Club Cars

Something wonderful happens in the heartland of America every July within the shadow of the Gateway Arch. No, it isn’t the St. Louis Cardinals battling to get into the playoffs, and no, it isn’t the countless county fairs and events in which some of the best pies, pickles, and livestock are judged and shared.

It is the Club Sandwich Central, a coming together of the Greater St. Louis Kit Car Club, the Chicagoland Replicar Association, the Kansas Kit Kar Klub, the Missouri Valley Kit Car Club, and the Oklahoma Kit Car Club (and sometimes, other Midwest clubs). The club members show off their cars, share stories, enjoy camaraderie, food, and some Midwest heat, and vie for honors, awards, and prizes as they display their love for the cars they have built and driven across the highways of this nation.

In the past, as many as 100 cars have made it to the event. While attendance was down somewhat last year, expectations run high for renewed interest this year.

Don Shank, the stalwart Bugatti builder and spearhead of the event, was dismayed that his own club (Greater St. Louis Kit Car Club), the host of the event, was outshone by several visiting clubs. Many of the familiar faces of past events attended and new faces and cars made the show last year as well. In all, close to three-dozen cars were on display, and it was not an event for Cobras only.

Of the cars present, only a handful were of the Snake genre, as Gazelles, Corsairs, MGs, Porsches, Scorpions, Avengers, Jaguar SS100s, an SLR, ’34 Fords, a ’23 Ford T-bucket, a Trylon Viper, a Meyers Manx, several original designs, and a whole slew of Fiero rebodies (Lambos, Ferraris, Finales, Manta Rays, a Predator, and so on) out-struck the Serpents.

Bud Meyers captured the Kit Car Editor’s Choice award with his Fiberfab SLR, a 20-year project. The yellow beauty was a standout in the bright sunlight and seasonably cool temperatures at the Collinsville, Illinois–based Woodland Park, where the event takes place each year.

The Bob Shipe Memorial Award was presented to Bill Striegel of the Greater St. Louis Kit Car Club for his undying efforts for the members of his club, plus his constant traveling and displaying of his Cobra from coast to coast. Every car was a winner, as far as I was concerned, and all of those in attendance won as well.

This is a must-attend event, and we hope that attendance will swell this summer, the weekend after Independence Day. For information, contact the kit car clubs listed at right. It is the best kind of event and the best way to show off your car to people who care…people who have been there…and people who appreciate what you have done with your project.