Fun stuff from the Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise

Mt. Juliet is the place to be every Saturday night, because the Providence Chick-fil-A hosts a weekly car cruise. It’s an interesting venue, because they get tons of participants, but it’s in one of the busiest areas in town. ’57 Chevys share space with ’95 Tauruses. Car lovers dodge Dodge Caravans trying to bomb their ways through the drive-thru. The D.J. competes with the traffic. If you’re looking for a relaxing, casual cruise, this isn’t it. But if you like looking at a diverse and interesting selection of hot rods, classics, and muscle cars, this is definitely where you want to go.

This was an exceptionally nice ’64 Mercury Comet Cyclone. The Maize paint paired up with the white interior made it as refreshing as a slice of lemon meringue pie. The Cyclone was the top-of-the-line performance version of the Comet in 1964, and it even came with those wheel covers that look like hubcap-less chrome wheels. This would have come with either a 260- or 289-c.i. V8, which was plenty of power to make the little lightweight Comet scoot. I can’t remember ever looking at one of these cars that I liked any better than this one.

Here’s a nice ’76 Monte Carlo that’s done up in the Gatorade colors that Darrell Waltrip piloted for DiGard Motorsports. This is obviously a street car, but DW really drove cars that looked like this in about 1978. They were still using the older style Monte Carlos, because the smaller, restyled Montes didn’t make as good of race cars. The way this car was made up really reminds me of the Hawaiian Tropic Laguna that Mel Tillis and Terry Bradshaw drove in the Cannonball Run. Heck, that car even “turned into” one of these Monte Carlos after they drove it in the swimming pool.

There were a couple of pretty nice MOPARs on hand, including this ’71 Plymouth ‘Cuda. This one as True Blue, with black “billboards” on the quarter panels announcing the 340-c.i., 275-hp V8 under the hood. If you follow the classic car scene, you know that these cars have been hot property for a while now. 1971 is particularly popular, because they only built 18,690 of them. Most Plymouth lovers would love to sit behind that wood-rimmed wheel, throw that pistol-grip shifter into drive, and leave a couple of black marks behind them.

I could be a year off give-or-take, but I’m guessing this is about a ’76 Camaro coupe. Anyway, I like the car, and the red interior really sets off the silver paint. This maybe wasn’t the best era in history for performance cars like the Camaro, but when you look back on one as slick as this one is, things don’t seem all that bad. Even the more modern wheel and tire combination suits this car well. The heavy bumpers and generally power-choked engines on Camaros like these ensure that they’ll never be as popular as the second-generation models built earlier in the decade. But I can tell you that I’ve seen a lot of those cars that do not look near as good as this one.

People love this era of truck, and for good reason. This ’72 Cheyenne C-10 short bed is a great combination of classic style paired up with a relatively modern driving experience. It’s finished in a very ‘70s combination of Dark Green with an Olive Green top. Outstanding features include Rally Wheels, air conditioning, and bumper guards. This was the last year for this generation of Chevy truck, which began in 1967. Today there are many websites and shows dedicated to them, and you can buy virtually every part to restore one out of a catalog. That’s what happens when a vintage vehicle proves to be as good as it looks.

And speaking of things that look good, there is a 213-picture slideshow of the Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise below. Or, click this link for a nicer version.