Friday, October 9, 2015

Condition rules at Tom's Cruise

Germantown is a nice community north of Memphis that has all kinds of nice stores and restaurants. But unlike many nice communities with stores and restaurants, they also host Tom’s Cruise; a weekly gathering of vintage and specialty cars on Tuesday nights. As much as I like to eat and shop, the cruise is what drew me in recently. As you might expect, I also brought a camera, which means I can share a few of the standouts with you.

If you like Novas, this little ’68 Chevy II should trip your trigger. Other than the larger diameter wheels (which looked good with the redlines) and aftermarket gauges, it looked period correct on the surface. The racing harnesses hint to the eighth-mile potency of that 427-c.i. big block under the Silverstone Silver hood. I love red interiors, and this one ticked all the right boxes with its bucket seats, four-speed shifter, and sport steering wheel. You can tell that a lot of thought and love went into making this car right.

Memphis is Elvis country, after all, so it’s almost required that I mention this ’59 Cadillac Series 62 flat top four-door sedan. Well, Cadillac called it a sedan, but technically, it’s a four-door hardtop. Unlike today, Cadillac allowed you to customize your car with a half-dozen shades of blue alone. I think this is Argyle Blue, but I wouldn’t mix any paint based off that assessment. This was a nice old car, and if the interior is any indication, didn’t have much wear and tear. It really looked like the proverbial “little old lady’s” car. It may not be the most desirable body style for a ’59 Cadillac, but it would be hard to find a nicer one.

Speaking of little old lady-mobiles, this Dark Turquoise ’66 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan would certainly fit the bill. With less than 50,000 miles, this one was mostly original, and neat as a pin. It was such a time-capsule, I could still picture some accountant showing up at the Clampett’s mansion in this car on The Beverly Hillbillies. Would a ’66 Chrysler Newport sedan ever appear on anyone’s dream car list? Not likely. But when you run across something this nice, you might just change your mind. Condition is king on this one.

This show seems to draw in these types of cars, because a lot of the same things could be said for this ’70 Ford Maverick. This was Ford’s compact entry in the early ‘70s, picking up where the Falcon left off in the ‘60s. Our Calypso Coral example here is one of the nicest, non-hot-rodded Mavericks I’ve seen in years. It still even had its full wheel covers. It does have a four-speed, which probably makes it a little more fun to drive, and it appears to have air conditioning based on the dash vents, so it’ll also be cool.

If you’d rather look at pictures than read what I write, no problem. I took 125 photos from Tom’s Cruise in Germantown, and you can see them in the slideshow below. Or, click this link for an nicer version.

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