A
Wonderful Venue - A Wonderful Day!SAAC Presents:
Checking out the first-ever 'The
Madison Boys Soccer Classic Car Show,' Hammonasset State Park,
Sunday, April 22, 2007, Madison, CT
(This page created as of 4/29/2007)
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A
Wonderful Venue - A Wonderful Day!
Hammonasset State Park in Madison, CT has long been one of my all-time favorite places to go for an antique auto show. The Shoreline has always been kind of "magical" in my life, since, having grown up in Middletown, it was always a "vacation destination" of choice-and Hammonasset in particular, with its clean and expansive beaches. I can't count the number of times I've visited there growing up, often on a hot summer day, with my mom and grandmother. Those were idyllic times indeed. In more recent years, I've been to several of the October "Connecticut-USA" CSRA events where cars are arranged in the expansive paved parking lot at the western end of the park (such as the October 2, 2005 version, which we wrote about at: http://members.aol.com/cgearannex/CSRAHammonasset2005.html ), plus a Madison Exchange Club show (usually also held in October, I believe) or two in the grassy field just north of that parking lot as well. You can well imagine my excitement, then, at seeing the listing for this new Springtime antique auto event, listed at the Special Interest web site (http://www.specialinterest.com/), in early April.
IMAGE AT THE RIGHT: A fantastic fully-polished supercharged V8 provided a real visual treat, within the engine bay of Fred Cyr's pro-street '66 Chevelle.
The new event was described to be a fund-raising benefit for the Madison Boys Soccer club, and was called the "Madison Boys Soccer Classic Car Show." I did my best to find out more details about the event, and also added a listing to the SAAC Calendar page. The event was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 15th, however, by the previous Friday (4/13), it was already clear that the forecast for Sunday was not going to be a good one (to put it mildly), and the organizing team for the event wisely chose to push it back to the "rain date," Sunday, the 22nd of April. The week's reprieve allowed Mother Nature to get the nasty weather properly over-with, and it was positively magnificent by Car Show Day.
I drove my '68 Bug out to Hammonasset on Sunday the 22nd, arriving about noon or so, and walked around for about an hour or so, checking out a fantastic array of all sorts of antique, classic, sports, special interest, and hot rod & custom cars-even a motorcycle or two as well. Thankfully had my camera with me too, so was able to snap a few pictures as I browsed all the beautiful machinery.
Even though the week's postponement moved the event into the "charging admission" part of the year for Hammonasset, I didn't hear anyone complaining about that, nor the car show registration fee, which went to fund such a worthy cause-I think folks were just rejoicing at some nice weather for a change, with which to get out and enjoy their old cars (as was I)!
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A Unique Bit of GM & Pontiac History was on display...
One car in particular that I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to check out a bit at the April 22nd Madison Boys Soccer Classic Car Show was a beautiful black with white convertible top and red interior 1967 Pontiac Tempest Sprint, with the rare high performance OHC-6 (overhead cam 6-cylinder) engine. The windshield card indicated this car was owned by Dick Sevigny, and though I'd seen it at a car show or two in the past, this was a good opportunity to study it a bit and take some pictures.
A "fact sheet" displayed in the very clean engine compartment gave the following background information about this most interesting & surprisingly "high tech" (for the era) automobile powerplant:
OHC-6
Sprint
230 Cubic Inches
215 HP
10.5:1 Compression Ratio
High Lift Cam
Quadrajet 4-Barrel Carburetion
Split Exhaust Manifold
Redline 6,500 RPMs
"The Pontiac OHC-6 engine was the first mass-produced American Overhead Cam Engine. It pioneered the use of the fiberglass-reinforced neoprene timing belt. In 1967, 4080 Tempest Convertibles were produced, of this number only 263 were equipped with the high performance OHC-6."
Also displayed with this magnificent & rare 1967 Tempest Sprint was a full-color rendition of the cover of the September 1965 issue of Hot Rod magazine, which trumpeted: "Tempest's Belt-Driven OHC-6...Complete Tech Analysis of Tempest's Hi-Performance OHC 6 - by Don Francisco," and featured an arresting, brightly-paint-detailed pair of "done up" OHC-6 engines, one with a cut-away valve cover and exposed timing belt (foreground) and the other with a chromed & paint-detailed valve cover and similarly done-up timing belt cover (background). A bit of online research yielded a better rendition of this particular Hot Rod magazine cover: http://www.teufert.net/stuff/ohc6-1.jpg - and also what appears to be another, different-angle view of the chromed background engine from the H.R. cover: http://jimsgarage.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/ohc6.jpg .
There are various online resources that talk about the OHC-6 Pontiac, as well as parts-suppliers for same. A couple of my old-car-enthusiast buddies weighed in with some feedback about the Pontiac OHC-6, both from their own perspectives, and also from what other automobile-knowledgeable associates had to say. Here are a couple of interesting quotes, from the "real world":
"...The Sprint's engine was indeed only utilized a few years; ~3 at most, due to owners neglecting to monitor the camshaft belt replacement interval, an unusual maintenance operation compared to V8s. The engine was promoted for the Pontiac by none other than John Z. DeLorean, in an attempt to bring 'Euro' technology to the American market. Had quite high CR (~10) and ran 'well.' Seems to be quite a rare engine these days..."
