News : Cruise participants arrive; many browsing hundreds of unique cars

New Cruise route: Street work in Vinton causes changes for 2014 event.

Larry Moody's 'Business Coupe' has space for briefcases or salesmen's samples behind the seats.

Cruise participants line up for a photo. The event takes place tomorrow.

Many filled the Vinton streets to see a variety of classic and antique cars on Saturday afternoon.

The Benton County Courthouse in the reflection of the spare tire of Joe Vanek's '63 Impala.

Fluffy is there, again, at the Vinton Car Cruise.

Molly too, for the fourth straight year.

Ol’ Chub showed up, too, looking better than ever, although not quite ready for drag racing.

And the Grinch showed up, too.

Unique cars with unique names, styles, colors and license plates are again filling the streets in downtown Vinton as hundreds of owners from all over Iowa bring their beloved rides.

Fluffy is anything but; Melissa McBride’s monster-truck sized step-side Ford had many men admiring its power.

Molly is the 1930 Ford of Norm and Elsie Goodell, who do not enter car shows but bring the car to the Vinton Cruise each year.

And Vinton residents are familia with Ol’ Chub, the gray drag-racer that Mike Reifenstahl is rebuilding. Mike has done much work on the car in the past year, but says it needs a new transmission and other upgrades if he wants to enter it in the drag races at Cedar Falls.

Ken Simmerman was washing his Camaro in Waterloo one day when it occurred to him that the taillights looked more like the red eyes of that Christmas-stealing character from Dr. Seuss’s book, and the movies. So he painted his car a unique green and named it the Grinch. He even had a friend paint the famous character under the hood.

For a few hours, area residents walked among the vehicles, admiring and discussing them with their owners.

The cruise begins at 7.

See photos of some of the earliest vehicles to arrive HERE.

Preparing for the event

What is a "business coupe?"

T-shirts available at Nick's TV and Theisen's indicated for weeks that car owners from throughout Iowa and beyond were preparing to answer questions like that about their classic and antique vehicles during tomorrow's 30th Annual Vinton Cruise.

Because of street repair work on 13th Street and parts of Highway 218, this year's route will be different than the traditional one.

The cruise route, this year, goes from downtown on 4th Street, west to Highway 218 (K Avenue), then north to 3rd, then east to C Ave, south to 8th Street then west to Highway 218, then south to C Avenue south of the high school, then north on C to 4th Street, then west toward the hospital, pool and scenic drive areas before returning to 4th street to to complete the route.

For more information, call 319-560-0315.

And by the way, says car owner Larry Moody of Mount Auburn, a business coupe is a two-door car with one row of seats, and room in the back for salesmen's briefcases or samples. His 1937 Ford, which he displayed at the Garrison Fun Day car show, is a business coupe.