Cruising Holly Hill

Cruisin' The Hill is a car show with a mission to raise funds for school supplies in Holly Hill, Florida, a small town located between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach.  This show is organized by an old racing friend, Tony Cassada.  One of his employees became involved in rasing money for school supplies shortly before his death.  As a tribute to him, and to benefit the kids, a car show was developed in cooperation with the City of Holly Hill.  A lot of cooperation.  There is a Mayor's Award and a Police Chief Award.  The show is held on the lawn in front of City Hall.

The awards are art created from auto parts.  Palm Coast Eddie is a local pin-striper who has an artistic eye to match his talented hands in bringing these unique visions to reality.

The October date selected for the show is the one held by a Street Rod show in downtown Daytona Beach for many years.  Lack of cooperation from that city was that show's doom and Holly Hills' benefit.  This show had developed into an all-types-of-cars show without bounds or restrictive rules.  There was a big group of classic Volkswagens, a few pictured here.

The traditional Street Rods are still well represented.  This year there was a special award for those powered by the flat-head Ford engine, a favorite of builders from the 1930's through the 1960's.  Nostalgia is celebrated.

A newer American Iron style is rapidly growing, known as Restomods, with greatly modified suspensions, engines, brakes, and other systems using the latest technologies in a body that is close to stock.  This Camaro, which is under construction, is a good example.

All that will remain from the Camaro is the body.  In this photo, the new front frame, suspension system, brakes, and rack and pinion steering can be seen.  These builds result in cars with outstanding handling, great ride comfort, and tons of horsepower.

Pickup trucks are becoming quite popular among a couple of car interest groups, including the Restomods.  This 50's Chevy pickup has been developed into a beautiful example of classic-bodied vehicles with modern technology.

Clean is one of the themes in Restomods, as exampled by the Chevy pickup's engine bay- not a wire or a stray hose to be seen, with a paint job under the hood that is magnificent.

Racecars were represented as in this 1960's NASCAR Ford.

And, this very different Drag Racecar, a V-8 powered Fiat 500.

Race Car or Cartoon Car?  Buzz Lightyear inspired this build.  It is always interesting what might motivate someone to spend 100s of hours to build a car unlike what most see as part of the collector car hobby.

Even an old early post-war Willys Jeepster has become a collector car.  This one has been restored to look stock . . . well, the paint jobs from the factory never looked this good.  That is, until you open the hood.  Jeepsters were known to be underpowered in their day.  On today's roads,it would be tough with the low-powered stock 4-cylinder.  So, this one is powered by a Chevrolet V-6.

Customizing was a craze in the 1950's.  An individual changes a car's appearance through modifications to the body and interior.  This Lincoln Continental was the best example of Customizing.  A well-done car.

The custom upholstery was detailed and immaculately done.  The roll and pleat design is traditional and extends from the interior to covering the entire trunk.

There were Subarus, high-horsepower Audi's, newer Mustangs.  Cruisin' The Hill had the widest variety of cars of any car show we have attended.  The welcome to Foreign Cars brought the duo red MGTC down from Flagler Beach.  It was different enough to attract attention . . . and an award.

To add to the fun and festive atmosphere, a group of professional women from Jacksonville supported the show by dressing in 1950's costume, posing for photographs.  They also helped raise funds for school supplies by selling raffle tickets.  How can one say "No"when asked to buy a raffle ticket hawked by these fun-loving ladies?

Cruisin' The Hill - a great event that was great fun, achieving the goal of helping kids in the community by providing school supplies.

Best of Show was a true classic, a 1934 Packard Coupe with a rumble seat.  It is in Concours condition, very worthy of the recognition it received.  The Packard is for sale.  It was tempting to add this beautiful blue car to the home garage, the number of zeros in the price and the lack of space in the garage nixed the deal.

Road Rallye Lake Mirror Classic

The MidFlorida Auto Show & Lake Mirror Concours has a Sunday morning event, one they have held for many years - a traditional sports car road rallye.  Once a common activity for sports car clubs, road rallyes have dropped from favor, maybe due to the reduction in old, two-lane, curvy driving roads that made driving a good-handling sports car so much fun.  This rallye is a fun rallye, one where the challenge is to follow the correct course, based on some short, concise directions.  It is a competition, with scoring based on the accuracy of measuring the length of the course (difficult when you miss a turn or get lost) and the accuracy of answering cryptic questions along the route.  For those who become lost, there is an emergency envelope, with road names and insturctions to the finish point.  An open envelope results in penalty points.

Although the car shows are limited to cars built prior to 1972, there are no stipulations on what cars can enter the rallye.  In fact, classic cars were rare, only 3, outnumbered by SUVs.  There were a number of Corvettes, possibly due to one of the major sponsors being Stingray Chevrolet.  The Little Blue Coupe is pictured above among much larger and newer automobiles.

