{Chrysler 300} Reporting on Iola 2023 -

[Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

3 days of spectacular weather brought out record crowds and record numbers of cars at this past Thursday-Saturday Iola Car show.

 

This year's layout for our cars was a little different, in that there was a 'Fin-Land' display area in which the Iola folks allowed some non-Mopars, but only 5 or 6 of these 'outsiders' displayed. The swap meet area still covered many acres with lots of vendors, but Forward Look Mopars parts were scarcely seen.

 

Visiting with our 300 Club members and friends was great -

• Bob Brown and George Collar - with their freshly restored (factory color) Gauguin Red 300-C convertible, and Lilac '60 Windsor convertible, Matador Red 300-D convertible and black/gold '57 Adventurer convertible. Their beige '59 Sport Fury convertible was one of the 3 Iola poster cars this year and in the Special Display building, along with their silver '59 Mercury Monterey convertible, celebrating the '50s Era Cars.
• Randy Guyer and Sally Liddy, and friend Brent - with their white '59 Adventurer convertible and light green/white '59 Dodge Sierra wagon.
• Mike and Michelle Swedal arrived, without a car. Mike has been restoring many of Randy's beauties.
• Me with my 300-F coupe, driven to the Meet Thursday morning by Joe Jordan who performed his magic dialing in my motor Wednesday afternoon with his mechanic friend Dale.
• As just mentioned, Joe Jordan was there on Thursday.
• John Begian and Jim Bielenda drove over from Michigan in John's modern Challenger.
• Bob Kelley parked next to me with his black 300-F coupe on Thursday.
• Henry and Carolyn Banach arrived in their Copper Spice 300-E coupe Friday morning.
• Chris and Beth Cutts rolled in on Friday with their '58 gray/pink Dodge Royal coupe.
• Drew and Stephanie Carl arrived Friday morning, with Drew bringing in his red/white 3-on-the-tree 4-door hardtop '57 D500, that his uncle purchased new - mostly original paint and otherwise beautiful original survivor. And the highlight, to me, was Drew and Stephanie bringing their absolutely beautiful little 3 1/2 month old daughter. Every time I looked at her and smiled, she smiled back with her beautiful tiny features and blue eyes.
• Mike Meier was roving the grounds with friends and I'll bet any amount that he was the only one of the thousands there filming with his old VCR camera. Of course, he visited and shared his stories with our group.
• David Frank and Christina Park were there, with David's '59 FireFlite Sportsman coupe. I was also pleasantly surprised to see David and Christina at yesterday's Belvidere Mopar Happening with their DeSoto on dIsplay, the show located just a few miles from the now-shuttered Belvidere assembly plant. Speaking of Belvidere yesterday, our Club member Steve Southwell was parked next to me with his concours '70 Hurst 300.
• Brian Frank joined us, but didn't bring a car.
• Brian's brother, Bruce, displayed his wonderful gold/black '58 Adventurer coupe.
• Mark Obermann was with us on Thursday, but no car.
• Jay and Carolyn Hackleman came by on Saturday. It was great introducing them to our other Club members there. 
• Spanky Cox displayed his sweet black/copper '58 Regal Lancer coupe.
• Bob's and George's friends Milt McMillen and Paul Brieske joined us with their yellow '60 Fury convertible.
• Special mention to Bob's and George's friends Brad and Rhonda Paulson, who brought their silver '60 NYer convertible, blue '60 Polara convertible and white/red '60 Polara coupe. Not only their cars, but Rhonda packed her coolers with enough cold-cuts and homemade desserts to feed us lunch all 3 days. And, the traditional Thursday evening huge spread of delicious food they prepared for us - ribs, salads, more desserts by their large camper, parked at a nearby central Wisconsin supper bar.
• Carlton Schroeder had planned to come visit us on Friday, but local meetings got in the way so he couldn't make it. That said, we all wish Carlton a HAPPY 80TH!, celebrated last Wednesday!
• And Kurt Brueske, our Fall 2024 Omaha Meet Host, had planned to visit us with his brother, but a scheduling conflict got in the way. Good news is that I've already received Kurt's registration form for our Fall 2023 Fredericksburg Meet, so we'll all get to spend time with Kurt down in Texas.

I hope I haven't neglected to mention any Club members at Iola 2023 - chalked up another great party there - so much Forward Look Mopar eye candy! I've posted photos in Facebook's 'The Forward Look MoPar Network' group.

 

Noel

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