jaunty75

We attended Pancho's 8th Annual Car Show today.

http://www.desertcruisers.com/index....ntinfo&id=8207

It was held at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico, just 4 miles north of the Mexican border. Columbus itself is a semi-ghost town with a population of about 1700 people, and it's most famous for being the site of a raid by Pancho Villa, then a general in the Mexican army, in 1916. The state park commemorates the event and the response of the Americans there.

Anyway, holding a car show here is an amazing concept, in my opinion, because the location is miles from anywhere. It's 65 miles west of El Paso, 90 miles southwest of Las Cruces, the only two real population centers for miles around, and 30 miles south of Deming, New Mexico, itself not much more than a dusty stop for gasoline along I-10. Yet, the turnout was pretty darn good.

I did not want to drive either of my Oldsmobiles that far, but we did go look at what was there, and we were very pleasantly surprised. Amongst the maybe 25 cars were four, yes, four Oldsmobiles, and they weren't all A-body cars. There was also a gorgeous '57 Packard Clipper, a couple of Model A Fords (which I didn't get photos of), a pretty '51 Chevy two-door coupe, a very nice '57 Cadillac, and an unrestored '60 Chevy Impala owned by the son of the original purchaser. A few photos are below.


First up is a gorgeous '63 Starfire.











Next is a very pretty '65 Dynamic 88 convertible.










A nice '69 Cutlass convertible. The owner told me that, when he bought it a number of years ago, it had been sitting in a barn for about 10 years and had about an inch of dirt on it.










Right next to the '69 Cutlass was this '67 Cutlass 2-door post. While otherwise solid-looking, it obviously could use a paint job, but the owner, who is the guy in the photo in the cap, and who was a riot to talk to, told me he was "done," whatever that meant. The other fellow in the photo is the owner of the '69.







The '57 Caddy.




The '60 Impala. I talked briefly with the owner, and while he talked about needing to get some trim pieces for it, he said nothing about repainting it. Like the owner of the '67 Cutlass, the idea of "patina" seems popular, and this car has it in spades.




The really sweet '51 Chevy two-door.




The '57 Packard Clipper, a four-door sedan to boot.






Finally, on the way home, and quite unexpectedly, but isn't that the fun of driving the backroads of the southwest, we came across this sitting behind a fence about 5 miles south of Deming. As you can see, from the road, you can't tell much other than there's an old car, apparently for sale, and apparently sitting there for quite a long time. So of course we had to get out and investigate.

Turns out it's a '63 Buick full-size. I couldn't see a badge on it to see what model it was, but it's a four-holer, so it's an Electra or something like that. Pretty cool. It's 2-door hardtop, it looked very complete with no obvious rust through anywhere other than that same, wonderful patina. The front bumper looked fine.

Some Buick aficionado somewhere needs to come and rescue this as I'm guessing, assuming there's an engine under there and all the rest, that this is a very typical southwestern car with no serious rust problems. It's obviously been sitting there for a while given the height of the brush around it and the fading of the writing in the window, but it doesn't rain much and doesn't snow at all around here, so it might be in pretty good shape. Even the letters that spell BUICK across the front of the hood are all present and intact. Anyway, here it is. A proverbial barn find only it's not in a barn.

dc2x4drvr

Thanks for the pics...

redoldsman

Cool thread. That is a surprising number of Oldsmobiles for a small show. The 57 Caddy and 57 Packard look like they just came off the showroom floor. The Buick is a 63 Wildcat and a very desirable car since it is a 2-door hardtop. I am sure there are Buick guys that would love to have that car. Those are very nice cars. Looks like it was a fun trip.

jaunty75

Cool. Thanks for id'ing the Buick.

oldcutlass

Nice pic's. Your right that is in the middle of nowhere.

don71

Thanks for the photos. I like the patina the southwest offers. If the owner is done with it, then so be it. Car shows around here don't look like that. Sounds like a good day and a good cruise. Its all good.

Tedd Thompson

Thanks for posting the pics, kinda makes you wonder why they picked that spot to have a show.....Tedd

jaunty75

That's what I kept wondering, even though they did get a good turnout. But what does suffer when holding a show in so isolated a location is spectator turnout. Other that the people whose cars are on display, there's almost no one else there. It's not like it's at a shopping mall or restaurant parking lot or wherever in a large-ish city where you'll get a lot of people who happen to notice the show as they go about their day and stop in for a few minutes to look at the cars. Very few people, relatively speaking, pass by the location of this show as part of their normal, out-and-about Saturday driving.

But who am I to criticize? This was their 8th annual show. Something keeps bringing them back.

Aron Nance

Thanks for the great pics, Jaunty! Loved the '51 Chevy!!! The '57 Packard sure has a lot of Studebaker lines showing; of course, that would be true, as Packard/Studebaker had merged, trying to save at least one of them. Thanks again!

Koda

I actually like car shows with no spectators. People are more respectful of the cars if they all brought one themselves.

junior supercar

having family in both highly populated areas of New Mexico and some in the middle of nowhere New Mexico (I never really realized how many stars were truly in the sky until getting away from the city lights, amazing, but a story for another time), it is a little odd they picked this as a location. But also it is their 8th annual one like was stated.

Whats up with that blue cougar in the background in some shots?


as a side note and some interesting trivia, my mom was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico. IIRC, Las Vegas used to be the state capital at one time also.

jaunty75

We noticed it, too, but it was not part of the show. It was parked out in the area along the road where spectators, such as they were, could park.

citcapp

I like car guy car shows as well. They don't bang up your ride. I go to a car show every Thursday night all year long. The largest turnouts are during the spring, summer, and fall months. Its called "The Thursday Night Garage Group" No dues no rules, everyone's a President. We have had as few as 10 cars show up to upwards of 300 cars. And dinner costs only 5 bucks doesn't get any better then that