It wasn’t so much the rain the weather forecasters predicted as it was the hail that had everyone worried. In ColoRODo, in the Spring and especially May, our wettest month of the Spring-into-Summer season, hail usually accompanies rain but most of it is just pea-sized. However, it’s always worrisome and car owners panic when forecasters predict hail for an outdoor car show. 

That wasn’t the case on May 31st when the Oldsmobile/Pontiac club hosted the 10th Annual BPOC Show from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.. The weather forecasters said the rain (and possibly hail) wasn’t coming in until late afternoon so the show would be blessed with sunshine and 80 degrees–for a while.

Ninety Buicks, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs (BPOC) showed up well before the start of the show, some hoping to win one of several awards:  Favorite Buick, Olds, Pontiac and Cadillac, Favorite 2-door and 4-door, Favorite Wagon, Favorite Convert, Favorite Street Rod/Muscle Car, and Favorite Specialty Car, and of course, the top award: Favorite of the Show.

Speaking of favorites, Rob Petri drove his beautifully restored Teal and White 1958 Pontiac Bonneville and we found out something we hadn’t previously known about ‘58 Bonnevilles–only 9,000 were produced. It’s no wonder you don’t see prime examples like Rob’s ’58 around anymore. Rob went on to win the “Favorite Pontiac” award.

Gary Daniels brought in his Canadian 1956 Pontiac Sedan Delivery. Gary showed us the engine in the car–a perfectly acceptable 235ci with dual carbs and split manifold. The car looks short simply because of the factory shortened ’56 Pontiac front clip. Gary’s owned the car for several years now but compare Gary’s ’56 to Harold Aldridge’s ’56 Pontiac Starchief two door hardtop. Check out that long front end. What a gorgeous Pontiac it is with its two tone paint and interior.

One other Pontiac there was a gorgeous ’69 Catalina stocker that we fell in love with. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to talk to the owner to ask if it was restored or an original unrestored vehicle.

At the last BPOC show, Cadillac dominated the event. This year saw an even representation of all four makes. An early sibling of Pontiac, one Oakland street rod from 1918 showed up as well as a couple of GMC trucks. Even a recent-model GTO was among many of the early sixties GTO and Le Mans muscle car types that showed up.  Cadillac was well represented with vintages of 1950 up thru the latest XLR roadster.

The Buick marque contained a ’46 convertible, which took Favorite Convertible, a 50,000 mile original ’55 Buick owned by Twig Lindsey, the gorgeous ’58 Buick of Larry Hoeckelberg, and a couple of  60s Rivieras. Oldsmobile ran the gamut from a really nice ’37 4-door to a couple of street rods of ’39 vintage, a nice ’48 fastback, and on up to some 70s 442s.

The show was scheduled to end at 2:00 p.m. with the awards, but Ma Nature had other ideas in mind. By 12:00 noon dark clouds had formed over the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and were slowly heading for the event. Consequently, the organizers decided to move up the awards by an hour.  It took about 40 minutes to hand out all the awards to some very happy recipients and wishes for a safe ride home by the time the sky darkened over the event. Needless to say it didn’t take long for the lot to empty while we waited for the last of the cars to exit.

The paint on our two Cadillacs doesn’t melt in the rain so we took our time heading for home–a mere ten miles away. Just as I pulled the ’55 Caddy into my garage, the rain came. As is typical of ColoRODo in the Spring, it didn’t last much over ten minutes. There was no hail and the sun popped out again. In spite of the late shower, the event was quite successful.

Be sure to check out Rod Authority’s exclusive gallery from BPOC below!