2006 Syracuse Nationals

Today the wife and I traveled to the NYS Fairgrounds to gawk at the cars in the 2006 Syracuse Nationals. The day started off with heavy rains this morning so we weren't sure if we would go, but by midafternoon everything cleared up so we took the short ride over to the Fair.

There were four thousand vehicles preregistered for the event and most of them were scattered throughout the Fair. From a 1934 Packard to wild customs and stock Ford Fairlanes (why oh why would anyone bother?), there was something there for everyone.

And everyone was there.

Senior citizens riding in their motorized scooter chairs reminisced about the cars they once had. Young tattooed women manuvered their baby laden strollers through the crowds and swilled water from plastic bottles. Kids were every where.

Many cars had Do Not Touch signs on the windows. Most people I observed ignored them.

And the muscle cars were on parade.


You didn't have to worry about some under aspirated, over muffled sedan sneaking up on you. Not at the Syracuse Nationals. The ground shook from the exhaust of these vehicles.

If you stayed in their way you just vibrated off the road like an old sixties game piece on an electric hockey board. They thundered and rumbled like, well, like the sound of Freedom. This is what I heard as a kid when the "big" kids with the packs of Malboroughs rolled up in theor T-shirt sleeves would bring their cars down to Woolworths in our downtown section.

It was a nice show (it always is), but we were disappointed because some of the exhibits were not open. We wanted to see the custom motorcyles over at the International Pavilion, but for some reason it was closed.

The gray car at the top of the post is a 1973 Dodge Challenger. I included it because my wife had one, white with green trim, and she's always looking for one whenever we go to one of these shows. She sold it for a crappy '78 T-Bird just before I met her. This was the first 1973 Challenger we've seen.

We also looked at a 1987 IROC Camaro that was for sale for $5,000. If we didn't have two kids in college we might have made some phone calls right from the Fair. It needed some TLC but it was all there. The two sets of camera batteries I brought with me both went dead by this time or else I'd have a picture of the IROC to show you.