This weekend Classic Motorbooks held their annual Wheels and Wings car
show, fly in, and book sale. The weather was perfect for such an event.
The usual MG vs. Triumph participation competition looked like no
contest to me although there was a scary moment when one of the
officials waved the MGA to go park with the enemy. Luckily this was
straighened out and I was able to join the MG flock. Maybe they need
to start making the contest MG vs all other British.
There were, naturally, plenty of B's to see and at least six A's- three
tourings, two coupes, and a Twin Cam touring which parked next to my
car. Lots of TD's but no TC's or TF's that I remember. There were a
few Midgets as well along with one super trick Bugeye that parked with
us rather than with its AH brethren.
I have been going to this event for about six years now and it gets
bigger every year. Most of the growth is coming from the Hot Rod boys,
however and many of the "great" cars are staying home. Last year there
was a genuine Mercedes 300 SLR, a genuine FIA Cobra 286, and a Bently
Speed Six.. This year I saw no cars of this caliber.
For me, the higlight of the show was a beautiful Norton Commando cafe
racer with polished aluminum bodywork and all of the right performance
and weight reducing aluminum billet parts. Cycle World ran a feature on
a similar bike earlier this year and this bike was nicer than that one.
A track T also caught my eye with a custom cream to primer brown fade
paint job. The worst car of the show, hands down, was a customized late
model T-bird with a fifties Mercury front and rear end grafted on. The
work was nicely done but the car was hideous. I would also give the
"Car who's ownership most closely resembles flushing money down a
toilet" award to Dan Iburg and his unrestored Citroen SM. Luckily Dan
runs a foreign car repair shop and has a parts car. I guess they are
really nice cars to drive. Dan also owns an XK120 roadster and the
trick Bugeye mentioned above so I guess he has some taste in cars.
Besides he sold me the tranny part I needed for my project so he is A-1
in my book.
I picked up five books including Original MGA for half price. The half
price selection was very good this year but, unfortunately, I am on a
strict budget ever since "the project" followed me home.
For anyone in the upper Midwest, I would highly recommend this show.
There is always plenty of cars to see plus bikes and airplanes at the
airport. One interesting feature is that Polaris builds the Victory
motorcycle engine next door and runs a booth showing their equipment.
There is usually a guest of honor- this year is was George Barris the
legendary custom car builder. He brought along two of his most famous
creations. For the rest of the family, there is a craft show and small
amusement park downtown and shuttle busses run between the locations all
day. Plus you can get books on sale- some half price and the rest 15%
off. Just make sure they don't try to make you park with the Triumphs
;-)
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
58 XK150 fhc project
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