Earlier this summer we went to the Molson Indy to watch cars driving very fast.
This past weekend we went to Danforth Avenue to watch cars .. not move at all. And yeh, we had fun
This was our first visit to Wheels on the Danforth, a community based care show where they close off a few blocks of the eastern Danforth and fill them with cars.
Like most competitions there are prizes so they move different classes of cars along the street as the day goes on. We got there just when I wanted: Classic muscle cars, mostly, with some older hot rods thrown in. It was mostly American muscle but a few foreign interlopers did find their way in
But it was mostly about the Detroit cars that I think were enfused with their own singular sense of style. Not to mention their own hugeness. Damn, some of these cars are enormous. A two door coupe is bigger than most SUVs today .. and some vans
There is of course nostalgia in my admiration of these cars. Some of them are just flat out beautiful but others, while not esthically pleasing, triggered an emotional response; both Collette and I saw this truck and realized that how many of these we had seen or ridden in as kids. She's pretty sure her dad owned one at one point. Beautiful no, but something built and built well for a purpose that gives it its own unique charm
And while this Ford pickup had been restored to pretty much original, others decided to put their own spins on their trucks, turning something prosaic and purpose designed, into something beautiful and individual.
That's always the interesting thing about these car shows; who chose to restore their vehicles and who chose to customize them. I have to say in terms of the classic muscle cars I am not a big fan of heavy customization. Many of these cars back in the day were sold with options and in GT packages etc that provided the owner with mag wheels, hood scoops, spoilers etc. I like to see them like that, as I remembered them back in the day
But every owner who struggles to restore their ride to the original, there are those who just want to chop it, lower it, paint stripes on it, put on the widest tires possible and fill it with some engine entirely inappropriate: Long live the hot rod
Not all of the cars on the street were muscle or hot rods but they had their own appeal. A vintage VW but is not muscle but it has a classic charm all its own. And the bottom pic below is a Pinto, a car not considered muscle back in the day but here some creative mechanic filled it full of mechanical testosterone
The organizers of the event did a great job, lots of cars, a live band, some food stands. The rain kept the crowds down (not a bad thing) and it made the cars all wet and shiny so it wasn't bad from a visual sense but yeh, it got a bit cool and dreary.
Still, we had fun and we will be back next year
All of the photo's on this post are Collette's work. My work is the video below. Now, go shine up your car and park it
Wheels On The Danforth from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.
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