Classic car owners show off their vehicles to admiring fans in downtown

More than 2,500 showed up for the 15th annual Garlic City Car Show

Published in the September 7 – 20, 2016 issue of Gilroy Life

By Marty Cheek

Martin Serrano takes a photo of Stephanie Vaccaro sitting in a 1963 Lincoln Continental, the same type of car that President John F. Kennedy was sitting in when he was shot in Dallas.
Photo by Marty Cheek

Gilroy resident Martin Serrano snapped several photos of his friend Stephanie Vaccaro as she sat in the driver’s seat of the 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible. It was the same type of car model that President John F. Kennedy was sitting in when he was shot in Dallas.

The classic vehicle was one of about 180 vehicles shown Aug. 20 in downtown Gilroy at the 15th annual Garlic City Car Show.

“For the most part, I love the hot-rods and old cars like that,” Serrano said. “I always come out to see the local cars and all that.”

With his wife Marilyn, Russ Carr, the owner of the Continental and president of the Valle Del Sur antique car club, showed off the vehicle from the “Mad Men” era to admiring fans of classy chassis.

“What it’s all about is getting people involved with the cars and everything — and we always like that,” said the San Martin resident.

The Gilroy downtown car show is also a fun way for classic car owners to make friends with other people with similar interests, he said.

“They come here and meet a lot of other people. It’s surprising how many people I know here from the Fourth of July Car Cruise (in Morgan Hill) and a lot of other car shows,” Carr said. “People often come by and they’re looking for cars, too, or for special parts.”

Eric Howard, an organizer of this year’s downtown car show, said more than 2,500 people showed up for the free event. The car show was founded by the Gilroy Downtown Business Association but this year was hosted by the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.

One of the more poignant moments of the car show came when a memorial trophy was presented to San Martin residents Ron and Bobbi Boehm, whose son Jason was killed in an accident a year ago.

“It was so sweet. They couldn’t believe it,” Howard said. “They were in tears. Every so often if there is someone who died, we’ll do a memorial trophy.”

The organizers made sure that the car show was family friendly to attract children and keep their interests with musical performances such as a mariachi band as well as a kids zone to burn off energy, he said. Elvis impersonator Don Prieto got everyone “all shook up” when he came down the street in his convertible. For a fun lunch, people ate from food trucks.

“We really tried to liven it up,” Howard said. “With it being downtown, you have a whole different ambiance. You have merchants who get involved, merchants who are out selling their wares. We got remarks from (car owner) people that we always had something going on. There was always something to do downtown, where there are a lot of other car shows where you just sit by your car for six to eight hours.”

The variety of types of cars also helped keep people’s interests. There were antique cars from nearly a century ago, muscle cars, hot rods and even a couple of 1930s tractors to show off the region’s farming heritage. There were also brand new cars shown by local dealerships Gilroy Chevrolet, Gilroy Nissan Hyundai and South County Chrysler.
“It was a huge success on our standpoints. We heard no complaints,” Howard said.

He mentioned that one local car fan who runs a car show in the South Valley and has been to hundreds of car shows told Howard, “We just knocked it out of the park. By far, it’s the best downtown car show that he’s ever been to and one of the best that he’s ever been to. ‘Everything you did was top-notch and first class and you guys did everything right,’ he said.”