Downtown Albany, Oregon always seems to be busy with the carousel and all the quaint little shops and antique shops. However, one Saturday in September the downtown is overflowing with cars, people, vendors and antiques.

The Antique and Car Show is the place where you can see and buy the toy cars you had as a kid and the classic cars you want to have as an adult. One of the phrases I have heard over and over again is, “I used to have one of those.“ Now that could go for the old tin cars and truck toys as well as the classic hot rods, trucks and muscle cars.

One of the most beautiful hot rods was a ‘32 Ford roadster with black paint and purple flames and a blower coming out of the hood. The paint job was beautiful—gloss black with purple flames going clear down the side of the car. It is owned by Ted and Judy Johnson from Prineville.

When was the last time you saw a real original Woody? A 1950 Ford Woody station wagon owned by David Krumwiede of Albany. The neat thing about this was about two blocks down from it was a steel toy woody with surfboards that looked just like it—with the exception of the surfboards!

A classic Red ‘56 VW bug owned by Gail and Greg Ashbeck was matched by a yellow VW Bug ragtop toy model in booth two or three blocks away.

The streets of Albany were lined with antique and crafts booths, cars, trucks, and a ton of people. One thing I saw was an old rusty pedal car that looked like an early Mustang. I walked a few blocks down the road and there was a beautiful fully restored Mustang pedal car on display in front of a matching real ‘66 Mustang.

The phrase, “I used to have one of those“ holds true for me. For more than 20 years, my son and I have owned and are now restoring a real ‘65 Mustang Coupe. It is for my son and my grandsons when they get old enough to drive. I just need to get the toy for me!

It has been said before that almost every weekend in the Portland and Willamette Valley area there will be a car show. This is a story about one that I have never been to: Portland Cars and Coffee.  This is held at World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville every Saturday morning throughout the summer.

With a great variety of cars, mostly high dollar exotic cars, the show was very different than shows in the Albany area. Cars such as Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Cobras, Masseratis, Vipers, Corvettes, Audis, and an imported Ultima GRT.  The turn out of cars was great.

When you stand there admiring cars and taking photos you get to listen to owners talk about their cars. Michael Pierce from Portland came to the show in his 1967 Corvette Stingray. He has owned the car since 1980, and has kept it all original except the vintage mag wheels. The Vette is a daily driver, with a 435 HP 427 engine, and has 225,000 miles on it.

Just down the row was an Ultima GRT, from Tiger Eye Racing, owned by David out of Portland. It looks like something out of the 60’s running LeMans or Can Am with a mid engine 500HP Chevy V8 and a Porsche 6 speed transaxle. This is a true kit car, imported from England in pieces, except the engine and transaxle.  David has run it at PIR at speeds over 150MPH. He is in the process of building a GRT roadster.

One of my favorite cars was a home built silver roadster sports car, now this car looks like it came right off the track at LeMans in the 50’s. It is a front engine, rear wheel drive.The whole body is made out of hand formed aluminum. With a 1974 Corvette chassis and a Chevy V8 engine.the hood covers the whole front of the car and opens like an old XKE Jaguar. Owner Ray Parks said it took 7 years to build and it is a true work of art.

Tom Hendrickson is the proud owner of an original, unrestored, 1964 Cobra. The Cobra is a truly unrestored car. With chips in the paint, shift boot gone and tattered upholstery, it is still beautiful. Tom has owned this car for 53 years. Talk about a true daily driver, from 1966 to 1972 this was the only car Tom had, so he drove it in the rain or shine. The car has original chrome wire wheels, a 289 Ford V8 engine and a dual exhaust that sounds great.

The show was like the old cruise-ins, no entry fee, no judging, no trophies, just great looking cars coming and going all morning. What I liked most, though, was listening to the owners talking about their rolling pride and joys.

It’s really quite amazing that 2019 marks the 63 year that the Portland Roadster Show has graced one venue or another here in Portland Oregon. This show is one of the longest running shows in the USA, Yep! Right here in Portland. This year’s show was again at the Portland Expo Event Center. It filled up hall C, D and E to the brim with customs, street rods, hot rods, rat rods, cars of all shapes and sizes, even Optimus Prime, a giant diesel rig famous for its role in the Movies.

There was a fleet of famous old customs from the 50’s and 60’s, some brand new over the top builds built by local car builders as well as nationally famous builds being shown all over the US at shows like Portland’s Roadster Show.

I heard that the attendance was down this year, someone said it was likely because the weather was really quite nice, for the first time in quite a while, but it looked to me like there were a lot of spectators strolling through the show each time I was there, which was all three days plus set up day, Thursday. And the quality of the cars was off the chart. My friend Bill Nelson had the same opinion as I had on the quality of the cars this year. They were first class.

I think every nearby builder was there in force with cars as well as booths to talk about what their shops do for their clients. Steve’s Auto Restoration had a large display again this year and of course several of the fantastic cars they have built in the last couple years. Maybe some year I’ll have a car worthy of showing at the PRS. I hope so.

With 63 years of history and the super high quality displayed this year I’m guessing next year will be a repeat of 2019, but with new and different displays, cars, vendors and fun to be had by all you car guys and gals out there. PRS 2020 will be back for the 64th in March next spring. Plan to be there, you’ll be glad you did.

The World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville, Oregon periodically changes their displays. Currently they are displaying a number of Corvettes. This display nearly spans the 65 years of the Corvettes existence.

The first production Corvette was built in June of 1953 in Flint Michigan. The Corvette is referred to as “Americas Sports Car.” Also in this display is a 1959 Ferrari TR, also known as a 250 Testa Rossa. These Ferraris dominated the World Sportscar Championship Series at the time.
Next the museum will change out these displays and have a Porsche display opening on April 28th. Please support our local automobile museum.