Car show brings 150 Buicks to Spokane Valley

A national car show is in the Spokane area for the first time, bringing a rare gathering of 150 Buicks to one place.

The Buick Club of America’s 50th National Meet is at the Mirabeau Park Hotel and Convention Center in Spokane Valley through Saturday.

“Saturday is the big day,” said Inland Northwest chapter president and event organizer Jeff Schindler.

The free show is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cars are displayed and judged in various eras and models, from the brass era to post-war. It’s a chance for Buick enthusiasts to swap stories, parts and tips.

The show is a mix of local entrants and Buicks from across the country and from Canada. Club members treat the four-day event as a vacation and tour the area while they are in town.

It is rare to have the annual show on the West Coast, Schindler said. Classic Buicks are concentrated back East.

Schindler helped found the Inland Northwest chapter six years ago.

“It’s amazing that they could pull this off, as a new chapter,” said Jack Gerstkemper, director of the club’s Pacific Northwest region.

Next year’s meet will be in Strongsville, Ohio near Cleveland.

The judging has mellowed out in recent years.

“We aren’t tearing the car apart, critically,” Schindler said.

There are other awards, too, like which Buick drove the farthest to reach the event.

Randall Garner, who brought his 1970 GS 455 from Port Orchard, Washington, said it is fun to go to an all-Buick event.

“Usually every show I go to, especially when it’s club events, this is the only Buick in the show,” Garner said.

Gerstkemper, who drives a black 1965 Riviera GS coupe, said Buicks developed a good reputation after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, when they reliably maneuvered among the wreckage.

“Buicks have always been big tough cars,” he said.

But for many folks, they’re also nostalgic.

“We haven’t owned anything but a Buick in our family since 1956,” Gerstkemper said.

His grandfather drove a 1949 Buick, the year he was born.

That is the first car he remembers, standing up in the back and holding onto the lap rope, pretending he was Hopalong Cassidy.

A unique highlight of the show will be a red 1940 Buick fire chief truck. Buick didn’t make trucks, but the company’s engineering department modified four cars with pickup beds to use at the assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Doug Seybold of Westlake, Ohio, restored and owns the Roadmaster Model 76S Business Coupe.