Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Clouds and rain can't stop the Downtown Liberty Car Cruise

Last weekend, I hit the trifecta of historic downtown car events around here. Friday night I was at the Smithville Hot Summer Nights car cruise, Saturday we went to the Midwest Camarofest in Downtown Independence, and Saturday night I was off to the Liberty cruise in the historic district of that Missouri town. When it comes to taking pictures of cars encircling an old courthouse, I’m your guy.

The Liberty cruise was uncharacteristically short on cars, but the reason is easy to determine. On my way there, I got into some serious rain, and on my way home, I drove through even worse rain. Luckily, you can’t tell whether my truck is clean or dirty, so I was ready for the show either way. Also, those little windshield wipers are adorable when they’re flopping around trying to keep up.

It was just cloudy at the cruise, though, and a few brave souls brought their cars and trucks out to enjoy the muggy evening. This event is hosted by the Mid-America Mustangers club, so there are always several of those out there to check out. I’m not an expert on them in the least, but this GT 350 fastback looked like a pretty formidable ride to me. I wonder if the owner would let me take it for some hot laps around Heartland Park’s road course? Probably not.

This is a really good looking ’73 Trans Am. The honeycomb wheels are a larger diameter than stock, but they work on this car. It sort of reminds me of the car David Carradine drove in the movie Cannonball, only this one is way better. A big fat 455-c.i. engine still resides under the hood shaker. I’ve always liked these cars, and this one is especially cool.

This ’66 Ford Fairlane is a common sight at car shows around town, and once you look at it you can see why the owners would want to show it off. Much of the custom work was done by HMC blog sponsor Tallant’s Auto Body in North Kansas City, and everything about it is top notch. It turns out you can modernize an old car while maintaining its classic appeal, as this car demonstrates.

Do you like your vintage Fords to be older and more original? Here’s a ’40 Deluxe Fordor Sedan that will probably trip your trigger. I can smell that wonderful musty old car scent just looking at the pictures. This car wasn’t perfect, but it had a lot of character. I can really picture this as a fun family cruiser. And who doesn’t like the looks of a ’40 Ford?

There were several really nice cars to check out at the Liberty Cruise in spite of the weather. You can see most of them in the slideshow below. Or, click on this link for a nicer version of the show.

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