April 5: A dreary Friday . . .
Read MoreI met my friend, Rob, while we were students at Penn State Harrisburg in Middletown, Pennsylvania in the 1980s when we discovered that we were both car nuts. The great thing about the Harrisburg campus is its proximity to both Carlisle, (for the many automotive events held at the fairgrounds each year), and Hershey, (home of the AACA Eastern Division National Fall Meet). We attended as many of these events as we could squeeze into our schedules.
After my graduation in 1989, we continued to meet for these events as time would allow. But life loves to disrupt whatever plans we make because that's what life does. My move from Pennsylvania to Missouri in 2003 put a cap on our reunions for a number of years. The last time I saw him was in April 2012 for the Spring Carlisle event in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And as hard as it is for me to believe, that was SEVEN years ago as of this writing !
Rob sent me an email at the beginning of this year to say he was going to the Charlotte Auto Fair in April and wanted to get together if possible. I scheduled a day off work and made the 4-hour trip to the Charlotte Motor Speedway.The Charlotte Auto Fair is this region's equivalent of the AACA Fall Meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania with the added benefit of being able to enjoy it twice per year, (spring and fall). The event is held inside the Charlotte Motor Speedway and features a familiar format. Vendors arrive and set up on Wednesday. The event opens on Thursday and runs through Sunday. The AACA show is held on Saturday, just like I was familiar with in Hershey.
The dreary weather brought back another memory of Hershey. Mother Nature has a tendency to include some less than ideal weather into the mix. Rain was in the forecast for Thursday and Friday. But Saturday was eventually supposed to clear and be quite nice.
I was hoping for the best when I left my house on Friday morning, with the roof down of course. And even though Mother Nature threatened, I didn't encounter any rain during my drive on Friday. After checking in at my hotel, I headed to the speedway to check out Friday's activities.The event centers around cars and car parts. Vendors (who sell parts, tools, memorabilia, and sometimes cars), set up in the track infield, (out of view to the left in the photo above). The Car Corral (cars for sale), is set up on the track. I decided to walk around the track to check out the cars for sale first before heading into the infield to check out the various vendors.
Vehicles of all shapes and sizes are found within the Car Corral. Seeing a new Mazda Miata, Roush Mustang, classic Jeep CJ, and new Chevy Tahoe SUV parked next to each other in the photo above gives you an idea of what can be found here. The Roush Mustang is a 427R model that features a 435 hp supercharged 4.6L V8. Asking price was $34,500.
The shape of the back window is the giveaway that this is a clone. The back window of a Superbird was modified to improve high-speed aerodynamics. So the Superbird back window is different from that of the Road Runner. In order to cover up the hastily conceived modifications, all Superbirds left the factory with a vinyl top.
Ford offered two convertible models in 1957 both of which were part of the Fairlane 500 series. The car seen in the photos above is the Sunliner, a traditional folding soft-top convertible that attracted 77,726 buyers that year. For an additional $437, (which was a significant sum considering the Sunliner stickered for $2,505), buyers could opt for the Skyliner which featured a retractable hardtop. The Sunliner outsold its stablemate by almost 4 to 1, which makes sense considering the substantial increase in price.