Classic cars cruise in North Canaan

NORTH CANAAN — Mike Palinkas drove his 1967 gleaming black Chevelle Super Sport from Copake to the Olde Yankee Street Rods Car Cruise at McDonald’s Saturday.

It gets four miles to the gallon. Someone else can do the math. Palinkas can’t bear to.

He shrugs it off, saying it’s his decision to bring his classic, perfectly restored "baby" to area car shows. It spent seven years with a restoration professional. It’s rare LS-6 454 big-block engine actually came from another Chevelle that Palinkas bought for $20,000. In all, he has about $70,000 invested in the muscle car. It cranks out just over 600 horsepower.

"I’m not going to leave it sitting in the garage," Palinkas said Saturday, just before winning a plaque for Club Pick. "It’s a shame though. A lot of people just aren’t taking their cars out this summer."

It seems everywhere one looks, gas prices are having an impact. It almost seems pointless to bring it up one more time. But the first thought people have as they pass a car cruise is how car owners manage, or why they are willing to shell out big bucks to drive what are almost without exception gas guzzlers. Few are wealthy. Most do it for the love of restoring a classic and showing it off. Cars are often for sale, as difficult as they are to part with. But the proceeds will fund the next project.

And picnicking and chatting with fellow cruisers and vehicle admirers is not the most expensive way to spend an afternoon.

Other club members said it doesn’t matter all that much. Gas prices — and rising costs of everything affected by them — have not appeared to keep travelers off the roads. Many club members have cut back on the number of cruises they attend, or how far they are willing to travel; now, this is what they do for summer vacation.

But clubs like the Great Barrington-based Olde Yankee Street Rods draw from a wide area. Now in its 40th year, it’s membership ranges throughout western Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York state. At cruises around the area, one can always find plenty of members who have traveled a significant distance. Proceeds from cruises, which include entry fees and 50/50 drawings, go toward a scholarship fund. Until recently, the club made a big impact on local communities by collecting food bank donations from participants and spectators.

Club President James Phillips said the food cruises were the idea of former president George Milukas.

"I’m working on doing them again," Phillips said. "We’ll get it back. They collected a lot of food and we want to start doing that again.

"It’s going to be tough. Our attendance is way down. We had 200 cars for Railroad Days, but that’s a big event that people don’t want to miss. A lot of people are picking and choosing. They’re not going to all the cruises because of gas prices. I don’t think we’re going to see them drop much, if anything, so we have to figure out some ways of doing things a little differently."