Car season is in full swing! I hope you're excited for a long post, because the Cruise on the Mountain Top didn't disappoint! Like last year, I won't be able to show every car I saw to keep the post at a reasonable length. However, I did take more artistic photos this year, so there won't be a ton of images of the same car in this one. Need to catch up? Click this text to cruise last year's show!
Something special happened this year, so stay tuned to the end to learn about what it is. Enjoy this chill cruise through the car show in the Catskills.
Let's start with my favorite car at the show! This Cadillac hearse is of a similar year to the Buick hearse I saw at the Log Cabin last time I went. You can click this text to read that post. I love hearses, and would love to own one someday. I find them really interesting to look at, plus all of that storage space would be unbeatable. This car was also made into a hearse by S&S Coach Company, and I love the lanterns they add to the sides to make it look a little more decorated. This hearse was named "Morticia" after the character from the Addams family.
I love Valiants. I'm not exactly sure what about them makes me like them so much, but I do. These cars are from the late 50s and I've found an interest for them over the past year or so. Last year's 37 Pontiac is making an appearance on the bumper!
Here's another Valiant, although this is a shot of the emblem because the lighting on the full body shot was pretty nasty. It was sunny and I'm rusty with the Rebel T7, so expect some blown out skies in future images.
Oh Fiero! Another car I'd love to get my hands on as long as it doesn't set fire. Look at this beautiful Indie 500 pace car. Looks like the car is from 1984 according to the decal, and it was in amazing shape for it's age. Yay for the Fiero!
A Volkswagen with tape over the lights like rally cars have. I believe it's from the early 70s, the faux European plate may have had that information. A very cute little car.
A couple of Corvettes and a view of the main street filled with cars! I believe the blue one is a 67 and the green one is a 64, but they're both C2 Corvettes. These always seemed sort of bullet shaped to me, but it makes them a lot of fun.
Another Corvette? Of course, I love these things! This is the C3 Corvette that were made from the late 60s to the mid 80s. I love the two tone of this one, so slick.
I actually got to sit in this Corvette! The woman who owned this one was so sweet, her car is beautiful. I was telling her how much I loved this generation of Corvette and she offered to let me sit inside and take a picture. I showed her how to focus the Rebel T7 and the lighting was totally off. I reassured her I could correct the lighting in post, and I think I did pretty good!
It was a dream of mine to have a picture in a Corvette, and this picture perfectly captures who I currently am. Give 'em the old smile and wave, with the bonus that my right hand was the correct hand to raise, which shows the black ring I wear to represent my asexuality.
Here's a shiny Firebird from the 90s with this paint that changed color in the light! It was really pretty in person, no camera could capture how cool it looked. It had the Firehawk upgrade, and I'm not sure if that was aftermarket or something done through GM, but it was pretty clean.
Speaking of everyone's favorite screaming chicken, here's a Formula 400 Firebird from the early 70s. Now this is a clean car. It was in pristine shape but you can see the lighting isn't doing it any favors (and I edited this picture!). If the hearse wasn't there, this would've been my top car. It was my father's top car though, as it deserves.
Since we're talking about Firebirds, let's take a look at the rest of Pontiacs at the show. A Grand Am with a Johnny Lightning "Used OK" cars die cast inside the hood. The die cast car inside wasn't blue, but I have a funny story about this.
When I was starting to get into cars around 2022, I brought my father a blue Grand Am Johnny Lightning die cast and thought it was an option package for the Firebird, like the Trans Am was. It's the same color as this real one, too. Anyways, it's fun to see how much my car knowledge has grown over the years!
A Judge GTO! I love this shot of the decal and how I managed to follow the body line. If only there wasn't a super cool truck that I'll talk about later in this post in the reflection.
I don't remember what model, I believe it was a Firebird, but I snapped this quick shot of the handle and think the Pontiac service shop in the reflection is neat.
And last but not least, a snazzy GTO! I like how I was able to get a lot of the other cars in the background in this picture, it looks nice.
I honestly don't remember what this car is, but it's a very pretty purple!
An older Ford tractor! I thought it was interesting with the paint job and all.
Here's the lighting being awful again, even with editing the sun makes this truck look like it's coming down from the heavens. This is a Brockway truck, which I know about from the lovely internet. I'd heard of them before the show, and know they came from Cortland, NY. It's emblem is a husky! They're not very common and weren't made for very long, so it was fun to see one in person.