"...A
buddy of mine had one of the '67 models. I remember it said 'PMD
OHC' on the front fenders signifying Pontiac Motor Division -
Overhead Camshaft. I believe early Firebirds could also be had
with that engine option which featured a 4 bbl carb as well. They
were prone to oil leaks..."
Given the great rarity, and apparent need for careful maintenance of this high-strung beast, we wish to congratulate and thank the owner of the '67 Tempest Sprint, Mr. Sevigny, for his most wonderful vehicle, and for "sharing" it with fellow old car enthusiasts!
We were not able to find a heck of a lot about the Pontiac OHC-6 on the internet--but here are a couple interesting sites we did run across:
Hot rodding parts: http://primatechmotorsports.com/pmihome.htm
OHC-6-specific engine info from first-gen firebirds: http://firstgenfirebird.org/firebird/FAQ/engine/OHC.html
Please let us know if you know of any other good ones!
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A day or after
the event, I had written back to Mr. Vic Kirilichin, who was one
of the organizers and main point of contact for the Madison Boys
Soccer Classic Car Show, to congratulate him and his team on the
very fine event, and to ask if he might wish to pass along any
post-event thoughts, and/or any lists of award winners. In his
gracious follow-up e-mail dated 4/24/2007, Mr. Kirilichin wrote:
"...Steve, Thanks for all your help listing our car show. It started with an absolutely gorgeous day, then about 125 cars came, and then several hundred spectators came to see those cars. We had a full array of cars from VW's to a Rolls Royce. Being a car nut, I was very impressed with many of the cars. My wife asked me if I agreed with award winners. Since the winners were chosen by the spectators and the car owners, it was amazing how accurate they were, a 1959 Corvette, a 1962 convertible Thunderbird, and a 1969 Mustang GT 350. There were several other cars with the same level of quality and the voting was very close. We had cars from all corners of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. I guess we had it all. Many car owners were so happy with the day, they were asking when our next show was. We had a lot of fun and generated a few dollars for the boy's soccer team...thanks again and we may organize another show...Vic Kirilichin..."
We, of course, told Mr. K. that we'll be happy to do whatever we can to help spread the word, if and when his organization may choose to organize another antique car show. We wish to congratulate and thank all of the organizing team of the first-ever Madison Boys Soccer Classic Car Show for the great job providing a most wonderful opportunity for local antique auto enthusiasts to show off their prized rides, in a most wonderful seaside park setting!
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Now, onto the photos...Madison Boys Soccer Classic Car Show 2007 Photo Album
BELOW: Here's an overall view I took from approximately the northeast corner of the car show field, which was the expansive paved parking area toward the western end of the park, directly adjacent to the beach. I held the camera up over my head and snapped, to get this view.
BELOW: I'm still toward the eastern end of the show field, but a little further south now, and viewing approximately northwest, for another overall sort of view. What a gorgeous day!
BELOW: I enjoyed this grouping of "roots rodders," which included a kool 1951 Ford Woody Wagon (foreground) owned by Dave Bristol.
BELOW: Here's an overall view of Dave Bristol's 1951 Ford Woody Wagon--looking like it came straight from the streets of Venice Beach...
BELOW: Here are a couple of views of the car directly adjacent to the Dave Bristol Woody Wagon--it is Bryan Girven's 1929 Ford--check out the details of this mega-kool retro-mobile, including "big 'n little" skinny whitewalls, detailed-out dual-carb flathead V8 engine, oversized shifter level, and much more!
BELOW: When I got there, I parked my old '68 Bug (tan, far left) next to these two sharp-looking Beetles, including a white Super (middle), and red "Baja" custom (right). The white super is a 1972 model owned by Mary Hagist, and the red Baja is a '71 model owned by Matt Hagist.
BELOW: This is the amazing car behind our opening image on this page--Fred Cyr's all-business 1966 Chevelle, pro-street style.
BELOW: This metallic lime green 1967 Morris caught everyone's attention as is drove through the show field. It's listed as as model "1000" and is owned by Thomas Paum.
BELOW: This 1929 Ford Model A Coupe was in exceptional condition. It was listed as being owned by Ralph Dykstra, and also had a "for sale" sign on the back window--if you're interested in it, call: 376-6796 or 245-7798 (we assume a 203 area code on both of those numbers that were listed on the sign), and the asking price was listed as $13,900.
BELOW: Another eye-catching vintage machine was this 1959 Chevy Corvette roadster owned by Paul and Nancy Lirot--wow!
BELOW: We've seen Orlando Amato's magnificent '62 Thunderbird roadster at a show or two over the past few years, and never get tired of ogling this piece of rolling automotive art--fantastic!
BELOW: This '74 Morris Mini owned by "Dustin" was super-cool!
BELOW: This is the spiffy "signature vehicle" of Cardone & Daughter Automotive of Westbrook, CT - http://www.cardoneanddaughterautomotive.com/ - it's a 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle, done up with special paint and graphics
BELOW: And finally, we had to finish up with a mangificent triple-white" 1977 Volkswagen Super Beetle Convertible, with a familiar name on the window card--Mona Kirilichin (see the "Feedback from The Organizers" section). This car was absolutely pristine--a real gem!
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Related Internet Links of Interest
Hammonasset Beach State Park (Connecticut DEP official site): http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325210&depNav_GID=1650
Friends of Hammonasset (Historical and Ecological preservation group): http://www.friendsofhammonasset.org/
Madison Youth Soccer Club: http://www.madisonsoccer.org/
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