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.

A different club is featured each month at this event, and those members get to park down the middle of the road.  The Mustang Club had the honor this month, so let’s take a look at one of my favorites.  This ’66 Mustang GT convertible was a real eye-catcher.  This was among the first really sporty Mustangs that people had the chance to check out back in the day, and with features like four-barrel carburetors, disc brakes, and beefier suspensions, they had the hardware to deliver the goods.  This one featured the white Pony interior with red carpets, air conditioning, and all the GT options.

This ’58 Chevy Biscayne two-door sedan was a pretty original old car.  It had a period hooded spotlight mirror (plus a regular mirror, so double mirrors), fender skirts, and even a clock.  It was two-toned in Silver Blue and Arctic White, and the interior barely looked like it had been sat in.  Of course, ’58 Impalas get all the attention, but this little Biscayne was actually a refreshing change of pace.

There were two Vega coupes that obviously came to the cruise together, with signs declaring “Ken’s ’77 Vega” and “Marilyn’s ’76 Vega.”  Both of them were above average, but the ’77 was the nicest one.  Everyone knows all the stories about quality control issues and failing sleeved aluminum engines that doomed the Vega.  But by 1976, they had most of the serious problems worked out.  Plus, they really were good looking little cars.  I can’t find one line on these that I find offensive.

Here’s a ’66 Chrysler 300 convertible that I thought was pretty neat.  Chrysler designers today should take a look at the interior on this car to see what they should be doing with the current 300.  Everything from the concentric, half-circle gauges to the plush, chrome-trimmed bucket seats and console told you this was something special.  It’s not easy to make a car this big look sporty at the same time, but Chrysler managed to do it.  I could picture Margret Drysdale driving this over to the Clampett’s mansion to tell them to keep their pet monkey out of her swimming pool.

I know pictures are more fun than stories, so there are 248 of them from this event at the slideshow below.  Or, click this link for a better version.