Classic car owners who live to show off their vehicles and spend
time with their families and friends tout the annual Taste of
Morgan Hill car show for its quiet, downtown setting plus the
number of shopping and entertainment options – unrelated to
automobiles – that the art and food festival offers their spouses
and children.
Classic car owners who live to show off their vehicles and spend time with their families and friends tout the annual Taste of Morgan Hill car show for its quiet, downtown setting plus the number of shopping and entertainment options – unrelated to automobiles – that the art and food festival offers their spouses and children.
Not to mention the show, which started with less than a half-dozen cars 21 years ago, hosts an impressive field of impeccably-maintained, rare and customized performance and show cars for a contest its size, according to judges and spectators.
About 170 cars entered the two-day show Saturday, and about 100 Sunday, according to car show committee member Lou Mirviss. Entries included Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, custom-made hot rods, Bel Airs, Impalas and even some foreign models.
The judging process is different among other car shows, and is designed to involve the community.
Saturday’s judges were the show’s sponsors, who each picked their favorite entrant for “Best in Show.” On Sunday, local “dignitaries” took the sponsors’ place and selected their winners, Mirviss explained. Sunday’s judges included Mayor Steve Tate, and the winners of the Chamber’s Salute awards announced earlier each year.
There are no criteria for the “Best in Show” winners, as the judges may pick their favorites based on their own preferences, sentimental attachment, or even the best paint job.
The coveted overall “Showcase Trophy” winner is also announced each day and were chosen by Mark Reuter, a Morgan Hill resident who owns a company that manufactures and sells auto and motorcycle parts. Reuter, who has been the car show’s showcase judge – with the aid of wife Cindy – since 2004, is “not an expert,” in his words. But he is a longtime classic-car enthusiast himself, and his shop MDR has won awards for its instrument panel designs.
“I like a nice, clean looking car,” Reuter said. “I like the same theme all the way through.”
Saturday’s showcase champion was a 1948 Buick sedan, which had been restored with “modern amenities, but you couldn’t tell,” Reuter said. Sunday’s winner was a 1937 Ford Coupe which was painted with flames, but was “subtle and clean.”
And Reuter echoed other participants who said the car show’s attributes of the small-town atmosphere and variety of nonauto-related options. He isn’t shy to admit that he also enjoys the quilt show every year at the Taste of Morgan Hill, and described the tapestries on display in that event as “basically street-rods made out of cloth.”
Another local classic-car buff is Morgan Hill Councilman Greg Sellers, who helped organize the car show in its humble beginnings, when it began almost as an afterthought when the Morgan Hill Downtown Association organized the first Taste of Morgan Hill festival as a way to promote local businesses.
“Frankly, I love old cars and I wanted to figure how to include them (in the art and food festival),” he said.
