A Journey In Time On Wheels

If a car show is anything, it’s a “Journey in Time.”  Stroll through a car show and you are bound to see a vehicle that triggers a memory from your past. The time your parents drove you and your date to the prom in their 68. The day you had saved enough money to finally buy that Dodge Dart or when you buckled your first baby in that 1983 Toyota Corolla.

For some of us, a car is just the way we get from point A to point B every day. We fill it with gas, get the oil changed and trade it in every few years for a new model. Then we start all over again. But for others, a car is much more than transportation. These vehicles don’t make a daily commute. The paint is perfect. The windows sparkle and you won’t find umbrellas, shopping bags, water bottles and flip-flops tossed in the back seat. These are the cars that make us turn our heads when we see them on the road for their Sunday spin or lined up in a row, hoods open at a car show.

Diana Woodruff has been involved with Pioneer Days for the past 10 years. “I was so impressed by the organization and what they were trying to provide to the Englewood Community,” she recalled. She volunteered to help, and said she noticed that the crowds were leaving after the parade instead of enjoying activities at the park.  A member of the Venice Florida Corvettes, she offered to bring in some cars to line West Dearborn Street. The next year, she brought in more cars.  But it wasn’t until 2014 that Woodruff says they had put together “a real car show.” 

Woodruff is too busy organizing the event to have her own Corvette in the show, but she said she expects about 175 cars at an Open Car Show on Sunday and an all Corvette Car Show on Monday.

Thomas Abbe has collected cars for decades and will have his 1958 Morris Minor 1000 Traveler in Sunday’s show. Abbe, 70, says the car is the “mother” of the more popular “Mini.” He picked it up in New Jersey, painted and restored it with custom-made mahogany wood panel inserts. Abbe said the 60-year old British-made car even has that intoxicating “new car smell.”  The Morris Minor has a top speed of 75 mph and a spare tire tucked under the rear floor and sports its original British army surplus green-painted engine. 

It’s no surprise that Abbe, who calls himself “semi-retired,” worked in the automobile business, writing manuals for Weber Carburetors. He also has a red 1962 Mini Cooper that he drives to coffee every Wednesday and a 1985 yellow and silver Donkervoort.

What’s a Donkervoort? Abbe says it’s a “highly impractical Dutch two-seat roadster, based on the Lotus Super 7  kit car with a 1972 Ford Pinto engine and hardly any room for groceries” The car wasn’t for sale when Abbe went out to help the owner with an issue several years ago. “It had sat for years and wasn’t running right but it had my name on it,” recalls Abbe. Two weeks before, Abbe, his wife Koren and son Ethan, were ready to make the move to Englewood in 2014, the owner was ready to part with the Donkervoort.  “I’ve never seen another one in this country,” said Abbe, who confesses that even “car guys” don’t know what it is. And, while he said he hasn’t had any offers for the car, he would let it go for the right price.  

Abbe’s latest project, his rebuilding a 1932 Ford Tudor Sedan. He keeps his vehicles in what he describes as a “giant barn.” Abbe said that his two sons and wife do not share his passion for automobiles, but they appreciate it, and Ethan, 32, enjoys attending the shows with his dad.

Abbe is worried that young people today care more about their smartphones and technology than their cars. Their first car was more likely a used Taurus and not a 1959 Renault Dauphine like Abbe’s first car.  But, Abbe says that kids still spin around to look at the Morris Minor and enjoy sitting in the car when he brings it to shows. It will be on display on Sunday, where Abbe will also be photographing the cars and their collectors and maybe take home a trophy or two.