Category Archives: Car Shows

Our World Tuesday – 2018 Tulsa Auto Show

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Friday afternoon, I hooked up with one of my friends and we made our way to the Tulsa Auto Show at Expo Square.  The show features lots of new cars and has quite a few older cars. This year the hit of the show was the 1939 GM Futurliner that I posted about a couple days ago. Hit the link to go to that post if you wish. I am of two minds about cars. I love the technology, safety features, and durability of new cars but I love the styling of the old cars. Having said that, old cars of any type are a pain in the rear to own without major upgrades.  Changing spark plugs, condenser, and coil the time, checking the timing was a major pain. Flooding out whenever you splashed through water was terrible. I hate older cars. I love the newer cars. Except they all look alike.

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So we looked at all the cars but I took photos mainly of the older cars. Especially the Ford Thunderbirds. I don’t think there are that many more beautiful cars than the mid 1950’s Thunderbirds. They styling, the colors!!

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But like I said before. I don’t want to own one. Hey, you have one and want to loan it to me for a day on a nice sunny day. Sure, I will take you up on it. But I will return it and drive back home in my old Kia Soul. (All is Well, With My Soul, as the hymn goes.)

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Not just the tbirds, most of the cars had nice streamline, swoopy styling and many unique paint jobs.

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And some had chrome everywhere. I love a lot of chrome.

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So I admit, I took photos of almost all the old cars and hardly any of the new cars. The new cars all look like Toyotas anyway.

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I love this two tone paint.

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Here is an oldster.

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Here is an ugly older car. it looks like an upside down bathtub.

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Here is something unique. It looks like a gangster car. You can tell I am not a real car guy. My friend was and knew what all the cars were and he told me but I am an old guy and it was in one ear and out the other. If the cars have window tags I generally take photos of those for later reference. No window tags though. So you are on your own identifying these.

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Now this, this is a Pierce Arrow. Love, love, love this car. I highly recommend that you buy one, and let me borrow it from time to time.

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It has got one of the prettiest hood ornaments ever. The Tulsa Route 66 Marathon passes out replicas for their race models. I am a proud owner of one of them.

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How about one of these. What child of the late 50’s and 60’s didn’t get hauled around in a station wagon.  Nine or ten kids would fit in these, some laying down in the back. It is a wonder we didn’t all die.

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Here is a new car I found. The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. It has a 707 horsepower engine and brakes to match. Its kind of sad. When it first come out a few years ago and was on display it was mobbed by guys looking at it. Of course, their were young women in short skirts and high heels answering questions. Now, you got guys with clipboards wanting to answer your questions, at least when they look up from their cell phones and happen to notice you. I felt like asking them where the women with high heels were but didn’t want to get all swarmed up in the me too movement.

So that’s a wrap on this years Tulsa Auto Show!!

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

2017 Tulsa Auto Show

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I took some time off work early today and checked out the 2017 Tulsa Auto Show at Expo Square in Tulsa. It is the 100th Anniversary of the Show!

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I’ve been going to the show off and on for over two decades and it has steadily shrunk. Maybe this year will be a turning point.

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They had new cars of course and many vintage cars. The vintage cars in my eyes are just plain a lot more interesting than the new cars. Most of the new cars look like Toyotas in my opinion. Nothing wrong with Toyotas. I love them that are very good dependable cars but a bit boring.

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Not that many new cars have a sense of style. There are exceptions. I love the Ford Flex above and of course the car above it, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. I got on the web site and configured one for only $75,000 bucks and change. That is about five times what I paid for my Kia Soul.

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For about the same price as the Hellcat you can have this Toyota  uh er,  I mean Maserati Levant boring if you ask me.

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Now this Range Rover has a little style.

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Or this storm chasing vehicle. I don’t get storm chasers. Do storm chasers do anything useful. Here in Oklahoma we watch storms on TV a lot. The typical storm chaser report is like “Yea Dan, we are in downtown Bartlesville and there is definitely some wind and some rain!” Seriously dudes. Stay home, get off the road. Where you can do something useful like take out the trash.

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I love the older cars like this mid 1950’s Chevy.

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Or this vintage NASCAR stock car.

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I love the older Thunderbirds, lots of funky colors. No Toyotas back then.

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I even like the Corvairs.

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And I love the restored mid century pick up trucks. The curves and colors on this.

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And this

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Who doesn’t love an old British Sports Car?

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Adn I love the really old cars. Don’t want to own one mind you, I just like looking at them.

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These cars are beautiful but give me a boring modern car any time to actually own and operate.

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Cars have come a long way over the decades. Our family always had sketchy cars. I never knew if they would start or not. I don’t know how we did it back in the days before cell phones. I had lots of experience with getting a jump from somebody and other skills necessary to get things going. I don’t even own jumper cables any longer.

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OSU Tech had a demo car that showed the engine and drive train moving. I loved it.

Check out the Tulsa Auto Show if you are interested. It has two more days to run. 10 to 9 on Saturday and 10 to 6 on Sunday. Get two for one tickets at Quik Trip and save some money. Check out the Hellcat!

2016 Tulsa Leake Car Auction

Friday is my day off, Heather had to teach an exercise class, and Logan is out of school so I dragged him to the Fairgrounds to the Leake Car Auction.

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Lots and lots of cars there. I’m partial to red cars, lIke this Mustang above.

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Or the Porsche being cleaned up. It is hard to be a Porsche for styling.

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I also love the big American cars of the 1950’s like this 1954 Crestline Victoria. I love all the chrome, that beautiful blue color, and the swoopy curves.

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I don’t mean I ever want to own one I just like looking at them.

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I like the more homely but distinctive cars also such Trifun quarter ton truck. The three wheels are a gas.

