Sunday, April 21, 2013

Outta' Control Hot Rods Platte City Cruise makes the most of the cooler spring weather

Spring is a nice time of year for car cruises. Take the Outta’ Control Hot Rods Cruise in Platte City on Saturday night.  Compared to the humid, blast furnace-like conditions we’ll get later this summer, this one was considerably more comfortable.  A light jacket, and you were good-to-go.

I like this Platte City Cruise because Larry Colstion and the gang do a nice job putting it together, but also because the parking lot is connected to some decent food choices.  I’m a Pizza Shoppe fan anyway, so getting to attend a car cruise and eat a tasty pizza seems like a win-win situation to me.

This ’58 Chevy long bed Fleetside pickup was pretty neat.  Tartan Turquoise is a nice, refreshing color, and this truck seemed to have a crowd around it for much of the night.  The Fleetside bed configuration was a major addition to the Chevrolet truck line in 1958.  The Cameo Carrier came out in 1955, of course, but in spite of looking like the wider Fleetside bed, it was really just a step side-sized box with fiberglass sides attached.  The Fleetside was actually a wide box, which is still the preferred configuration to this day.  Incidentally, ’58 was also the last year for the Cameo, although not many were built.

Here’s a ’77 Trans Am.  I’m posting this up because, as we’ve covered here before, Smokey and the Bandit is the greatest movie in the history of movies.  So when a nice one shows up at a car cruise, it’s only right that we highlight it.  Just look at this thing with those gold wheels and stripes.  Oh, and that crazy, fire-breathing hood bird—we can’t forget that.  There is even machine-turned gold trim on the dashboard.  Plus, it has a 400-c.i. carbureted V8 that pokes up out of a hole in the hood.  Can you imagine a car like this coming out today?  These things were so ridiculous—you just gotta’ love it.

This is a nice ’62 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door sedan that we’ve been seeing at the car shows around town for years.  You know that Beach Boys song “409?”  This is the kind of car they had in mind.  Now this one didn’t have a 409 under the hood.  The V’s on the fender would indicate that it came with a 283.  It still has a small block in there, which is no doubt more streetable than a 409-equipped car would be anyway.  And while you don’t see these every day, they actually built some 365,000 Bel Airs in 1962.  These were popular when they were new, and to car enthusiasts, they still are today.

There were a couple of early Mercury Cougars out there, including this nice example from 1967.  ’67 was the first year for the Cougar, which was sort of a luxury alternative to the Ford Mustang.  They were built on the same basic platform as the Mustang, but with a three-inch longer wheelbase.  This Burgundy example was an XR-7, which was an even fancier version than the base car.  My favorite features on these cars are those long, sequential taillights.  That was a great design touch.

Did you miss the Outta’ Control Hot Rods Platte City Cruise?  Well, you’re in luck.  First of all, I am including a photo slideshow, so you can go back and see everything below.  Even better, they’ve got another one scheduled next month on May 18.  Be sure to mark your calendar to join in on the fun.  Oh, and you can click this link for a better version of the slideshow.

2 comments:

  1. Pizza Shoppe good...
    Nice to see a couple of vans there too. Gotta love those so nice early Camaros, the 55 Delivery and naturally, the 70 RoadRunner. Its even the right colour.... :)
    Thanx, as always, for posting the photos.

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