Cool cars converge as Cruzin’ to Colby comebacks to Everett
EVERETT – Bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged downtown Everett streets Sunday afternoon, slowing cars to a crawl.
And that was just fine with Kevin Echols and the hundreds of car owners who came to showcase off their vehicles at Cruzin` to Colby. The annual car demonstrate almost was cancelled this year – its 18th since beginning in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine – but dozens of volunteers leaped in to pull it off.
«It`s just like Friday and Saturday nights when I was in high school,» said Echols, who drove his one thousand nine hundred sixty six Shelby Cobra four hundred twenty seven SC replica.
Like many car owners, he has put hundreds of hours into the sleek, light blue car with classic kinks and a powerful engine. Driving the car is «like having a wish and catching it,» he said.
As a student at Bothell High School, he and friends would cruise downtown Everett`s streets on weekend nights in his one thousand nine hundred sixty seven Pontiac GTO. «We`d tune up at the Shell gas station, where my friend worked. Then, when he was off, we`d cruise around town,» said Echols, who lives in Snohomish.
Just like then, Cruzin` to Colby, which resumes Monday, is about friends and family, he said. «My son`s in that crimson and white Camaro. My friend from high school is in that blue truck. And my wifey is railing with me,» he said.
More than six hundred car owners had registered by the time the cruise commenced Sunday, said Dale Newman, one of the event`s organizers. «We`ll lightly be over eight hundred cars» by Monday.
Newman and Joel Starr commenced Cruzin` to Colby. It ran along two blocks of the street inbetween businesses they possessed separately at the time. Once the event was established, a car collectors` club, Seattle Rod-Tiques, took over organizing the annual cruise. In December, the club announced it would not sponsor the demonstrate this year.
Rather than let it fall by the wayside, Newman and Starr took up the task. Thanks in part to a weekend of warm, sunny weather, they expect a record-high number of spectators this year.
There were slew of jaw-dropping cars rolling through Everett, including an original Shelby Mustang Mach 1, a high spectacle version of the classic muscle car. Carroll Shelby, the designer, helped define the era of American cars.
Two cars especially affected Kirk Munn, who helped pull together the tech support for the event: a one thousand nine hundred twenty nine Studebaker sedan and a bright orange one thousand nine hundred sixty nine Chrysler Road Runner.
The Studebaker «is one of those cars that`s not fancy,» he said, «but it looks indeed nice sitting at the curb» – and cruising on Colby, too.
Cruzin` events conclude Monday with a Demonstrate `N Shine from eight a.m. to four p.m. on Colby.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; [email protected]; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
Pedestrians cross during the freshly restored Cruzin Colby Sunday afternoon in downtown Everett on May 28, 2017. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Classic cars make the loop during the freshly restored Cruzin Colby Sunday afternoon in downtown Everett on May 28, 2017. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Fuzzy dice and chrome dot the freshly restored Cruzin Colby Sunday afternoon in downtown Everett on May 28, 2017. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
No comments