 Hupmobile for $34k? I also found a 1953 Nash Healey for the bargain price of $195,000 o.b.o. 1939 Packard, $195,000. 1938 Lincoln V-12 Convertible, $237,500. This is just some of the cars available for sale. And this doesn't include the auction that RM Auctions has put on for the last few years.

In the swap meet, there are literally thousands upon thousands of swap vendors. Selling everything from parts to project cars, toys and literature, cleaning supplies, tools, garage art, clothes, you need it, it's likely you can find it here. The swap meet tends to be a car show in itself as many vendors have cars on display that are either shown on Saturday or are for sale. While walking around we were able to see an early Stanley Steamer chugging around and also spotted a Volkswagen Kubelwagen. I will say that AACA really has this down when it comes to organizing a swap meet. Every area of it is paved, as it's held in the parking lot of Hershey Park and the Giant Center. So along with being paved, it's almost entirely flat making it easy for walking around and for carts and scooters to get around. I brought my trusty wagon with me (that was given to me by my parents when I was young), but decided to leave it in the car as it was cold and windy. So that limited me on my purchases of what I could carry with me. So with that I stuck with paper items and small toys for my expansive VW memorabilia collection.

Friday morning I awoke to sunny skies, but still a little chilly. I paid a visit to the AACA museum just a few miles from the meet to take in their fantastic display. Afterwards I headed back to Hershey Park for the car show part of the fall meet, and again amazed myself as a Hershey veteran. There were 38 classes listed in the event program, but it's nearly tripled due to sub classes. Meaning that there are classes for say, production cars 1957-1958 (excluding chevrolets), followed by a sub class for just 57 and 58 Chevrolet cars. And then within that class, there's probably 50 cars. So that should give you an idea of the shear size of the car show. There's classes for military vehicles, commercial trucks, buses, fire engines, race cars and everything in between. I ended up disappointing myself in not bringing additional memory cards with me for my camera as I ended up filling the car full at 1231 pictures.

I've broken down all the photos I took in to sub albums that can be found here, Enjoy!

2012 Glenmoor Gathering

Ok, I don't live under a rock. I've known of the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles in nearby Canton, Ohio for several years now. But I might has well been living under a rock as I have never been to the famed concours d' elegance. All I can say is that if you have never been. Plan on going in 2013. This is an event that is a must attend for any car enthusiast. It doesn't matter what you like, there is a little of something for everyone at the Glenmoor Gathering. Set on the grounds of the beautiful Glenmoor Country Club, the Gathering hosts, I would guess around 500+ of the nation's finest collector cars there are to offer. Each year there are themes This year there were four. Supercharged Autos, Trans-Atlantics (European styling/bodies with American power), The cars of Sydney Allard, and lastly (and the one I was most excited for) Tucker.

Now I have seen a handful of Tuckers in my travels as a car guy. But I have never seen a Tucker outside of the security of an indoor museum and barriers. At this year's event there were 9 Tucker's on display. 7 of which were real honest to goodness members of the original 51 Tuckers built in 1948. These cars take on a whole new life when seen outside in the sunlight. Some highlights included a Tucker from the Gilmore Museum in Michigan which is essentially a brand new car. Tucker #47 has only 53 original miles on the odometer, this Tucker is all original with the exception of one tire. It had just enough patina to look like an older restoration, but once you got up close, well there's that originality vibe. Another standout was Tucker # 48 which came from Wisconsin. This car was interesting because of the numerous accessories added to the car which included wire wheels and a large sign on the back alerting motorists that they had just been passed by a Tucker. Also on display was a fiberglass replica used in the production of the 1988 film, Tucker: The man and his dream. This car sits on a Ford LTD chassis and looks the part far away. And the wildest of the bunch, the Rob Ida Concepts, Tucker 48 continuation. We'll do a feature on that car separately.

Moving to the supercharged cars class, we found a stunning 1938 Mercedes 540k, a 1930 Stutz Model M, a 1927 Hudson Super Six which had a interesting similarity to the the famous Bentley 4 1/2 liter. On display in other classes were a 1948 Davis 3 wheeler, and a 1935 Hoffman X8. The later sporting a X8 mid rear mounted motor. This one had many collectors, including Jay Leno confused as to exactly what a Hoffman was as there was only one ever made.

Probably for me as a car guy, the car that caught my fancy was the 1935 Duesenberg Model SJ "Morman Meteor". This is a car that I have only seen via specials on TV, so to see this famed Duesey in person was a real treat. The car was specially commissioned by David "Ab" Jenkins who was a world renowned test driver. Producing over 400 horsepower, the Mormon Meteor was driven by Jenkins to a world record average of  speed of 135.47mph for 24 hours covering 3523 miles at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1935. In 1936, with upgrades Jenkins broke his own record with an average speed of 153.823 mph. In 2007, the car was honored with winning Best of Show at the famous Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance.

As I said above, I must have been living under a rock to have never gone to the Glenmoor Gathering. Check out our photo album of all the pictures we took.  Glenmoor gallery.

Butler Cruise-A-Palooza 2012

We've been busy the past few weeks, taking in lots of car shows and other events. So sorry for our lack of postings here. Today I ventured North to Butler Pennsylvania, birthplace of the Jeep and home to American Bantam for the 18th Annual Cruise-A-Palooza put on by The Rodfathers Car Club. These are just a few of the pictures of some of the awesome customs, classics, and everything in between that was on display. A rough guess would be easily over 1000 cars in attendance. Here's a link to the full collection of pictures I took.