To be honest, not sure why I found this picture so interesting, but I love the detail my camera was able to capture! I didn't even notice the cobweb until sorting through the pictures to make this post.
A Porsche! I know I spoke with it's owner about what model it is, but I forgot to take notes on the cars this year so I can't remember. I know it looks like a Carrera, but it's not, and has been modified some to have the Carrera look. What it actually is, I don't remember. My apologies!
Here's another shot of the street- this time with an old truck with a bed full of blue jeans. I'm not sure why it was like that and I didn't get to see it up close, but it was very funny.
Now for the end of my miscellaneous car list; this electric BMW that seems to be have totaled in a crash but is in the process of being repaired. It was driven to the show, and it's incredible how cars can be put back together with a lot of hard work.
Let's take a look at a few Fords! This Mustang had lots of really interesting paintings on it, although it was hard to capture with the glaring sun. I love the skeleton painted over the Mustang logo, it gives the car a really interesting flair. Is that correct horse anatomy? No clue, but it looks well done!
A Lincoln, if I remember correctly. I like the natural lens flare covering the registration so I didn't have to! It also looks great in the picture overall.
A very nice Mustang from the late 60s! I love the blue color used for the paint, it makes the car look cool without looking aggressive.
Another one of my artistic emblem shots. I'm not a huge fan of the lean, but this Thunderbird was at last year's show as well! Again, I love how much my camera was able to capture, like the bug and the dirt that wouldn't normally be visible to anyone.
Let's see the rest of the General Motors cars, shall we? This is a GMC Sierra Classic Suburban truck from the 1970s. My father often talks about his experiences with these trucks and it was nice to see one in person. Puts the current Suburbans to shame in my opinion.
Here's a cool 442 that I believe I had seem last year but not posted about. It had the original assembly instructions in the back trunk. A service manual sure, but assembly? Pretty cool if you ask me.
The 90s "Catfish" Camaro giving me a big smile for the camera!
A 1979 or 1980 Camaro that was in amazing shape. It was pretty loud too, and if I'd managed to commit anything about engines to memory I'm sure I could confirm that it had power. But I haven't, so all I know is that it looks cool.
This is a really interesting paint job. I remember something about this being a General Motors car but that's about it. I could be wrong though, I'm still learning to identify cars from pictures.
A 1967 Chevelle that had the keys hanging out of the trunk. Not sure why the driver left the keys there, but it looks really cool. Makes for an interesting photo.
For our last car in this section, an Impala in primer that I managed to get an awesome shot of. Because the primer isn't very reflective, I was able to capture more lens flair and sparkling from the sun. It's not perfect but I'm proud of it!
Are you hanging in there? We're almost done, I've got two Japanese cars to show off.
The first being the Subaru Sambar, a Kei truck. Lots of news has been going around about not being able to register these in New York, but the plates are from the 2000s so I assume the truck is older than these new laws. I honestly don't understand why the states hate these trucks. I was very excited to see one in person and the man who owned it was very friendly. A wonderful sight!
This Acura Integra was also at the show last year, but it's spoiler was black. Nice to see it making progress! I love seeing Honda's performance cars, so I had to snap a picture!
And now for the special part of this year! Not only did our family friend attend this year, but my family brought our 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra Cruiser!
It's nowhere near perfect, but it was exciting to have a car in the show. We had lots of people say how they remember growing up with a station wagon, and how much they miss them. It was just really nice to see some interest in a car that we own, and meet people who share our love for station wagons!
And here's the 1986 Toyota truck! My friend brought the art I made of the truck on an old license plate to display with the truck. I got compliments on the art while I was standing with the wagon and that was honestly really flattering! It took a few months worth of art classes to finish that project.
The amount of love we saw for these two cars was incredible. It was very cool to be in the show and not just observing. I'm more excited about this than anyone in my family, but we also won the award for the longest drive to the show! It's fun to know the wagon has a trophy under it's belt.
Did you enjoy this cruise? I know I did! I always appreciate everyone who reads to the end of longer posts, so thank you very much!
There will be more car content coming in the future, but expect some writing next week.
Until then,
Rosetta 💖