Customer Appreciation Day!

A shop here in Ottawa recently had a small car show as their way of appreciating customers for their patronage. Although the shop in question is just a regular Joe Mechanic kinda place–the sort of place you’d go to replace the brakes on your ’04 Cavalier–they certainly knew how to draw in a crowd of gorgeous cars.

It didn’t just attract the same ’68 Camaros and 2010 Challengers, either-lots of cars that had never or rarely been seen on the ‘scene made an appearance. Like the Chevy S-10 based “Black Panther” show truck, above. Granted, an ’80s wraparound bar and airbrushed graphics might not be your thing, but we will make you this promise–60% of the time, a black panther-themed truck works every time!

1966 Ford Fairlane 4-door

A&W: The unofficial fast food of the cruising world!

See that yellow paper in the window? That’s the original bill of sale for this old Ford Bronco. It’s a one-owner truck originally bought for plowing snow-commercially. After umpteen winters of manual labour, it’s still used to clear its own driveway.

I have no clue what this thing is. It’s still pretty freakin’ cool!

Yeah, it’s got a hemi. This little red ’31 has an original Red Ram hemi engine under what little hood it has.

Here’s a closer look at the motor. It fits so snug and looks so perfect, you’d think it was original equipment!

We just had to have one last look at the Black Panther. You can point and ridicule this thing all you want, but it has some things going for it that most cars don’t. For example, the quality of the paint is flawless-the shine is so deep you could fall into it. The airbrushing is well-done, and looks like a scene from National Geographic. It WAS NOT powered by a dirty, grimy Chevy small-block, and it started on the first try. Just think about that next time you see a stock Camaro with dirty floor mats at cruise night.