“This is our seventh year, and I can’t even bring my own car, a 1961 Corvette,” Foland added. “But my husband Ted has his 1961 Pontiac Catalina 421 here.”
Dealership owner Bill DeLord said, “We really enjoy having all of these cars here, and we like to celebrate the Pontiac and Oldsmobile owners who are maintaining these lost marques while we also display the Buicks, Cadillac and GMC models.”
DeLord also uses the event to kick off the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce and Warren County Food Drive.
“If people bring canned goods, they get half off the entry fee and it gives us a chance to give something back to the community. And the POCI club also makes a donation to Juvenile Diabetes Research, so we hope to do some good while displaying these cool cars.”
Scott Hensley’s black 1987 Buick Grand National was parked on the pedestal beneath the dealership sign, a spot reserved for the Best of Show from the previous year.
“It’s the best parking spot here, raised up so everyone can see the car,” Hensley said as he continued to shine the machine.
“It’s kind of a tweener, not real old and not real new, but I’ll tell you one thing, it’s bad, I mean bad fast,” Hensley added. “This was the fastest production car built in 1987, because this was the year Buick got the intercooler figured out on the turbo for the V6. It out-ran Corvettes in ’87 and today it’ll still out-run the new Camaro with the big engine. Unfortunately, after ’87, new federal regulations came out and ruined the car.”
Buick only built the all-black V6 Grand National for four years, from 1984 through 1987, but the 1987 model is the one with real collector appeal.
The show offers a number of awards, including Top 25 and individual awards for various makes. “We have two judges who aren’t club members do the judging and our club members don’t compete for the big awards,” explained Donna Foland.
Scott Hensley won Best Buick while Lebanon’s Keith Carter won Best of Show with a 1965 GTO. Best Cadillac went to Daryl Poping of Columbus, Kettering’s Dave Servey won Best Pontiac and Xenia’s Adam Geis won Best Oldsmobile. Roy Hess of Xenia won Best Race Car with a GTO and Nancy Atchley won Best Modified with her 1969 pick-up.
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