Liberty kickoff cruise. Nicer than people expected it to be

The Liberty Cruise is normally one of the bigger ones each month, so you might have thought that the 2013 kickoff would be a barn-burner.  Unfortunately, most of the day was cool, clammy, and rainy, which had an adverse effect on the cruise.  But even though the turnout was lighter than normal, there were still some nice cars and trucks that decided to go for it.

I haven’t always been a big fan of Model T hot rods, but a truck like this one could change my mind.  It kind of had a mixture of early-‘50s looks and current day technology that really seemed to work.  This was a high-quality build, and the two-tone brown leather interior was especially impressive.  I also liked it that they didn’t chop the top—the old phone booth look works here.  The other nice thing about this truck is that when you stuck your head in the window it smelled like unburned pipe tobacco.  Well, at least that’s a positive to me.

Here’s a neat ’69 Camaro that was done up to look like a Yenko Super Camaro.  They only made 201 real ’69 Yenko Camaros.  They were all equipped with a COPO L-72 427 big block and modified by Yenko Chevrolet in Canonsburg, PA.  Those 201 original Yenkos are worth too much for most people to take to a local car cruise on an overcast day, but this one here has just as much impact.  I know this car gets a lot of attention everywhere it goes.

This is a ’61 Studebaker Lark four-door sedan.  This little car is a regular at car shows all over the area, and the owner always displays it with extras like the Studebaker fender cover, information boards, and so on.  For most people, a Studebaker Lark was pretty basic transportation in its day—think of it like the Nissan Versa of the early ‘60s.  But like many things, it’s getting better with age.  Now it’s just an interesting old car; a window into the way things were more than 50 years ago.  Will a stock Nissan Versa ever be as interesting as this Lark is now?  I kind of doubt it, but you never know, I suppose.

I’m probably going to screw up the year here, but I think this is a ’71 Mach 1 Mustang.  It looked good sitting there with its Grabber Blue paint job and 351 Cleveland V8 under the NACA-ducted hood.  There were several nice Mustangs in attendance, as the Mid-America Mustangers Club is involved with hosting this show.  Most of them park on the backside of the square, which turned out to be a lonely place this time around.  Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative and they’ll get more company back there next month.

As it turned out, it really wasn’t a bad night to be out there.  The temperature didn’t turn out to be all that cold, and it never did rain. You can see pictures of all the cars and trucks that were there while I was there in the slideshow below, or click this link for a better version.