Rumble Car Show heads to Saxonburg for the first time
SAXONBURG — The borough can add one more community event to its growing calendar. On Saturday afternoon, July 29, the Rumble Car Show — previously a Mars tradition — made its debut in Saxonburg.
For its first three years, Mars played host to the Rumble Car Show. This year, in search of more space, the show’s co-organizers — Social Club Barbershop and After Hours Tattoo Studio — moved the event to the parking lot of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company on Horne Avenue.
"There's a little more room over here for us,“ said Natasha Smith, of Social Club Barbershop. ”With how big the show was getting, we wanted to try a space with more room to see if we could grow it.“
Despite thunderstorms earlier Saturday, hundreds of cars of all shapes and sizes started pouring into the fire company’s parking lot just before 11 a.m.
“It's definitely filling up fast today even with the crazy weather,” Smith said. “In previous years, we've had over a thousand vehicles here, so we’re hoping to get the same.”
For the Rumble show, automobile enthusiasts brought everything from polished classics to what Smith called “rat rods” — heavily modified, low-riding vintage cars with their engines exposed.
“We’ll take any kind of car,” said Smith. “We welcome all vehicles. So pretty much anything with wheels and a motor, we’ll take.”
One of those classics was John Reesman’s restored yellow Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird — the same model of vehicle made famous by Richard Petty and other NASCAR drivers in the 1970s, as well as the fictional Strip “The King” Weathers in the Disney Pixar movie “Cars.”
"It was made for one reason...that was to win on Sunday,“ Reesman said.
Reesman says he’s had his Superbird since the mid-1980s, and only brings it out of the garage for car shows such as Saturday’s Rumble.
“It’s likely to get 200 miles a year,” Reesman added.
As an added touch, a large plush of the Looney Tunes character Roadrunner was placed in the front of the car.
Even for those who aren’t that into cars, the show had something for everyone. Food and drink vendors dotted the venue — including pretzels and spicy mustard from Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market — as well as live music from local bands Noble Hops and Dinnerbell Road.
Throughout the event, players from Knoch High School’s football team wandered throughout the grounds selling coupon books for $10 apiece to raise funds for Knoch athletics. There also was a running competition among the players to see who would sell the most coupons.
“It's a race for all of us,” said Knoch Knights wide receiver/free safety Sam Skurka. “The winners get to golf with our coach, so we're pretty excited.”
Just before 3 p.m., the organizers announced that they would not be accepting any more cars on the ground due to both capacity issues and on-and-off rain showers.
