Heavy Metal

I have always liked cars.  Which makes it a tad ironic that I didn't get my license until later in life; but it's proof that you can appreciate cars without knowing how to actually drive them...  When I was 14 years old I really wanted a 1959 Cadillac; a land-yacht with tail-fins - what is there NOT to love? In my last year of high school I had a poster of the not-yet-for-sale-at-the-time Corvette C4 ZR1.   Autocross was always as much about checking out the cars as actually racing.  So yes, I really have always liked looking at cars.

Anyway, you get the point.  So yesterday on our bike ride when I saw a bunch of Mustangs at the Newpark Hotel, and the tell-tale 'Cobra Racing' car trailer, I guessed the Mustang show was in town.  A little checking on Google, and the Intermountain Mustang/All Ford Stampede car show was going to be happening today.  The girls didn't have doggie class today, so I went over to the car show about 10:30 and spent an hour and a half taking pictures of cars.   Taking 481 photos, of cars, to be exact.  A lot were of the same thing on different settings (I was shooting everything on manual) or angles that looked cool at the time but didn't look so much upon further review, but I still ended up with a lot of photos.  One woman (she and her husband were showing a '66 Mustang) asked me what I did with all the photos.  Huh.  Good question. How about 'I put them on a wish-list for my Fairy Godmother'?  I told her that I was a novice photographer practicing my skills, so I end up deleting a lot of them, and the ones I like, I post for others to see.  She didn't ask for a business card...  Heehee.

Enough talk.  Let's get to the photos.

Where to start?

There were so many cars and I got so many pictures (after much sorting, editing and selecting, I picked 65-ish that I really liked) that I'll just start with the first car I looked at.

Shiny.  And yellow.

By the way, even at 10:30 in the morning, the show was fairly crowded and it was hard to get 'full body shots' of most of the cars without other people getting in my way.  But since this was as much an exercise in photography as a chance to enjoy cars, I tried to get some 'interesting' shots.

A true classic.  And yes, it rumbles.  (Luckily several of the cars were started when I was around.  I love the rumble of a muscle car.)

These next two cars I had never seen (or heard of) before.  They are De Tomaso Panteros.

Nice tailpipes!

There were a lot of fun license plates around!

These things have WIDE front and rear tires - if you drove this regularly, you'd have to have a huge tire budget!

This truck was parked next to the Panteras, and the owner politely asked me if I needed him to move his chair as I was kneeling down to get various pictures of the Panteras.  I thanked him, and didn't want to be rude (I didn't need him to move, but it was nice of him to ask), so I asked him about his truck.  It's a 1948 Ford, and he told me that he bought it because it was made the year he was born and he had always wanted one.  When I asked him if he had restored it himself, he laughed and said by the time he was old enough to have the money to buy one in good shape, he was too old to do the work on it himself.  I didn't talk to a lot of owners, but his story made me smile, so I thought I'd include his truck in the photos.

This car was part 'cool license plate' (and cool 'mini-me' car)

and part cool tail pipes.

Vroom!

Of course, being a Ford show, there were two 'unicorns' there.  Okay, Ford GTs aren't exactly unicorns, but with only 4000 (or so) produced, you don't see them every day.  I first saw one down in southern Utah - I was coming back from St. George to the motorhome in Virgin and I saw a Highway Patrol motorcycle following a car, seeing the HP, I slowed down, and then saw the HP pull up next to the car, and drove alongside it for about a mile or so - the cop was just staring.  I can't say that I blame him!  I've seen three others since, and they are still quite cool.  Of course, the 550hp doesn't hurt. (They started the white one up while I was at the car show.  Another great rumble!)

Apparently Miller Motorsports Park uses a Ford GT as one of their pace cars, and that one was at the show, too.

As much as I was taken with the Ford GTs (and I always am), I came across this 1955 Thunderbird.

Not quite the tail-fins of the long-desired 1959 Cadillac, but gorgeous nonetheless!

I also really liked this 'matching set' (or threesome if you count the mini-me car, as well).  Yes, they were owned by the same person.  Quite the set!

It was actually hard to find cars I didn't like.

This car was gorgeous (again, no full body pictures because of people - I probably should have gone to the show when the cars were still registering!).

 As was this one.

 And this one.

And all of these.

When Gary asked me what my favorite car was, I promptly told him it was the only one that was for sale!

Actually, that's totally not true (but it made for a great story - and I certainly wouldn't say no to that car!).  I told Gary I'd have to think about it, as there were so many really cool cars.  Really, there were a lot of cool cars:

But my favorite car (or cars, as there were a couple of them) was the 1968 Mustang GT fastback.

Although as something to run errands in, I'd probably take something with airbags.

Like this.

Although I'd probably really rather have a Shelby GT 500.  You know, when I win the lottery (which will never happen because 1) Utah doesn't have a lottery, and 2) I believe the lottery is a tax on people who failed statistics).

Yes, I had a grand time at the car show!  And I know this post is already incredibly long, but I want to include just a couple of the 'interesting' shots I got.

Cool reflection - the new mirrored in the old!

From the Thunderbird - this was what I was looking for on Thursday when I was doing the numbers sequence.  Alas, no 1955 T-birds at the hospital.  But I finally found the '8' I was really looking for!

Day 228/365.