Strong car show turnouts indicate rekindled interest in classic, vintage models

Parked in a gravel lot, somewhat obscured from the grassy infield, was Chad Dawkins’ purple 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.

“I had an old Corvette at home. This is something I just caught up with,” said Dawkins, of Adams Run. “I like all the pony cars.”

The Barracuda, though, is something special. He bought the muscle car with 383 cubic-inch engine in New Jersey about a year ago.

Dawkins displayed the 40-year-old coupe Aug. 4 at the Open Car, Truck & Motorcycle Show held the first Wednesday of every month at Bessinger’s Bar-B-Q on Savannah Highway.

“We frequented it before we had cars,” he said. Dawkins, his wife Jackie and daughter Kat regularly attend the shows, particularly the monthly events with food nearby. “We call it the barbecue circuit,” he quipped.

Kat, 4, likes the noise her Daddy’s car engine makes. “It vrooms,” she exclaimed.

Dawkins’ classic Plymouth was one of 115 vehicles shown at the event. Despite a sluggish couple of years in the car business, the show has attracted sizable throngs every month in 2010.

“This is our biggest year,” said Tom Jameson, a car enthusiast who organizes the show. Not only are car and trucks flocking to the event but a dozen or so motorcycles typically are on display. In prior years, the cycle totals were a handful at best.

The Wednesday night cruise-in, one of the better-known car shows in the Charleston area, has attracted as many as 145 vehicles at a single event this year, Jameson said. Owners arrive from all over greater Charleston, paying $5 to park their showpieces for fellow enthusiasts and casual observers to admire.

Last Wednesday, newer sports machines such as Mustangs and Camaros parked visibly in the corner of the lot along White Oak Avenue.

Classics such as gussied up Chevys, Buicks, Fords, Oldsmobiles and British MGs from the ’50s and ’60s lined the grass field as kids played with hula hoops and the cover band Cruise-O-Matics jammed on a makeshift stage.

There’s typically a few oddities — this month there was a 1961 Corvair truck — as well as models with accessories to harken back to their era such as ’50s vehicles with car hop trays, complete with fake food and wrappings, attached to driver side windows.

In the paved parking lot under the Bessinger’s sign were motorcycles, hot rods and a few antique models such as a 1934 Ford and a black 1939 Cadillac.

“We are just so fortunate on a Wednesday night to get that kind of crowd,” Jameson says.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com