(Words and photos by Mike Brooks) – For over 60 years, downtown Buffalo has hosted a custom car show to bring people together to welcome springtime in Western NY with high doses of paint and chrome. The 5th installment of the Buffalo Motorama carries on the tradition of showing winter the door. Forget chirping birds and budding flowers, this high octane party is how the locals here recognize the beginning of spring.
The show is all put together by Joe Haniszewski Jr., along with lots of help from dedicated family and friends. Joe is a local resident who loves the car scene here and is determined to take the reigns and continue the tradition of bringing a top quality car event to the area. Somehow this year he managed to put this show together all while finishing his own custom car to debut at the show. His ’66 “SiniSSter” Chevelle fit right in with all the other premier vehicles at the event. It’s hard to believe this car was built in his garage at home instead of some huge mega-shop. I really have know idea how this guy has slept over the past few months with so much on his plate.
The show featured vehicles from all over the north east United States as well as some from southern Canada. Numerous vehicle displays were featured throughout many areas of the Buffalo Convention Center. The main lobby resembled a classic Edsel dealer showroom with a full collection of classic Edsels and dealer promotional signs and items. One of the lower ballrooms contained the “Open wheel room” that features plenty of tradtional hot rods, customs, vintage racecars, rat rods, and cool motorcycles along with pinstripers and rockabilly and blues music played by live bands throughout the weekend. Upstairs on the main floor featured an insane assortment of perfectly restored classic and musclecars alongside race-prepped and custom cars and trucks. Replicas of famous cars from both movies and TV were on display as well including the Ghostbusters ECTO-1, the Scooby-Doo, Mystery Machine, and the Starsky and Hutch Torino. One of the most notable displays included the ’57 Chevies of 2014 Drag Week Unlimited Class champion Jeff Lutz. Both the “Beast” and the “Evil Twin” cars were in attendance as Jeff and Jeff Jr. were on hand to sign autographs, answer questions and hang out with fans and fellow hot rodders. Many other local drag cars where there including Buffalo’s own Drag Week veteran Nick Plewniak and the infamous “Stretchy Truck” representing part of the huge drag racing scene in Western New York. Local tracks Empire Dragway and Lancaster National Speedway and Dragway both had booths there with all the info on this years coming events.
For the full story, check out all the photos from this event, including some shots from the catwalks high above the main floor. Also be sure to check out the facebook pages for even more info on this event and the SiniSSter Chevelle!
All that is a nice fairy tale, after two years and two missed announced dates fo completion the car came to the Motorama and still isn’t running, even as of this date. The car is an absolute joke and rolls down a road of broken agreements with numerous co.’s that provided work or components for the car. In the “real” show car world and not the world of the owners a car is expcted to be finished in a year to be relevant for the sponsors advertising dollar. What comes around goes around and time will give them what they deserve. By the way “know idea”………how ’bout “no idea”