Classics coast in for car show
The 1961 Volkswagen Bug that Bob Ahrend put on top of a Lincoln frame looks a little rough.
Its front windshield is missing and so is the sunroof. It still needs to be painted, and when he slammed the door shut Saturday, it sounded like it might just fall off.
“It’s kind of an ugly car on the outside,” Ahrend said.
Surrounded by dozens of immaculately restored cars, Ahrend’s looked a little out of place at Silverwood Theme Park’s Coaster Classic car show.
But when he popped off the hood, revealing the work he’d done on the car’s guts, there was no question he was in the right place.
“It’ll be nice when I get it done,” he said.
And when it is done, Ahrend said he has a fantasy: To be the pace car at Stateline Speedway with the “trophy queen” riding shotgun.
The Spokane man’s car was one of nearly 300 classic cars on display Saturday at the theme park. The annual car show continues today with cars from throughout the region.
Jeff Stevens drove his 1959 Ford 500 Galaxie from Missoula for the show.
Ford first produced retractable hardtop convertibles like Stevens’ when he was about 10 years old.
“I thought it was real neat then,” he said, echoing the sentiments of his fellow enthusiasts. “We’re kind of recreating the dreams of our youth.”
The car has a top that neatly retracts into the car’s trunk in a minute with the push of a button.
More than 600 feet of wiring and seven electric motors make it happen, Stevens said.
Like other car collectors, he had photos to share. Some collectors had scrapbooks filled with pictures documenting the transformation of rusted heaps of metal into cars with such a sheen that onlookers are reflected in the surface.
Pete Charbonneau’s car is an example of just how far some of the cars have come. He got his 1970 Subaru – too tiny to be called compact – as a trade.
The previous owner was almost willing to give the car away – he just wanted an old snowmobile trailer in exchange.
Charbonneau, a Hayden Lake resident, spent the past two years fixing up the car and painted it Corvette yellow.
It has the same motor as a Polaris snowmobile which, at 360 cc, is smaller than the engines of most motorcycles.
Still, Charbonneau can get it up to 65 mph.
“With a side wind on Highway 41, on the prairie, you hang on,” he said.