Nostalgia on display at Volo car show
By Lee Ann Gill - editorial@nwherald.com
VOLO – Standing by his 1965 GT 350, careful not to let anyone touch it, Charles McArty proudly told those walking by about his baby Sunday during the second annual Shelby/Cobra/Mustang Car Show in Volo.
“I bought it brand-new Sept. 17, 1965,” McArty said, as he showed off the original window sticker with a sales price of $4,738.
Now, the car is appraised at about $350,000, he said.
The high appraisal is because McArty hasn’t changed anything on the car since he bought it. The secret to keeping the original white paint job in mint condition, he said, is using “simonized floor wax when I first got it. I think it worked. I’m the last original owner with the original car.”
A scrapbook records the car’s history with the driving gloves that McArty used to race it back in the 1960s.
“It’s never failed me, except when the timing chain broke – it’s my car,” the Champaign resident said, adding that he wouldn’t dream of selling it.
About 200 classic cars roared onto the Volo Auto Museum grounds – with tops down and classic rock blaring. The show is sponsored by the Chicago Vintage Mustang Club and the Windy City Cobra Club.
“We’ve got some rare cars here,” show director Steve Maglich said.
Joking that his red 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 is categorized as “Other Ford Products” for judging, owner Andrew McKillop of Hoffman Estates said he liked that his car was different.
“It’s very hard to win against Mustangs,” McKillop said. “I wanted something different. When I was in high school, I actually had one.”
In the same competition category was a 1972 Ivy Glow green Gran Torino belonging to McKillop’s friend Anthony Lucarz of McHenry.
“It was a train wreck when I bought it,” Lucarz said. “It was out in the snow – totally a rust bucket.”
The factory 4-speed is one of only 71 Gran Torinos built with ram air, he said.
“I like unique things, and this is unique,” he said. “Thirteen years and I’m just about done with it.”
A factory eight-track still works.
“I’ve got Van Halen in there now,” he said.
Once Carole Andrews of Spring Grove paid for a complete restoration paint job for her silver frost blue 1966 Mustang, she doesn’t drive it everywhere the way she used to.
“I’ll still drive it to the bank because it’s a drive-through,” said Andrews, who got the Mustang for her 50th birthday. “No one can hit me.”
The cars were judged in 27 classes with first, second and third place awards given in each class.
