Third Annual Cary Car Show

Containment Area for Relocated Yankees – that is the local joke about the town of Cary, North Carolina.  It is a small town that has grown big, but still preserves a small town feel with a village center that is alive with events and charm.  Yesterday was the third car show held on Academy Street and the weather could not have been better.

It was sunny and mild, barely reaching seventy degrees.  The turnout was excellent with a vast array of cars that ran the gamut of eras and styles.

I arrived early, just after seven in the morning.  In time to watch others drive in and park their treasures.

It was nice to be able to browse the parked cars before the crowds arrived.

There was a long line of Corvettes that showed up to display the many generations of America’s sports car.  Representatives from the Corvette Museum were also there and provided information on the catastrophe of the sink hole that swallowed several rare Corvettes and what was the future of the museum and the recovered cars.  Cary has restored the original movie theatre and that was used as a presentation venue for the Corvette Museum folks.

There were many examples of Volkswagens that ranged from the air-cooled era to the current water-cooled versions.

 

This light blue one had an interior of a 1962 vintage bug, but had older style turn signals.

This was not a 1962 era engine though.  It was quite a beauty with dual Weber carburetors and dual port heads.  I doubt that it was the original 1300cc displacement either.

The following is a 1967 bug…

The interior looked perfect.

There was this beautiful 1971 Karman Ghia.

Then there was a contemporary version of the bug.

Quite a contrast.

And here is a water-cooled version that is based on the air-cooled version:

The front air vents kind of give it away….

There was this camper based on the VW micro-bus.

There was another American air-cooled car on display…

The Corvair…

The maroon one being the first version and the blue one the second Monza style version.

The Cary fire department had a 1953 Seagrave Pumper fire truck on display.  It has a V-12 flathead engine of 530 cubic inch displacement that made about 210 horsepower.

There was a very rare Oldsmobile F85 – arguably the first muscle car.

There was a Studebaker Avanti on display.

 

Its sleek and futuristic fiberglass body with a supercharged engine was a last hurrah for Studebaker.

For a more modern flavor was the Smart Car by Mercedes on display.

It has a 1000cc power plant.

It is surprisingly roomy…

As you would expect it is quite frugal on its fuel use and it actually quite fun to drive around in an urban environment.  The driver/passenger compartment is highly encapsulated to protect the occupants.  With so little in the way of crumple zones its light weight allows it to be bumped out of an accident rather than be crushed into a ball.

There were cars from the very early days of automobiles.

Above is a fine example of a pickup truck from the 1950’s.

Above are two different takes on the same car.

There were three examples of Packard cars on display…

The Ford Pantera…

This beautiful Buick Eight from the post-war era…

This guy’s custom model T ford that he calls the General Tee…

It was a fantastic turnout and I am sure that people wished that it would last all afternoon, but by two in the afternoon the people with their cars on display had been there for seven hours and were anxious to get on the road to enjoy the great weather.