Carlisle 2024

PHA was once again at the Carlisle Import and Performance Show, and we had a great display of 17 cars. Thank you again to everyone who brought their car for the display!

Our display was very popular! John Pitman, Gordon Wise, Charlie and Bill Norton, Mike Axarlis and many others worked tirelessly to greet our visitors, answer questions, and hand out literature.

A tour of our display…

Unfortunately missing is Bill Norton’s 1958 Berkley Renault Sports Racer which was just to the right of Bill Ascheman’s 1952 MGTD, and John Zabriski’s 2013 Kawasaki TJZ13, which showed up a little later in the day after I took pictures. Here they are in action…

The show itself had a record number of cars this year. I had so much fun wandering around looking at everything — in fact, my phone claims I walked over 5 miles, and I know I didn’t see everything.

My first impression was that there were so many Volvos. But then I started down the Saab section, and there were even more Saabs!

I ran into this Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing in the Saab section, and laughed out loud. Please click on the photo and observe the hood ornament. 🙂

While there were many other notable cars, I always look for the VW section (of course). I found 3 more Sciroccos, and this may very well be the record for the number of Sciroccos (6!) at the same event in recent years…

There were also two very sweet Corrados:

I especially loved the matching wheels between this second Corrado and the puppy who needs his wheelchair. Evidently, I didn’t do a great job with the photo, but they are the same shade of purple.

And then there was this VW Beetle…

I eventually made it to the Italian row, and was happy to see my favorite modern Alfa — the Gulia — in many different colors. If I wanted a new/modern car and could afford anything, this car is my first choice (and in this color), based on nothing more than how beautiful I find it.

Alfa Romeo has been making beautiful cars for a long time. However, if I could actually pick one from all cars they made, it would be a GTV-6, as it has a proper wedge shape, and is also a fun car to drive. There was one that ran with PHA for years, and I always regret not buying it when it went up for sale.

I think this one is a GTV-6 and not a GTV (and the hillclimb car I was taking about was no where near this pretty):

There were so many other amazing cars there, but another one I feel the need to point out is this Acura Integra Type R. I purchased one new in 1999, and it was the reason I joined the SCCA.

I had just taken a job with 1.5 hour commute each way, and didn’t want to subject my 87 Scirocco to it. The Integra Type R was the only new car I found that was comparable to the Scirocco, but I quickly realized that it was too much fun to drive to waste on just a commute. I joined the SCCA and I autocrossed the Type R (along with the Scirocco) for many years before I tried hillclimbing.