Mark McCourt and I have been back from the big import show in Carlisle since Sunday night, but what with deadlines and all, I haven’t had a chance to go through my photos until now. You can’t talk about Carlisle without talking about the weather, and we were lucky there – it only rained on Sunday.
Turnout was good. There were 1,458 cars and motorcycles registered – just short of the all-time high of 1,501 set in 2007. The cars of Germany were featured this year, a treat for the Opel and Audi club stalwarts who always turn out for this show. We haven’t seen any mention of attendance award yet, but it’s hard to imagine that Saabs @ Carlisle didn’t manage to hang onto its crown.
One of the high points was getting to meet local collector Ed Ullom, a great guy who had brought a fantastic variety of seldom seen BMWs for display, one of which you’ll see at some point in the pages of Sports & Exotic Car. (No, this gorgeous, Euro-spec 1972 3.0 CSi is not it.) I happened to be standing around when the photographer showed up to take Ed’s photo — ah, my 15 minutes of fame.
In the car corral, I absolutely loved this decrepit 1963 Mercedes-Benz 190, recently dragged out of 25 years in storage. The seats were in pretty tough shape, but the body was solid, and the owner couldn’t wait to start the engine for me. It ran so, so sweetly. How much work did he do to get it running? He changed the spark plugs. That’s it. If a brake line hadn’t been damaged in transit that very morning, we probably could have driven it back to Bennington. It had been marked down from $3,950 to $3,450, and was still there when we left.
Mark and I did both drag some interesting stuff home. I’ll let Mark tell you about his finds, if he chooses; I’ll save mine for another time. I’ll give you a hint, though: It was a surprisingly good place for a Rover fan.
