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SAAC Presents:
Checking out the Connecticut Street
Rod Association's 5th Annual "Connecticut-USA Car Show for
benefit of Breast Cancer," Sunday, October 2, 2005, Madison,
CT (This page created 1/14/2006)
Quick Navigational Links for this page: Overview - A Tremendous Day to be an Old Car Enthusiast! | Some Background on the event | On To The "CT-USA Car Show" Picture Gallery! | Some Kool Klub Plaques We Spotted
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A TREMENDOUS DAY TO BE AN OLD CAR ENTHUSIAST! - Great show, great weather, and all for a great cause...
We are extremely pleased to be able to present a few
scenes from the Connecticut Street Rod Association's 5th Annual Connecticut-USA Car Show for benefit of
Breast Cancer," Sunday, October 2, 2005, at the very
beautiful Hammonasset State Park, in Madison, CT (CT-DEP info
site: http://dep.state.ct.us/stateparks/parks/hammonasset.htm , "Connecticut's Biggest Beach": http://hartford.about.com/cs/daytrips/a/aahammonasset.htm ). The event is held in one of the super-expansive
paved parking areas that is directly adjacent to the beach (south
side of the main east-west road), toward the western end of the
Park (west of the traffic circle just inside the park entrance).
Upon driving in to the parking area, car owners pay their
admission, and then are allowed to find their own desired place
to park-it is very informal & fun.
IMAGE AT RIGHT: Hot Rods, Customs, Pickups, Muscle Cars, Antiques, Imports, and more--all on magnificent display at the 5th Annual CT-USA Car Show!
My daughter Sarah and I drove our '68 VW Beetle and entered it in the show-even though we knew we couldn't stay long--but still wanted to make sure to lend our share of monetary support. We got there somewhere around noon (the event was listed to run 9am-3pm), so I would guess we saw pretty much the "peak" of the turnout-though we also did see cars arriving and driving out the entire time we were there.
The weather was early-fall perfect: bright & clear skies, and mediate temperatures-with a nice little shore breeze. The cars weren't "bunched together," but rather were arranged "here & there," kind of in groups, but still aligned properly per Hammonasset's laid-out parking spaces painted on the pavement. It made for an interesting and fun stroll through all the different antique autos. I made sure to bring my digital camera, as I knew it'd be a superb old-car picture-taking experience. I don't recall there having been any window cards on any of the vehicles displayed, and so I don't have too many notes as to cars or car owners (though I have done a little bit of internet searching to attempt to determine a couple of the cars that are shown, at least for make and model year, where possible).
The images shown on this page were just a very small part of the very impressive turnout of old cars on that beautiful Sunday-our hats are off to the great folks at C.S.R.A. for the wonderful job they do producing this show-for a very worthy benefit!
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SOME BACKGROUND - Tracing the genesis of the Connecticut Street Rod Association's CT-USA Show, from some flyer archaeology...
As you can guess from the title of the event, 2005
marked the 5th time the C.S.R.A. has organized this event. The
event was originated in October 2001, in the wake of the terrible
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that happened at the World
Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, DC,
and United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Sewickley, PA
(reference http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ for more details). At that time there was a profound
feeling, pretty much everywhere, of shock, anger, loss, and also,
in typically American spirit, a want to join in to help the
survivors...and C.S.R.A. did not stand idle! I don't remember
where I first heard about the first "Connecticut USA Car
Show," but I still have the flyer for the event that
organizer Ron Wilkos of the C.S.R.A. sent to me; the date of that
first event was Sunday, October 28, 2001, and, like all five of
the events, it was held at Hammonasset, and was a joint
production of Connecticut Street Rod Association and Oldies 102.9
DRC-FM radio (http://www.drcfm.com/ - with
the radio station broadcasting live on location). The beneficiary
of funds raised at that first event was the American Red Cross
Disaster Relief Fund.
IMAGE AT RIGHT: A particularly unusual and beautifully-constructed hot rod we ran across at the CT-USA Car Show was this traditinal "T-bucket" open hot rod powered by a rather unusual choice of engines. This "Slant-6" Mopar powered rod was so fantastic that we ended up taking a great many pictures of it. The engine was positively a work of art, with tons of "period" speed equipment ("Offenhauser," etc.)--wow!
Going through my collection of the subsequent four C.S.R.A. "Connecticut USA Car Show" flyers (yes, I'm proud to say my collection is complete!), it can be seen that the 2002 (2nd Annual, Sunday October 6th) version took on a new & important focus, with funds being raised to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer (CT Chapter)-but with a "Special Salute" in memory of 9/11/01 (and every one of the flyers made sure to "Remember 9/11/01"-the genesis of the event). The 2003 (3rd Annual, Sunday October 5th) version was also for the benefit of the Susan G. Komen Foundation - CT Chapter. The 2004 version (4th Annual, Sunday, October 3rd) was for the benefit of the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative (http://www.ctrace.org/), as was the 2005 version. So, it can be seen that the very important cause of breast cancer research has been supported with these events now for several years, and I'm sure there is no doubt that progress toward eradicating the disease has been made as a result. The Connecticut Street Rod Association has a right to be proud of the work it has done toward this end!
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ON TO THE PICTURE GALLERY! - As you can see, there was literally "something for everyone" at this year's "CT-USA Car Show"...
BELOW - As you can see, there were lots of cool cars and enthusiastic spectators at the 5th Annual CT-USA Car Show. Several slick pickup truck customs are visible in this view.
GELOW - Another "overall" sort of view, sighting down a row of colorful customs and rods--kinda makes you wish you were there right now, no?!
BELOW - But it wasn't just just hot rods & customs that turned out for the 5th Annual CT-USA Car Show--here is a colorful array of Vintage Vettes.
BELOW - Check out the very slick "Slant-6" powerplant in this traditional "T-bucket" hot rod--the entire car was very beautifully done, in a green & yellow paint scheme, but that Slant-6 was really an absolutely super detail--we absolutely loved it!
BELOW - Here is a "lead sled" style 1949 Chevy Fleetline Sedan, in white with a positively AWESOME flame paint job, plus red wheels and wide whites, among it's many "traditional" rodding features--super kool!
BELOW - We loved this unique and super well-preserved '60s Mercury Comet, with chrome rims!
BELOW - Pickups don't come much tastier than this velvet green Ford sporting cream-painted steelies with baby moons and narrow trim rings, and a nicely lowered stance. From the "48-PU" plate it's a good guess this is a 1948 model!
BELOW - This next one is perhaps not something you'd normally expect to see at a C.S.R.A.-sponsored show, but it goes to show you that C.S.R.A. are a wonderful, inclusive bunch of gear-heads--this "Brands Hatch Green" (thank goodness for the display card the owner had set up!) 1969 Opel GT was looking fine indeed. Other information on the display noted it's original purchase price was $3,395--wow! There were reportedly 11,000 1969-model Opel GTs shipped to the US--an impressive number--I would not have imagined, based on how few of them apparently survived.
BELOW - I really liked this seriously "slammed" and beautifully finished 1961 Chevrolet station wagon, in yellow & white two-tone, with big "rimz"--certainly representing the "new wave" in rodding.
BELOW - This and the following image are from a super-nicely-done 1940 Ford Panel Delivery, in black with a positively mirror-like paint job and beautiful graphics, among it's many attractive features. Here's an overall right rear 3/4 view, and the image below it is a detail shot of the "livery" graphics on the rear side panels--pay particular attention to the phenomenal reflections of the red car that was parked next to it--wow! By the way, if you look carefully at the right end of the rear bumper, you'll notice a cast club plaque that is detailed in the following section, Some Kool Klub Plaques We Spotted .
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SOME KOOL KLUB PLAQUES WE SPOTTED - Hangin' cast aluminum plaques beneath the rear bumper are a hot-rodding tradition. Here are a few selected ones we photographed (plus a plate topper and/or a badge in there too)...
BELOW - "Gasket Goons" plaque, suspended by what looks like motorcycle drive chain, plus chrome bullet fasteners--koolness to the max! Sure wish I had kept better notes as to the car this was attached to!
BELOW - The Eastern CT-based Connecticut Street Croozers did a very nice job incorporating the shape of the state into their club plaque--we like it! Again, however, regretfully no notes as to the car as to which this was attached...
BELOW - Here's a kool kast plate topper displayed on the front of one of the cars--commemorating the "Ty-Rods 25th Annual 'Old' Timers Reunion, 1973-1997." This particular plaque was displayed on the left front of the well-known 1932 Ford Panel Truck of the "O'Brien Truckers" company (http://www.obrientruckers.com/) from Charlton, MA.
BELOW - C.S.R.A. cast club badge observed on the right rear bumper of the beautiful black 1940 Ford panel delivery, "Special Delivery," that is detailed at the end of the On To The "CT-USA Car Show" Picture Gallery! section of this page.
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