The 2021 New Hope Auto Show

August 30, 2021 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Car shows, Events Alfa Romeo, Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior, AROC, New Hope Auto Show

The 2021 New Hope (PA) Auto Show was held during the weekend of August 14-15. This is one of the longest-running car shows in the Northeast, and this year’s arrangement split participants into two groups: the domestic cars on Saturday, and the import vehicles on Sunday. My Alfa was registered for the Sunday event, and, expecting a significant turnout of Alfas buoyed by support from both the NJ and Delaware Valley Club Chapters, I was not disappointed.

The weather cooperated; Sunday was one of the nicer days we’ve had during what’s been a hot and humid season. Registrants were asked to arrive by 8am; I was five minutes early and gained a coveted shady spot at the start of the row dedicated to Alfa Romeos. Within a few minutes, another dozen or so Alfas arrived; I later counted over 20 of the cars from Milano.

Of course, other marques were also amply represented: Porsches and BMWs from Germany; Jaguars and MGs from the UK; other Italian cars including Fiat, Lancia, and Ferrari; and Asian brands including Honda, Mazda, and Datsun/Nissan. It is worth mentioning that the Rolls Royce/Bentley Club had what was likely the largest turnout of vehicles of any particular make.

One change for 2021 was the lack of formal judging; the stated reason was that Covid concerns prevented the show organizers from gathering judges to perform their needed tasks. Instead, spectators were encouraged to vote for their favorites, and ribbons were presented around 2pm, after which the show cars were released from their spots.

This was the first time my Alfa had ventured out-of-state since I drove it to a NY diner during a Sunday breakfast run in April of 2019. While New Hope is barely 30 minutes from me, it still was a great feeling to venture that far from home in confidence after the significant brake and carburetor overhauls.

I will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

BRITISH

GERMAN

ASIAN

ITALIAN

ALFA ROMEOS

MY 1967 GT 1300 JR

Das Awkscht Fescht, Macungie PA, August 2021

August 14, 2021 RichardReina Car shows, Events Das Awkscht Fescht, Fiat 124 Spider, Macungie

Now in its 58^th year, Das Awkscht Fescht (The August Festival) was held in Memorial Park in Macungie PA on August 6, 7, & 8, 2021. This three-day show, with slightly varied themes each day, is one of the longest-running classic car events in the Northeast. I was a spectator this year on Saturday, on the presumption that the greatest number of vehicles were likely to show up that day. Still, compared to previous years (I posted about my 2017 visit on this blog, and have been a sporadic attendee since the 1980s), the field was perhaps 80% filled.

“Macungie”, which is what we call it, is an appealing show: it’s set on grass within a park which offers lots of shade; and it offers non-automotive attractions including craft displays, a live petting zoo, and a bandshell with live musical entertainment. Saturday’s show cars were approximately arranged by decade. The featured marque(s) was Cadillac/LaSalle, and most of those vehicles were situated under one of the few tents on the property.

Overall, the quality and variety of vehicles were outstanding. Domestic brands comprised about 98% of the vehicles on display, but a few of the import makes were standouts (see sidebar below). Members of the NJ Region of the AACA turned out in some force, and the National AACA had a trailer on site, making Das Awkscht Fescht a quasi-official AACA event.

Photographically, I challenged myself by bringing only my 85mm prime (non-zoom) lens on my still new-to-me Sony camera. This lens takes great pictures, and the results look to be marginally sharper than the 28-60mm zoom lens I use 90% of the time. The challenge, however, is that for a full-body front or rear ¾ shot, I need to be about 25 feet away from a car, and accomplishing that at a show crowded with show-goers requires long waits for just the right moment. One trick which I’ve used at Hershey was to position myself on the street outside the show and capture cars as they drove in, an effect that worked well here. As another alternative, many shots are of only a portion of the automobile; in those cases I attempted to highlight some interesting design feature.

The Macungie show is a great PA tradition, always held the first week of August. Like other Northeast stalwarts such as Hershey and Lime Rock, this one is perennially on my calendar. Maybe next time I’ll bring a car!

HEADING IN:

STATION WAGONS!

