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Those with Pontiacs, GMC trucks, Oaklands, Buicks or Oldsmobiles are welcome at the Michigan Widetracker's 33rd Annual Spring Dust-Off car show and swap meet on June 11th.
A pleasant drive to Springfield Oaks County Park in Davisburg brings to a beautiful facility and space for this show!
I hope we see you there!
That facility is very interesting. It's actually an old City of Pontiac grade school, but a very different one. Your first thought is likely, "How do you turn a grade school into a transportation museum, with all those narrow halls and classrooms. The demo and reconstruction cost would be prohibitive".
And most times you'd be right. But this school was designed with an open floor plan concept. With the exception of a few interior walls for the kitchen, gym, bathrooms, there ARE NO interior walls. It's one giant open space. And as you can see in that photo, it's built into the side of a hill, so half the building is 2 stories tall, with an open center atrium. From what I have heard, it was very popular with staff, students and parents. Sadly for some, near bankruptcy for the city forced it's closure and sale.
The building has had several improvements since it's donation. Flooring and drop ceiling removed, overhead doorways installed, one of the several bathrooms removed, a poured cement stage torn out, a new wall of windows added, etc. They are making great progress for an establishment working with only donations. It's going to be very cool when they are done. Heck, it is now!
FYI...while the Pontiac Oakland Museum & Resource Center (POMARC), located in Pontiac Illinois is a Pontiac only museum, this facility in Pontiac Michigan focuses on all means of transportation built in the city of Pontiac over the years. From horse drawn buggies (the genesis of Oakland) to scooters, utility trailers, heavy trucks, buses, GMC motorhomes, and of course, the Pontiac Motor Division and it's Home Plant, all are represented. Both are run by the same man, who in his spare time puts together the Pontiac Oakland Club International's award winning magazine "Smoke Signals" each month. I told him when I was there his days must have 40 hours in them. I honestly don't know how he gets so much done.
Our Pontiac Oakland Club International Chapter #16 Michigan Widetrackers held it's 33rd annual Spring Dust-Off today.
While the forecast 10 days out was a mid-40s % chance of rain, the forecast improved steadily, to where we beautiful sunny skies until about 1:30 or 2pm, mild temps and breezes. The county park and facilities were great as usual. Just a great car show day. We had 98 entries last I heard, which is pretty good given our years off from covid and what-not. Car and event pics to follow.
Sorry all the photos have the same "pose". But the bright mid-day sun made taking all the photos from the same side something of a necessity.
CETA! One of our club members, and past V.P.
Firehawk!
CETA convertible. Class winner IIRC.
Our car on the far end. We arrived early to help with registration and other chores. I was surprised to watch two more red third gens. roll in. The Formula 350 convertible belongs to TGO member OZFOZ. It was great meeting John in person after years of reading his posts here.
Last edited by DynoDave43; 06-11-2022 at 08:53 PM.
This Fiero belongs to OKFOZ's son Daniel. It's an white '88 GT with sunroof, power lumbar seats, and all the improvements that came with the '88 model year. Great car. Class winner. It was nice meeting Daniel as well.
One of the nice things about this show location, aside from the grassy rolling hills and beautiful barn as a backdrop....it's the location of the county fair, and has great facilities. Below, registration, tabulating judging sheets, and a cafeteria. Along with indoor bathrooms (no little blue houses here) and a pole barn for indoor swap space for those who want it, and outdoor space for those who don't...it's just a great place for a car show.
Chinese raffle and Awards Ceremony.
One last peak at our 3 cars together.
From right to left, my wife, me, John (OKFOZ) and his son Daniel.
Wow those are some really great cars! On top of the TAs and other ponchos I loved seeing those Fieros and the Olds Cutlass. This summer I think I will finally show my car at a local show or two, its been too long since I've been to a show
Made it out to the Golling Buick GMC Charity Car Cruise this afternoon. Good turnout, and $1200 raised for the local Orion Veterans Memorial. Good stuff.
