August 7, 2009, a night that I will soon never forget, as I attended a Cruise Night Car Show at Imperial Ford in Mendon, Massachusetts. This was a sight that I hadn’t seen in years, but what an atmosphere.
This Cruise Night Car Show all came about (for me to attend) when my sister and her husband (brother in-law) asked me if I wanted to attend the car show because my brother-in law was going to show his car, a black 1972 Chevrolet Nova SS and meet Jack Roush. Since that Friday was free for me anyway, who would pass up that opportunity, I mean just meeting Jack Roush to get his autograph was enough, but considering I am a car enthusiast, this was huge to me.
I couldn’t believe it, we got there in the Nova at just about 5pm (the start time) and most of the parking lot was already filled with cars. At a cruise night car show like this, basically since we were in a muscle car that would be in the car show, all we had to do is drive around the building and find an open parking space, which for us was against the wall.
Once you park your car to show, just open the hood and the truck if you want (no valuables in truck) and leave the car. The car was open for everyone to see. We had a late model Porsche sitting next to use when we pulled in, when we left there was a black with red strip on the hood 2010 Ford Mustang Roush Edition.
When you attend a cruise night car show like this, there is some much to do from meeting Jack Roush, sit down and eat dinner to explore the amazing amount of incredible vehicles on site from classics, muscles cars to trucks and modern cars and watching burnouts. (I will let you think about the burnouts for a little while.)
The night started out with getting Jack Roush’s autography. When it comes to meeting a celebrity, I am sometimes nervous, this past January at the 2009 World of Wheels when I meet Chip Foose, I was nervous and this time I was nervous too. Finally I found out were the line was and when he started, sure enough I was among the first 10 people in line.
I brought a 2008 Ford Mustang Roush Edition 1/18 scale diecast with me, I ended up getting it signed on the roof (I didn’t want it on the windshield I wanted to clearly see the autograph in my case). What a treat that was.
But once I had it, I was off to take in the atmosphere. Picture it if you will -- daily drivers, collector cars, classics, Trucks, Imports, all different types of vehicles not only on the street still coming in, but lining the huge parking lot of what are normally a two dealerships all along the back and both sides.
There is nothing like exploring a cruise night car show, you never know what you are going to see or who you are going to meet. I love seeing the hundreds of vehicles that showed up in all of their glory. When I look at a car, I’m looking at what the owner envisioned their car looking like and I especially like it when I see a restored or retro mod classic (like a Cadillac) or a Muscle Car, they saved that car from the crusher . It’s a piece of history in most cases or it will be some day one.
I couldn’t believe what I found that night. You can go through the list of manufacturers and most were represented from GM that included a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1972 Chevrolet Novas, a few Corvette C1, C2 and C3 and a 1969 Camaro just to name a few to a 1970 Dodge Challenger and a Plymouth Cuda. One car that caught my eye was a 1955 Willy’s two door hard top (picture below), I had to ask what that was, I had never seen one before. And one AMC AMX, even my brother in-law pointed that one out at the end of the night, you don’t see many of those anymore.
But wait, if you’re a Ford fan, then this was the car show for you considering it was a Ford dealership and a Roush Car Show. There was one Ford GT in the show, two first generation Thunderbirds, but when I say Ford, I’m talking about the Ford Mustang in all of its glory from the 1965-1968 Ford Mustangs, 1990’s, but the most represented had to be 2005-2009 Ford Mustangs. And there were even a hand full of 2010 Ford Mustangs, some from the dealership itself. I would say that about a quarter of the car show was Ford Mustangs that includes a Shelby GT500.
Ironically enough, Roush editions came out in a good number, people wanted their Roush Mustang autographed by Jack Roush and they got it. I even say one blackjack Roush Mustang.
In my quest to find cars, there were three modern muscles that I had to find and get photos of, first being the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS. The second was a 2009-2010 Dodge Challenger, I love the look of both cars.
And third, were three versions of the 2010 Ford Mustang, the Shelby GT 500, the Roush Edition and the regular Ford Mustang. There is one thing, I most likely will make a few Ford fans upset, but as much as I like the Mustang, I’m not a fan of the 2010 Ford Mustang. It’s simply doesn’t look good, I’m talking styling from the squished in the front and weird in the back, it’s just not me, I prefer the 2005-2009 model.
By the end of night, I took almost 200 photos, but I will say that I didn’t take a picture of every car, nor see every car. Once I was finished walking around, there were more cars filling in, so can’t see everything. I would have to say that once 8pm arrived, I would estimate there were around 250-300 vehicles just in the car show, that’s a big turnout.
What about the burnouts? The dealership has a long driveway, with the police’s help, people leaving the car show can do a burnout down the drive as long as they tell the person at the beginning of the driveway that they are doing one. Naturally both side of the street were lined with people, what a smoke show.
But my end of the night was the burnout, of course even though my sister wasn’t too thrilled with the burnout, that didn’t stop my brother in-law from doing on in his 1972 Chevrolet Nova with my sister in the backseat and my in the front seat. I wasn’t expecting it at all and boy does that car pull to the right. The take off and the smoke was good.
Well let’s face it words only tell one part of the story, but a picture is worth a thousand words and out of the about 200 photos I took, here are 10 photos to ponder over…what a great night.
