I took Anthracite to the annual Deutche Classic car show today in Fleetwood, PA which features German made cars. Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc. There were also German motorcycles that participated.
I'm guessing there were between three and four hundred motor vehicle there but I could be wrong.
We arrived at 8:00 this morning after a nice drive through the back roads as "Judy" my GPS system guided me through the 15 or so miles to the event. The weather yesterday was rainy and last night it was overcast with high humidity. This morning at 4:30 I could tell it would be a nice day even though there was a little fog in the air. The weather was going to be sunny all day with lower humidity as the day progressed.
When we arrived this morning there were only a dozen or so cars ahead of me at the event which I thought was strange. The last time I was there I was one of the last Mercedes to show up and this time I was the first. Anthracite was parked in the same spot she was in two years ago, under the trees and in the shade.
There were a lot of nice comments on the car from the people that looked at her like: very classic, awesome, very beautiful, very nice, I love your car, I used to have one similar to this, we had one of these in Germany back in the early 70's, and too many more to recount.
There was a Mercedes Gullwing, a 2 door 1960 220SE model in black, a 1956 190SL, and a total of 32 Mercedes cars in the line up. I said to myself this is some tough competition.
After the judges came around, they had very big smiles on their faces as they looked over my car, I thought I'm good for a trophy at least.
Three o'clock and the announcement of the trophies starts to take place. They went through each German mark and awarded third, then second, and then first place for the make. Then they came the Mercedes line up. I thought this was my big chance for a trophy. Third place was the car to the left of me, second went to the car that usually got first place in the Mercedes line up, first went to the 1963 190SL that was to my right.
At that point I was pretty bummed out not getting a trophy in the Mercedes line up but said to myself she put a lot of smiles on everyone's face as they admired her and that was good for me. I was glad to have so many people admire and comment about her.
After all of the trophies for the various marks were handed out they started to award trophies for the best under carriage. I thought well maybe I could win that one. Nope it went to a Volkswagen. Then there was a trophy for the best exterior, nope that went to someone else. Then there was the trophy for the best engine compartment, nope went to someone else, bummer I thought!
The final trophy was announced for the "best of show", I didn't know they had such a classification, must be a new event for them I thought,
As the announcer called it out "the best of show trophy sponsored by Transportation Emporium goes to . . . . . . . . a 1971 . . . . . . . . Mercedes Benz . . . . . . . . . from Birdsboro, PA . . . . . . . . . . owned by . . . . . . . . Bob Steele"
I was awe struck as there were so many cars at the event. Here are some pictures of the trophy:
Anthracite did good today I'm proud of her for what she is.
Regards,
280SE Guy
