classic car

  I spotted the Porsche Carrera S on a trip to Chicago a year ago.

  This Viper RT/10 was a one-time shower at the Howard, WI A&W Cruisin' Nights.

  If you're not familiar with my story about this car, go to http://bit.ly/grantur

  This Ford coupe, like the Viper, was another local find.

  On a trip to Madison, WI, I couldn't identify this truck at first.

  Today I went to the second annual Big 3 Performance car show, which is just a regular thing for me. But when I got there, I knew that I was in for something better than I expected. The posters for the show had shown renderings of the upcoming Jim Wangers Edition GTO, of which only fifty will be built. The Wangers GTO is scheduled for a debut at the next SEMA show, but sitting in the middle of the parking lot under a cover was the unmistakable lines of a muscle car. Could it be?

  I ended up waiting for over four hours at the car show waiting for the reveal, during which I met Jim Wangers, who is touted as the Godfather of the GTO as well as being the inspiration and nameplate for the new car, and visited the guys at Shelby Parts and Restoration across the street. Somebody there remarked that creating a GTO as a tribute to Wangers was like "Creating a Mustang as a tribute to one of Shelby's secretaries", as Jim has been mostly a PR person, traveling the country with the "GeeTO Tiger". Even so, a good car is a good car. At about 11:00 I got impatient and asked one of the Big 3 Performance employees when the big reveal was, and it turned out they were waiting for their camera man to arrive. They said it should be five or ten minutes.

  An hour later the announcement finally came. "Thanks for coming to the Second Annual Big 3 Performance Car Show. We are now going to give you a sneak peek at the new Jim Wangers Edition GTO, so will everyone please make their way to the covered car in the middle of the lot." Everyone rushed over to the car, and some employees went through the whole speech session about how the car was a community effort and what a joy it was to work with Jim. Finally, the covers were pulled off the car to much fanfare, and Jim Wangers was invited to start his car. He then proceeded to rev the wee out of this expensive prototype, and was only stopped from doing a burnout and driving it out by sheer luck. The motor sounded fantastic, different from anything I've ever heard, muscular yet refined, modern yet harkening back to the days of old. I took a video of the unveil, but it doesn't even begin to do justice to the sound of the motor. You can see the video at http://bit.ly/Wangers.

  So you're visiting your cousin Bob who lives in Neenah on Saturday, September 12th? Make sure you come to the biggest event in Green Bay for car fans, an event held on the property of a well-known custom car shop, Big 3 Performance, and Shelby Parts and Restoration, which if you haven't seen on this blog before is a world-renowned Shelby Mustang restoration shop. This car show will showcase everything from a Lamborghinis to Barracudas, with a Dyno available for use and drag racing down the stretch of public road, which is a Wisconsin road so you don't have to worry about bits falling off. Big Three Performance, known for their custom 650hp Mustang, will be the main host of this event, with many judging categories for imports, restored classics and domestic customs. This show will be located at 2215 O'Conor Road in Green Bay, and if you're nearby on the 12th, be there. You can find more info on this show at  http://www.big3performance.com and you can click on the "Annual Auto Show" link in the middle of the page.

Inspired by the recent Concours d'Lemons in conjunction with the real Monterey Concours, I've created this special Lemon Edition Youtube video reel for your enjoyment (and/or disgust).

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.

I went to Shelby Parts and Restoration in Howard again today, only this time I remembered my camera. There were also more cars today, including an all-original GT500 that they ran the engine of with no muffler. You can see the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/36897706@N05/sets/72157619343851742/.

A month or two ago, an article showed up in the local paper about a Mustang restoration place in Howard, which is a town in my area. At first I thought "It's probably just a sales place with cheap frame-on restorations available", but as I read on, it said that this place, just 3.5 miles from my home, is the most coveted, premiere Shelby and Boss restoration place in the world! To think, in a small, unremarkable warehouse in little, 13,000 population Howard, WI, there could be a place like this was just amazing for me.
But for a while I just forgot about it; with searching for a project and maintaining blog updates I was pretty much taken up. I finally remembered the place yesterday afternoon, and ventured there today. The place, called Shelby Parts and Restoration, is situated on a small road that has all one-story auto shops and small outposts of other mechanical companies and would be utterly unremarkable to look at had it not been for a worn sign and a rusted hulk in the parking lot. But it was the right address and had the right name, so we parked and got out.
At first I thought I was going to be disappointed. The rusty 'Stang in the parking lot looked like a regular Ford Mustang and wasn't even a fastback. But the moment we stepped into the warehouse, I was in heaven. Sitting right in front of me was the reason this place is known as the best Shelby restorer on Earth. A completely perfect, 100-point GT500 was on the car lift, with its underside just as utterly perfect as the rest of the car. On the driver-side sun visor there was a signature in silver marker. I didn't have to read it to know whose autograph it was. Carroll Shelby. In another corner of the shop there was an extremely rare Boss 429, which can and will go for much more than a 302 at auction any day. You have no idea what it was like to be in the presence of cars so legendary and so perfect, so like a desert cobra ready to strike. There were a couple of other rare Mustangs in the middle of restoration and under covers for the moment, though on one the rear of the car, with the word SHELBY across it, was visible and made my heart beat even a little faster, if that was even possible by that point.
We spoke to the guy, by the name of Jesse, who was working there that day, and he told us about the place and the cars as we walked around and stared at them. He told us about some of his customers, such as Carroll Shelby himself when he wanted to sell his '69 GT500 Convertible at auction. It was amazing the amount of history in cars, parts, and papers there was there. I would've taken a million photos for you guys, if it hadn't have been for me (very stupidly, I'll admit) forgetting my camera at home. But this place is absolutely amazing, and to think it was right by my home all this time without me ever knowing is even more amazing. The photo is of a 1970 Shelby GT350 restored by them, found at www.carcollectorclassifieds.com, and does not at all do any justice to the absolute quality in these completely perfect cars. It's mind blowing. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have used so many superlatives two sentences ago (sorry, random point there).