Lynnwood car show attracts many car lovers
Published 11:05 pm Sunday, August 5, 2007
LYNNWOOD – Every car has a unique story to tell.
Few are as sentimental as Lee Marachario’s souped-up 1928 Ford roadster.
The red car with yellow hot-rod flames was among 101 vehicles entered at the second annual Lynnwood Rotary Car Show at Edmonds Community College on Sunday.
“Every time I get in it and turn the ignition, I’m 16 again,” said Marachario, who is 68 when not in the car.
While in high school in Southern California, he took the lightweight roadster drag racing on abandoned airstrips.
Duty called and in 1956, Marachario joined the Air Force. He gave up his hot rod, and all of the horses under its hood, never expecting to see it again.
Five years ago, fate would reunite the pair.
“It came back to me,” said Marachario, who found the car after responding to a classified ad placed in a car magazine by a man in Redding, Calif.
Marachario, who now lives in Lynnwood, drove with a trailer to the Northern California city to take a closer look.
It was a different color and had a different engine, but some of the weld marks were “uncannily” similar, he said.
Marachario remembered that he had etched his initials under the hood.
He checked, and, lo and behold, his initials were still there 46 years later.
Lance Lambert, the host of television’s syndicated program “The Vintage Vehicle Show” emceed the event and brought a film crew out to record it.
The Seattle-based broadcaster said Northwest car culture is strong.
Up to 10 car shows can be held on the same weekend this time of year in the greater Puget Sound area, Lambert said.
Other notable cars from the event include a cream colored 1959 Corvette convertible once owned by the creator of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and a 1947 Ford flatbed cabover truck that was purchased by the builder’s uncle when he was 13.
Proceeds from the Lynnwood service club’s fundraising event will benefit the Lynnwood charity Clothing Kids, said club President Nicola Smith.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Suzanne Schmid / The Herald
John Harwood of Seattle helps polish Woodway resident Phil Blodgett’s 1936 Ford three-window coupe at the second annual Lynnwood Rotary Car Show on Sunday afternoon.