Ford Heacock, the founder of the Lake Mirror Classic (my shortened term for this long-titled event), retains his love of classic cars and his joy in driving them.  He ran the rallye in a 1930 Ford Model A racer, complete with leather helmets and goggles.  The goggles are a needed safety item since the car has no windshield, a weight and aerodynamic improvement for racing.

If you are going to drive a classic car, why not dress in the period attire?  The team wore cotton coveralls adorned with the Mobile flying horse, a company that sponsored many racing cars during that period.  Fire-retardant racing suits are a relatively new invention.

As with everything at the Lake Mirror Classic, the rallye was well organized and supported.  The starting point was a building in the Lake Mirror Park, with ample parking and donuts and coffee in the meeting area.  A drivers' meeting is held to answer questions about the rules and directions.  There was a full page of general instructions, defining all of the conventions of the shorthand used to construct the direction statement.  One consistent of this rallye is that the endpoint is unknown.  One of the challenges is to arrive at the rallye finish for comradery, lunch, and awards.

There are some old, two-lane roads left in the state of Florida.  The rallye route included no 4-lane roads in the route.  Here, the Ford Model A racer passes one of the entrants driving an SUV.  Oh, it would be much more fun if the winner was determined by who completed the course in the shortest time, but the local authorities would not understand nor look favorably on that type of rallye.  In fact, going slow is beneficial.  Reading the instructions, looking for the 3rd opportunity to turn left, not counting dirt roads, private roads, dead end roads (of which there are many), while at the same time trying to answer the question: "What letter did the Post Office Lose?" is difficult at a high rate of speed.

The rally finish was at the Linder Regional Airport, where the other large Lakeland Festival is held, the Fun 'n Sun International Fly-In.  Early arrivals could examine the airplanes, visit the museum, or get acquainted with the other rallye participants.  Lunch was served, door prizes awarded (toolsets, floor jacks, and other niceties for your garage), and the rally winners announced.

The airplane hanger used for the rallye finish and awards is part of Kathlene High School.  It is the classroom for the technical aspects of their Aerospace Academy.  Part of the program at the luncheon was a presentation by the Academy students on the program and their activities.  The students build and maintain the airplanes they fly.  Engineering and mechanics are part of the curriculum.  And, they fly the planes.  They have their own grass runway at the airport, the only high school program that can make that claim.

Being career educators, we enjoyed learning about the Academy, the students' achievements and goals, and the love for learning that the Academy has created for them.  A nice ending to the rallye.  The rallye participants all enjoyed the presentations, evident in their engagement with the students and the questions they asked.

Fast Cars, Classic and Current

The Lake Mirror Classic Rallye was a great event.  An opportunity to drive the classic car in competition, visit with other car enthusiasts, and make new friends.  It will be on our calendar for October 2020.

Lake Mirror Concours d'Elegance

MidFlorida Auto Show & Lake Mirror Concours Photo

The 20th Anniversary of the MidFlorida Auto Show & Lake Mirror Concours d'Elegance was held in Lakeland Florida, October 18 -20, 2019.  Months earlier, we had sent the required application, complete with photos, submitting The Little Blue Coupe for consideration.  The letter from Ford Heacock, founder of the event and of Heacock Classic car insurance, announcing acceptance into the event was exciting.  More so because our MG was accepted into the Councors class rather than the Auto Show.  The event exceeded our highest expectations.  It was of the highest quality, shared with great poeple, and many new friends were made.  The Show and Concours began with an elaborate cocktail party, had reserved parking on the show field with a professional sign describing each car, and included a nice lunch. Even the fact that Tropical Storm Nestor decided to visit at the least opportune time, it was still a wonderful experience.  Unfortunately, the deluge of rain moved the show indoors, in nearby parking garages.  The above photo from the event's website is from 2018.

The parking garage did not have any of the ambiance of the park around Lake Mirror, but it was dry.  And, later in the morning, when the rains ended and the sun returned, the light better illuminated the cars.

The Concours d'Elegance is a judged event.  Cars are evaluated by a team of judges to determine Best of Show and Best of Class in each class.  The Best of Class awards were swans sculpted in Alabaster.  The swan is the symbol of the City of Lakeland, whose lakes are home to many of these birds.

Classic cars are works of art and examples of innovative engineering.  This Bugatti was obviously deemed to be a special automobile by the organizers as its parking place in the garage was right in front of the awards table on a red carpet.  It truly exhibits the highest of art and engineering and is presented in an immaculate restoration.

From any angle, the majesty of this automobile is apparent.  The styling, quality components, and detailed construction all add to the aura that surrounds this car.

The brake system would rival any artist from any medium.  The aluminum brake drum is an integral part of the wheel.   The structure is made of angled spokes serving as a fan to direct air over the drum for cooling.  Some would believe that alloy wheels are a relatively new invention on the automotive scene.  Not so.

Another early classic in the show was a 1929 Sterns Knight, a car that represented the height of luxury.  Its weight of 6600 pounds indicates the heavy, strong construction of this automobile.  Knight refers to the engine, a patented sleeve-valve engine often called the Silent Knight for its quiet running.

