Hot day for hot rods at the Veterans Anything With Wheels car show
Jun. 26—Trisha Cavanaugh didn't build a 1972 Chevy Vega with a 6-liter, all-aluminum LS engine and a power-glide transmission to haul it around in a trailer.
"I built it to be a car I could drive on the street, and I take it to Keystone Raceway," said Cavanaugh, a White Oak resident who was shielding her face from the sun on Sunday in the same lacy white cap she wore when she married her husband Rick — at a racetrack.
Parked next to Cavanaugh's Vega was Rick's 1966 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport, just two of several hundred cars, trucks, motorcycles and more at the annual Veterans Anything With Wheels Show at the Cooperstown Event Center in Latrobe.
The show and the charity were started more than a decade ago, by Ligonier resident Kelsey Sleasman and her father Tom, a fellow car fanatic who died in 2022. The show is dedicated in Tom's memory, and the proceeds are donated to veterans in the area and across Pennsylvania through the nonprofit PA Hero Walk.
On a sunny day with temperatures near the mid-80s, shade was at a premium, with entries packed just a little tighter together anywhere a tree offered some respite from the heat.
Bill Shaffer of Greensburg was relaxing in a T-shirt that almost exactly matched the powder blue on his 1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible.
"We left the hard top at home today," Shaffer said.
The Thunderbird is a three-speed automatic with a V-8 engine. Shaffer found it in Arizona, where it was restored five years ago.
"It's a very dependable car, and, after the restoration, it drives like it's new," he said.
But, while Shaffer has to take a good deal of care what streets he navigates in the lengthy convertible, and what times of year he has it on the road, David Moon of North Huntingdon drives his 1931 Chevy five-passenger coupe year-round.
"I've driven it back and forth twice to Ocean City, Md.," Moon said. "A lot of people will build these out of fiberglass, but this one is all original, built with steel."
And, while the official information on the car lists it as a five-passenger model from Chevrolet's Independence line of vehicles, Moon said the reality is a little different.
"I can just barely get into the driver's seat, and that's when the seat is all the way back," he said. "People back then must've been five feet tall and about 90 pounds."
From vintage trucks to Indian motorcycles and muscled-up sports cars, there was plenty to take in for automotive enthusiasts like Robert Carns of Fairfield.
"I really like the older pickup trucks and Jeeps," Carns said. "This is one of the biggest shows around that we've been to, and one of the best."
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
