Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Roanoke car enthusiasts indulge their passion
Organizers estimate that 100,000 people will turn out to ogle 20,000 cars at this year's Star City Motor Madness.
Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times
Joel Ross (left), Irving Gauldin and Tommy Odum admire antique and hot rod cars from the sidewalk along Williamson Road on Monday evening as part of the Star City Motor Madness. "We like old Chevys," Gauldin said, to which his two buddies from Danville heartedly agreed.
Related
Photo Gallery
Sitting under an umbrella with a bandaged foot propped up in front of him, Harry Alexander looked covetously out into the street.
"Oh man, that's nice. A '56 Ford. I remember them."
His friend Gordon Preston, who did not have the benefit of an umbrella, cooed at a Chevrolet: "I want to get me one of those Camaros."
Roanoke, it seems, has a long-standing love affair with antique cars. And Roanokers indulged their passion Monday evening at the Star City Motor Madness Williamson Road Cruise. Thousands of people wandered through parking lots, gently caressing the gleaming chrome curves with their eyes and peeking at engines that had been coquettishly bared.
Others sat in lawn chairs lining the road. It didn't matter that temperatures were in the 80s or that the air was muggy with exhaust. It was worth it to catch a rare glimpse of a venerable model cruising down the street. (Although at least two women were seen reading thick novels rather than ogling automobile bodies.)
The passion continues today with a car show in downtown Roanoke. Money raised from the event will go to the Virginia Museum of Transportation's Automotive Gallery.
About 20,000 cars are registered in this year's Star City Motor Madness, roughly 4,000 more than last year, according to Robert Bennett, one of the organizers. He estimated that 100,000 people would turn out. That's more than the entire population of the city.
But it's not all that surprising, Bennett said, when you consider that Roanoke has the nation's sixth largest chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America.
So why are cars so popular here?
"I can't figure it out," said Gary Waldron, standing next to his 1966 Mustang Fastback. "It looks like they come out of the woodwork."
To Bennett it's a regional distinction: "The South is really a big car enthusiast part of the world."
Alexander, the proud owner of a 1977 Lincoln and a 1964 Cadillac, had a more nostalgic explanation.
"Back in the day, cars, they were more individualistic than cars today," he said. "Today all of them look the same."
On Monday, there was plenty of proud American individualism on display. There was a human-size orange teddy bear riding shotgun in an orange 1971 Barracuda. There was a raven-haired mannequin serving up a plastic burger and shake to a parked 1969 Firebird. There was a Corvette that advertised itself as the "Official Pace Car of the 70th Indianapolis 500" in 1986.
There was also the anachronistic -- a 1933 Ford with a CD changer -- and the fantastic -- a Batmobile replica complete with an "Emergency Bat Turn Lever," a "Detect-a-Scope" and a quaint-looking rotary bat-phone.
Still, most of the cruisers (or perhaps just commuters) on Williamson Road were the same old sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and sedans that are on the road any other day.
Could these everyday vehicles someday be the stars of antique car shows themselves?
"I'm sure they will," said Waldron.
