Chocolate in Autumn

As surely as August brings Macungie, so does October offer up Hershey, traditionally the end of the northeastern car show season. Formally the Eastern Division National Fall Meet of the Antique Automobile Club of America, carfolk everywhere know it by its location: Hershey, as in chocolate and central Pennsylvania. This year's event was blessed with fine fall weather with nary a raindrop to be seen, which is rare in this century.

With some 10,000 vendor spaces, one can find most any car component or tool: carburetors, spark plugs, distributors, mufflers in all shapes and sizes, hubcaps, lenses and automobile jacks. A few dealers bring western sheet metal, though not all of it is rust-free. Toys, too, are plentiful, both old and new, as are pedal cars.

There are plenty of cars for sale, both on the fields and in the Car Corral, the latter offering such diverse wares as a vintage Bentley and a well-preserved 1979 Honda Civic. Others ranged from nearly new 1978 Mercury to Willys 77 to a '51 Ford with the desirable and rare 429 V8 option. There were foreign-bodied Fords like this Gläser cabriolet, incontinent Triumphs, and woodie Chryslers coming apart at the seams. Nissan/Datsun Z cars were plentiful, some of them, like this 280Z, in need of considerable help. Many prominent collectors attended, though Dan Strohl eschewed Hershey this year and missed out on a rare and desirable 1973 Hornet X. Popular racing driver and publisher Joe Freeman stopped by my space on his bike, which sports a rare and valuable Nantucket license plate.

Many clubs and organizations have headquarters on the fields. The Society of Automotive Historians opened their annual History Tent in the Orange Field, wherein a member proudly showed his newly acquired Fisher Coach. While wandering one could contemplate an Overland project, or buy a Bébé Peugeot from Connecticut dealers George and Manny Dragone.

Each year RM Auctions holds a Friday afternoon sale. The well-attended event featured a number of celebrity pedal cars auctioned to benefit the AACA Museum, some of which brought astronomical prices. Top money magnet among the 86 cars offered was a Duesenberg SJ phaeton knocked down for a cool $1.6885 million.

Saturday morning brings the Really Big Show, thousands of cars entered for AACA judging. Where else could one find not only a matched pair of EMF 30s but their cousin, the Everitt. Other notables included Stoddard-Dayton, Jordan, Rickenbacker (of the hat-in-the-ring mascot) and a plaid-side Willys-Knight. AACA eligibility now extends to 1983, so one sees things as modern as a VW Rabbit, and there's even a class for Second Generation Collector Vehicles, the sole inhabitant of which was a Shay Model A replica. My daughter Harriet checked out a VW nearly identical to the one she's restoring, and I coveted a patinated Crane Simplex in the Historic Preservation of Original Features class.

Some time ago I wrote that Advance Design Chevy trucks are seldom seen at car shows. Hershey proved me wrong. There were at least eight on hand, easily rivaling the Fords. By noon time, many were getting tired, these Valiants unable to stifle a yawn.

What car, you may ask, did I most want to take home? The Crane Simplex was outside my price range, if it was for sale at all. More feasible was a Hillman Husky in the Car Corral, a once-popular model I haven't seen in nearly 40 years.