By everyone’s admission, this was a very different sort of Bonny Eagle Car Show.  Although the day dawned bright and clear on Sunday May 18^th, the previous night had been quite rainy, and the Bonny Eagle fields were soft and damp.  Car show organizers were actually tempted to pull the plug on the whole show for fear that they might ruin the school’s athletic fields!  However they soon realized they’d have a riot on their hands if they cancelled the show with blue skies overhead!  There were still concerns about the soft fields, though, and so they had to be careful about where they put all the cars (over 1500 of them!).  So, basically, the nice, tidy groupings of car-classes were gone, and open parking commenced!  What this mean to spectators was that if you wanted to see Porsches, you had to see the WHOLE show, because the cars were everywhere!  Judging was apparently not held, at least not in the usual way, so this year’s show seemed to be a much more laid-back affair.

            Now, one could look at all this and say, “That’s too bad”.  “Seems like it was a waste of time.”  Well, no.  For my wife and me, it turned out to be a great show, and we saw more of it than any previous one we’ve ever attended!  The open parking forced us to go down literally every row of cars looking for Down East Region members.  You never knew which corner you’d turn and find someone from the club.  Anyway, Karen and I had a ball looking at cars of every shape, size, color, and country of manufacture.  At times like this, one comes to the realization that Maine is a very eclectic state, and Mainers have all sorts of kooky stuff tucked away in their garages and barns.  So, although the Bonny Eagle car show of 2002 will probably not be remembered as one of  “the best ever”, every cloud has a silver lining, and we  sure had fun examining cars of every type imaginable…you might say it was a time for being a real CAR enthusiast again.

John Hammer was happy to show off his 928's new wheels and that BIG V8 engine! No wonder 928 owners are so loyal to their cars! GHill photo

              So the lesson to keep in mind is, “just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it’s bad!”  Even if the event doesn’t turn out to be the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it can still be fun!  So get that Porsche of yours to a show, and enjoy everything this State has to offer!

              Finding the owners of all the PCA cars we saw at the show was difficult, but we still managed to run into DER-President Don McGilvery, Past President Jeff Smith, and John Hammer, who was putting some final touches on his 928.

Hot cars! Jeff Smith's 914-6 and Don McGilvery's 944 Turbo were showing the DER PCA flag at this year's Bonney Eagle car show. KHill photo