Directions said to enter from the Club 52 Melbourne Greyhound Park entrance.
Rounding the corner, we found ourselves at the end of a long double line of cars on the back perimeter road of the American Muscle Car Museum (AMCM) heading for the white EZ-up tents for check in. Here and there we could see another Volvo in the line of traffic.
Very soon though the road behind us filled up and the line went back through the gates we had come through.
Through check in and round a left hander we stopped again, this time so the meet photographer could get shots of all the entrants.
Then we were ushered to our place on the field. All the Volvo’s got to park together and so there we were. An island of twenty-one pieces of Swedish steel, pretty much right in the middle of the field, surrounded by American Muscle cars, hot-rods, rat-rods and show cars but also a few British, European and Asian classics.
We had accepted the invitation by the Antique Automobile Club of Cape Canaveral to join them at their Celebration of Cars at the AMCM in Melbourne and to make this our Spring Meet.
Despite it being so much earlier in the year for us than usual, we had a great turnout and a variety of models were represented along with a number of wagons, being the featured body style for our meet.
The Celebration of Cars is held Rain or Shine but the weather was absolutely perfect and it was great to see old friends, meet new faces and see the great examples of Volvo’s everyone bought. And of course, to see all the other cars that filled the campus.
This year featured “The Fabulous Fifties” a tribute to the chrome and big fins on cars of that era and was also marked by the full Museum being open to the public for the first time ever. And what a stunning collection of cars. Over 300 cars in all: Porsches, Yenkos, Indy Pace Cars and so much more. Check out their website for more info. Dennis Gage of “My Classic Car” was there shooting for an upcoming episode and was available for interviews and autographs and awarded his choice for the show, among others awarded by the AACCC.
Not surprising then that this turned out to be the largest show ever with over 1000 spectators, 410 cars pre-registered, 506 cars on the field and some latecomers even having to be turned away!
Winners of our Spring Meet People’s Choice Awards were:
Louie Bouchelle won RWD Station Wagon for his 1987 245.
Michael Jingle; FWD/AWD Station Wagon with his blue 1997 855.
Jose Laboy; RWD for his gold 1973 164E.
Barbara Falcone; FWD/AWD with her 2016 V60 Polestar.
Our thanks go to Susan Laboy for Registration, Jeannine Dowdell and Susan for counting the votes for the award winners and Chris Short for organizing our trophy plaques; the organizers and volunteers of the AACCC; Mr. Marc Pieloch, the owner of the AMCM, their staff and volunteers; the DJ, all the food trucks and vendors and everyone who helped make this a day not to be forgotten – because we may never have had a Spring meet this year otherwise!
For more photos of the meet click here and here.
AACCC Website and more photos of the show.
Below is the AMCM video of the event. Volvos are featured at 4:57 through 5:04
Hope to see you in the Fall.
