2009 Full Size Pontiac
Chi-Town Shindig
It’s no secret that around these parts, Mother Nature has been giving
us an ol’ fashioned beating this year. When Mike Ardito of TriPower
Automotive in Libertyville IL and yours truly, John Piotrowski of
the Full Size Pontiac Club began putting our heads together for
this year’s dust-off, we became increasingly alarmed that the only
way we were going to make this happen was to push it up a few weeks
to the start of May. That may not be an issue for you folks in the
southern and western parts of this great nation, but around here,
early May could be like the dead of summer or the dead of winter..and
we were expecting the worst! Some of our regulars like Arnie Beswick,
Dana Mecum, Rob Lozins et al were already booked up to their eyeballs
but didn’t want to miss the yearly kick-off to the Pontiac cruising
season. OK, we said, it’s going to be May 2nd come hell or high
water. The wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth began as we counted
down the days… May 1st was no picnic. Pouring rain and temps in
the 40s were the flavor for the day but it looked like it all would
push out by our beloved Saturday and did it ever. Mother Nature
was clearly in the mood for some solid lifter 421 noise and blessed
us with a perfect sunny spring day. Every May, Mike and I like to
throw this little get-together to force the faithful to fire up
their Fool Sized Ponchos and come on out for some free grub and
socializin’! It’s grown every year and each year something new and
spectacular shows up.
Dave and Amy of ARS Promotions (www.arspromotions.com) brought their gear to capture the sights and sounds of our yearly Mecca to Pontiac Heaven. Dana Mecum said, “She ain’t no fool sized Poncho, but my long-roof Super Duty Tempest wagon would sure love to be there”. NO PROBLEM DANA! Howza ‘bout a seat in the front row! Arnie Beswick was there to share in the festivities although we caught him behind the wheel of a 1st-gen Camaro for an unexpected photo-op. Ha! Superb blackmail material to be sure! Rob Lozins brought his screaming baby blue 63 SD Cat and Mike had the Van Winkle Swiss Cheese Cat on display in all of its body-off-frame glory. How many of you folks out there have been able to stand around an actual Swiss Cheese frame swilling some soda and shooting the breeze with your Poncho Bros? I contend we’re the luckiest bunch of knuckleheads alive!
Fender to fender to fender 428s, 421s, tri-powers, HOs, RAIV Trans Ams and miles of Bonneville quarter panels are the norm but there is always a new restoration leaving the nest and showing up for the first time for all to see. This year the fresh new face was Arnold’s Plum Mist 67 428 4 speed Grand Prix. Not many have seen many 4 speed 67s period. Last year we had two—one in red and the other blue. This year the Plum Mist honey was finished and all you can say is holy cow. I’m not one of those “my car is more rare than yours” kinda guy, but if there was another one like this made in 67, I want to see it. The parchment interior offered amazing contrast to this stunning example of a 1-of-1 Pontiac tank.
Seems as though our little suare’ is spreading its wings a bit. Robert McCarthy and his daughter Amy from Kalamazoo MI drove their 67 Cat ragtop in and Howard Kestel from TX even decided he had to fly in to see what all the fuss was about. We made sure he left quite satisfied that he hopped on a plane for this gathering.
About 9 hours later as the
last 8 lugs spun their tires out of the lot, we realized that once
again that there is nothing more grand than a group of Full Size
Pontiac faithful convening in a now annual tour-de-force to launch
our cruising season.
Bring on 2009!!!
For additional photos of our
annual event, go to:
A few places you’ll need
to visit for more about the 2009 ChiTown Shindig:
ARS Promotions for a DVD
of the gathering:
www.arspromotions.com
Mike Ardito and the crew
at TriPower Automotive…shindig hosts extraordinaire!
1800 Peterson Road
Libertyville, IL
(847)816-3222
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