They’re coming from car and wide
TRAVELLING from Australia wide, Buicks have been cruising around Dubbo this week in celebration of the 50th NSW Buick Car Club anniversary coinciding with the 31st anniversary of the first national Buick rally.
Dubbo residents will have the chance to see the cars this Saturday, May 21 at Dubbo RSL carpark from 10am-1pm.
Rally coordinator, Peter Cooke, has owned his 1925 Buick for 28 years, and says his passion stemmed from when he was a child.
“The states have their own Buick clubs, but every two years we organise to all get together and have a rally through the towns,” he shared, adding that the rally is in a different state every two years.
With an array of cars from varying distances, Mr Cooke expressed that the combined travel is more than 42,000km.
He told Dubbo Photo News that there are 62 cars participating in the rally, including 32 from NSW., and says the cars belong to different eras, including, veteran, vintage, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Belonging to the Veteran era, George Gillott, is undecided whether his car is a 1908 or 1910 Buick, explaining that there were 8800 of the models built in the years, but he believes his car is 1908 as his car number is 2190.
“I don’t care whether it’s an eight or ten – it’s a nice car either way,” he laughed.
Purchasing the car 20 years ago, Mr Gillott told Dubbo Photo News that the has been very reliable, “except today – the battery died”.
He prefers using special batteries as they can last 12 years, and has only had to change the battery twice in the two decades.
Being an owner of a four cylinder and a six cylinder, Mr Gillott purchased the car to continue his collection with a two cylinder.
Coming from Orange for this week’s rally, Keith Packham sports his vintage, yet modern green car with wind up windows.
Having the car for 11 years, Mr Packham said the car has travelled through Queensland to Victoria with only wearing out two sets of tyres.
“It’s an old car, but it rides well,” he expressed that he often gets heads turns when driving.