Many car shows are great because of the cars. Some are great because of the cars and the setting (Pebble Beach, anyone?). A few are great solely for the setting, and I recently had the privilege of attending one of those. In fact, it was easily the neatest venue for a car show I’ve ever attended, bar none.
My photo from across the bay
The setting, if the picture and title didn’t give it away, was the retired aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas. I estimate there were about 150 cars that turned out. I’m not saying the cars weren’t good, just on par with an average local show. The vast majority wouldn’t hold a lot of interest as subjects at Curbside Classic, but there were some standouts which I will share with the discerning readers below.
First a little background. Our family was vacationing in Corpus Christi last October (in south Texas, early October is our favorite time of the year for beach going), which just happened to coincide with this car event I had never heard of. I would certainly have wanted to take in the U.S.S. Lexington anyway, as I am a bit of a naval and military history buff. Whenever we are somewhere with an old ship to tour, we go, and this is the first chance I’ve had to visit an aircraft carrier.
The Lexington has an illustrious history. When the original Lexington carrier (CV-2) was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, a new carrier under construction (CV-16) was renamed Lexington in her honor. It was in service from 1943-1991. Entering service in mid 1943, the Lexington was involved in most of the major Pacific campaigns for the rest of the war. It acquired the nickname “The Blue Ghost” after Japanese propaganda radio erroneously declared it sunk. The Lex is also noteworthy today for being the oldest surviving fleet carrier in the world.
The organization that runs the ship museum has stated that this (2019) car show will be the last one, due to concerns about the long term functioning of the aircraft elevator used to get the cars on deck.
A few lucky car owners were able to park their cars in a shady spot. The weather was a bit warm with a high in the upper 80’s and mostly sunny skies. The 1967 Riviera was not in perfect condition, but that didn’t make it any less lovely. The second generation Riviera was arguably second only to the first generation as an exemplar of Bill Mitchell and GM’s styling prowess in the 60’s.
If this car lights your fire, you might like the article I wrote on a pristine original 1966 example a couple of years ago.
This is one you don’t see every day, a 1964 Chrysler 300 (non-letter) convertible. It’s been in the same family since 1965. While not ready to win any shows, it was presentable and said to be unrestored, though certainly not unmodified. In addition to the obvious Cragar wheels and rear end lift, it has an aftermarket intake and carb.
The interior upholstery and just about everything else inside looks original. I love this interior with its quirky square (make that elliptical) steering wheel, simple and graceful full-width dash and instrumentation and the world’s widest brake pedal.
Mustangs were prolific on the Lexington. I won’t touch on them much except to show the Bullitts, the newest edition of which I hadn’t seen up close and parked until the show. I would definitely welcome one in my driveway. I also wrote an article on Bullitt Mustangs new and old. Since I did that article, the Gas Monkey Garage on the TV show Fast’n’Loud did a Bullitt recreation which was really cool, culminating in filming a recreation of the chase scene. GMG has a webpage on it here. If you missed the show and are interested, the episode is available online, but it looks like you have to subscribe to some TV service to get it.
The 2019-20 Bullitt is the third tribute model that Ford has sold, joining the 2001 and 2008 editions. Of course there are countless unofficial 1968 tribute cars out there. My article above shows the 1968, 2001 and 2019 versions, but the one that wasn’t present at that Barrett-Jackson event was a 2008. This is probably my favorite of the modern ones, appearance-wise at least. The retro themed S197 generation most closely resembles the 67-68 fastbacks and I’ve always liked it (admittedly I am a bit biased being the owner of a 2011).
Unlike the 64 Chrysler 300, a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am is not an unusual site at a car show at all, but I still find it irresistible. Smokey And The Bandit featured a 1977 model, which had new and very attractive front end styling. The 1978 model looked very similar, but had more available power. This car has the top-of-the-line W72 Pontiac 400 c.i. 220 h.p. engine, which only approximately 10% of Trans Ams had that year. An even smaller percentage had the top 400 for its last year in 1979, which also received another front end restyling. Personally, I like the 77-78 front best.
In the roughly 15 year period between the end of the muscle car era and the modern reemergence of serious performance, the 78-79 TA is definitely one of the strongest, best-executed American cars of that period.
Who didn’t love the TV Batmobile as a kid? This replica looked very well done.
