Annual car show a highlight of 9-day Autumn Leaf Festival
CLARION — Many cars at the annual car show, which kicked off the Autumn Leaf Festival this weekend, came with a full tank of stories to share with car enthusiasts.
For the car show, antique, vintage, modified and new vehicles were displayed from as far as Pittsburgh and Meadville, with the majority from surrounding areas. The Autumn Leaf Festival will culminate with a parade Saturday followed by Clarion University's homecoming game.
Two 1923 Ford Model Ts were on display, one being a roadster built from the frame up by Chuck Booth of Fairmont City, who has attended the show with the car for the last 10 years.
Jim Staab of Clarion drove in an original 1923 Model T with wooden spoke tires and crank starter.
“The car has been in my family since 1956. My father Ray 'Butch' Staab restored the car to its former glory, and it has been a part of the ALF car show since the first one,” Staab said.
Butch died in 2006, but Jim, his son, has continued the tradition.
“Over the last six years, we have gone over the car front to back, and now it runs as good as, or better than, when Henry Ford sent it out from the factory,” he said.
The newest car at the show was an orange 2021 Corvette owned by Charlie and Jill Siegel of Shippenville.
“I special ordered the color of the car including the body and interior from McElwain Motor Co. of Ellwood City,” Siegel said. “I waited six months for the car, which rolled off the line on Dec.14 at 10:10 p.m.
“It was the first orange car off the line and was No. 382.”
No car show would be complete without a Ford Thunderbird — in this case it was a 1959 blazing red and white T-bird.“I saw the car on eBay,” said Richard Ashbaugh of Cranberry, Venango County. “It only had 44,000 miles on it and the asking bid was $1,500.”“I put in my bid of $1,500, and it was accepted. I guess no one bid because they thought it wasn't real, or something was really wrong with the car.”Ashbaugh says he repainted the car, had the interior restored, and rebuilt the engine and transmission — he estimates that he invested $10,000 in the car“The car is a pleasure to drive,” Ashbaugh said. “It has the heavy feel and smooth drive of an old car that manufacturers can't reproduce today.”The threatening weather kept car enthusiast Scott Apel and his wife, Linda, from showing their 1938 wood panel Chevy truck, but they still came to enjoy the show.“The car show is the highlight of the week for us,” he said. “We enjoy going to crafters day and the parade, but the car show is special for us.”The festival continues through Saturday. For a schedule of events and activities, visit clarionpa.com or go to AutumnLeafFestival on FaceBook.