CADILLAC FINS:

PRE-WAR:

LAND YACHTS:

A RARE HURST/OLDS:

TWO CUTIES, A CROSLEY AND A VESPA:

THE TWO-SEAT SPORTS CAR, OLD AND NEW:

A STUNNING ’57 FORD SKYLINER RETRACTABLE:

SIDEBAR: Mike, Barry, and the Fiats

As I crouched low to take additional photographs of the pristine white Fiat 124 Spider in front of me, the gentleman to my right spoke up. “It’s nice to see someone besides me who likes these cars!” We exchanged pleasantries for a few moments about our shared passion for the Italian cars from Torino, and he introduced himself as Barry. “Are either of these (a black one was parked next to the white one) yours?” I queried. “No”, he responded, “but I help the owner take care of them”.

Within a few moments, a younger gent joined our conversation. I quickly learned that his name was Mike, and that he owned both 124s on display (along with the BMW E30 convertible next to them). The white ’79 2000 Spider caught most of my attention, as the sign claimed that it was an 8,000 mile, all-original and unrestored car. Mike related that he bought the car about 8 years ago from an ad in an FLU (Fiat-Lancia Unlimited, the old Fiat club) newsletter. The ad contained no photo, just the briefest of writeups. The car was in L.A., while Mike was in PA. He subsequently learned that this car had been bought new by Jerry Zucker, the movie producer of “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” fame. Mike never spoke with Jerry, but apparently negotiated the terms of the sale with one of Jerry’s spokespeople. He rolled the dice, he said, when he bought the car sight-unseen and then had it shipped back east. He was pleasantly surprised at its condition, and although he does drive it, he said he strives to continue to keep the mileage low.

The black car, strictly speaking, wasn’t a Fiat but a Pininfarina (extra points to Mike who knew exactly why a “Pininfarina” wears the letter “f” as its name bade). Although I didn’t record it, I believe that the newer Spider was an ’83, which would make it the first model year for the renamed Pininfarina Azzurra. (When Fiat abandoned the U.S. market in 1982, Pininfarina took over marketing of the Spider for the States.) Both cars were near perfect, and it was a delight to see them parked side-by-side and note the differences, especially in the interior. However, I was so engrossed in conversation that I failed to snap any shots of the newer Spider.

It turned out that Barry, as a friend and neighbor, does much of the mechanical upkeep on Mike’s cars. The two of them were as enthusiastic and knowledgeable about all things Fiat as they could be. Barry in particular was impressively able to recite nuances about interior detail differences across all the Spider generations. All in all, I spent about 30 minutes in delightful conversation with both these gentlemen. Meeting and talking with them was the highlight of my visit to Macungie that day.

AACA NJ Region Summer Tour, 2021

August 8, 2021 RichardReina Drives, Events, museums Corning Glass Museum, Eastman Museum, NJ Region AACA, Rockwell Museum, Soaring Museum

The New Jersey Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) has had a long tradition of holding summer tours. A tour, as compared to a rally such as the New England 1000, is conducted under much more relaxed circumstances. Tours typically involve leisurely drives along country roads to visit local attractions. Tour participants have the option to caravan together or to follow their own timetables. Planned stops will include sights like museums, parks, and of course eateries. (Rallies require more spirited driving and may encompass TSD [time, speed, distance] measurements of your ‘performance’ versus your fellow competitors.)

Having never partaken of a NJ Regional tour before, and continuing with my pledge to make up for the lost year of 2020, I signed up for my Region’s summer tour, which was held from July 29 through August 2, 2021. A trend I’ve noticed in recent years with both tours and rallies has been to conduct them as “hub tours” or “hub rallies”, which is to say that participants stay at the same hotel for the duration (the hotel effectively operating as the hub), with daily drives heading out in different directions and returning to the same hub each evening. So it was with this event: the Hampton Inn in Sayre PA (a stone’s throw from the NY border) served as the hub hotel, while our daily drives took us into the Finger Lakes Region of NYS each day.

All of the planned visits in which I participated were non-automotive in nature. There were plenty of opportunities to indulge in the local culture, and the significant others who were along for the ride weren’t forced to endure only automotive-related attractions. This tour was museum-heavy, as we stopped at the Corning Glass Museum, the Rockwell Museum (also in Corning), the George Eastman House & Museum and the Strong Museum of Play (both in Rochester), and the Soaring Museum in Elmira. The Corning Glass Museum and Eastman Museum visits were the two I was most looking forward to; the Rockwell Museum (not Norman, but Bob and Hertha, local business owners who collected art and gifted it to the city), and the Soaring Museum (the history of soarers and gliders AKA wingless flight) were pleasant surprises. The Strong Museum was akin to an indoor amusement park overrun with youngsters, but others in the group found it enjoyable.

