Cars invade the All-Truck Nationals Welcome Cruise

The Midwest All-Truck Nationals took place on Saturday and Sunday at the E.H. Young Riverfront Park in Riverside, Mo., but the festivities actually started Friday night with a kickoff cruise for both cars and trucks.  This was a nice little gathering, with live music, a laid-back atmosphere, and a handful of interesting cars and trucks.  Sure, it was a little warm.  But that never stops the car kooks from getting together.

You may think that the ’55 Chevy above, and the one here are the same car.  They’re both red and white.  They both have the similar ‘90s-style 15-inch aluminum wheels.  But look a little closer.  The one above is a two-door sedan.  The one to the right is a two-door hardtop.  The one above is a Two-Ten.  The one to the right is a Bel Air.  More telling, the one to the right has the “V” emblems under the taillights, indicating that it came with a V8.  The similarities were uncanny, but they weren’t quite identical.

I’m not an American Motors expert by any means, but I think this is a ’74 Javelin AMX.  You see it pretty regularly at cruises around town, and it’s a nice car and a great color.  This was AMC’s Pony Car, so it would have competed with the Camaro and Mustang.  It had a big 401-c.i. V8 that would have been good for 220-hp at this time.  These cars were probably most famous from their Trans-Am racing, as Penske Racing campaigned them in the early ‘70s.  Believe it or not, they also used quite a few of them as highway patrol cars.

You see this ’63 Chrysler 300 around quite a bit too, which isn’t a bad thing.  The car is very nice, and those old Chrysler genuine wire wheels are hard to beat.  Plus, the interiors always seemed so nice in these to me.  I love the seats, the console, the dashboard chrome, and even the salt-and-pepper loop carpeting.  Even the square steering wheel and push-button transmission added some cool ‘60s kitsch.  They also used a ’63 Chrysler 300 convertible to pace the ’62 Indy 500, so that doesn’t hurt this car’s street-cred.

Since this was the welcome cruise to the truck show, here’s a truck for ya’.  This is a ’67 Chevy C-10 short bed that you will usually find pulling a ’66 Stevens drag boat.  The truck is a nice, mostly original ride that gets the owner to car shows in Kansas City on a regular basis from his home base of Springfield, Mo.  But the boat might even be more interesting, particularly because the beefed-up Chevy 350 in full vintage dress.  This is a package deal, because you hardly ever see the truck without the boat.  And I assume that when the boat goes out on the water, it drags the truck along in a life raft.

If you want to see more from the All-Truck Nationals Welcome Cruise, check out the slideshow below.  Or click this link for a nicer version.