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This past weekend, Corky and son-in-law Greg Cunningham signed up to compete in a rally in Rogers, Arkansas. Also on the trip from Chattanooga was Great Race Director, Jeff Stumb and his wife Karen. So they packed up the whole gang and drove 13 hours to spend a few days in Arkansas.
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There are plenty of cool things going on around here, but one of the coolest is the fact that the Honest Charley Garage crew will be making their TV debut this Wednesday night on the Speed Channel! That’s right, our boys across the street are going big time! They were approached with the idea to appear on the TV Show, Car Warriors, which is a weekly program on Speed, airing on Wednesday nights at 9pm EST. Of course, HCG obliged and built a killer car while out West for filming. We don’t want to spoil the surprise, so tune into see the HCG crew turning wrenches and building an awesome car in just 48 hours!!!
I have three Grandsons: Taylor 5, and Benjamin and Joseph (both 21 months). Taylor is a ball of energy, and loves everything his Dad, Greg Cunningham does about cars. The two younger ones are captured here in pictures the other day at the Honest Charley offices checking out a cardboard cutout of Miss Hurst Shifter Linda Vaughn (what car guy worth his salt hasn’t?). The last two shots are better! Benjamin is checking to make sure the spark plug wire is “disconnected!” on Double Exposure and Joseph is hard at it trying to crank the “BarnFind Model T Ford Touring”. I will have to teach him about holding his thumb on the same side of the crank as his fingers. Don’t want any broken thumbs! Can’t wait, this is going to be a fun ride. I love being Pop Corky!
The Honest Charley Garage guys are getting my Honest ’54 Buick ready for the Hot Rod Power Tour. Coker Tire Company is the official host and Cruise Night sponsor for the stop in Muskegon, Michigan. The folks at Coker are really looking forward to it! And…I have a big treat for those who come to Muskegon. You see, I love Bluegrass Music. So…I have secured my buddy Audie Blaylock and Redline to come to Muskegon to put on a show. Check his music out on youtube! They are awesome! They are car guys too!
–Corky
Our big tour week was capped off with a visit from the Smoky Mountain Model A Club, from Knoxville, Tennessee. Their group consisted of 8 nicely restored Model A’s, most of which had our Firestone or BFGoodrich bias ply tires beneath them. Coupes, roadsters and sedans made for a nice variety, and we’re sure they had a great time on the drive down the road. We’re glad they came by, to see what Coker is all about! Here are a few shots of their cars!
This past week has been a crazy week for us at Coker Tire. We’re winding down from our big Cruise In last weekend, while a bunch of tire sales representatives are on the road in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. We also had a major magazine company come in and do a great article, which we will announce at a later date. Along with all this, we’ve had a number of group tours come through, including a Triumph club, which passed through the Chattanooga, Tennessee area on Wednesday.
When you have a building, (or in our case a series of buildings) packed full of cool stuff, people are gonna want to see it! That’s why we’ve started providing tours for large groups, as well as daily tours at 10am and 2pm EST for smaller groups. People love this place, and most of our visitors would’ve never guessed that Coker Tire and its sister companies do so much for the collector car hobby. Thanks to our tours, and our awesome tour guide, Raime Brown, visitors learn a lot about the Coker companies and some of Corky’s private collection of cars, trucks and motorcycles.
Visiting from Longview Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina....thanks for joining us!!!
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Last summer we decided to hold a Cruise In event, in conjunction with the Coker Tire Challenge. It was a test to see if this sort of event could be manageable and fun on a small budget. It turned out to be a great event, so we planned for two in 2012, one of which occurred last Saturday, April 21st. It was an incredible turnout of nearly 500 car, with thousands of people roaming the streets of Corkyville!
First off, don’t call it a Chrysler because it ain’t one! Although these cars were manufactured by Chrysler and resembled all of the corporation’s weird cars of the early ’60s, this car was sold as an Imperial Crown…not a Chrysler. Anyway, these are super cool cars and they’re extremely rare, so we were surprised to see Todd Dockery pull up to our shop in one of these! He needed new tires, so we were able to get him back on the road with period correct tires for his classic Chrys…err, Imperial.
Last weekend, we had a lot going on. Coker Tire was widely represented across the country, as we had a truck and trailer at the Bakersfield, California HCCA meet, as well as a big crew at the Portland, Oregon Swap Meet. Without a doubt, we supplied lots of tires for collector vehicles, but we also had some fun too! While our sales guys were hard at work, our staff photographer went up to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to the Spring Grand Rod Run. He came back with a bunch of cool pictures, so we just wanted to share them here. Check ‘em out!
This Model A is super cool! Love those Firestone cheater slicks on the back!
