Arlington Show & Shine

The Arlington downtown merchants put on a car show the first weekend of June every year. I’m not a big fan of car shows… I’d prefer to DRIVE the car… but this is a hometown event, and I feel it is important to attend. Besides, they need to see something different. These shows are made up almost exclusively of old American cars. Classics, customs, muscle, hot rods, etc. In some years I’ve had the only foreign car there. This year it was a bit different. For one, the turnout was incredible. I showed up an hour after the official start, and they were almost out of room… every block of Olympic Avenue was filled except the northernmost, which is where my car ended up.

Above: The 65E at the north end of Olypmic Ave.

Unfortunately I had to help my son Nicholas do a school project, so I parked it, erected my “it is OK to touch this car” sign, and caught a ride home. Four hours later Nick and I returned to have some lunch, and walk around to check out the cars. Like all car shows, they hand out prizes, but since there is no category for “foreign cars” or “sports cars” or the like, I have no illusions that I’ll win anything… this car is just too different. I do enjoy walking around and looking… and chatting with people about their cars. This year there were quite a few non-US cars. I saw a Triumph TR3A, a Hillman, two Datsun Z cars (though one was “lumped” with an American V8 engine, and the other was chromed beyond belief in the engine bay), a Porsche 911, and an Austin-Healey bugeye Sprite. But the remaining few hundred cars were all out of Detroit.

Here are some of my favorites:

I like this sort of chopped salt-flat racer looking pickup truck.

I love that Datsun Z cars are now coming into “classic” status. The 240s and 260s of course… the less said about the later ones the better… but they were the last of the “affordable sports cars” until the Miata/MX-5 changed the world 20 years later. This is the ‘stock” example at the show today. The “lumped” one was next to it.

Above: Count the sparkplug wires

This was probably the most unique and rare vehicle at the show today, and it quite deservedly won “Best of Show”. It is a 1941 Lincoln, but not your every day Lincoln. It was a custom built factory car of which less than 20 were built, and NOT sold to the general public. These cars were given to Ford family members and company executives. It is a phaeton, with a flathead/sidevalve V-12 engine driving it. It is owned by a guy down in Marysville, the next town south of Arlington, and has been shown at major concours such as Pebble Beach. Here is another photo… of Nick checking it out:

It was certainly cool to see this unique machine here today. MY favorite however was this one:

It is a 1952 Packard. I’ve always loved the pre-war Packards, but this one really drew me in. First of all, it was immense. The proportions of the body and the styling do not really show it, but this car is huge… in that overconfident post-war American way that captures that era so well. It has styling that predicts the future (at least until the early 60s), while paying homage to the past… specifically Packard’s past. The owner was not around, but I would have loved to talk to them about this car. I had to get shots of the pre-war styling cues; the swan hood ornament (above), and the perfect whitewalls and stunning classic Packard wheel hub design:

As I predicted, the Jag won no prizes, but I did have several people complement the car, and a couple tell me it was their favorite. The gearheads all stared in wonder at the XK engine, which to the average American car guy appears to be technology from another planet… everything is there, but it is all shaped differently and in different places!

Nicholas & I went home and finished his school project, then I spent some time on my car project, the new (old) air intake system. I’ve finished sanding the plenum, and was able to hit its bottom with the first shot of hammerite tonight:

Still looking for the filter cannister…