SAAC Presents:
Browsing the Summer Knights Car
Club's "2006 Autorama & Car Show," at the Berlin
Fairgrounds, Sunday, April 30th, 2006
(This page created 5/8/2006)
NAVIGATION LINKS FOR THIS PAGE: REVIEW IN
WORDS | A FEW VIEWS FROM THE SUMMER KNIGHTS 2006 CAR
SHOW | A LINK TO SOME VOLKSWAGEN IMAGES POSTED AT
THESAMBA.COM
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Connection web site and it's author expressly disclaim all
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engage.
A
GREAT DAY IN BERLIN!
It was some time last October when I first had
contact with Summer Knights ( http://www.summerknights.org/
) representative Bill Cugno (wcugno@aol.com ). As I recall
it, he dropped me an e-mail, knowing my involvement with the
local antique Volkswagen hobby scene, since the Knights were
apparently going to try and attract a more diverse collection of
cars & car enthusiasts for their '06 show-including VWs and
VW folks. As I was familiar with Berlin (not too far away from
Middletown, where I grew up), but had never been to this car
show, nor even the Berlin Fair ever, I was eager to try and get
out there to the event. As the date, April 30th, 2006, drew
closer, however, it became apparent that there would be a
conflicting event-especially conflicting from a Volkswagen point
of view-the Connecticut
Volkswagen Association would also be holding its long-running
"Spring Dust Off" informal gathering up at Mansfield
Hollow State Park on the same day. I knew that VW people have
been putting the CVA Spring Dust Off on their calendars for many
years, and that specifically some good VW friends of mine were
also planning to make the run up to Mansfield that day. As
"luck" would have it, however, I had important chores
around the house on my "to do" list, and devoting what
would be more or less an entire day for a run up to Mansfield and
back for the CVA event seemed more and more out of the question.
A quick morning run up to Berlin and back, however, looked like
it could be done, and still have plenty of the day left to
accomplish needed house chores...
The official
flyer ( http://www.summerknights.org/2006flier.jpg
) stated that the Summer Knights' event was "rain or
shine," but the weatherman was reporting some fantastic
clear, bright, and warm springtime weather for the day. As I had
recently finished putting some rear axle components back together
on our old 1960 Volkswagen Beetle a few days prior, my plan was
to take that car out for the Berlin run. I had also recently
acquired a generous supply of "Time Machines
2006" ( http://www.geocities.com/tbirdsofconn/timemach.html
) official car show flyers from our friend (and TM2006 Chairman) Fred
Klaus, and had also made up a decent supply of our own
informal handbills promoting antique auto participation in the "Great
Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival" ( http://sunriseresort.com/jazz.html
) - for the "Antique Auto Parade & Display"
( http://members.aol.com/cgextras/JzzFstFlyer.html
) that happens Sunday of Jazz Festival weekend--so the
opportunity to distribute quantities of both was also an
incentive to attend the Summer Knights Berlin event.
Anyway, I'm happy to report that I was ultimately
successful in making it out to this year's Summer Knights Berlin
car show and even managed to bring my camera along to snap a few
pictures (after I was done handing out flyers--an exhausting task
in itself-there were a TON of cars). I didn't take any notes on
photo subjects, so apologies in advance for my
not-very-well-identified photos!
It was a VERY big show--mostly street rods &
such, but also including some miscellaneous antiques, plus even a
few other old VWs here and there too (including Bill
Cugno's positively awesome 1957 hot rod VW
Beetle-wow!).
The only "Pinto" I saw, however, was a
remnant Pinto body on a "speedbowl" type stock car,
that was parked among a special section of similar-type race
cars. There were reportedly many vendors set up
"indoors" in one of the larger Berlin Fairgrounds
permanent buildings, however it was my loss, as I never made it
over there to check them out.
