� NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 MOTOR TREND CLASSIC
<1960 CHEVROLET CORVAIR SEDAN//1965 CHEVROLET CORVAIR MONZA 110 COUPE><DRIVE>
MOTOR TREND CLASSIC SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 �
l l l words and photographs richard truesdell
Four pairs oF strangers, Four musclecars, and an unForgettable drive down the inFamous route 66
THE MOTHER ROADgreetings from
<MUSCLECARS ON ROUTE 66><ROADTRIP>
� NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 MOTOR TREND CLASSIC MOTOR TREND CLASSIC SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 �
IT wAS A MUggy, 90-degree mid-August Monday afternoon, somewhere near Odell, Illinois, when someone finally uttered the proverbial “Whose crazy idea was this anyway?”
The idea was mine: Drive four musclecars on the mother of all road trips, downtown Chicago to the Santa Monica pier over seven days on the remnants of what John Steinbeck once called The Mother Road.
DAy ONE: CHICAgO, ILLINOIS, TO LITCHfIELD, ILLINOIS (250 MILES)If you’re going to drive Route 66 east to west, start to finish, it’s essential to set out from among the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago, where brown-and-white signs designating sections of the Route have been preserved after it was formally decommissioned. Begin with a hearty brunch at Lou Mitchell’s, an integral landmark on the Route for well over a half century. You’ll get complimentary Milk Duds with your meal—and find a long line of patrons out the door. This is where our participants first got acquainted.
From California came a stunning 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1, a 10-year-old restoration owned by Arnold and Jann Marks, which, with the exception of a fresh set of tires, was ready to run when the call came to be the Blue Oval representative. Arnold is the owner of Mustangs Etc., a California-based specialty restoration shop.
Next up, a 1969 AMC SC/Rambler, whose owner, Mark Fletcher, couldn’t make the start of the trip (he’d join up in Winslow, Arizona), so he designated Aaron Green and Brian Heitkam of Arizona Autocraft to shepherd the car for the first 2500 miles, having assembled it from more than 20 boxes of parts just two weeks earlier.
From the Detroit area, Brian Veit and his mechanic, John Nicles, brought a 1967 Dodge Charger that’s been in his family since new. Brian inherited the black-on-red 383-powered Charger when his older brother passed up the opportunity.
Also from Michigan came Kenny Walters. His 1969 Camaro SS/RS benefited from some judicious suspension modifications by a prior owner, a GM engineer, who gave his Camaro the most contemporary ride and handling characteristics among this group. Kenny’s wife, Gina, opted to stay at home, so with a functional, factory air-conditioning system aboard, I rode shotgun.
What is it about old gas stations that make them such a lure to car enthusiasts? Two great ones just happened to be on Historic Route 66 in central Illinois: The first in Dwight, where an old Texaco station has been returned to its former glory; the second in Odell, where a preservation effort is making serious headway to restore a 1920s-era Standard station. Odell also is where we picked up our first refugee Route 66er, Dave Jostes, who crashed the party with his 1970 Chevelle. Its speedometer had just crossed the 300,000-mile threshold.
In the haste to get the SC/Rambler on the road, the wrong set of rocker arms were installed and weren’t up to the stress of the new valve springs. Aaron and Brian secured a set in Pontiac and were able to get the car back in shape. Meanwhile, Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy and Jim Jones, of the Illinois Route 66 Association, treated our group to a fine dinner at DeLong’s Casual Dining followed by a private tour of the town’s Route 66 and military museums.
DAy TwO: LITCHfIELD, ILLINOIS, TO TULSA, OkLAHOMA (450 MILES)Overnighting in Litchfield gave us the opportunity to shoot Kenny’s Camaro at first light at the historic Ariston Café, a fixture along Route 66 since 1931. The rest of the group arrived at eight sharp, and we were off to St. Louis and its magnificent Gateway Arch (though not technically a part of the Route 66 experience), the symbolic front door to the American West.
Next stop in St. Louis was Ted Drewes, a frozen-custard emporium on Chippewa Street that’s been a Route 66 institution since 1941 and where general manager Travis Dillon treated the group to our choice of frozen confections. We tanked up at a pristine 1950s-style Sinclair station, also on Chippewa Street, run for the past 55 years by the Weisehan brothers—who still clean your windshield and check your tire pressure.
