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Somernites Cruise Action: Cars, Cruising, And Americana In The Heart Of Kentucky


Somernites Cruise Action: Cars, Cruising, And Americana In The Heart Of Kentucky

(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – We had been wanting to visit Somernites for a long time and just hadn’t. The car hasn’t been anywhere yet this year because post-rebuild leaks. We thought we had it licked and headed out Saturday morning as the skies threatened rain. Sure enough, about 10 miles out we start blowing oil all over behind us. I decide to tough it out and continue on. That decision didn’t do my mood any good, but we did get there. The turnout was lower than usual (606 cars I think) which is at least 1,000. The weather definitely played a role in that.

The spotlight cars for this cruise were A-body Chevelles, Malibus, El Caminos, and wagons. Right up my alley. Since this was our first trip to Somernites I hadn’t seen first- hand how well organized and civilized everything was. It is a real family-oriented event and the whole community seems to support it. I’d heard stories of how good it was, but until you experience it you really don’t know. After gawking at the A-bodies for a good while, my 14yr-old and I headed to see what else had came to the show. A large posse of Corvairs made the trek from Indiana which is a nice display of out-of-the-ordinary.

Speaking of strange – there was a farmall-nosed, coupe/truck ratrod thing running a crusty SBC and sporting one tiny turbo plumbed to each exhaust port with the spent gasses piped out through some very long weed-burner zoomies. I didn’t get to hear it run, though I appreciate the chore it must have been to plumb and setup. We hit the swap meet and didn’t see much, but we managed to score some cool 1/64th cars for our collection. I found and out of the box Hot Wheels Dick Harrell Camaro funny car and an in-box JohnnyLightning KO-Motion Corvette. My son snagged a few Impalas, a M2 ’55 Chevy gasser, and a 63 Dodge 330. I picked up a couple JohnnyLightning Thunderbolts for my 8yr-old. It’s his favorite car.

After we didn’t win the car raffle we headed to the hotel and then to find dinner. I took the nova to a car wash just before dinner to wash the oil off everything and shine the car up a bit. Post dinner we let my wife and 8yr-old out at the hotel and my son and I went to cruise the strip. If I keep from having the revs at a constant over 3,000rpm it doesn’t blow oil so the 45mph speed limit worked for us. The ‘strip’ is specifically set up for cruising and u-turns are allowed at virtually every light. Its been years since I cruised like this. I didn’t play much, but I’d let it roll out from a light and then give it a squirt to 45-50 and let off. The car will get some good rubber into 2nd. We burned up about a half tank of gas before calling it a night. Most folks were very restrained in their behavior which is awesome. We did get a fly- by from a tuned-up crotch rocket that just about blew my left eardrum.

There was a black Hyundai with boost that was quick and quiet, but it was being reckless, not signaling to quick lane changes, and when I was alone on a stretch in the center lane I looked up and it was racing another car coming up on us fast and swerved around us then kept going. London Dragway is just 45 minutes away if you want to prove something or just go find an empty stretch of road in an industrial park outside of town. There are people on both sides of the road setup in lawn chairs watching the cars cruise by. It’d likely spoil this great thing they have going there if someone lost it and careened through the ditch and into the crowd.

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somernites cruise june 2014 chevelle hot rod ford085

 


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