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And the tilting bed. They said only 300 miles since new but the seats and everything else in the cab was very worn. It was a very hard 300 miles.

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And who doesn’t love a land cruiser. These are classic vehicles. 

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How about an air boat for hunting alligators?

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I love the camo but don’t you know that thing is loud.

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By far my favorite of the show was this heavily modified1967 Land Rover

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It had the best and most puzzling hood ornament.

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It looks like it could be chasing down lions and elephants in Africa.

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I like the “scouting seats” up above. Scouting seats my butt, I bet rich Texans sat up there and shot at critters. If somebody wants to buy it for me I would sit up there and shoot critters also, with my camera.

2016 Daryl Starbird Car Show – Ford Model T Skull Bucket

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I love the yellow and purple… and all the chrome, don’t you??

This latest weekend was the latest installment of the Starbird Car Show here in Tulsa. The event is just mind boggling. There are hundreds of cars on display and they are almost all one of a kind in one or another and the display of creativity, craftsmanship, hard work and pride that the owners put into their machines is just amazing. I took hundreds of photos but don’t worry, I’ll spare you.

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The spoiler and those big ole wide tires…

The guys that build the machines are car guys. I am not a car guy but I know several. I hardly ever pop the hood on my own car let alone do anything to the car. My Dad taught me how to do all the now obsolete skills. Change the points, adjust the timing, gap the spark plugs, all that stuff. All that has gone by the wayside now. But there are still lots of people who modify engines, change transmissions, put in new rear differentials. Others who do their own body work and have learned wire welding and how to paint. I salute them.

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So, is that a legal turn signal. Have you ever had a skull wink at you?

The cars at this show are done by the professionals and dedicated amateurs who have poured hundreds of hours into these creations.

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The small little death’s head on top of the headlight. Does your car have that feature?

I hardly ever miss the regular Tulsa Car show held in the Spring of the year. The cars are great but are not very distinctive. All the sedans look like Toyota Camry’s in my opinion. Nothing wrong with that mind you but I like looking at bright colors and outrageous designs.

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Well, I don’t think it gets good mileage and the tank is rather small. I think it will get you a quarter mile which is long enough.

Anyways, you may wonder why I take hundreds of pictures of great and unique cars and yet show only pics of one car. Hey if you figure it out let me know and then we will both now. I am just simply overwhelmed so I decided to just start with one of my favorites.  I’ll be doing other posts on this cars and dribbling out on Instagram as time goes by.

So, have you seen a car you like lately?

2015 Darryl Starbird National Rod & Custom Show

Saturday I dropped the kid off at his Improv group and headed over to the Tulsa Fairgrounds in order to check out the Darryl Starbird National Rod & Custom Show.  I’ve been to lots of car shows but I had never been to this. It is a show of custom and hot rod cars. They are labors of love and I don’t see how the owners will ever recover the value of the time and money they have put in their cars.

1965 Cobra

1965 Cobra Mustang. I love the fake snakes on the body of the car and in the trunk. I least I think they are fakes. I told you that I am not much of a car guy. I’m attracted to fancy paint jobs and the lines and appearance of the car.

1940 Ford

1940 Ford. I love the color and white wall tires and the chrome on the wheels, bumper, grill and headlights, and again the swoopy lines. (Swoopy is a word. I wouldn’t try it in WWF though.)

1948 Chevrolet

1948 Chevrolet, gorgeous color, and the wide whitewalls on the tires and I love the chrome bumper and simple lines.

1950 Packard

1950 Packard painted up to look like an Army staff car. Apparently Packards were popular with the generals back then for staff cars. I can see why. I love the hood over the windshield and the way the engine hood opens up.

1950 Ford?

Now, my tagging says 1950 Ford but I am uncertain about that. I just love the two toned color scheme and all the chrome and that huge grill.

1938 Chevrolet Business Coupe

1938 Chevrolet Business Coupe. Look at that tall grill and that paint job. Wonderful. I loved how they displayed this car with the cool lighting that really made it shine.

1940 Plymouth Road King

This is a 1940 Plymouth Road King. The owner is the son of the original buyer and it has been the family since it was brand new, 75 years. It has been a labor of love for him. He did all the work himself and he dedicates the car to his late wife who died of cancer.

Custom Triton

I am not sure but I think this car is a total custom car. A one of a kind. Look at the headlights. The car has a clear acrylic roof that has air conditioning vents in it. And I love the paint job. Notice the shrouds around the rear wheels. This car is wonderful.

1953 Buick Convertible

A 1953 Buick Convertible. Oh my, the red leather seats, the black and white paint job. How long and sleek it is. This is a wonderful car.

So that was just a sampling of what was there. In addition to all the super deluxe show cars there were many cars on display by other people who have nice cars and keep them in good shape and polished and detailed them for the show.

Plus they had some people there demonstrating how custom cars are built. There was non-stop music and I think they had some small races later in the day. I left because I was overwhelmed plus I had to go pick up the kid.

I’ll be back next year!!

Check out Darryl Starbird National Rod & Custom Show

Linking with Our World Tuesday

I like cars but I am not a car guy and I don’t take very good notes. In fact I take no notes and the way I try to keep things straight is by taking photographs of the accompanying posters. Often I don’t do a very good job of it so if I misidentify something please leave a comment and set me straight.

Ruby Tuesday – 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

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Logan and I went to the Leake Car Auction here in Tulsa to look at some cars. I’m kind of drawn to the red ones for some reason. I was also drawn more to the 1950’s and earlier cars than I was to the newer ones. I guess I’ll never grow out of it. If you look really hard at the corner of the chrome bumper you can see me, maybe.

Ruby Tuesday

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