This Year’s Cruz

The Cruz — Kitsap County’s biggest car show — was held on Sunday in Port Orchard. Perfect sunny weather, almost 600 cars, and a great job by the Saints Car Club, which runs the event. The photo shows their pick as the Best of Show, a stunning restored 1957 Corvette owned by a Port Orchard man.

The Corvette is unusual not just because of the awards it has won (Top Flight and Duntov among them) or the dual quad carburetors attached to its 283 CID engine. What’s rare is its transmission. There were only 400 cars equipped with four-speed transmissions out of 6000+ Corvettes built in 1957, and this one is date-coded as the first of the lot!

Following are observations about car shows in general and this year’s Cruz, an annual show I have attended for almost 30 years ever since it moved from Bremerton to Port Orchard’s downtown waterfront in 1998:

• The standard transmission isn’t dead yet — at least in collector cars. You may not be able to buy a new car with a stick, but there were plenty of them at the Cruz, both from the era when automatics were a luxury item and in hot rods and muscle cars from the 60’s and 70’s. These cars weren’t trailer queens so obviously their owners have the skill and patience to drive them. My favorite transmission, even now, is a three-speed on the column. In the past I owned two cars equipped that way. Hopefully I can find car number three if I get serious about searching for another collector vehicle.
• The Cruz is a big show, and it draws cars from the Olympic peninsula and from south of the Narrows Bridge. But most of the cars are local, including a high number from Port Orchard and Gig Harbor. Even so, it’s rare to see a collector car out for a drive other than on show days. I used to drive my 1955 Bel Air at least once a week all year round. It’s unfortunate that most collector car owners don’t have the time to do this plus the cars are so valuable now that many owners need to weigh risk vs. enjoyment when deciding whether to drive them.
• Tri-Five Chevrolets are still popular. I saw at least 30 at the Cruz, possibly the largest category of cars at the show unless they were outnumbered by Corvettes or muscle cars. I’m fan of Tri-Fives, but I don’t go to a car show just to see them. I would much rather look at unusual makes and models from the orphan car manufacturers, plus sedans and coupes from the era immediately before and after WW II.
• With almost 600 cars, there’s no way to give each one a close look and evaluation. So I focus on cars that include a writeup by the owner with details about the car’s history. I like reading them. One car — a 1950 Ford Custom — had been owned by the same family since new and apparently one of the family members who is now 90 no longer drives it because she needs a car with power steering. (So do I.) Anyway it looked great, was being offered for sale, and had a three-speed transmission. I should have noted the contact information. Just kidding on that.
• I wish I knew more about the age demographics of the people who go to a show like the Cruz. The collector car hobby needs to keep attracting and retaining new fans, so the more young people I see there the better. Adding younger fans also means opinions on what’s collectible are changing too and are now including more cars from the 1980’s and 1990’s. Perhaps electric cars, even Tesla’s, will become collectible in the next decade or so.
• Organizers of upcoming shows often place flyers on the front seats of cars at the Cruz when the windows are left open. I learned about several local shows scheduled for the next few weeks, including a (new?) show called Cars on Callow (West Bremerton). I will try to attend.

In 2009, I wrote a blog post about that year’s Cruz.