The weather was outstanding for all but one of the days we were in the area. Unfortunately, the one rainy day occurred on the same day as a planned boat ride on Lake Cayuga, which necessitated the cancellation of our water outing.

There were about 25 people on the tour, mostly Regional members; some folks brought along friends and family members, which was nice to see, and made for an even more diverse group. Of the approximately 12 couples that I counted, 6 drove modern iron, and 6 drove AACA-eligible cars. Excepting the 1930 Ford Model A driven by my friends Dick and Bobbi, the other AACA vehicles were all from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including my 1993 Miata (NOT the newest car on the tour!). A personal thrill was my first ride in a rumble seat, which was offered to me when Dick and Bobbi drove to dinner. (It was easy to get into and less easy to get out of; agility with one’s limbs is a helpful trait when entering and exiting such a conveyance.)

The tour ended on a Monday, and I skipped that morning’s visit to a windshield frame restoration shop as I needed to scoot home a bit early. Would I tour again? Most certainly I would. It’s an additional and wonderfully relaxing way to indulge in the hobby. I would wish for a slightly more varied lineup of activities (not everyone prefers five museum visits in 2.5 days), but having helped organize and having participated in dozens of one-day and multi-day tours, I have great appreciation for the amount of work involved in planning such ventures. The NJ Region put in significant effort to make the event as enjoyable as possible for all.

The Corning Museum of Glass parked this Chevy pickup in its lobby and filled its bed with flowers made of glass; the flowers were available in the gift shop.

This automotive-themed display is from the Corning Glass Museum

An engine-powered plane takes off from the Soaring Museum’s runway

This ’30s-era GMC pickup from inside the Soaring museum was used as a tow vehicle to bring gliders up to speed. Its winch held a rope attached to the glider, and there was a mechanism to disconnect the rope from the plane. In the event that failed, the guillotine was deployed to sever the rope!

Dick & Bobbi with their 1930 Ford Model A

Your author about to embark on his first rumble

And the view from the Miata (barn doors up)

Neshanic Station NJ Car Show, July 17, 2021

August 3, 2021 RichardReina Car shows, Events Neshanic Station Car Show

(Late but not forgotten, I am posting this show from several weeks ago only now, as other priorities were handled first.)

Neshanic Station held its first of two scheduled July car shows on Saturday July 17, 2021. I’ve been a regular at these local events, if only because I live about 3 miles away! Taking the Alfa again in order to give it some deserved exercise, the field was slightly less populated than we’ve seen previously, possibly due to the vacation season, possibly due to the weather.

Repeating my previous comments about this show, it’s a “run what you brung” theme: old, new, original, restored, stock, modified, whatever. If the owner thinks it’s interesting, then it’s welcome. Some cars were familiar to me from previous shows, and some were new to me. As is typical, attendees brought mostly domestic iron, but there were several Germans and one British/American hybrid to keep my Italian mistress company. There’s no charge to enter, but the local church requests a monetary or food donation to support a local food bank.

The day dawned sunny, hot, and humid. Arriving at 7:58 a.m., I parked my car, grabbed my camera, and began walking around to snap pictures. By 8:45, I had soaked through my t-shirt. While I remembered bug spray, I neglected to grab sunscreen or a hat. A quick call back home and my wife was kind enough to scoot down with both those essentials.

Several vehicles stood out: a classic ’40 Ford, the Cougar Eliminator, the Benz SLC with typical 1980s mods, an impeccable Nash Metropolitan, a Screaming Chicken Trans Am, and a current-gen Ford GT, driven, not trailered, onto and off the show field.

Did I mention it was hot? People actually started to leave shortly after 9 a.m. I threw in (more like wrung out) the towel at 10 a.m. and headed home. As always, I enjoyed myself, and there’s no sense complaining about the weather. Show organizers have moved this to a twice-a-month thing, and I plan to continue to attend as many as my schedule allows.