Back to the Bricks - Flint Mi Aug 17-21 2010

[stappy]

So, there is a thread on the Woodward cruise with some cool pics but hey, the Back to the Bricks cruise in Flint was sweet too. I figured I would start a thread where people could give a little recognition to the Flint happenings.
This started a few years ago but this year has been hyped by ABC 12 even to the point of having an out of state cruise down the Lincoln Highway to promote Back to the Bricks. Of course somewhere between the Lincoln Cruise and the actual B2B event I picked up my dream car, a 1969 Dodge Charger RT/SE. It is not just ANY Charger either, it is THE Charger that I drooled over when I used to mow the neighbors yard at age 14/15/16. I have been after him ever since to sell me the car and end of July 2010 he finally conceded. My goal was to drive that car at B2B. Needless to say the mice and raccoons conspired against me and it was a lowly field mouse that stopped me from driving it (left rear cylinder filled with ummm, mouse trails and seized the piston).
That did not stop me from enjoying the cruise though. My Dad finally insured his 1965 Barracuda for the first time in two years and I swiped it (with him in the back seat) and we hit the streets of Grand Blanc to Flint on Thursday for the big rolling cruise. Of course we were back on Saturday for the car show downtown and were the ONLY early A body that I saw (soo many cars we probably missed the other one if it was there). Needless to say my (I like saying that... MY) Charger was never far from my mind. During the Thursday cruise I saw one Gen 1 Charger, one Gen 2 (1968) and one Gen 3 (1971). The guy in the Gen 2 whipped his arm out the window so fast to give me a thumbs up I was concerned he had broken his arm. I was so in awe of the car I could only stare longingly (till my wife hit me in the head and said not to hit the car in front of us...).
We had people yelling at us and I could read peoples lips as the said "Barracuda" and pointed at us. One lady I overheard said that her mom had a car just like it. I asked he if she was sure her mom wasn't in the car with us and she said she just might be...:wavesmile: The whole cruise night was a hoot and it took us almost 2 hours to go the whole route (although somehow we missed the Hurst tribute...) and it was after dark going home. Of course on the way home a second gen Camaro made sure to beat us at a stop light... I wonder what he would think if he knew that a /6 actually kept up with him :tongueflap: .

On Saturday at the car show there were Cudas and Road Runners and various other Mopars but I saw only one Gen 3 Charger and he was headed out. I did stop him and tell him I had to check it out as I had 2 1972 Chargers at home. He gave me a short but sweet story about how the car had only been on the road for 7 years as he had purchased it NEW in 1973 and then stored it for when he got "older". Of course as he drove away I was on the ground (almost literally) checking out the super clean under carriage of that very nice ride.

On our way out of town Saturday night I saw a 1970 Charger on the south end of town and once again the thumbs up's were swapped and a solid grin on my face KNOWING I would be back next year with a Blue '69 Charger. Although somehow I am thinking it will not be turning as many heads as the Little Gold Fish.

If you check out Back to the Bricks 2010 on You Tube you can have HOURS of video of rolling and non rolling car pron. AND if you see a little 1965 Gold Fish Barracuda, let me know ;-)

Scott

 

[stappy]

p.s. I used to mow his lawn in the mid 80's... NO doing the math!!! :no:

 

[Al K]

Watched a lot of the Channel 12 coverage(damn;Angie is still hot-IMO) and saw a few nice Mopars. Ch.12 did an awful lot of "fluff" pieces-the one on the '34(?) Plymouth was way cool,though-and not enough for real gearheads. Like,they wouldn't let the race cars fire up while they were on the air. I call "Bullshit!";I wanna smell spent nitro and racing gas and feel the ground shake and have my eardrums assaulted in a proper manner! Hell yea!

I'll be there next year. I promise.:yes:

 

[Cruzer7]

Cruising fun !!!

What a great event! I was up there on Thursday and totally impressed with all the cars and all the people having a wonderful time. Just goes to show you how many beautiful cars are out there, there was a ton of stuff there and 50 miles away you had the Dream Cruise going on with thousands of cars down there. Gearhead Heaven- how can we tie the two events together and have one big cruise?????? Maybe just wishful thinking, but wouldn't that be fun!

 

[stappy]

Hey Cruzer7 I was up there Thursday night too, only made one pass north and then had to go home (it was after dark). When we started at the south end of Grand Blanc we stayed at the little strip mall for like 45 minutes and watched all the sweet rides roll in and out. MAN there were a lot of 55/57 Chevys. Yah they are an "icon" but you really do not get impressed after seeing that many. When we pulled out of there we were next to a Camaro (turning left in a no left turn lane) that was soooo loud that I could not tell if our lowly /6 was even running. Of course I was turning right but watching every mirror I had to see what he was going to do. The smell of high octane racing fuel was heavy in the air.

I too have wondered why they do not tie the events together and involve all of the cites between Grand Blanc and Pontiac too. I mean, Grand Blanc was all about the cruise this year on Wed and Thur. That would be one huge rolling cruise. I heard the Woodward crowd was complaining about too many people and no space, you tie the two together and you could spread the wealth all along US24/Woodward and have a nice open area for the cars to be out in the country. I am thinking this will be the evolution of the cruises. I know next year I am planning on cruising the whole length and I think I will make a special tee shirt just for that.

 

[Al K]

Stappy;you bring up some good points. One potential obstacle is the fact that you have little in the way of "towns" between Grand Blanc and say,Clarkston. Some nice open cruise area(rap the throttle as you pass the State Police post at Grange Hall Rd.) but no,or few drive-ins,or eateries. There was an old drive-in restaurant(Andy's?) that sits about halfway between G.B. and Clarkston,but there's only remnants of it now. My Dad told me it was a hoppin' joint back in the '40's and '50's;you can still see some vestiges of the place as you drive by.

Now,another potential direction(if Flint North End,Beecher and Mt. Morris could clean up their acts) would be north into Clio ,Birch Run and Saginaw. Problem there is the south side of Saginaw resembles the north end of Flint-not a "nice" neighborhood. Drive a classic car through there and you may acquire a few bullet holes. They don't add "character".

I listen to a couple of Detroit area radio stations,and there was a lot of talk about curtailing some of the D.C. because of complaints from residents in some of the cities that the D.C. "takes over". It's obvious that B2TB is growing at a fast rate;I know a number of folks involved that say it's almost too much to control and facilitate with the folks on hand now(I've been asked to help-I'm already part of the Sloan committee;if I do that,I won't have time to spend with all you guys:tongueflap and is seriously competing with the D.C for attendance and car quality. There's also the draw of "personalities" to B2TB that's starting to rival the D.C.;we'll see how it goes.

Hey;are you going to Frankenmuth? I'm registered(boy,is that optimism!) and am trying to get that Friday off-I may be up to work OT ALL weekend and that's tough to turn down. Got a car to pay for,ya know...:yes: