Thursday, January 19, 2012

Life in the fast lane - A look inside Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles

If you are watching the Barrett-Jackson auction coverage from Scottsdale on the SPEED channel this week, you may notice a few commercials for Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles, Mo. And seeing as they’re right down the road apiece from Kansas City, now seems like a good time to find out what that place is all about.

Fast Lane is a pretty big place, with two indoor showrooms, an outdoor used car lot, and a comprehensive gift shop. There’s a large variety to cars to look at, but the majority of them are your mainstream Mustang, Corvette, ’57 Chevy fare. That’s for good reason, because this is a dealership, and there will always be customers for the classics.

The gift shop is quite impressive, with everything from Franklin Mint die casts to T-Shirts. The Hot Wheels display is particularly awe-inspiring. Their selection kind of reminds me of the old Car’s the Star store that used to be in Crown Center years ago. If you’re looking to get me a little something for my birthday, I certainly wouldn’t mind if you stopped in there.

Of course, if you want to get me something a little bigger, there were a lot of things that were just my size in the vehicle showrooms. Old Corvettes—you know I love them—and I could easily see myself in a few of these. I really liked either the red ’67 Convertible, or the yellow ’66 coupe, both equipped with 427’s. They had a matching pair of white ’63 convertibles, a pretty red ’62, a new ZR1—who am I kidding?—they’re all good!

’59 Lincoln Continentals are big and hideous, and yet, I found myself drawn to the metallic turquoise example on the showroom. Those cars are just so over the top. I’ll bet it handles like a cruise ship, too. Just don’t bail out before your passengers if you drive it into something.

For muscle car fans, they had a nice selection that included various Shelby Mustangs, a very original-looking Boss 302, a ’68 Camaro Yenko recreation, a modern Cobra, a GTO Judge convertible, two HEMI Roadrunners, and much more. Will some of these be the next blue chip collectables? Heck, some of them may sell for big bucks at the Barrett-Jackson auction this weekend!

Outside, they had things that were a little less exotic, including a pair of ’86 Corvette coupes, a late-model Trailblazer SS, and an ’87 Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe. The Monte Carlo looked particularly nice, and Fast Lane was asking more money for it than either of the ’86 Vettes. No one would have figured on that when they were new.

As usual, I’m not going to make you cross the state of Missouri to see inside Fast Lane’s showrooms. I went ahead and took a bunch of pictures, and you can see them in the slideshow below. And for more information on pricing, directions, and current inventory, be sure to visit http://www.fastlanecars.com/.


2 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure that turquoise Lincoln Continental is a '59. I know... picky, picky, picky. I really liked them when they first came out... I was 13 and easily impressed.
    Really enjoy reading your blog!

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  2. Thanks, JD. You're right. I even knew that when I typed it. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for the head's up!

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