CALLICOON CENTER, NY — The eighth annual Town of Callicoon Car Show was held at the town park on August 7.

It featured rows of antique, classic and custom rides, along with a few motorcycles. It attracted several hundred folks out to view an array of chrome and steel, on a sunny but soon-to-be-rainy day in the Catskills. 

“It was very successful this year,” said town supervisor Tom Bose. “We had about 128 registered enthusiasts, and some who didn’t want to be judged.”

Bose said that all proceeds from the popular car show go to the town park’s playground and equipment maintenance fund.

Paul and Denise Ryder of Roscoe, NY, showed off their handcrafted 1965 Ford Shelby GT350R, built from a rusted wreck left abandoned in a field. It’s a tribute to Carroll Shelby, famous racer and fabricator of the legendary Ford Cobras and GT350/500 vehicles, and to Paul’s father.

“I was raised around cars, but Pop wasn’t so much of a hot rod guy, he was more of a Model A Ford antique car guy,” recalled Ryder, adding that wherever the tribute car goes, his dad goes along for the ride, as a few of his ashes are in a glass vial attached to the rear view mirror.

“I built it in memory of my Dad, and selling it would be like selling a piece of him. This car stays in the family for eternity.”

Ryder said it took five years and about $25,000 to create the tribute Shelby GT350R. It was originally a 1965 Mustang he found “up on a hill, out in the woods,” and purchased for $400.

As a “body-and-fender guy,” he transformed the rusted remains into an award-winning replica of one of the rarest-of-the-rare Shelby GT350Rs. He recently turned down an offer “sight unseen” for $150,000 from out California way.

During the build, Denise got her hands dirty helping to install the four-speed transmission, bolting it up to a period-correct 289 V8. The engine was upgraded with a roller cam and rockers.

On Valentine’s Day 1965, a Shelby GT350 Competition, more commonly known as the GT350R, entered a Sports Car Club of America-sanctioned event with Ken Miles in the driver’s seat. During the race, he got the car completely airborne, and it thus picked up the nickname the “Flying Mustang.”

Other notable drivers who raced GT350Rs included Carroll Shelby, Bob Bondurant, Chuck Cantwell, Peter Brock and Jerry Titus; all familiar names to those who avidly followed the likes of Road & Track, Sports Car Graphic and Sports Car Illustrated.

An original Ford Shelby GT350 Competition sold at auction in July 2020 for a record $3.85 million.

A bit further back in automotive history, Allan and Pat Kehrley of Liberty, NY, were in for a real surprise, as members of their car-collecting clan gathered together several of the couple’s antique cars, and drove them onto the freshly mown field for display at the annual car show.

Pat Kehrley recalled their first acquisition in 1959, when they picked a 1928 Buick. “I always liked old cars.”

Allan Kehrley said their 1935 Dietrich-bodied Packard four-door convertible sedan is most likely the rarest old car in their collection, while a 1928 Lincoln V8 runs a close second.

Of the classic Lincoln he said, “The engine was real bad, but the body was perfect, inside and out.”