Small town car shows are my favorite. Typically the people are a little bit more talkative and the cars a little bit more out type. Last weekend was a huge car weekend across the country with the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, Bonneville, Hot August Nights, and various other huge shows around the country but while some opted for the big events I headed to the small Midwestern town of Hull, Illinois. Hull is like my adopted home as I spend about four months out of the year there to help out some family with corn harvest. The town itself is a great story in perseverance, resiliency, and the best in what this country has to offer. Looking at the town you would never know it but 20 years ago this year the town of Hull, Illinois fought and lost a very hard fight with the mighty Mississippi River.
The town was flooded but great story after great story would come out of the flood. Neighbors helping neighbor and the whole town coming together to save their school from the flood waters. The town has bounced back with great poise. Another blow was dealt when the school was consolidated with another near by school and the people on the school board, almost none of them from Hull, decided to close down the school there. This would have been the end for many towns, I’ve seen in many times where I live but not for Hull. The school was sold and then turned into a bit of a community center which is now a thriving restaurant, gathering place, and even auction house at times. Not to mention the ball fields and basketball courts still get used regularly. Another great testament to the people of Hull.
So every year, 87 in a row now the community of Hull celebrates with their annual picnic and for five years now it has included a car show. That is of course what brings us to the small community in the flood plain of the Mississippi River.
The quality of cars at Hull was shocking. While not a big show it certainly came through in the quality department. Just check out this wonderfully restored 340 Plymouth Cuda convertible looking great with the Plum Crazy paint and white billboards.
One more pic from now, but I suspect this winter you’ll see a feature on this car.
It’s no surprise that in a farm community you’d see a lot of trucks like this well done Chevy. These are starting to become more popular than the 50s model trucks I think.
One of my all time favorite cars I’ve photographed is this stellar Dodge Charger fully equipped with a 440 six pack. What do you wanna bet this is a runnin’ son of a gun? I’ve shot this car before and if you’d like to see more of it you can find it in our Louisiana Colorfest coverage or from the Barry Apple Festival.
The king of the Chevy muscle cars is the Chevelle. With good looks and big horsepower if you ran into one of these on the street you better have for it.
You know something like oh I don’t know a Hemi Cuda. That would put up a hell of a fight against a Chevelle.
It’s no secret I’m a Mopar man and I’m glad there are other Mopar guys around that bring out these awesome pieces of machinery for people like myself to drool over. You can bet you’ll see more of this car this winter as a feature car and I’d say it’s an early candidate for a top five list when we do our year end awards.
There she is as Springsteen would say “She’s a hot steppin Hemi…….”
While I’m on a Mopar kick how about this Dart Swinger. Yeah baby!
Darts where every where!
Ok Ford guys it’s your turn. You know just your typical LX Mustang.
Whaattttt! Twin turbos under the hood kind of put this one in a class of it’s own. I’ll bet this is one wild ride.
Here’s the local car crew. These guys are great, they are cruisers. These cars get driven to shows not trailered and they’ve been doing it a good while now. I hope to join them on a cruise a little later in the year where of course I will have camera in tow. In case you are wondering. Trans Am, Camaro, Cuda, Trans Am, Challenger, and Nova. What a sweet line up.
One of the local guys has this great SRT-8 Challenger and I gotta think these are some of the first set of authentic Crager SS 20 inch rims in the country. They look amazing on the new Challenger.
I’ll finish this out with one more from the Chevy boys. Think of it as a teaser for more a bit later in the week.
Despite being a small show it looks like I have plenty more material for another post later in the week or maybe this weekend. So if hot rods and muscle cars in your thing look for that soon.