54th-Annual Kansas City World of Wheels. The cars were clean in 2014

Valentine’s Day was last Friday, and Kansas City car folks had a lot to love when the 54th-Annual World of Wheels rolled into Bartle Hall over the weekend.  Around here, this is the first big car show of the year, and it was just what the doctor prescribed for cabin fever.  From a live appearance by Richard and Kyle Petty, to a top chop by old time customizer Gene Winfield, to hundreds of cars and motorcycles of all kinds, this was the place to be in K.C.  As you may have guessed, I had my camera with me.  Let’s check out some of the fun stuff that made the show.

2014 Silverado vs. 1963 C-10. The ultimate battle of supremacy

If you turn on the television at this very moment, there will be a Chevy commercial on one of the stations proclaiming “Silverado vs. …”  Then they’ll put it up against a Ford or Ram, or the perils of the desert, or whatever might pose a challenge to the all-new 2014 Silverado.  I recently had the chance to drive a new Silverado LTZ Z71 Crew Cab, but I didn’t have a comparable F-150 sitting around.  So I did my own Silverado vs.  This one is “Silverado vs. the Hover Motor Company 1963 C-10.”  You will undoubtedly learn all about the latest full-sized Chevy truck from this hard-hitting bit of reporting.  Or just look at the article I wrote about the 2014 GMC Sierra a couple of weeks ago.  They’re pretty similar.

The cars of the 2013 Parkville Fourth of July parade

Every year on the Fourth of July, the Hovers usually partake in the pancake breakfast at the VFW hall in our hometown of Parkville, Mo., then we take in the parade that goes down Main Street.  Of course, I naturally get excited about all the churches and politicians and things that enter floats in this parade, but between you and me, the cars are what really trip my trigger.  To that end, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting things that cruised through the crowd this morning.

Another great night at the Liberty Cruise

The fourth Saturday of the month is always a good one for Kansas City car enthusiasts, because that’s when cars line the streets of the historic downtown Liberty square.   And with perfect weather and a holiday weekend, May’s event was one of the best so far this year.  If you missed it, you missed out.  But we’ll do our best to give you a virtual tour.

Did you hear that 2011 marks Chevrolet's 100th anniversary? No? Well, let's take care of that right now.

2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet. I’m not sure how many people know that. I mean, I’m a Chevrolet nut, I try to stay relatively informed, and I really haven’t seen or heard very much about this.

The biggest public acknowledgement of this centennial seems to have been at a press conference at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this year. I was there. It wasn’t that big. There was a pretty nice video that played before the press conference (that few people in attendance even paid attention to), and they offered free beer to journalists. Otherwise, they introduced a couple variations of the new Aveo replacement Sonic. Happy frickin’ birthday.

The history of our 1963 Chevy truck, the history of your 1963 Chevy truck, and some 1963 Chevy truck pictures

I’ve mentioned in this column before about our old truck “Mater”. It’s a ’63 Chevrolet C-10 Short Bed Fleetside, and we have a great time tooling around in the old beater, taking it to car cruises, hauling junk to the dump, and dreaming about how nice it could be if we won the lottery.

Whenever I stop to get gas or have the old truck out and about, I usually run into somebody who had one like it, or knew someone that had one like it, or had a family member that had one like it. Lots of people have stories about this style of truck.