Wichita Central & West

Kicking off this Fathers’ Day weekend in Wichita last Friday night was another Central & West car meet. There were some really special cars this time, including a Chevrolet Monte Carlo turned drag car with an amazing paint job, a beautiful Ford Galaxie, and an iconic maroon 3rd generation Dodge Viper.

Starting us off with the coveted cool dog award for the evening, is what started life as a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. There was a truck and car trailer off to the side of the parking lot which raised a couple eyebrows for those who noticed. Eventually a car emerged from the trailer and it started up, announcing its cammed existence to everyone at Central & West. It drew a crowd once parked—as do straight-pipe, if not open header, cammed engines classically do. With all the modifications done to the car, it might make more sense to call it a dragster instead of a show car. After the initial crowd died down, I made my way towards the car for some photos and ended up meeting and talking to the owner a bit. Despite the flashy entrance and paint job, he seemed like a nice dude out enjoying the evening with his family and his car that I can only imagine means a great deal to him.

Going back in time, performance and switching over to the rival team, we have a Ford Galaxie. This car has a tremendous amount of character that’s firmly planted in the jet age of car design. The chrome on black color scheme is just an endlessly classic color palette and is perhaps the greatest combination for the Galaxie. The lines and details of all the minor elements on this car is really what sets it apart from other jet age cars.

Rounding out our big three featured cars is an awesome, American exotic, a maroon 3rd gen Dodge Viper. Depending on your age and when you got into cars, you may think of one of the other generations of the Viper such as the first or last generation, but for me, this is the Viper I think of first. This is the sort of car that is unapologetically aggressive and powerful in design, and with a long hood covering one of the largest V10’s in recent history it’s pretty polarizing in the car community.

There were plenty other cool and interesting cars at Central & West so be sure to check them out below!

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