Saturday, April 26, 2014

Hendersonville Cruise In is worth fighting the traffic for

I’m starting to get settled into Nashville a little bit at this point.  You can tell, because I’ve been hitting the local car cruise scene pretty hard the last few days.  Friday night it was the Hendersonville Cruise In, which takes place behind the Regal Cinema Theatre.  When you drive up to this, it doesn’t seem like there would be a car cruise back there.  It’s a busy shopping and restaurant area that is absolutely clogged with oppressive traffic.  But once you get behind the theatre, the clouds part, and you are greeted by more than 200 old cars and trucks.

1947 Chrysler Windsor sedans aren’t necessarily the most beautiful cars ever made, but this particular example here was the exception to the rule.  There was something about the shiny maroon paint paired up with those Kelsey-Hayes Chrysler wire wheels that really set this car off.  They had velour seat inserts, a modern radio and air conditioning, and the pedals would indicate possibly a modern drivetrain.  This is a driver, and a pretty one at that. 

Another one from the Class of ’47 was this Buick Sedanette.  This fastback look is one of my favorite body styles, because it even makes this bulbous old Buick seem sleek.  This was a super nice car (did you catch the Buick reference there?), and would be right at home anywhere from this local car cruise to a Concours d’Elegance.  This is the kind of car that if my granddad up there in the car lot photo had traded for, he would use it for his driver.  Straight-eight power, baby.

Don’t let the grille and cross-flag emblems throw you.  This Corvette is a ’61 model.  Now, I’m not always a fan of this Gasser look, but I have to admit this one was hard to ignore.  Something about the tangerine metallic paint and wide whitewalls really glistened in the sun.  Plus, all the work seemed high-quality.  Corvette purists cringe at cars like this, but there are a lot of Corvettes out there.  There’s a place for customized Corvettes as well, especially if they’re as pretty as this one.

This is a sharp little ’32 Ford three-window coupe.  I actually even like the fact that it’s not red.  I’m not sure if that’s the original color, but it really works here.  There’s a lot of high-quality modern stuff here, including a late-model Ford V8, red leather seat, and a hang-on air conditioning system.  I’m sure it had a modern suspension and chassis as well.  The chopped top and artillery wheels completed the look.  The grille cover says “Nashville Street Rods”.  I need to check them out.

I also liked this ’67 Camaro RS convertible.  This was a 327 car that still sported its full wheel covers wrapped with red line tires.  Butternut Yellow is one of my favorite colors for one of these too.  I think what I like about it is that even though it’s a nicely restored car with lots of great equipment, they didn’t try to “make” an SS out of it or cram in a bigger engine.  RS was an appearance package, which included those hidden headlights.  They probably built quite a few of them when they were new, but they are mysteriously gone today.

Hey—guess what?  I took 217 pictures at the Hendersonville Cruise In.  Check them out in the slideshow below, or click this link for a nicer version.

2 comments:

  1. Hendersonville Cruise In VolunteerApril 26, 2014 at 11:00 PM

    Welcome to Nashville and Thank you for coming out to our Cruise In, the biggest free event in Sumner County! The ’67 Camaro RS convertible you mentioned in the article was our Ride of the Week! We hope you cone back to see us soon!

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    1. Thanks for visiting! You picked a good one for Ride of the Week!

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