Saturday, April 6, 2013

April Parkville Cruise. Here we go.

Well, now we’re getting somewhere.  Saturday night was the first Parkville Cruise of the season, and with temperatures hovering in the 75-degree range, conditions were perfect for a huge turnout.

When you start taking pictures at about 5:00 p.m., there are some things that need to be dealt with.  I like to have the sun behind me so the car is completely lit, but then my goofy shadow wants to be in the picture as well.  I hate that too, so I try to get far enough back that my shadow doesn’t show up, and then zoom into the car with the camera.  Of course, when I do that, people don’t realize I’m taking a picture, so they sort of wander into the shot to check out the car.  It’s rough being me.

At any rate, when I managed to overcome my inner turmoil, I zoomed into some great cars.  Among them were several Midyear Corvettes, including this very nice ’66 convertible.  Honestly, Trophy Blue with black vinyl isn’t the most striking hue in the color palette, but there was something about this little small-block car with very few options that managed to stand out anyway.  Maybe it was just that it was so nice.

When was the last time you saw a ’53 Kaiser Manhattan?  There was a nice one at the Parkville Cruise, complete with Grandma’s clear plastic seat covers.  These Howard “Dutch” Darrin-designed Kaisers had a clean, modern style by 1950s standards.  They were also especially safe, with features like padded dashboards and pop-out windshields.  The 226-c.i. inline flathead six was known as the “Supersonic Six.”  Now while 118-hp is adequate, I’m thinking “Supersonic” might be a stretch.  Anyway, these are cool, unusual cars.

There were several Corvairs in the lot, which leads me to believe that the Corvair Club must have collaborated.  This is a ’61 Lakewood wagon.  They only made Corvair wagons in 1961 and 1962, and the Lakewood name only made it the first year.  Once the convertible came out in ’63, the wagon was discontinued.  That’s why you don’t see tons of these; although they are kind of fun to look at.  It always amazes me that they managed to give them so much rear cargo space, even with the engine living in the back.

When cars like this ’78 Mercury Cougar were common, I thought they were pretty ugly.  When you look at them today, well, they’re still maybe a little ugly, but they’re getting better.   This was one of the best looking ones I’ve ever seen.  It was my favorite color—black-over-red, and those aluminum wheels and padded vinyl top were the epitome of late-‘70s style.  This car took you straight back to the disco era.

BHo and I checked out all the cars at the April 2013 Parkville Cruise, and we managed to come away with more than 230 pictures.  Check them all out in the slideshow below, or click on this link for a nicer version.

4 comments:

  1. That Kaiser Manhattan was amazing! I also enjoyed seeing the '49 Nash which is the first car I actually remember riding in (my parents had a shiny new one). Great pics as always.

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  2. Great job like checking out car shows from around the city

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  3. Foprgot about this..thanks for sharing!

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