Park Place Cruise-In

When I was at the Hendersonville Cruise the other night, someone handed me a flyer for a Thursday afternoon cruise-in at the Park Place Retirement Home in Hendersonville. This event was mostly for the residents of Park Place, and they had a nice set-up with root beer floats and popcorn. Truth be told, it was too hot out for most of the residents to come out from under the awning to look at the cars, but a few of them did venture out of the shade. Late-model Corvettes dominated the show field thanks to a strong club participation, but there were a few other interesting things out there as well. This wasn’t a very action-packed car show, but it was a nice little thing to do for the people that live there.

Nice start to the Tennessee Speed Sport Cruise

Tennessee Speed Sport is a cool, old-school speed shop in Goodlettsville that has been serving Nashville’s hot rod and racing community since the 1960s. It makes sense that they would start up a monthly cruise night, and so they have. The inaugural event was last Saturday night, and they had a pretty strong turnout for the first time. I even like their old sign, and my truck looks right at home next to it. The only thing I might change would be that they open up the store during the cruise. If you can get 100 hot-rodders in the parking lot of a speed shop, who knows—you might just sell them something. At any rate, let’s check out some of the stuff that was sitting outside that locked building. 

28th-Annual Nashville Auto Fest brings the good stuff out of hibernation

When you have an event that has been going for 28 years, you know they’re doing something right. That’s the case with the Nashville Auto Fest, which made its usual appearance at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds last weekend. Sure, there was the threat of bad weather on Sunday, but every building on the property was still full of classic cars and swap meet vendors. You often see some very high-quality machines at this one, and the 2019 edition was no exception. Strong club participation made it heavy on MOPARs and Volkswagens, but there was a little bit of everything at the Nashville Auto Fest.

Great day for the 37th-Annual 2018 Bowen Campbell Car Show in Goodlettsville

For 37 years, automotive enthusiasts from all over the Music City have gathered in Goodlettsville for the big Bowen Campbell Auto Expo at Moss-Wright Park. This year was no different, as a huge group of quality rides was on-hand for a surprisingly pleasant, overcast day. This one is put together by the Sumner County Vintage Vehicle Club, which is sanctioned by the AACA. As usual, these AACA shows attract some of the nicest old cars and trucks around. I don’t really enter my own cars in many of these shows, but this one was close enough to home that I actually entered both the ’63 Chevy C-10 and my ’93 Corvette. My son hung out with me, I talked to people about cars, and overall it was just a good day in the park.

13th-Annual Goodguys Nashville Nationals continues to impress

I really enjoy it when the Goodguys car show comes to town. It takes place at the football stadium, but you see cars running around all over Nashville. This is nothing like a weekly car cruise. It’s expensive to show your car there. There are lots of rules and regulations. It’s hard to win anything. It’s a huge production, almost like having a NASCAR race come to town. It’s an exciting event even if you don’t like cars, but it’s even more exciting if you do. It’s one of those shows that I try make every year, even if I don’t have a car in the show. It takes a few hours to get through it all, but it’s worth the time.

Happiness is the 27th-Annual Nashville Auto Fest

I’m always happy when the Nashville Auto Fest comes to town. I’m usually stir-crazy for some car action by mid-January. I usually see something I haven’t seen before. And any chance I get to set foot on the same property as the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway brings joy to my heart. I think this year looked a little lighter on cars than others I’ve been to, but we have been dealing with some weather problems over the past couple of weeks. There was still quite a bit of great stuff there. Believe it or not, I even took some pictures.

Guest coverage of the 2017 Tri-Five Chevy Nationals in Bowling Green, KY

You already know this. Between 1955 and 1957, Chevrolet built a line of full-sized cars that would become the most popular and iconic in the history of the American automobile. I don’t even consider that to be an opinion. It becomes even more apparent when the Tri-Five Nationals makes its annual appearance at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green. This show is only three-years-old, and they already draw more than 2,000 entries. I was not able to make it up there this year, but we’re in luck. My buddy Bill DeBlasio from Long Island, N.Y. (no relation to Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York City), brought his own ’57 Bel Air coupe more than 900 miles for this event. Even better, Bill shared his pictures with us, so now we can see all the cool stuff we missed by not being there.

Car owners brave the clouds at the Hendersonville Cruise-In

On-and-off rain and overcast skies are not what you want on the night of your car cruise, but unfortunately, we can’t control the weather. The Hendersonville Cruise-In made the most of those conditions Friday night. Sure, the car count was a bit down, but the rain actually held off for the most part, and the cooler temperatures were a welcome change. You can always tell the die-hards on a night like this, and there were more Logan’s Roadhouse peanuts to go around for everyone. If you were one of the unfortunate majority that didn’t make this one, I suppose I’ll fill you in on some of the nice rides you missed.

Tom's Cruise reaches boiling point

These guys standing around this ’60 Chevy Biscayne as all the water boils out of the radiator pretty much sums up last week’s Tom’s Cruise-In. It was stinkin’ hot in Germantown; there’s no other way to say it. They had music and karaoke and a few cars showed up, but everyone out there was wishing the parking lot behind the Jimmy Johns was air-conditioned. It obviously wasn’t, but that didn’t stop everyone from having a good time. Luckily for you, I took pictures of everything, so you can enjoy this car cruise sitting inside. Check it out!

2015 NSRA Appreciation Day at T&M Steering Column Repair

Saturday was sort of a strange day for our car show adventures. We got a late start, but we set out to the event at Lincoln Technical College. It was supposed to end at 2:00, but when we got there right at 1:00, everyone was making a mass exodus. So then I called ahead to the NSRA Appreciation Day Show, which was taking place at T&M Steering Column repair. We were told they would be there until 3:00, but about the time we started taking pictures, things were wrapping up and everyone started bugging out at about 2:00. Let’s just say, we had to click fast.

The Class of 1957

Not long ago, I put up an article about the cars of 1947. It wasn’t the most dazzling time in automotive history, as most of the cars featured were rehashes of cars that originally appeared on the market before World War II. I thought it would be interesting to jump ahead ten years and take a look at 1957. In just a decade, there was an immense change in the automotive landscape. Gone were the drab, muted designs of the ‘40s. Suddenly, things were brighter, more colorful, and more stylish. It was one of the most extroverted, optimistic periods in automotive history. Let’s take a look at some of the standouts.