American Cars & Classics

Today I went to the American Cars & Classics car show in Brielle.  It's a small town about 25 km from Rotterdam.  The car show was pretty impressive to me, there were over 100 classic American cars in the show.

One of the guys from the plant is involved with the car club and had invited me, this is his mustang.  It is a "frame off" restoration and well done.











Here is a shot of Bart van Leeuwen "posing" next to his mustang.














I really liked the Studebaker Champion.  These cars were a little before my time but I do remember the Studebaker Hawks.  When we were racing at Bonneville there were several still competing.









I was surprised at the number of trucks.  At least a third of the vehicles were trucks.  They had stuff from the '50s, '60s and '70s.

There was live music as well as other vendors, food stands and beer!  They also had a bounce house for the kids.

There was a real assortment of cars, I've been to many car shows in America and not found the diversity seen here.









Every show has to have a Mopar section, here were a couple of nice cars.  There were several other challengers as well as a silver '66 Charger. That was the first car I saw that had fold down back seats and a hatch.










They even had a Pink Cadillac, it was a pretty clean car, nice.











I always liked the '55-'57 Chevrolet Bel Airs.  I once had a nice '57 two door coupe that I stripped down to make a "hot rod".  I really wish I wouldn't have done it, that car was a true classic.  Here is a nice 1956 Bel Air.










I also had a '68 Chevelle that I drag raced.  It was not as clean as this one but it was fun.  It had a "Big Block" Chevy engine and a Turbo 400 trans, 12 bolt rearend, a low 11 second car back in the '70s.









This Hudson Hornet was a little rough around the edges but still a true classic.










Overall it was a great day.  Seeing these old cars brought back some very good memories.  For the first 35 years of my life I was a "car nut" and then I switched to tinkering with motorcycles.  I guess I will always have a deep appreciation for cars and motorcycles regardless of how many guns I have...LOL.

TJ in Holland