San Francisco has plenty of car shows but once a year
Novato, CA hosts their two day (okay technically a night and a day) car show.
The 23rd Annual Novato Nostalgia Days car show was held in August and I
featured the trucks from that show in our special Winter 2019 issue of Truck Trade
Round-Up. As promised, now it's the
classic car field time to shine.
Novato is about an hour north of San Francisco and for the
two part show, they utilize the downtown center of Novato. Friday night is a powerful
cruise night where cars can drive up and down the main drag and show off the
cars in motion. Plenty of street side parking along the tree lined downtown and
some restaurants are open to fill your belly's. I always enjoy cruises where
you can see the cars in action, hear the engines and watch the cars motor down
the roads.
The main show cranks up on Saturday morning when the city
officials close down the main drag and cars can claim a shady parking spot and
crowds walk in the street. Any show that
has been kicking around for twenty plus years must be doing something right!
And this show does it right with a good mix of cars and sounds to keep the
crowds happy.
Since we are in Northern California, they had some wine and
craft beer vendors to augment the food trucks and a live band. Twenty five
awards are issued at the end of the day and with sunny weather and a breeze,
this was a great way to spend a weekend in Northern California. Over 275
vehicles registered for this event which shows you how popular it is. And the
streets were constantly filled with onlookers drooling over the cars.
The Best in Show was a classic MOPAR muscle car, a 1973 Plymouth
Barracuda, while the People's Choice went to a 1931 Crown Victoria. Just shows
you that this show has a varied and eclectic selection to choose from. The other awards were mainly broken out by
decade and whether it was stock or modified. Now if only I can arrange my
schedule to be in Novato before all of the Monterrey car shows next year too!
© 2020 Mark C. Bach
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