Would you like to try a wing?” An older black gentleman with a permanent grin on his face, shining with sweat from standing over a grill all day, was cooking barbecue on one of the last days of summer.
A few car lovers were huddled around the tent taking in the sweet smells of barbecue. Everyone at the show smelled it with the breeze spreading the smell across the parking lot fighting the exhaust of old cars for top billing. A set of speakers were pushed to their limit, playing “Peggy Sue” to drown out the traffic traveling across Mercury Blvd.
Ten or more kids were hoolahooping by the disc jockey and he was keeping fast songs coming so they could shake to the beat. At least one out of every five cars on the road hit their brake lights to rubberneck when they passed by the parking lot between Mercury and Middle Tennessee boulevards (between Pizza Hut and Peebles), and for good reason. On display were 200-300 classic cars and trucks, from mean and dirty T-Buckets to sleek new sports cars with all the extras.
Every Friday night for the past five years, a loose band of car guys have met in some parking lot around town to show off a few of their favorite things. For several years they met in the parking lot of the Stones River Mall, but with the mall’s new expansion project about the begin, the guys had to find a new spot to share their art with the community. For about a year the group has been meeting in the parking lot where they currently reside. They call themselves the Murfreesboro Car Club.
“The group really started by accident. We went and talked to Dale Nash about having a cruise-in at the mall for us to show off our vehicles,” said Chris Aluise, one of the group’s founding members. “We had to have insurance to show there, so we made this group of pals into a real car club. Now we’re up to about 70 or 80 members. Terry Beasley took care of the leg work, and before we knew it, the car club was a Car Club.”
There’s a wide variety of vehicles on display each week. The focus is obviously on ’50s and ’60s classics with some fat-fendered ’20s-’40s cruisers thrown in. There are lots of finned-Chevrolet products, ’57 Chevies and Bel Aires, along with some mean muscle cars. These are all in the center of the show. Long-time motor enthusiasts cruise in these beauties.
Out toward the fringe of the show, some unconventional vehicles show up, including some awesome Asian vehicles with stereo systems and nitrous like The Fast and the Furious.
One Camaro blew my mind. It had paint that changed colors as you moved around the vehicle and a Playstation 2 and Xbox cleanly mounted in a custom panel fabricated for the trunk. Everything was customized down to the chromed-out and painted engine bay.
There was even a traditional lowrider, Sam Batey’s air-bagged beast.
On the other side of the lot were several projects that were built on the common man’s spare change and careful hours on weekends. These were some of the most impressive cars, because it was obvious that their owners had done all their own work. There were even originals for sale?soon to become some of the immaculate show cars that take center stage.
Checking out the hundreds of impressive vehicles on display, one might think that The Murfreesboro Car Club is all about the cars, but that’s only part of the story. Where some clubs might think “giving back to the community” means giving them the chance to look at your sweet hot rods, these guys know it’s also about real public service. They are constantly raising money for local charities like AIMS, the Lion’s Club, programs that help mentally handicapped youth, and others that build children’s confidence and health through athletics.
They hosted the Murfreesboro Police Department at this Friday’s car show. Sgt. James Harrell stood by the police tent challenging the sometime motorists passing by to try driving drunk. The officer had a pair of “drunk goggles” which, when placed
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over the eyes, gave the illusion of being drunk, krunk, hammered, sloshed, snookered, smashed, trashed, etc.
“Try walking that straight line for me, son.”
Bad memories.
If these goggles are any indication, and The Pulse staff agrees they are, drunk driving is a terrible idea.
We also learned that nearly as dangerous as drunk driving is drunk walking. The Murfreesboro Car Club made it possible for hundreds from the community to experience what it’s like to get a D.U.I. without the legal fees. It’s the next best thing to having a keg.
People of all ages and backgrounds were out enjoying these gorgeous vehicles. There were teens in T-shirts walking around with friends, college students walking off their ramen noodle dinners, men in overalls with their wives and children following neatly behind. Old timers talked to car owners about how they remember the vehicles when they were commonplace.
“I used to own one just like that,” one gentleman said to the owner of a cherry red Mustang.
The car show will meet for a few more weeks on Fridays in the parking lot at the intersection of Mercury and Middle Tennessee boulevards. If you’re bad with directions, roll down your windows and follow the smell of exhaust and barbecue.
