One of the most difficult things about the Charlotte AutoFair is that there is just so much to see and do. As a result, I decided that we needed to break it up and to do different things on different days. So Friday I tried to focus on looking at the many cars on display.
The show has displays on the 101st anniversary of Dodge, cars from the television show Americarna, modern muscle, and the DeLorean.
The Dodge display was quite impressive and featured some of the best models that the company has produced. Some of these included the Dodge Daytona, Challenger, Viper and even an amazingly original example of the often-forgotten Shelby Dodge Charger GLHS. Of the Dodge cars, one of my favorites was the 1952 Dodge Powerwagon belonging to legendary NASCAR crew chief, team owner, and Americarna host Ray Evernham.
The DeLorean display included a fantastic replica of the Back to the Future car with time machine option, an outrageous 4×4 DeLorean, and a DeLorean limousine conversion. Don’t worry DeLorean fans; no valuable DeLoreans were harmed in the building of these conversions; all the conversions were done on cars with salvage titles.
The cars featured on Americarna were also impressive and included some great NASCAR Modified stock cars and a fantastic rollback car hauler.
The standout car on display in modern muscle was a 2016 Shelby GT350R. This was an actual production car and the first time we have seen one on display since the launch at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year.
A surprise of the day was getting to spend time with legendary NASCAR driver and Hall of Fame member Bobby Allison, who told about an incredible truck restoration that he has just completed. Allison is a true legend and a gentleman and always has some amazing stories to tell about the golden era of NASCAR racing.
It is no surprise that a few cars from in sale-car corral that circles the entire 1.5-mile track worked their way into my day as well. These cars varied from sedate to outrageous to what were they thinking? My favorite find Friday in the car corral was a 383 V8-equipped 1967 Dodge Charger in nice driver condition that was on sale for only $18,000.
I also found Charlotte Motor Speedway mascot Lugnut onmy tour of the corrals who was more than happy to pose for a few pictures.
Saturday I plan to report on the auction with many pictures of the cars that were for sale as well as a review of the food available at the AutoFair.
