This had to be one of the classics! This second Garage Tour was centered in the near-western burbs, so it was a definite for those two or three of us coming from the City. Yet there seemed to be a record number of cars attending, over twenty I’d say.

Jeff Powell hosted us first in his museum in Melrose Park, which happens to be located in the two-car garage attached to his house. Jeff has the most awesome collection of old gas station products and memorabilia from the Golden Age of Motoring. He also has a sweet black TC set up for racing with supercharger, as well as both an Indian motorcycle and an Indian bicycle that they used to sell at the dealerships, both dating from 1913. They both run and work. Jeff says the bicycle is 10 times rarer than the motorcycle, which I am sure is rare enough. Besides refreshments, he posed us a brain-teaser of a quiz that kept us studying the motoring paraphernalia with close attention for quite some time. Inside the house, his lovely wife Sharon showed us their collection of antique bicycles and even more antique memorabilia. Jeff and Sharon are almost founding members of CMGC.

Then it was on to the garage of Rey and Lupe Navarro amidst the twisting streets of Riverside. Rey is a senior figure in all of Chicagoland British motoring, and has even more memorabilia and neon lights surrounding the gorgeous Austin Healey 100-6 ensconced in his garage.

Then finally, we ended at the warehouse space of Andy and Cherie Simo on Industrial Drive in Forest Park. Andy is a Classic Car Club member and has and has had several very antique show cars in various stages of renovation. He also has three Jaguar 140’s, at least one of which he has had shipped to Europe there times for rallies and road trips. He also had a mint ’76 Trans Am and an orange Corvette of about the same vintage, so there is no telling.

Andy and Cherie are entrepreneurs who built their own company, New Archery Products, the hard way, with an idea and their own sweat, until they have their own factory and employees producing archery-related products like points and fletches. Andy showed us the shooting range where they test their products, and explained that the machines that shoot arrows these days – you could hardly call them “bows” anymore – fire an arrow at 250 or 450 feet per second. That’s a weapon. (I pointed out to him that his neighbor’s orange ’76 Vette was just on the other side of the wall and inquired whether that was just wishful thinking.) I’ll tell you one thing: if the Indians had those things during the Cowboy-Indians arms race of the last century, we would all be speaking Comanche right now!

~~John Kearns