Photography by Brian Vermette Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
This Cruise Night Car Show all came about (for me to attend) when my sister and her husband (brother in-law) asked me if I wanted to attend the car show because my brother-in law was going to show his car, a black 1972 Chevrolet Nova SS and meet Jack Roush. Since that Friday was free for me anyway, who would pass up that opportunity, I mean just meeting Jack Roush to get his autograph was enough, but considering I am a car enthusiast, this was huge to me.
I couldn’t believe it, we got there in the Nova at just about 5pm (the start time) and most of the parking lot was already filled with cars. At a cruise night car show like this, basically since we were in a muscle car that would be in the car show, all we had to do is drive around the building and find an open parking space, which for us was against the wall.
Once you park your car to show, just open the hood and the truck if you want (no valuables in truck) and leave the car. The car was open for everyone to see. We had a late model Porsche sitting next to use when we pulled in, when we left there was a black with red strip on the hood 2010 Ford Mustang Roush Edition.
When you attend a cruise night car show like this, there is some much to do from meeting Jack Roush, sit down and eat dinner to explore the amazing amount of incredible vehicles on site from classics, muscles cars to trucks and modern cars and watching burnouts. (I will let you think about the burnouts for a little while.)
The night started out with getting Jack Roush’s autography. When it comes to meeting a celebrity, I am sometimes nervous, this past January at the 2009 World of Wheels when I meet Chip Foose, I was nervous and this time I was nervous too. Finally I found out were the line was and when he started, sure enough I was among the first 10 people in line.
I brought a 2008 Ford Mustang Roush Edition 1/18 scale diecast with me, I ended up getting it signed on the roof (I didn’t want it on the windshield I wanted to clearly see the autograph in my case). What a treat that was.
But once I had it, I was off to take in the atmosphere. Picture it if you will -- daily drivers, collector cars, classics, Trucks, Imports, all different types of vehicles not only on the street still coming in, but lining the huge parking lot of what are normally a two dealerships all along the back and both sides.
There is nothing like exploring a cruise night car show, you never know what you are going to see or who you are going to meet. I love seeing the hundreds of vehicles that showed up in all of their glory. When I look at a car, I’m looking at what the owner envisioned their car looking like and I especially like it when I see a restored or retro mod classic (like a Cadillac) or a Muscle Car, they saved that car from the crusher . It’s a piece of history in most cases or it will be some day one.
I couldn’t believe what I found that night. You can go through the list of manufacturers and most were represented from GM that included a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1972 Chevrolet Novas, a few Corvette C1, C2 and C3 and a 1969 Camaro just to name a few to a 1970 Dodge Challenger and a Plymouth Cuda. One car that caught my eye was a 1955 Willy’s two door hard top (picture below), I had to ask what that was, I had never seen one before. And one AMC AMX, even my brother in-law pointed that one out at the end of the night, you don’t see many of those anymore.
But wait, if you’re a Ford fan, then this was the car show for you considering it was a Ford dealership and a Roush Car Show. There was one Ford GT in the show, two first generation Thunderbirds, but when I say Ford, I’m talking about the Ford Mustang in all of its glory from the 1965-1968 Ford Mustangs, 1990’s, but the most represented had to be 2005-2009 Ford Mustangs. And there were even a hand full of 2010 Ford Mustangs, some from the dealership itself. I would say that about a quarter of the car show was Ford Mustangs that includes a Shelby GT500.
Ironically enough, Roush editions came out in a good number, people wanted their Roush Mustang autographed by Jack Roush and they got it. I even say one blackjack Roush Mustang.
In my quest to find cars, there were three modern muscles that I had to find and get photos of, first being the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS. The second was a 2009-2010 Dodge Challenger, I love the look of both cars.
And third, were three versions of the 2010 Ford Mustang, the Shelby GT 500, the Roush Edition and the regular Ford Mustang. There is one thing, I most likely will make a few Ford fans upset, but as much as I like the Mustang, I’m not a fan of the 2010 Ford Mustang. It’s simply doesn’t look good, I’m talking styling from the squished in the front and weird in the back, it’s just not me, I prefer the 2005-2009 model.
By the end of night, I took almost 200 photos, but I will say that I didn’t take a picture of every car, nor see every car. Once I was finished walking around, there were more cars filling in, so can’t see everything. I would have to say that once 8pm arrived, I would estimate there were around 250-300 vehicles just in the car show, that’s a big turnout.
What about the burnouts? The dealership has a long driveway, with the police’s help, people leaving the car show can do a burnout down the drive as long as they tell the person at the beginning of the driveway that they are doing one. Naturally both side of the street were lined with people, what a smoke show.
But my end of the night was the burnout, of course even though my sister wasn’t too thrilled with the burnout, that didn’t stop my brother in-law from doing on in his 1972 Chevrolet Nova with my sister in the backseat and my in the front seat. I wasn’t expecting it at all and boy does that car pull to the right. The take off and the smoke was good.
Well let’s face it words only tell one part of the story, but a picture is worth a thousand words and out of the about 200 photos I took, here are 10 photos to ponder over…what a great night.
Photography by Brian Vermette Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
