DOWNTOWN GETS A WHOLE LOT COOLER DURING ROCK’N RED DEER’S CRUISE

It’s no secret that Main Street in any town is one of MyStarCollectorCar’s favorite locations for a car show.

Red Deer, Alberta no longer qualifies as a town because it now has over 100,000 people, but it still has a Main Street; and Red Deer’s main drag plays host to hundreds of vintage rides that takes place in its downtown once every three years during the Rock’n Red Deer Super Run.

Red Deer’s Main Street (Ross Street) used to be the place-to-be during a bygone era in that Petula Clark “Downtown”-ish kind of way.  The popular 1960s song (‘Downtown’) was an anthem for the sights and sounds of the downtown core of every town.

The earlier era in Petula Clark’s song celebrated the magic that was a fundamental part of the appeal and excitement of the downtown experience.

A downtown park and/or cruise that attracts a large squadron of vintage rides (like the one held in Red Deer in mid-summer) brings back that sense of Main Street excitement that left a long time ago. The downtown experience has been largely replaced by malls and box stores in Red Deer’s outer regions.

MyStarCollectorCar followed the crowds to Ross Street (Main Street) in downtown Red Deer to soak up the atmosphere that can be found when a cool array of vintage iron invades a city.

Our goal was some advance scouting for the main event held Saturday and Sunday at the Westerner Grounds in Red Deer. Most of the downtown vehicles will be on display at the Westerner and MyStarCollectorCar will get a golden opportunity to interview the owners of these very cool rides.

The main impression from the downtown portion of the Rock’n Red Deer Super Run events was sensory overload. There are so many cool vehicles in Red Deer’s downtown corridor that it becomes virtually impossible to zero in on one of them.

Fortunately, some of the rides were familiar to us, so that factor helped us remember some of our earlier articles about them here at MyStarCollectorCar.

For example, an untamed beast of a 1922 Model T coupe hot rod was owned by the fastest insurance guy in the business (Stuart Green from Legends Insurance). Stuart’s T was not built for a slow idle-but the hot rod made a big impression when it rumbled by on the street.

The same could be said for the Old Trapper; a 1967 Plymouth GTX that became a legend on the track in the SS/B class and was discovered by MyStarCollectorCar on Ross Street during a previous Super Run in Red Deer.

This car is more comfortable on a quarter mile track-but it looked right at home in Red Deer’s downtown this past weekend.

The sensory overload was not confined to the sights in downtown Red Deer. Brute force sounds were also represented at the gathering by massive horsepower channeled through a free-breathing header exhaust system. Untamed beasts under the hood make plenty of noise and it’s a symphony for the average car guy.

The sound of a beastly exhaust is only one of the sensory elements because the aroma of race fuel was also part of the Super Run experience in downtown Red Deer. Race fuel is a special occasion type of fuel because it means the engine under the hood requires extra combustion to help it destroy the competition.

The Rock’n Red Deer Super Run has many events during its 6 day run and downtown Red Deer is the lucky recipient of its scheduled events on Super Run’s Friday night calendar.

So are the thousands of spectators who get to witness the festivities every three years in Red Deer’s downtown core.

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