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About 60 classic cars cruised into town as part of a tour that began in San Antonio, Texas, and will end in Bowling Green, Ky.
Allen Vasbinder, 63, and his wife, Rhonda, 52, started in San Antonio with a 1940 Chevrolet that still has its original engine.
"I have raised a lot of eyebrows because they can't believe that the car has the original engine," he said.
"We have actually had to lift the hood a few times to prove it," she said.
The Vasbinders like to stick with the basics, but many of the other cruisers prefer old cars with updated amenities. Sid Johnson tore his 1947 Ford down to its frame and "built it back like I wanted it."
"The car itself looks like an original car," said Johnson, a 72-year-old Olive Branch resident who met the cruisers at the museum, "but it's got air-conditioning, a modern suspension. It's a good and safe, good-driving car."
The tour is partly sponsored by Street Rodder magazine, and most of the cars are street rods. Let George Poteet, a 62-year-old Mantachie native, explain:
"Officially, a street rod is anything built in 1948 or before. Any make. Any model."
In the 1950s and '60s, the cars were called hot rods, which picked up negative connotations that were linked to street racing.
"They started calling them street rods, but they're really hot rods," Poteet said.
The Street Rodder cruise will end at the National Hot Rod Association's 2009 Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green.
Poteet's definition of street rod leaves out Mike Brauer and Ronnie Wiggan, both 62 of Burleson, Texas. The old high school buddies drove a 1965 Chevrolet.
They agreed the important thing was their willingness to take their car across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.
"Some of the cars are $100,000 show cars," Brauer said, "but they still drive them."
"They're not trailer queens," Wiggan agreed.
"That's how you have fun," Brauer said, "driving there."
Contact M. Scott Morris at (662) 678-1589 or scott.morris@djournal.com.
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