Knight licensed the engine to multiple automobile manufacturers in the United States and Europe.  Cars with the Knight engine could carry the intricate Knight ornament, which is proudly displayed atop the radiator cap on this car.

With this green and yellow combination, the car pictured here is unmistakenly a Lotus, of Colin Chapman's design.  This example is a 1962 Lotus 23R, designed for road racing, based on the design of the Lotus Formula 1 car.  While not actually built in 1962, this car was constructed in 2015 from the spare
parts collection produced to service the original car.  Race cars do break parts.

This Lotus is so exact in relation to the 1962 car that sanctioning bodies in Europe and North America have approved it for vintage racing.  This one will be headed to the race track running in the vintage classes of SCCA.

Yes, the car is tiny, but it is blazingly fast.  Colin Chapman's main design strategy to create a fast car was to make it as light as possible.  The Lotus 23 R weighs 975 pounds and is powered by a twin-cam 1600cc Ford engine producing 186 horsepower.  Compare that power/weight ratio to a 400 horsepower Mustang weighing 3000 pounds.  Easy to see which car will be faster on the race track.

This 1964 Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite is another British racing car.  Built by Austin Healey for the 1964 12 Hours of Sebring, aerodynamics was the major focus to reduce lap times.  In the 60's, Sebring had a very long straight down a WWII airport runway, giving cars with high top speeds an advantage

The slicker the car appears to the air, the higher a top speed that can be reached.  The Austin Healey factory designed this body based on the aerodynamic physics as they were understood at the time.  Interesting, another similarly designed race car also first appeared in 1964, the Daytona Cobra Coupe.

At the time this car raced, the racing rules for sports car racing required that the cars carry a spare tire and have space for a specified-size piece of luggage.  The requirement was intended to ensure that cars racing in Grand Touring classes had the capabilities of serving as a road-going touring car.

This Sebring is a one-off car.  Only one was built for the 1964 12 Hours of Sebring.  Sadly, it only made nine laps in the race, retiring due to a broken axle.  It never raced again and currently has only 800 miles - a perfectly preserved piece of racing history.

H.F.S. Morgan built his first car in 1909. It was a three-wheeled car (two in front and one drive wheel in the rear) and proved to be popular.  He began manufacturing his cars and is known for three-wheelers.  The Morgan company built its first four-wheeled car in 1936, which they called the Morgan 4-4, since it had 4 wheels and a 4 cylinder engine.

In 1950, Morgan updated their car by installing a larger engine, called the +4, because the engine was a plus size.  This car is a Plus Four, built in 1967.  The owner of this car purchased it 36 years ago, a long-time caretaker.  He just finished a total, frame-off restoration of the car earlier in the year.  It shows.  Every aspect of the car is immaculate.

In 1967, the plus-sized engine was a Triumph engine use by that company in the Triumph TR4A.  Originally, it was equipped with 2 SU carburetors.  This engine has been uprated a bit as can be seen in the twin, dual-throat Weber carbs.

Morgans are still being produced today, 850 cars per year.  Each is hand built.  No production line for this company honoring its past in the present day.

One of the car groups was most appropriate for a day driving through a tropical storm - Amphicars, cars designed to travel on land and on water.

Now, back to British cars.  The Lake Mirror Concours has a focus group each year, recognizing a type of car.  For the 20th anniversary year, the focus group was British cars, which made up the largest class in the event.  We were delighted when we got the news that Jill's Little Blue Coupe was accepted for the Concours.  It is an honor and a joy to be invited and be able to be a part of such a great event.

Early in the morning, a guy came by and presented the Coupe with a red ribbon.  When quizzed how awards were being presented when the judges have not viewed the cars yet, he answered: "This is not the Concours award.  The mayor gives awards from the City of Lakeland and your car was chosen for second place."  Unexpected.  We were just enjoying all the cars and car people.  Nice touch though.

Later the Concous Judges came to evaluate the cars.  The judge for the British Focus Group was Bob Tullius, the mastermind behind Group 44, the racing team that fielded British race cars in the US for decades.  Truely, someone who knows British cars.  This photo captures Bob with Jill and the Little Blue Coupe at the airport where the Road Rallye, run on Sunday morning, ended.

So, which of the British cars was Bob Tullius' favorite?  Among the Jaguars and Triumphs that Group 44 raced for many years, his affections were stolen by that Little Blue Coupe - Best in Class, All British.  Jill was thrilled when Ford Heacock presented the award.

The sun came out before the show ended, providing an opportunity for a photo session at the park surrounding Lake Mirror.  Robbed of the opportunity to show in the park by Tropical Storm Nestor, the chance for a couple photos recording the winning car with Lake Mirror in the background was welcomed.

The MidFlorida Auto Show & Lake Mirror Concours is an outstanding event with more cars and activities happening than can be visited during the one-day show.  Whether a spectator or participant, there is much to enjoy.  It will be on our calendar as an every-year event.  Next year's dates are October 16 -18, 2020.