Cars of the 2013 Parkville Days Parade

As residents of Parkville, our family likes to try and hit some of the local parades and festivals.  Each year, they have Parkville Days, which includes a carnival, vendor booths, and a parade down Main Street.  The parade consists mostly of area high school bands, but between the tuba playing and baton twirling you might actually see an interesting old car or two in there.  So as per usual, here’s a look at a few of the noteworthy rides that braved the heat last Saturday morning.

Mid West Camarofest celebrates its 25th anniversary in Riverside

If you have an event that hangs on for 25 years, you know you’re on to something.  Last Saturday, the Camaro Club of Kansas City not only celebrated the 25th anniversary of their Mid West Camarofest show, but they had a record number of entries.  The E.H. Young Riverfront Park in Riverside, Mo., was full of Chevy’s high-performance four-seaters.  Let’s take a look at a few of the standouts from this hot but happy show.

Cruise to the K brings good luck to the Royals

It’s always fun when a car show is tied into one of Kansas City’s major attractions, and that was the case on Sunday when hundreds of old cars headed to Kauffman Stadium for the 4th-Annual Cruise to the K Car Show.  And even though this was one of the hottest days so far this year, a majority of the car show folks stayed for the Kansas City Royals vs. Washington Nationals game.  All-in-all, I’d say it was a pretty successful event.

Hot cars at the Smithville Hot Summer Nights Cruise

So on Friday nights throughout the summer, Smithville has this Hot Summer Nights event where people gather for live music concerts and stuff.  That’s OK, I guess.  But then there’s one week in August where the “and stuff” part of the equation is a huge car cruise.  That event was last Friday.  And as expected, we were there with our camera to capture everything.  The good part for you is that you can see all the cars from Hot Summer Nights, and you don’t actually have to get hot.

Advertise on Hover Motor Company

You know I try to reserve these posts for car show coverage, car event calendars, museum visits, auto reviews, and automotive history.  But today, I’m going to do a little business.  Don’t be scared away, though.  I swear I won’t make it a habit.  I just don’t have a car show story lined up for today, so it seemed like a good time to bring this up.

Nice turnout for the Outta' Control Hot Rods Cruise in Platte City

Saturday night was a perfect weather night in Kansas City, and I was very happy to see that a bunch of people decided to enjoy that weather at the Outta’ Control Hot Rods Cruise at the Pizza Shoppe in Platte City.  Larry and the boys work really hard to put this event together on the third Saturday of the month, and their hard work is obviously paying off.  In spite of several other cruises going on around town, there was a whole lot full of great stuff to check out here.

KCCA Vettes on the Plains had a Corvette for every generation

There are all kinds of opportunities to see Corvettes at car shows throughout the summer, but the biggest gathering in Kansas City is usually the Vettes on the Plains show that is put on my the Kansas City Corvette Association (KCCA).  The event has been bouncing around to various venues over the past few years, and last Saturday it landed at Finnegan’s Hall in North Kansas City.  If you made it out, you saw some of the nicest, cleanest (and I mean clean—these guys spit-shined on these cars so much it was hard to even take pictures) Corvettes in the Midwest.

The stars were aligned for the August North Kansas City Cruise

With only one North Kansas City Cruise under their belts, the Golden Oldies Car Club headed into August with perfect weather and the full support of the Mustang Club of Greater Kansas City.  And everything came together beautifully to make this one of the best cruises in this area for years.  Swift Avenue was lined on both sides as far down as you could see with a full selection of Kansas City’s nicest rides.

Camaro history for the birthday girl

When my family goes to car shows, my wife’s favorite cars are ’67-’69 Camaros.  She is also starting to take a liking to the late ‘70s Z-28s, and she thinks a new Camaro might be fun to have too.  To summarize: my wife likes Camaros.  And today happens to be her birthday.  I’d love to buy her a Camaro as a gift, but I can’t afford that.  I can, however, provide a brief history of the Camaro in her honor.  For Maria, let’s take a look back at Chevrolet’s popular Ponycar.

Ararat Shriners continue Kansas City swap meet tradition at the Antique Fairgrounds

For as long as I’ve lived in the Kansas City area, there has been a tradition of annual automotive swap meets, and the biggest ones are usually hosted by the Ararat Shriners.  They have been held everywhere from the Crown Center parking garages, to the Woodlands, to Worlds of Fun.  There were two such events this year, and the last one was at their new location in the Antique Show Grounds in Lathrop, Mo.  This venue is a little out of the way (especially with the road construction on I-35 north of Liberty—ugh!), but once you get there, the trip is worth it.

Biggest Parkville Cruise so far this year

Several years ago, if you wanted to go to the monthly Parkville Cruise, you needed to get there early if you actually wanted to park your car.  But lately, it hasn’t been that tough.  Oh, the turnout is usually pretty good, but you can usually end up with a good spot relatively easily.  But that wasn’t the way things went on the first Saturday in August.  When I got there at about a quarter-to-five, there was virtually no place to park.  We ended up circling the lot several times before settling on a place that we probably shouldn’t have been.  This turnout was huge, even with the threat of rain in the area.

2013 Ram 1500 SLT 4X4 V6 test drive review. Better than I wanted it to be

I’m a diehard Chevy truck guy.  Always have been.  So when the nice folks at Chrysler delivered this 2013 Ram 1500 SLT Crew Cab 4X4 to let me try out for a week, I really didn’t want to like it.  But dammit, this truck was too good not to like.  Why did they have to go and mess with everything I believe in?