XXXs project, the logistics were formidable, getting two
West Coast cars to Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise, then returning the
Camaro and Charger to the Motor City. Tom Abrams of Reliable Carriers (reliable-
carriers.com), stepped up to assist. Tom owns a couple of
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Next stop after St. Louis was Devil’s Elbow, a stretch of Route 66 I’ve missed on four previous drives. The two-lane bridge over Big Piney River has been bypassed by newer roads twice: first in 1943 when a four-lane section of Route 66 was built to accommodate military traffic from nearby Fort Leonard Wood and then again when Interstate 44 opened in the 1970s. At the Elbow Inn, we indulged in BBQ ribs and brisket as Jann noted the hundreds of bras hanging from the ceiling. She declined to add to the collection.
We arrived in Tulsa just as the famous Metro Diner was closing for the night. Sad to say, the University of Tulsa has purchased the property, and the diner is slated for destruction, though this is hardly the first time we learned that another Route 66 landmark might not survive. If you’re seeking traditional lodging in Tulsa, try the Desert Hills Motel. Its rooms are spotless, close to period correct, and the place is way more fun than a chain motel near the airport.
DAy THREE: TULSA, OkLAHOMA, TO AMARILLO, TExAS (380 MILES)The day began with breakfast at Tally’s Good Food Café. The portions are huge and the hometown atmosphere authentic. Patrons there were remiss about the impending demise of the nearby Metro Diner. Then it was on to the Rock Cafe in Stroud where we met Dawn Welsh, the inspiration for the Sally Carrera character from the movie “Cars.”
Further west in Davenport, we spotted a building with more than a dozen Mustangs around back and doubled back to find three Shelbys inside, including a 1969 powered by a 4.6-liter supercharged V-8 running an independent rear suspension and painted by custom-car legend Gene Winfield. Dubbed the GT690GW, it’s said to be the first of what will be a series of 20 similar cars.
Crossing into Texas in late afternoon, with the mercury near 100 degrees, we landed in Shamrock, home of the U Drop Inn. Built in 1936, this art-deco gas station and café is a Route 66 landmark and has benefited from a recent $1.7-million federal restoration grant.
We continued into McLean—which was like driving into a ghost town. Despite an early preservation effort, it’s been ravaged by vandalism and is a premiere example of what happened to dozens of once-vibrant Route 66 towns bypassed by the Interstates. Kenny said it looked like something out of a Stephen King novel.
Our main destination for Wednesday night was the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch and Hotel, home of the free 72-ounce steak—that is, if you can eat it and all the trimmings in an hour or less.
DAy fOUR: AMARILLO, TExAS, TO ALbUqUERqUE, NEw MExICO (380 MILES)Just west of Amarillo is the famous Cadillac Ranch, where you’ll find 10 of America’s finest mid-century luxury cars, buried up to their A-pillars.
We exited I-40 to pick up a great stretch of Route 66 in Vega; there we met Harold and Tresa Whaley who gave us a tour of their Vega Motel. Unlike many of the motorcourt owners along Route 66, they’ve resisted the urge to convert the garages into rooms and are making an effort to return the motel to its former glory, helped by its recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places.
The next stop was Tucumcari, across the border in New Mexico. After lunch at Del’s Restaurant, we headed west toward Albuquerque, where we had dinner before sunset for first time in five days. Normally on the classic Route 66 trip, our choice for traditional lodging in Albuquerque is the El Vado Motel on the west side. But like the Metro Diner in Tulsa, it’s slated to meet its destiny with the wrecking ball unless local preservation efforts prevail over the interests of heartless condo developers.
DAy fIVE: ALbUqUERqUE, NEw MExICO, TO wILLIAMS, ARIZONA (360 MILES)With the racing Unsers calling Albuquerque home, it’s almost impossible to escape their presence on the west side. Across from the Unser Children’s Center on Central is the Unser compound, home to Bobby and Al Sr.
A few miles west of Budville, in the hamlet of Cubero, is the Villa Cubero. Now a gas station and general store, it once was a popular motel and is where Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of “The Old Man and the Sea.” The next highlight was Thoreau, where our caravan crossed the Continental Divide. After entering
DRIVINg IMPRESSIONSon our last long stretch of old Route 66, between Roy’s in Amboy and
Ludlow, we finally had the chance to unleash the SC/Rambler, equipped for quarter-mile sprints with a 3.54 rear axle and 390 cubes under that bug-
catcher hood scoop. From 50 to 100 mph, acceleration is fearsome, testimony to the best-balanced package that $3000 would deliver back in 1969.
