Start Your Engines

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, a sure sign of the impending season happened on Saturday. The car shows are back.

The first show of the winter season, the Knights of Columbus sixth annual outing, took place on a warm, sunny day in the parking lot of San Marco Catholic Church. Hundreds of spectators showed up to admire and inspect 75 vintage, exotic, and muscle cars. They were as new as the 2025 Lotus Eletre, an all-electric SUV, a model year that hasn’t even arrived yet but would sell for $145,000 if you could get your hands on one. You can’t, said Ron Ward of Naples Motorcars, the nation’s largest Lotus dealer, but you can put in a reservation.

There were cars as old as the 1931 Ford Model A. In fact, two of these venerable artifacts of automotive history were on display: Dave O’Brien’s upscale “Vicky,” a Victoria Model A with winged hood ornament that was awarded best car of 1950 and older, and Phil Panos’ 1931 Roadster, a grittier version in matte black with no top and no engine hood covering, Panos said that while he drives it regularly, it had not been out much during the rainy season. 

Cars were as flashy as Tony Costantino’s 2016 Corvette Z-06, which won best in show, and Greg Salvi’s 2015 Dodge Hellcat, which was eye-catching even before you open up the hood, which then revealed a gleaming engine you could eat off of and a painting on the underside of the hood of a hellcat on the prowl. Which does make you wonder if Mr. Salvi looks for excuses to pop the hood, maybe asking mechanics to check the oil even if he just topped it off. 

There were cars as exotic as George Connell’s 1967 Citroen DS-21, even rarer on this side of the Atlantic with its open top and jellybean look, and Bill Young’s 2010 Spyker Spyder, a limited production model from a Dutch firm that lost money every year of its existence and never produced as many as 100 cars in a year, but whose autos are prized by the car cognoscenti. 

There were cars as flat-out strange as John McCoy’s DIY 1971 Plymouth Valiant conversion, with a massive supercharger housed inside a US Mail rural mailbox atop its hood, flanked by a host of exhaust pipes. A placard incorporated into the glossy “barn finish” paint job invites passersby to “feel free to rub your cute little body all over me.” Show attendees gave the car, called “Rusty Scamp,” the People’s Choice Award. 

There were Corvettes galore, so many that they had three award categories to themselves. Other than the People’s Choice, all prizes were awarded by the four judges: John Shewchuk, Al Schettino, Ralph Peterman, and Joe Swaja. Peterman is also the Knights of Columbus Grand Knight. 

This show marks the last hurrah of longtime car show organizer John de Rosa, who is hanging up his keys after 19 years of running the massive Kiwanis car show that happens in the spring, as well as all six years of the K of C show. All funds raised Saturday go to the charitable endeavors of the Knights of Columbus.

For those more interested in what goes into, or comes out of, the car, as opposed to the car itself, the San Marco Columbiettes will be hosting “Treasures in the Trunk,” their popular rummage sale, on Saturday, November 16.