They mostly park 'em as they drive in, so all
sorts of cars are parked everywhere around the Berlin Fairgrounds
(as I left they were filling up the "back forty" flat
field way down in back). It was very interesting browsing many
cars from further north in CT than I'm normally used to seeing
around the Shoreline events. It was also enjoyable running into
our old friend Jack Danovich from the F.O.R.D.
car club of Wallingford, who was there with his late '80s 5.0
Mustang (his other, '65 K-code, Mustang was temporarily out of
commission for some repairs); he indicated that it was not
uncommon for this Berlin event to draw 1,000 cars--and
I believe him!
I estimate that I was there from about 10:30 in
the morning (the flyer stated that the event started at 10:00am),
to about 12:15 in the afternoon. I was walking around in a
t-shirt and short pants, and sure enough, I was feeling a sunburn
by the time I was in the car heading back down toward the
Shoreline.
In all, it was a fun excursion on a positively
beautiful day, and a fitting kick-off for the season. Our hats
are off to the Summer Knights Car Club and all their helpers for
a great time in Berlin!
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SUMMER KNIGHTS 2006 BERLIN CAR SHOW IMAGE
GALLERY
I'll present these images more or less in the
order I took them, as I walked around the show grounds a bit...
BELOW: This view is sighting down one of the
many rows of all types and styles of show cars & trucks. I
guess this might be called the "upper field," and is
adjacent to the roadway on which we drove in to the Berlin
Fairgrounds.
BELOW: Here's another view from
around the middle of that "upper field," but looking
out toward some of the Berlin Fairgrounds buildings and the
hillside in the background. I think this gives another good taste
of the wide variety of all sorts of hot rods, sportscars, muscle
cars, and so on, that there were on display at this amazing
event.
BELOW: Well, this is one of those
cases where I wish I had more time to take better notes...but
sadly, I can't add any identification to the actual model or
owner's name. I do recall it had a Massachusetts plate, however,
and certainly looked like it drove straight out of a hot rod
magazine--it was absolutely an astounding custom. I *think* it
was a '39 Lincoln Zephyr (or at least may have been at one
time?!)...
BELOW: Aother view of the outragous Zephyr Custom
at the Summer Knights Berlin Show. As I recall, it took quite a
bit of waiting to get an unobstructed view of the car for these
photos!
BELOW: Can you find the Ford Pinto in this
picture? I recognized a familiar roofline when I was browsing
this lineup of "speedbowl" type stock cars that were
arranged along the side of one of the Fairgrounds buildings at
the Summer Knights show. It did look to be one extremely
well-constructed vehicle, though, I have to admit!
BELOW: By this time I've walked around the show,
and kind of made my way down the slope of the Berlin Fairgrounds,
and I'm looking now out toward the big, flat, back field, which,
as you can see, was also getting filled up with car show
cars--amazing!
BELOW: This 1957 Volkswagen Pickup Truck
certainly was an unusual sight! I noticed it had a for sale sign
on it, and looked pretty sold and complete, though needing a
complete restoration. If you're interested, I can forward you the
telphone number that was posted with the vehicle--please e-mail me to request that
info...
BELOW: I believe this is Summer Knights member
Bill Cugno's fantastic, beautifully-constucted 1957 VW Beetle
Sedan hot rod--simply spectacular!
BELOW: And finally, one more view from the show
before I got on the road back home--and wouldn't you know that I
had to include at least one with my trusty old 1960 VW Sunroof
Beetle visible. Again, as you can see, it was a "park as you
arrive" type of situation, with all types and styles of cars
to be seen just about everywhere around the Fairgrounds. In all,
I had a great time visiting the Summer Knights 2006 Car Show!
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A LINK TO SOME VOLKSWAGEN IMAGES POSTED AT
THESAMBA.COM
As I try not to get too overly
carried away with documenting old VW participation at events that
are covered for the Shoreline Antique Auto Connection, I tried my
best here to feature a more "general interest" type of
old car flavor. I did. however, take a few more Volkswagen shots
from my 2006 Summer Knights Car Show experience, and I posted
them a few days ago at the popular VW-centric web site,
"TheSamba.com." This link should hopefully take
you to those collected ten images:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_keywords=Summer%2BKnights%2BAutorama%2Band%2BCar%2BShow%2B2006&search_terms=all
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