The Mustang, with its smooth-running 351, simply cruised along in air-conditioned comfort, happy at any speed and keeping its reputation intact
with no mechanical malfunctions.With the exception of a master cylinder on day two and a progressively
worsening shift linkage, the Camaro proved capable of running all day long at triple-digit speeds on deserted stretches of old 66.
The Charger that surprised the most. The family man’s musclecar, with its expansive bodywork (considered an intermediate in its day), its highly tuned
383, and cruising gears, it was happy to keep pace with the Camaro and, when given the chance, able to push the speedometer needle well past an
indicated (and verified with our Pioneer GPS system) 130 mph. Brian smiled from the passenger seat as I exercised his family’s prized possession, as his
dad intended, all the way into Ludlow.
XXXs project, the logistics were formidable, getting two
West Coast cars to Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise, then returning the
Camaro and Charger to the Motor City. Tom Abrams of Reliable Carriers (reliable-
carriers.com), stepped up to assist. Tom owns a couple of
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Arizona, we detoured through Holbrook, site of one of two remaining Wigwam Motels, where guests can sleep in a teepee.
After Holbrook, we pressed toward Winslow. The SC/Rambler was reunited with its owner, and we landed at “the corner” made famous by the Eagles’s 1971 hit “Take It Easy.” Winslow, an archetypal Route 66 town along the old Santa Fe railroad, even provided a flatbed Ford. From Winslow, our caravan blew through Flagstaff at sunset on our way to a night’s stay in Williams.
DAy SIx: wILLIAMS, ARIZONA, TO RIALTO, CALIfORNIA (400 MILES)Saturday dawned bright for our last full day on Route 66. First stop was Seligman, the primary inspiration for the fictitious Radiator Springs in the movie “Cars.” At Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, a quirky drive-in restaurant festooned with kitsch doo-dads and knick-knacks, Kenny and John spied an unrestored but complete 1969 Pace Car edition Camaro that’s been in the Delgadillo family for decades. Don’t ask: It’s not for sale. The stretch of Route 66 between Seligman and Kingman is one of the best remaining. Hackberry General Store provided another vintage gas-station photo op.
We bypassed the Kingman-to-Needles, California, section of the Route. This decision turned out to be a smart one—the temperature was well over 110 degrees, and the Charger popped its radiator cap, its first malfunction in almost 2000 miles. After our dash through the California desert, we made a beeline on I-40 and I-10 into San Bernardino for our final overnight at the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, the other remaining teepee palace. It’s the Ritz-Carlton of teepee accommodations, having benefited from its own million-dollar renovation a few years back.
DAy SEVEN: RIALTO TO SANTA MONICA, CALIfORNIA (100 MILES)Our final day’s agenda was simple: a stopover in Pasadena for lunch and then on to the Santa Monica pier. En route to Pasadena, we stopped off in Monrovia at the Aztec Hotel and Elephant Bar and Restaurant. This landmark Robert Stacy-Judd hotel opened in 1926 and is another example of roadside heritage saved from overzealous developers.
We got to the Santa Monica pier at dusk to snap each machine under the famous lighted sign leading to the pier’s midway, a fitting end to a trip spanning seven days, eight states, and an official total of 2448 miles.
What most surprised this group of musclecar enthusiasts, beyond the universal friendliness of nearly everyone we encountered, was the number of people from outside the U.S. who were making their own Route 66 pilgrimage. We met tourists from Canada, England, Germany, Norway, Italy, Australia, and Japan, all with their own reasons for exploring this unique slice of Americana. And, yes, all seemed envious of our group—and of the four seriously cool machines we drove. u
wEbSITES Of INTERESTcart66pf.org/66caravan/
theroadwanderer.net/route66.htm historic66.com/
route66clicks.com/8states.html route66motels.com/ route66patrol.com/
roadsidepeek.com/rte66/ lastbandit.com/rte66pix.html
astro4.ast.vill.edu/66/
For this project, the logistics were formidable,
getting two West Coast cars to Detroit for the Woodward
Dream Cruise, then returning the Camaro and Charger to
the Motor City. Tom Abrams of Reliable Carriers (reliable-carriers.com), stepped up to assist. Tom owns a couple of
outstanding SC/Ramblers himself, and our adventure
wouldn’t have been possible without Reliable Carriers’s
top-notch support.
our group’s combined displacement totaled 1474 cubic inches or 24.1 liters. Consuming 745 gallons of gas, the caravan averaged 13.4 mpg over a combined
distance of 10,000 miles. With premium averaging about $3 per gallon, when all the fuel bills were
tallied up, the total for the week came to $2230—an average of almost $550 per car.
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