Northern Colorado Celebrates Hot Rod Passion At Annual Old Town Show

For years, the Old Town Car Show of Fort Collins has been a staple in the Northern Colorado show circuit, and this last weekend, hundreds gathered to celebrate yet another year of amazing cars and passionate automotive enthusiasts. Check out some of the amazing cars that were on hand for the Saturday gathering below!

Fort Collins, Colorado’s Old Town Car Show has been around for decades, shutting down streets in the original downtown for display of hot rods, customs, classics, musclecars, and modern performance machines one Saturday every September. Though mid-street parking for the event may add to the hubbub of the already immensely popular Old Town area, hundreds of enthusiasts brave the crowded streets just to get a glimpse at some of the area’s coolest cars every season.

For the first time in five years, the Old Town Car Show had a new title sponsor for 2014.

After Heilburn’s NAPA Auto Parts was brought in as a “presenting” sponsor for the event by the Downtown Business Association, past title sponsor Nelsen’s Auto Tech Center requested to have their contract with the association for the show terminated.

Though this put a little bit of a damper on the show for long-time veterans, it didn’t appear to hinder the show’s success at all. Nelsen’s held its own car show in their parking lot on the same day, bringing in 31 cars.

Because of the sponsorship change, the show, formally known as the Nelsen’s Old Town Car Show, was marketed as the Old Town Car Show Presented by Heilburn NAPA for 2014.

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This year, the celebration of cars in Old Town, held on Saturday, September 6th, was bigger than it was the last time we attended, with streets more crowded than the year prior. Classic cars and their proud owners could be found lining every sidewalk around Old Town Square, while enthusiastic on-lookers, from toddlers to retired, roamed the rows and rows of artistically formed American metal.

With no set model year limits, or even manufacturer requirements, anyone with anything cool to show off could enter the show. This brought about some interesting creations you wouldn’t normally find at other area shows, like plasti-dipped Audis, a Volkswagen Bug turned into a unique camping vehicle, a VW-powered Porsche kit-car and various rat rods, from trucks to derelict Model As.

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Also on display were vintage firetrucks from Estes Park, CO’s Reliance Fire Museum, a number of classic 4×4 machines, and even a few rare breeds, like the original Zimmer we found staking its claim front row and center, or the 1946 Chevy Fleetmaster done up like a Mayberry police vehicle from The Andy Griffith Show.

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Since the car show has been around for years, many participants on hand were veterans of the Old Town celebration, telling us they get to the show really early every year just to get their preferred parking spot for the day. Louie Ortivez, who’s low-mileage ’55 T-Bird we profiled back in August, told us he got to the show with his classic Mustang at 6:30 a.m. for the 11 o’clock show just to stake out his place in the shade.

Other wanna-be participants weren’t quite as prepared this year, pulling into the show area even after it opened to the public.

Still, others could be found cruising around Old Town and parking in the midst of everyday cars with no more room for them to park in the show.

Though not formally part of the festivities, these additional cars only added to the thrill of the car show scene on Walnut Street, Mountain Avenue, and  Linden Street.

Also going on in Old Town last weekend was the Second Annual Blues Festival, which offered show-goers live blues music in Old Town Square.

With so many cars and trucks to see, as well as quaint shops to explore, and some of the state’s best dining to partake in, Old Town Fort Collins was a hopping place Saturday–more so than it usually is even on good-weathered weekends. Of course, the draw of amazing area vehicles had a lot to do with it!

For more photos from our time at the 2014 Old Town Car Show in Fort Collins, Colorado, be sure to check out Rod Authority’s gallery below. Be sure to stay tuned for a few more feature vehicles haling from the front range city, set to be spotlighted this fall!