Nebraska Furniture Mart Friends and Family Car Show has grown from humble beginnings

Six years ago, the Nebraska Furniture Mart in Kansas City, Kan., had a small car show, mostly for employees, out behind the loading dock.  Today, the car show is much bigger.  It isn’t just for employees anymore, and a nice variety of cars and trucks makes it out to this charity event for Camp Quality.  This was a great weekend for it, because comfortable temperatures (along with 427-mph winds) made this a nice place to spend an afternoon.

This ’68 Ford F100 was an usual subject for a custom, but they really made it work here.  I even thought the flames looked good in it.  It actually reminded me of a magazine truck circa 1982.  This one had the 390 fender emblems, Cobra valve covers, and all sorts of other neat little details.  Plus, it was just finished off nice.  The wheels looked like deep, chromed, Chevrolet rally reproductions with police car center caps.  I don’t normally like the idea of putting one brand of wheel on another brand of vehicle, but somehow it didn’t look too bad here.

They usually get good participation from the local racers at this event, and that tradition continued this year.  This modified is raced by Bubba Harvey at Lakeside on Friday nights.  In fact, Bubba had just run double features on the dirt track with it the night before.  These guys got their cars cleaned up incredibly well all things considered.  Bubba has been a regular racer on both pavement and dirt for as long as I can remember, and has a collection of feature win trophies to prove it.

Let’s look at a couple of Monte Carlos.  This triple back beauty is a ’70 SS, the first year for Chevy’s personal luxury coupe.  This extremely low mileage example was equipped with a 454 big block from the factory, and this one had been modified some to give it more power.  The owner told me that NFL coach Jerry Glanville was going to buy it from the dealer that he bought it from, but backed out at the last moment.  Other than the engine modifications, this car was pretty original, and nice everywhere you looked.

This one is an ’84 Monte Carlo SS.  1984 marked the return of the SS after that trim level was dropped in 1972. The urethane nose was developed in large part due to how aerodynamic it was on NASCAR stock cars.   I’ve been around a few of these, even owned one, and I never thought they were extreme powerhouses.  But they were nice.  The owner of this one even turned his air cleaner lid upside down to give it a little extra honk.

Each car at this event has a little donation cup, and the show awards are handed out based on how much money is in each cup.  My truck managed to win its class based on donations, and I received an awesome gas pump trophy.  But, I also had the honor of having my old truck on the dash magnets and third place plaques.  I loved that gas pump trophy, but having your vehicle on an award is like a once in a lifetime thing, so I traded my trophy with the guy that won third place.  In the end, Camp Quality received $2,500 from this show, so it was a pretty successful day all around.

234 picture slideshow below.  Better version at this link.