The best quote of the day…. We stopped at a gas station that turned out to really be a truckstop. We could not even get our cars in the parking lot. I had to pee so bad! With my crippled old body, I crawled out of the car, gave my left leg a minute to work because it has been sitting around doing nothing for hours. And I hobbled to the back of the store and took a piss. Some of you might think that is bad, believe me, we could not even get close to the store because of all the big 18 wheelers getting gas. I come back from taking a pee in the back of the store, get in my car, and we’re waiting for the womenfolk. This big old Burley truck driver gets out of his truck and he’s talking to me about my car. He asked me if it had a six cylinder or a V-8. I told him it had a 350 in it. “He told me his buddy had one just like it, but it had a 396 in it.” I told him those engines were bad to the bone. That would probably scare the life out of me. Luckily we were leaving by then.
The trip from hell? I just had to say that. It was only that way for some people, not for me. For days my son and I have talked about the route we were going to take. Even the womenfolk knew the route we were going to take. We leave our houses and that is sure as heck not the way we went. We are heading west out of town instead of getting on I 95. My son calls me on the phone and tells me we’re going to go west on 441, go around the east side of the lake Okeechobee, and then go up 441 to SR60. That’s kind of close to what we talked about, and we do like state roads, so what the heck. We get to a point in our trip heading west, locals call it 20 mile Bend, because of course the road takes a big bend, and there’s a giant traffic block with police officers and everything. We are in the middle of nowhere with only one exit out. State Road 880. Jim and Retha, IlliniGSX, probably would like to tell you about this road. They came to my house from Sarasota for a Buick get together. Jim is towing his most beautiful GSX in an enclosed trailer and his phone tells him to take State Route 880. It’s a shortcut. Oh no it is not! That Road will get rid of every moving suspension part on your truck. The trailer? Who knows what might happen to it. There are so many ups and downs. The road is built on top of muck. Heavy trucks just squish the asphalt down. It is the bumpiest road you will ever be on in the United States. We are not talking potholes, just plain up and down road. So the cops direct us in that direction. My son Alex, drives a 1968 Buick skylark that originally came with a six cylinder. He put a 350 V-8 in it, along with headers. Yes, it’s scrapes the road in many places around town. Put his silly but on this crazy, wavy, road? It’s scraped everywhere! We were doing 35 miles an hour! What a great shortcut.
I've been on that road before, many years ago. It was really bad way back then too. I think it shook some of the bondo out of my old Nova... LOL. Alex told me he was giving you quite the spark show!
What a war story! Driving around the big O is always a hit and miss proposition. I feel your pain so sorry for your detour but glad you made it to the show. It was a really good one.
Lots of beautiful cars , this is definitely the best BOPC show in Fl. I've been going to it for over 35+ years since it was hosted in Winter Park at the Howard Johnson on Lee Rd. One of the first times I had met Richard Lassiter. Fernando
Being the car show was called BOPC, I figured I’d start with the Buick’s first. This was undoubtedly the cleanest and probably fastest GN at the car show. The car was seriously spotless!
Here’s a picture of Fernando’s beautiful GSX. I thought he told me a couple years ago he was going to turn it down. I guess his idea and my idea are totally different. I think his car would still go very fast! I don’t think the guy with the red and black Stage1 is a forum member, but he was very cool and his car was my favorite. Heck yes I love the stepchildren!
We saw this car last year, but didn’t get to meet the guy. He and his son was a blast! His car was a 1969 Skylark Custom. He took all the “custom” stainless off of it. He does bodywork and has his own body shop. So his work was very nice. The cool part about his car was the five speed Tremic (spelling?). He was explaining pretty much everything he did to hook up the new transmission. Very nice! It also has a newly rebuilt 455 in it now. He said he killed the Muncie that was in it shortly after he got the big block in there. The best part I like about his car is the custom bench seat. The new five speed transmission shifter is a couple inches further back so he had to take a section out of the seat.
That’s about it. I looked at the pictures that Rich posted and I have the same ones. Rich and I walked around together. All in all I would say there were a bunch of Buick’s, there were a bunch of nice cars, and of course a bunch of nice people! I will definitely be there next year, again.
If you look closely at the track you can see the marks the coins made. Interesting? I showed the picture of the squished coins to my youngest son. Right away he said, the train wasn’t very heavy. My quarters from Virginia are squished way more. He used to put his change on the track. The train was hauling coal. This was an Amtrak train at the car show. Didn’t realize the cargo made that much difference.