Like the last car show, pictures are a little bleached out due to the bright afternoon sunshine. But it was a beautiful day, so it's tough to complain.
Today was a great day for this. Wish I'd been able to get my car in shape in time. Coulda had another red 3rd gen!
How was John, met him years ago with his yellow car.
Hey V6canvas. I was so busy posting show pics, I didn't see you slip this comment in there.
It was a great day for the show. There will be a 34th annual show next year. We'd love to have you and your car there.
John was great. It was nice to finally meet him. His Formula convertible is a fantastic car, and he was very generous with his time, showing me many of the interesting differences in the convertible cars. Met his son as well, who was also very nice to talk to.
That looks like a good time, I will finally be taking mine to a local show and can’t wait.
I hope you have great time. I look forward to seeing some pics of the show when you get back. "Go to have a good time, and you will" they used to say. Enjoyed a sunny, mild afternoon, saw club members, spoke with several folks about their cars, spoke with a few about mine. Helped raise money for a good charity. Win x 5.
This show kept changing, as folks came and went. This was a late arrival. I don't think I've ever seen a purple 4th gen before. It looked like it could have been factory paint, but I was never able to catch up with the owner to ask.
Won his class, and Best of Show I think, or perhaps it was another special category. But the owner walked away with two of them, and deservedly so.
Synergy Green! One of the odd colors that I happen to love, especially the first year i was offered, because it got some color matched interior panels, which I thought did a lot for an interior that needed it.
This is where things started to get a little more interesting. This Z arrived later in the show, and I had missed getting a photo of it. So after lunch, I grabbed my camera and over to have a look. Nice car. I heard this gentlemen asking the owner what he paid for the car (he bought it when it was 1 year old). I think the answer was somewhere in the high $11k range. I mentioned that I had bought an Arctic White RS, L03, 5 speed, 16" wheels/tires, A/C, tilt, AM/FM/cassette, and rear window defogger...my first new car. A pretty plain car, but with my GM employee discount, it was just a shade over $13k. I looked up at the '91 RS shown in post #893...the one with the big turbo, and said, it was pretty much like that one. The owner of the white RS was standing there listening. I mentioned that try as I might, I couldn't help but damage the car. I only owned it a little over a year, and scraped the fender with a loaded snowmobile trailer a friend and I were trying to push through the snow, etched the edge of the hood with lovebug juice on a trip down south to a NASCAR race, and most telling, I burned a baseball sized hole in the carpet in the back installing a nice amplifier. The guy standing there asked where I'd bought it, and I told him Hamilton Chevrolet.
I mentioned that a member of the old GTA Source Page forum had run the VIN for me a few years back, and confirmed it was still registered locally, with someone in a specific town. The guy who owned the white RS said HE LIVED IN THAT TOWN. I asked him if it had the carpet damage, and he said not now, because he had changed the carpet out to get rid of a weird burn mark.
I took his name and number, and looked up the VIN when I got home. Of all the bad luck, the photo I took of his VIN (a number I used to have memorized, and yes it looked familiar) was too blurry to read. But I'd say there a very good chance this was my first new car, which I have not knowingly laid eyes on since 1992.
This RS one the third gen class. I places third.
When I got home, the wife said while the cars out, lets go for a ride. So we took a drive one county north.
Dave, cool story about that white RS! That is just too many things lining up to not be your car. Sometimes I wonder if I've seen any of my previous cars later on in life. Hard to ever know for sure.
The Motor City Chapter of the Pontiac Oakland Club International held it's Motor City Summer Round-Up yesterday at Baker's in Milford. Beautiful sunny day with moderate temps. Several of our Michigan Widetracker's were there, along with some folks I met at our Spring Dust-Off car show a few weeks back.
1969 Grand Prix, original owner, wild green with gold metal flake paint.
Last edited by DynoDave43; 07-10-2022 at 09:56 PM.
05-11-2022, 09:26 PM
