Showers can’t stall car fans
Screaming paint jobs and squealing tires competed Saturday at the Greyhound Park with scattered showers and muddy puddles.
The cars won the day.
Rain wasn’t enough to keep fans away from the River City Rod Run, where hundreds of refurbished and tricked-out classics were on display for thousands of car nuts.
“We just bought a car this morning at the swap meet in Spokane and came here to see other cars like it,” said Veree Pope of Post Falls.
The 1920 Model T that she and her husband, Bob, purchased Saturday is one in a long line of classics that the two have bought and restored.
Veree gets around town in a 1983 Subaru, but said she can’t resist treating it like a hotrod. She’ll downshift at stoplights just to hear the engine rumble.
The Popes predicted that their new Model T will be ready for next year’s River City Rod Run.
In the meantime, their daily driving cars will sit outside while the Model T gets star treatment in the garage.
A brand-new freestyle burnout competition attracted hordes of onlookers, who urged on the drivers spinning out and burning rubber.
One participant wore a tire down so far that it popped. Others were temporarily lost to spectators in clouds of smoke.
Other activities at the show included concerts, tricycle racing and a bikini contest.
This is the eighth year for the Post Falls event. It is organized by the Hot Rod Café in Post Falls.
J.B. Benoit got a kick out of the burnout competition.
The retired firefighter volunteered at the hot rod show along with many of his friends from the North Idaho Classic Car Club.
Benoit unfortunately wasn’t showing his new 1937 Ford three-window coupe because it was in the shop.
He had just driven the kit car up from Alabama where it had been built.
Benoit said he’s been a classic car fan for more than 20 years.
“There are so many cars and so many models, so each guy has one particular car and one particular model he’d like to have,” he said.
For Gary Galetti that car is his 1967 Chevy Nova SS. Yellow.
“I’m a yellow nut. I have a yellow bike, a yellow truck. … If it’s not yellow, it’s not painted,” Galetti said.
Galetti said only the square-bodied Nova would do. Chevy only made it for two years. The Butte, Mont., man found his in Toronto.
“I’ve wanted one since high school,” he said as he wiped the rain off the side of his prized car.
A little rain wasn’t going to keep him from showing it off to the world.