CARHUNTER : IN MY OWN BACKYARD-SARATOGA SPRINGS/ALBANY PART 4

The road tour of private collections led up to the spring invitational car show on Saturday at the Saratoga Auto Museum and closing out this four part blog.

The park next to the museum is fantastic and a perfect setting, the Hemmings Concours D'Elegance is held here in the fall

1914 Metz Speedster - this was one of the exotic go-fast cars in the teens!

Stopped me in my tracks with a skid in the grass!

426 wedge, not max wedge and it has factory installed a/c RARE!

Never noticed a 400 Malibu before? A 400 Big Block was a .030 larger bore 396 and in actuality was a 402, Chevy had a 400 small block which was confusing, but all 400 small blocks were 2bbl cars I believe

Chrysler 300 series when it meant something special not like the millions of 300 C's running around today! Look for a little blog soon

If this is a rare Nickey Chevrolet modified car from Chicago (some sold out in Anaheim California) this is very cool, I am not a Chevy expert although I will work on it - L72 Corvette 427 engines were dropped in the new lightweight Camaro in its first year, this is an L89 aluminum head engine, an $800+ option back then just for adding the heads?

I apologize to the owner if I am wrong and is a very nice car regardless, but my eye and gut say this is very well done "tribute" I won't say clone because it is a 67 Camaro and was not cloned (hate that word) like a sheep in a lab.

Only 14 cars were built and out of those only 3 with the L89 aluminum heads which all seemed to have been the 435 HP tri-power (3 2bbl carbs)

Too many perfect details say well thought out and planned, which I have no problem with if you say so.

1969 Trans AM first year and a convertible to boot

Guess what, only 8 convertibles were ever built so again without any input is this just a tribute?

The show was split into an invitational portion and an every car welcomed section. I have to question some of the invitational cars as some were not what I considered to be world class cars and authentic.

50th anniversary of the Mustang has brought out special invites to all Pony owners everywhere

This guy just bought this Superbird and told me he had to sell his dog and 2 of his kids so the wife was a little upset so I assured him it was worth it. Real nice guy and I can tell he was proud and excited about the car, good for him!!

I did give him one of my fascinating facts about the Superbird and although several Dodge Daytonas had vinyl tops added all Plymouths had boars grain vinyl tops. You may ask why? Of course I am going to tell you, the winged cars were mandated to be sold to the public to allow usage in NASCAR and all of the Dodge Daytonas were modified by Creative Industries which included a more aerodynamic rear window plug along with the wing and extended nose. The process was very time consuming so faced with a deadline to qualify with NASCAR Plymouth did all the Superbirds in house and to save time were a little "sloppy" on the roofs so they just covered them in thick grain vinyl and pushed em out to the dealers. I know if you are younger and not a big NASCAR fan you may not realize they used to be called Stock Cars and were stock production bodies not the faceless blobs with decaled grilles and taillamps!

Old Mopars with Mopar drivelines!

RULE #1 DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF A MOVING CAR, the guy below just stood in front of that Depot Hack with a rather mature gentleman driving and I was staring in shock then decided to take the photo of the next potential hit!

It is bad enough in a car show display and we all want the cars lined up, but I have noticed parking as a spectator some idiot standing in front of me and telling me to move up another 3" - ok its a parking lot and what is the difference if I am 3" too far back. The stupidest part of this is at at least in the car show there is a person who cares a lot about the car and does not want to dent it with that guys head on the hood, but in the parking lot for spectators its many more everyday sloppy careless drivers for the love of Goodrich STAND TO THE SIDE!! Lets ruin the show by having Jim pinned under an old car!

Whoa, made it and no volunteers were injured in the parking of this show car!

Remember the old under hood B&M and Weiand superchargers?

It's a sled of the lead variety

Oh yes the rare California Sport Special only sold in that there state had Shelby styling pieces with special stripes - there is one being driven around NYC on a regular basis!

There was a Colorado Sport Special too, find one of them!

Lotus

SC / Rambler TONY!

Love my 70's B Bodies and this was detailed except the engine had all that junk from the chrome shop

$24 pick up bed extension option

Nice Plymouth roadster for a change

Had to see this Packard in person to appreciate 100%

Air Cooled Franklins built in NY State

1926 Willy's Knight

Love my packards and a running barn find!

German Police and the guy came back wearing a leather German police uniform- yikes, vehicles great, uniform not so great, grow up and put it on a display stand instead of dressing in costume