classic car

  Ah, Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet. The meeting point of every car-obsessed person in the Northern section of the Midwest. For a weekend, the tiny town of Iola, WI is lit up with gleaming chrome and trailers full of rusting vintage Cragars, wheels, bumpers, and any other automotive item you could need. A full-fledged car show, a giant swap meet, a car corral, and an auction all packed into one three-day-long event that attracts thousands of men carrying their reluctant wives and the occasional genuinely interested woman. There are Dodge Chargers, Kaisers, BMWs and Duesenburgs, and all of them are interesting to anyone who loves cars. Its almost impossible to resist coming each year. Of all these cars, you'd think that the most interesting would be some classic Ferrari of Duesenburg, but this July it wasn't so. This year, the car that stole the show wasn't a car featured in multiple magazines, not a historic Bonneville racer, but a 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

  Yep, you heard that right. Walking among the many drivers for sale in the Car Corral section, near the end of my day in Iola this July, I was pretty bored and feeling kind of down. We had just been by the auction section, where the economy had lead to only one out of 10 cars we saw go up on the block sold. All of the cars I was around were drivers, with the top price being around $50,000 for a '57 Corvette, and I was going to leave in about half an hour. I was heading back to the swap meet section when a crowd obscuring a car caught my eye. The crowd was larger than the one around the featured driver Auburn/Cord/Duesenburg collection, larger than the one around the custom '54 Kaiser Manhattan featured in Hot Rod Magazine, and larger than the one around the highest-mileage car in the world, a Volvo P1800 coupe. I rushed over to see what all the fuss was about. Was it a used Bugatti for sale? A Fiat 500 with an Enzo motor? As I got closer I saw the truth. It was a Cavalier, decked out in custom gear making it a rolling tribute to Chevrolet coupes. It had '54 Corvette headlights and grille, '57 Bel Air-style rear fenders, '63 Corvette split-window rear glass, Impala hints and more. It's powered by an unknown motor, hopefully a V-8, with a nice blower on it, and it was being offered for an amazing deal of $4,000! Thats 5 different cars with a total value of $301,692 for just $4,000. No, just kidding. I wouldn't buy it either, but it does make for a good conversation.

My feet and ankles started aching two hours ago, I'm dehydrated, I've been at this for seven hours and yet I keep going. I've scouted every corner of this property for prizes to behold and oddities not worth mentioning. My camera ran out of memory at three hours in and all I have to convince myself to keep going is the sight around me, which makes it all worth it. I'm not working in a mine surrounded by gold; I'm not running a marathon in California; I'm at Iola Old Car Show in Iola, Wisconsin, one of thousands to come to buy parts at the giant swap meet or just stare at the cars all day long.

Even though it's March, I just can't wait for the Iola Old Car Show. This show is such a big deal that it has enough money to own its own land year-round! This means it is a big deal for us in the Midwest. Though it is in July, I am extremely excited already for the Midwest's largest classic car show. Last year we went on the last day (Sunday) and barely any cars were there compared to the day before, but it was still a larger classic car show than any other I've ever been to. I hope I can get to some early car shows in April to keep my need for Iola down until July, but I can bet you that over half the cars I see locally I'll see at the big show. I just can't wait for the biggest car event in the Midwest! photo from www.iolaoldcarshow.com