Turning Back Time Car Show - Sycamore, il

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IronRat

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Location
ChicagoLand
Turning Back Time Car Show
Sycamore, Il July, 31 2016

I hope to be there by 6:30 am. I believe they expect 1200+ cars this year.
:cool::cool::cool:

http://www.turningbacktimecarshow.com


Antique Car Show Celebrates Vintage Autos and a Local Hero

The 15th annual Fizz Ehrler Memorial Turning Back Time Car Show
By: Steven Karras
Web2Carz Contributing Writer
Published: July 24th, 2014



Sycamore, Illinois is arguably one of the last of America’s small towns to preserve its pastoral charm. You won’t see any franchise fast-food in its downtown promenade of ma and pop shops, eateries, and movie theatres in buildings that maintain pre-war facades. A younger person might describe it as “old-school,” and that’s just fine with the locals, if you ask them. In keeping with that embrace of America’s heritage, the town looks forward to the last Sunday in July when, at dawn’s early light, the citizens are awakened by throttling V-8 motors and hundreds of vintage autos from all directions for the 15th annual Fizz Ehrler Memorial Turning Back Time Car Show.

“ Whatever Fizz had lying around, he would make the coolest cars you’ve ever seen.” — Ryan "Hutch" Hutchison
“The first show, we had 300 cars in the rain which was phenomenal, and it has grown ever since,” said show committee member Mike Tritle, who has raced in nostalgia, muscle car, and open comp classes all over the country (his blue 1974 Plymouth Barracuda will be on display) while heading up marketing and promotions for Auto Meter.

Turning Back The Clock Planning Crew
Turning Back Time Car Crew in downtown Sycamore
The show, which has grown exponentially, couldn’t contain the amount of cars looking to participate (they expect nearly 1,000 this year) and organizers asked for permission to block off Route 64 — it didn’t hurt to have a police officer Lieutenant Cary Singer, Sycamore Police Department serving on the committee.

The event’s organizing team is made up of Sycamore business men — locals who’ve known each other for decades, their children, and aging hot-rodders/collectors who grew up drag racing on the streets of Sycamore.

“We meet about once a month throughout the year, usually on a Thursday night, and when it gets closer to the show we meet every week,” said Mike DeVito, a local insurance agent and Chicago native whose enthusiasm for cars grew out of helping his then-teenaged son, Mike Jr., do a full restore on a 1984 Corvette.

Fizz Ehrler
Glenn "Fizz" Ehrler 1945-2001
The show is a gear-head’s paradise complete with a Classic Car Cruise, food vendors, a beer garden, and live entertainment. However, amidst those gapers marveling at the chromed wheels, motors, and reupholstered interiors, there is an all-pervasive sense of the spirit of the event’s namesake, Fizz Ehrler, whose memory graces the show every year.Ehrler, a local mechanic who had grown up in Sycamore, lived to see the first car show, but lost his battle to cancer in February of 2001. The next year, the event’s founder, Chuck Criswell, decided to respectfully tag “The Fizz Ehrler Memorial” onto “Turning Back Time Car Show.”

Fizz Ehrler Hybrid
An Ehrler-rigged masterpiece
“Him and I would run street rod events, two or three weekends out of the month,” recalls committeemember Ron Meyers, who’d known Ehrler since the mid-‘60s, when the two would join throngs of other high school students congregating on Sycamore’s main drag every Tuesday night. “Guys were doing burn-outs in front of the theater (they’d call Main Street ‘Teen Town’). First time I met Fizz had a cigar in his mouth and had a portable record player playing records.”

Afflicted with a muscular disorder from an early age, Ehrler made his life-long passion a vocation that not only made him an important member of the community, but a celebrity as well.

“[Fizz] was never into sports, but he was into cars. He was the guy who would pull the big motor out of the family sedan and put it into a two-seater and see how fast he could get it going. He had a shop in town, and everybody took their cars to him,” said Ryan “Hutch” Hutchison, Ehrler’s proud nephew, whose enormous calf sports a tattoo of his late uncle. “He’s the guy who would build something out of nothing. He’d have an old car body here - a wrecked Camaro — and would pull the motor and trans out of it, and pull the front end out of a Mustang or a Pinto, and make it fit the car he was putting it on. Whatever he had lying around, he would make the coolest cars you’ve ever seen.”



Ehrler would have to be proud to see his beloved Sycamore as a point of destination for car enthusiasts.

“It’s up and down every parking lot and side street and the amount of people is in the hundreds of thousands,” said Hutchison.

The weekend of festivities begins on Friday with an outdoor movie at dusk. The following evening, known as “Cruise Night,” includes a Classic Car Cruise Parade. Then, the big event Sunday is the car show itself, which will take place in downtown Sycamore.
 
If I woulda had a little more warning, I mighta headed that way just to meet you IR!

Sam - This one was not on the Calendar for me for this year. I got the house painted & all new windows installed on the house ahead of schedule. I thought I would be painting the deck this weekend.
 
Great show! Very well run & organized. When each car entered the Main street and approached the Judges/Adm. table they announced the year & make made a comment or two.

just a few pics:


















 

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