By Douglas P. Marsh
dmarsh@cherryroad.com

“There’s over 85 cars here tonight,” said Pete Fabbri. “We’ve got over a thousand people down here so far.”

Fabbri, a member of the West Branch Retail Merchants Association and lead organizer of the Classy Chassis Car Show June 29, was still recovering from a recent back surgery the night of the event. But like the vendors, car owners, and public who turned out for the event, he was determined to have a good time.

“We refuse to be beat,” said Fabbri.

The staging area for vehicles was primarily on the newly finished block of Houghton Avenue right in front of the offices of The Herald. The intersection at Third Street was still unfinished the night of the show and snack vendors set up on gravel underneath the traffic lights. Cars filled both sides of the street for a full block and more were on display on North Third Street, lined up on both sides of that street down to the fire station.

One stand-out specimen in the show was Tom Nixon’s pink 1956 Plymouth.

“My grandfather actually had a car just like it,” he said. “My dad and my uncles, they all took their dates to prom in that car.”

Nixon’s uncle found the same model from a seller in Idaho in 1989. He partially restored the vehicle and then installed it inside his Au Gres laundromat underneath a framed advertisement for the vehicle from its release year.

The ad shows a man in the driver’s seat of a pink Plymouth with a woman in the passenger seat. Nixon said he had coveted the car since he was a young boy. When his uncle was 76 years old he was finally ready to sell.

“I brought it back in 30 boxes of parts. I got it to the point, before he passed away, we were able to take this picture here,” said Nixon, showing a second framed photograph that resembles the 1956 advertisement but with his uncle and aunt in the driver and passenger seats, respectively.

“That was his dream,” said Nixon. “I got to give him a ride before he passed away and now here we are.”

Nixon’s car won best-in-class in Frankenmuth at a show a couple years ago and at another show in Au Gres. He plans to return to shows in those towns this season, and Gladwin as well.

The West Branch Retail Merchants Association’s next downtown event will be Orange Barrel Polka on July 20 at 4 p.m. The next downtown car show is the West Branch Jeep Jam, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 24 and featuring live music from The Bentleys.