Big Al's Poker Run is the biggest hot rod and American car event in Perth. Held every Valentine's Day weekend it's grown from a couple of dozen hot rods driving around the city to an all day display of hundreds of vehicles that draws thousands of visitors, even though it isn't really advertised extensively. Their website is pretty spartan:
http://www.bigalspokerrun.com.au/
After a couple of hours admiring the cars Shelly commented that it would be pretty hard to choose just one from the many fabulous cars on display. At last I said, she finally understood why I have four bikes!
The Line Up - all the usual suspects
1957 Chevy
1957 Chevy Bel-air
Chevrolet Impala
Chevrolet Impala - soda pop anyone?
The King's very own Ford Falcon
Corvette
Ford
1958 Ford Fairlane
Ford Mustang
A pair of Thunderbirds - 1959 and 1960
"And she walks a thunderbird like she's standin' still.."
Green flame
DeSoto truck. Interesting bonnet
DeSoto - what a fabulous hood ornament
The DeSoto, nice from the back too.
Another De Soto - one of my favourites
A couple of Pontiacs. This blue one was one of my favourites. Gotta love those wheels
Cobra
1969 Camaro. One of friends used to own one of these but it got stolen and was never seen again.
SS Camaro
Chrysler Charger
Corvette Stingray
Pontiac and tailfins
"My baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac.."
This British Riley looked just a little out of place amongst the Americans and muscle cars
An Australian Icon - the FJ Holden
The stylish Holden EK. I always wanted one of these.
I've always had a soft spot for the 1964 Holden EH. When the EH came out my grandfather put in an order. He had to wait almost a year before it was delivered. He absolutely loved that car and took great care of it - none of us grandkids were even allowed to sit in it! In later years he got sick and the car was parked in his garage for almost ten years. I bought it when he died with the aim of keeping it as pristine as he did. For the first couple of years it ran beautifully - it was so quiet - but then it began to wear out as I was driving it every day. It progressively decayed until it became quite unsafe to drive. In the end I was quoted $10K to completely rebuild and restore the car, but at that time a fully restored, pristine example was only worth $4K and at any rate I didn't have the money so I ended up selling it for $800. Now they're worth $30-40K, but of course that's not the issue. I've never stopped regretting it and always wonder if I'll bump into old ULU-699 at one of these things.
Holden Torana. When I was a kid these were as common as muck, now they're collector items
Once king of the bogan cars, the Holden Monaro GTS is now a collectors item fetching ridiculous prices. This one was for sale for $95K
"Little deuce coupe.."
Late in the afternoon we were surprised to find that the 'poker run' route went right down our street!
