Scottsdale Pavillions Car Show

October 2, 1999

(Trip Report by Dean Hathaway)

For a while I thought I might be the only one going to the Scottsdale Pavillions for our bi-annual Car Show Run this time. The October newsletter carried the main notification of the event and it hit the streets on the day of the show. Also, several of the board members who already knew the date were not planning to attend due to various scheduling conflicts.

When I rolled in about 3:30 PM I was glad to see Mike Lachance arriving just ahead of me, and David Moerman already parked and prowling the growing display of hot rods, etc. with his camera. We were shocked when Jack Q. Jones soon rolled in with his blindingly immaculate Turquoise '67.

Of all the great things we have at our disposal in Arizona Classic Bronco, it appears that an accurate grapevine is not one of them. It had been so widely rumored that Jack had sold this fantastic machine that it was actually reported in the September newsletter. Jack says it ain't so. In fact, we were talking about Fabulous Fords Forever later in the day and he wants to make that trip with it come april.

As we huddled low in the shade of Mike's '66 Bronco (which, thanks to the bright new 170 c.i. 105 h.p. six banger, looks better under the hood than anywhere else) a few more trucks trickled in. I still thought we probably would not get enough to fill the row we had started. Walking around a little I spotted a white '69 Bronco roadster across the lot and went to see if it was one of 'ours.' As it turned out, the guy had no knowledge of us at all, but he joined the club on the spot. Welcome aboard Jim!

As it got a little cooler the Broncos began to roll in and we more than filled the row we had started. There were quite a few people and trucks I had never seen before and we got several new inquiries about membership, including some from people who came by to look at the regular hot rods, etc. but said "Hey, I've got one of those!" "I oughta be in your club."

One of the neatest previously unseen trucks belonged to a guy named Frank who has campaigned Broncos in the Mud Bogs for years. After talking about it for a while and looking at some of his pictures I realized I have video tape at home that I shot of him in the mud 12 or 15 years ago at the fabled, best ever, but now long gone, Deer Valley Mud Bog. The ride he had with him was a beautiful red half-cab with a cage he built himself. Full harnesses and racing instruments gave the sharp interior a business-like appeal.

Some folks who recently arrived from Reno, Nevada had one of the outright prettiest Bronco's I've seen. A vision in green-blue metallic. I hope Kevin will also be joining.Lest you think that they were all pretty trucks or that was our intent, such was not the case. We had plenty of trucks that are still in the progress of being finished (isn't that all of them though) and some that were probably just seeing how far they could go as is.

Many thanks to Cliff Wintring for bringing extra newsletters to me at the show, hot off the presses. I was able to hand out several to prospective members and that should help them decide to join.We met new people and visited with old friends and even a few of the regulars who said they couldn't be there showed up after all.

The show normally ends about 9PM, but long after the rest of the cars and people were gone there was a line of old Broncos and a circle of people in lawn chairs in front of them discussing everything Bronco and then some. We even heard about Mikey's misadventures with motorcycles, after which I'm surprised he lived long enough to become a Bronco nut.

Finally, about 11:30 PM we tried to send some of the ladies out to look for firewood so we could build a campfire and stay all night, but they refused. And so it was that another great trip came to an end. You know you have a good group when you can have this much fun in a paved parking lot.

- deano