Troy Kiwanis Club exceeded expectations with Saturday’s Best in Alabama Car Show. By 10 a.m., the show had topped the number of entries in prior years.
“We’re 20 percent ahead of last year,” said Caleb Dawson, one of the organizer of the event. “We’ve got everything from new cars to ones older than the people here today.”
But the cars were only half the attraction. Car owners were nearby ready to share their story.
“There’s always a cool story,” said Caleb Dawson, one of the organizers of the event. Most owners had invested time and money into their prized possessions and were more than willing to share the details.
Glenn Johnson entered his 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air into Saturday’s car show. His story was about a different Bel Air. He spent thousands of dollars restoring his automobile.
“I had just about finished it when a woman hit me from behind and totaled it out,” he said. “I took the insurance money and bought this one fully restored.”
Richard Shaughnessy’s story started more than 30 years ago when he saw his first Harley Davidson motorcycle, an FXS lowrider.
“When I was 12, my dad took me to the Harley Davidson shop and that was the first time I ever saw a Harley Davidson. That’s what hooked me,” he said. “It was the first chopper style bike Harley Davidson rolled out.”
In 1978, the bikes sold for about $3,800. Shaughnessy has more than $5,000 invested in it. “That pipe was 900 bucks,” he said pointing to the exhaust pipe. “In 1978, they were throwing them away.”
Saturday’s car show bore a new generation of car lovers. Ron Morgan brought his two sons, Alex and Kacey. He told the boys what he knew about the cars and how they worked. Alex and Kacey had only seen cars like the ones in the show in the video games they played.
“I like the orange one,” said Kacey Morgan.
In its four years, the show had grown into one of the organization’s biggest fundraisers of the year, second only to this year’s Princess Ball. Dawson said both would return next year.