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June 17, 2005
'Round Nevada tour visits Pahrump, Beatty, Tonopah
By PHILLIP GOMEZ
No vintage wine before its time, certainly, but when you're on the annual "'Round Nevada Classic Car Tour," there's no time like the present with the highway stretched out in front of your vintage auto. The group is not a club, Davis said. "It's individuals," from their 30s to their 70s. The American love affair with the automobile: a romance of individualism, even anarchy. "It's loosely structured," Davis said. "It's people who enjoy driving their car and want to go on tours without any metrics. There is no competition or prizes of any sort, except through the buffet lines." The Reno-based group accepts "membership" from anyone with an American-made classic car, defined as pre-1973. This year quasi-joiners came from Chicago, Winnipeg, Oregon and Washington State. They rendezvoused at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, paid their entry fee that goes to support the museum and took off. The six-day, five-night tour started out from Reno with about 40 cars. A chase car follows from behind, in case mechanical problems develop. But some drivers dropped out to head south from Las Vegas, Davis said. He understands; they had other plans. But the organized tour also does organized things. "We look at it as one way of giving back to Nevada and the smaller cities," said Davis. "It's not often that a small city gets to see $1 million worth of cars passing through. Along the way the group stops to visit youth and senior clubs, hospitals and chambers of commerce. "There's not too many stock cars out here," Davis said. Called "fat fender cars," most have been rebuilt from their original bodies and engines dating to the 1930s and '40s. Tony and Carol Pisciotta have a 1930 Ford that Carol used to drive to high school. Her family made a hotrod out of it in 1968. Since then, the car has had 25,000 miles put on it. Her husband had already driven the car from Reno to Las Vegas and back once before, 1,400 miles, the longest trip it has ever made. The group planned to stop at the Santa Fe Bar in Goldfield, the world's longest bar, Davis claimed. The Mozart Bar was also on his list of places to see again, for its antique furnishings, historic photos and artifacts. The Goldfield Hotel was where the first elevator in the U.S. was installed, Davis said. "Kings, queens, presidents - all went to Goldfield at one time to see prizefights. Goldfield was a huge metropolis." Some of the car owners in the group are famous businessmen, Davis said. "They want to go on the tour in a stress-free way. There's no structure per se, except stops and rest breaks, that they don't have to take part in if they don't want to." Sound like a ship cruise? "It is," said Davis. "We do the same thing as a shipboard cruise, except we do it by cars." And if you want to abandon ship you don't have to be ready to swim. Reno is a hotbed of classic car enthusiasts. The first week of August the town celebrates "Hot August Nights," with 5,000 registered automobiles on display. Cars from all over the world come to Reno for the event, Davis said. "It sells out every year." |
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