Crime fighting gadgets are all in place and ready for thwarting the next villainous plot in Gotham City. Is Batman based in Corpus Christi now?
With its jet engine and huge fins, the Batmobile looks right in place on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Wrapping up our showbiz theme, next to the Batmobile was a Jurassic Park Jeep replica. Based on the YJ (1987-95), the Jeeps in the first Jurassic Park movie are rather iconic for fans of simulated dinosaurs. Yet again, I wrote up another JP replica for a Curbside Classic article on the YJ Jeeps.
Jeep fans also had a treat with a permanent hanger deck exhibit of a restored WWII era military Jeep.
Another car populating the performance interregnum mentioned above with the 78 TA was Oldsmobile’s latter day 442. It was sold from 1985-87, this is a 1986. It had the same drivetrain as the 83-84 Hurst/Olds, which is to say a 180 h.p. 307 c.i. V8 and 4-speed automatic transmission. Better than what had been available on Old’s 442 package in the late 70’s, but no match for a 78 Trans Am.
I rather dig the interior. It combines nice features like comfortable seats, leather wrapped steering wheel and full gauges with a generally old-school look that went well with the generally old-school vibe of the entire car. 70’s-style T-tops are a nice bonus on your retro-style pseudo muscle car.
When I first spotted this 1972 Cutlass it didn’t raise my interest too much, as I assumed it was a 350 powered Cutlass Supreme refurbished to look like a little like a 442. As they say, though, don’t judge a book by its cover or an Oldsmobile by its stripes.
What I was actually looking at was a genuine unicorn. It is a Cutlass Supreme, equipped from the factory with a 455 and a 4-speed manual. That’s the 270 net h.p. L75, not the 300h.p. W30, but still a real factory fire breather by 1972’s end-of-the-muscle-car-line standards.
That M20 4-speed stick sure looks funny jutting out of the Cutlass Supreme’s floor. Kind of truck-like. The owner displayed the window sticker and other dealer paperwork as bone-fides, as well as a 1980 letter from Oldsmobile stating that 66 Supreme convertibles were equipped with that powertrain, as well as 77 Supreme hardtops. That’s actually more than I might have guessed, but considering that Oldsmobile was already selling scads of Cutlasses (including 131,613 Supremes in 1972) and was known to be glad to sell you just about any combination of options you could think of, it’s an appropriately tiny percentage.
Judging by the sticker, some of the other equipment may not be original, such as the hood stripes, spoiler and steering wheel. Really unique and interesting car!
Finally, we have another car that I did not initially realize what I was looking at. It’s a really nice, original, one-owner 1962 Corvette with a 327 (version not specified) in a sharp black over red color. I was admiring it casually when I noticed the National Corvette Museum logo on the poster inside the car and realized I’d seen it before, at the museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I saw the car when I visited in 2014, a few months after it had been pulled out of the sinkhole that opened up under part of the museum and swallowed 8 Corvettes.
It looks to have been completely repaired. I don’t know how it got to Corpus Christi and came to be parked on the U.S.S. Lexington. The poster inside the car that talked about the sinkhole history was pretty low key and I’ll bet many attenders didn’t pick up on that. I didn’t either right away. I have pictures I took of the damaged car then, as well as the sinkhole and all the other cars that fell in, but seeing this car has given me the idea of writing them up in a separate article. So stay tuned.
The show could easily have been 50% bigger and still had room on the Lexington’s huge flight deck. If they indeed don’t ever put on this show again, it will be a shame. For lovers of vehicular glory, big and small, it’s the perfect combination and I am grateful I got to go!
Great venue for a car show probably the most unique ever. I have a silly question how did those cars get abard the ship just wondering. Great article keep up the good work
Good question. I have no idea but I’d hazard a guess a ship like this would have loading platforms at dock level that would take supplies to various levels. Any sailors around?
The USS Hornet has a large platform on the pier just below L3. You take the B&A Crane, attach the cable to the four cables of the platform, and then raise it to L3, roll the car off, then drive car down to Hanger 1, where you drive it onto L1, and then raise to flight deck level. We can also use L2 to lift but I don’t think any other carrier has L2 functioning much less have L1 working. Below we use a large motorized crane to lift a much heavier weight to L3. Our B&A crane can barely be seen in the background.
The Lexington has a ramp from shore up to the hangar deck (it’s visible in the first photo). Once on the hangar deck, they apparently used one of the flight deck elevators to move the cars up. As the author says, the elevator’s getting iffy so they don’t plan to do the show again.
Whoops, second photo, not the first.
Car show on a aircraft carrier! How cool is that?? I prefer the earlier Firebird front end over the 77 and later ones which to me looked cheap and tacked on. Never been a huge F body guy but would take a ’70 Trans-Am, even a “fake” one.
I actually rank the 77 as the best mid-cycle refresh executed on an existing body. The shape of the grille perfectly echos the shape of the taillights and even the side windows. The 70 is great too, but it always played second fiddle to the Camaro design in my eye and the 74-76 just looked lazy. The 79-81 I’m not as keen to defend
In 1978 I had a room mate with a 400/4 speed TransAm. Not sure exactly which engine it had, but compared to my Vega GT it was very fast and handled California canyon back roads quite well, at least the smoother ones. It probably was instrumental in my own purchase of a 2nd gen TA a few years later. The Cutlass is interesting … the combination of 455/4 speed and bench seat seems unusual; I associate a 4 speed bench seat combo with full-size cars ten years older than the Cutlass. All in all, a fascinating look at a unique show. Thanks for documenting it for us!
Very nice Jon! The Lex brings back memories as I was stationed in Corpus Christi twice, first at Port Aransas and then in downtown Corpus. When I was downtown, I lived in Rockport for awhile and passed the “Lady Lex” every day on my way to work. I don’t remember them doing car shows there back then but what a cool venue, although I imagine the flight deck would heat up pretty quick even in October. I don’t see any Collonades but I see a Road Runner and a Charger that look interesting
That 86 442 is super sweet. I’d love that as a G-body someday. It’s perfection in my eyes with those T-Tops.
I was thinking the same thing about the 442… definitely the star of the show for me. Jon’s comments about the interior are spot-on… the combination of sport touches plus the old-school character are greatly appealing. Probably my favorite G-special. Plus, this one has some serious character in that it seems fully loaded (even with T-tops) but has manual window cranks. I sure miss a la carte options!
That is a fantastic place to hold a car show. I would imagine it is a somewhat long process for the owners to get their cars on and off the boat it certainly has a huge novelty factor.
I love the Trans Am. Most of the black ones were SEs(or at least every “restoration” is presented that way) with the 15 miles of pinstripes outlining every. single. bodyline, which even as a moderate purist I’d be inclined to peel off if I owned one. The screaming chicken is more than enough dress up! And it’s also refreshing to see a non-t-top variant at that.
The 08 Bullitt never did much for me, it looked too much like a plain V6 model with the plain grille, the big round GT fog lamps or pony package V6 grille were key to the design working, which is especially not helped by the hazy headlights that so many V6s at used car dealers sport these days. Plus as much of a sort of amalgam the 05-09 bodystyle was of first gen design cues, the overall bodystyle was rigidly 65-66 inspired rather than 67-68 inspired with its not quite full fastback roofline, even using the distinctive quarter windows the 66 Shelbys used. The current generation is the other way, looking more 69 or 70ish in bodystyle, and (IMO)ugly in the front end. Not a fan of the generically shaped black wheels either, the 01 had by far the best wheel design of the edition.
Great call on the current stang gen channelling the 69/70 and not really in a good way. I like the 2008, perhaps a bit too slavishly retro but ended up being an attractive shape.
Nice lineup Jon and what a superb setting. For me, 67 Riv. Stunning shape, appealing colour.
Good points. I think the updated 10-14 models are a bit more 67-68, while the 05-09 is more 65-66. Even the 05 is not as square and upright as the 65, so it has always appeared they were shooting for suggestive of the 1st gen generally rather than a specific year.
I agree the 01 Bullitt had the best wheels of all the tribute cars.
I have to think that all the sailors that served on Lady Lex would love the fact that it hosted a car show.
All good choices! My favorite is the ’67 Riviera.
Wow that is so cool! My Dad served on the USS Essex CV 9 and namesake of the Essex class carriers like the Lexington. Incredible venue and great pics!
Certainly a great place for a show, and some tasteful metal there too. Riviera for me, please
Definitely a unique location for a car show that works wonderfully well. Nice blend of old and new vehicles too.