'There's a story with every one of those cars'

Bert Steele doesn't consider himself a "car guy," but he definitely appreciates the classics. So when the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled many of Niwot's traditional summer events, including his famed Friday night dinners at the Market, he partnered with Pat Murphy and the Niwot Tavern to bring a socially distanced alternative to town, and the new tradition of Friday night car shows was born.

Fast-forward a year and the cars and crowds are still coming to Niwot Market's parking lot in Cottonwood Square each week. On July 16, nearly three dozen showed up, ranging from a Henry Ford-era Model A to a modern-day Ferrari, with many more in between.

Steele doesn't have a favorite, but admitted to being partial to the 60s and 70s muscle cars on display--the type that recall his youth in Fort Collins, when he drove a 1964 Chevy Impala and there weren't so many people around. Steele also displays his vintage red pickup, and a 1960 John Deere tractor he and Tom Valdez rescued from a local estate sale and had lovingly restored.

"I grew up with a lot of those old cars over there, the Mustangs and the Corvettes," Steele said. "Ron Bernal has some great cars. He has a '70 Chevy pickup truck that's perfection... There's a story with every one of those cars, and usually, it's a pretty good story."

It's hard to argue with that. From the blue and white convertible with an enigmatic past, to the Italian sports car that was one enthusiast's longtime dream, the local classic car world has its share of romance and drama.

The fixer

When Steele and Valdez decided to refurbish the old John Deere, they knew exactly whom to turn to-Niwot resident Sherman Gregory, a former engineer with a passion for fixing things.

"I fix houses, I fix cars, I fix appliances, I fix computers, I fix anything except for relationships," he said. "I'm retired, so I've got time to fix things. When I find out something's broken, I fix it."

Gregory inherited his mechanical inclination from his paternal grandfather, and has been "working on cars since age seven." He got even more practice from owning his own 60s-era muscle car as a teenager. "I had to fix it, or I couldn't go anywhere," he said. In addition to the tractor, Gregory has also helped restore Steele's red truck, and a panel truck belonging to Eric Bergeson of Niwot Wheel Works.

Predictably, Gregory's lifetime love of working on cars has led to a collecting habit, and one of his most recent acquisitions was harder to come by than you'd think, considering it's a more recent vintage.

"I looked for it for a while," he said of his silver Ferrari 458, which seemed to have many admirers throughout the night. "Seventy-five percent of Ferraris are red, and another 10% are yellow, and so they're hard to find if they're not red. And it's a special edition that Ferrari made for two years in 2014-15, and they only made about 2,000 worldwide."

Owning a mid-engine Ferrari has been Gregory's ambition since he was a teenager and had to pass on a chance to buy one of the manufacturer's legendary models.

"I could have bought a 1974 Dino 246 GT for like $14,000," he said. "I've always wanted one since then, and then a couple of years ago, I just decided I wasn't getting any younger, and I just decided to buy it."

Gregory and his Ferrari are regulars at the Friday night shows, where he allows guests to pose for photos in the driver's seat, and has even been known to offer a test drive.

One of a kind

For American cars, it doesn't get much more classic than the 1958 Corvette, but the blue and white convertible that Longmont engineer Alan Nagl and his friend Tom brought to Cottonwood Square on July 16 is a classic among classics.

"It is serial number six for the 1958 model year," Nagl said. "We know that serial number one is still in the national Corvette Museum; we know that serial numbers two, three, and four went to the racing team. We don't know anything about serial number five, but it's possible that serial number six sitting there is the earliest serial number that is in the public hands."

The car also has the original engine, transmission, and other key components, making it even more valuable, Nagl said. "We don't really even know how much it might be worth to somebody like Jay Leno, for example, or somebody else that wanted to collect it because of its rarity."

Nagl said that Tom purchased the car a few years ago from an elderly neighbor in Longmont, who in turn purchased it in 1988. But its first three decades are still shrouded in mystery.

"We know where Tony got it, and we know the work that Tony did, so we know something about it," Nagl said. "But we don't know about the first 30 years."

Like Gregory, Nagl has been a car enthusiast for as long as he can remember, and now finds himself with a classic collection. Between the two of them, Nagl and Tom had four cars on display at the show, including a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, and a bright red 1967 GTO that was Nagl's first love.

"It was originally sold brand new in Longmont, and my dad paid $500 for it in 1976," he said. "And on December the 24th, he gave me my Christmas gift, which was this beautiful handmade walnut box. And when I opened it up, the first thing I saw was the loan coupon book to pay him back the $500. And I've had the car ever since."

Over the next 44 years, Nagl said he has torn down and rebuilt the GTO three times, most recently to add modern safety features and make it more environmentally friendly.

'If you really want to know kind of what makes me tick, I like keeping these things alive so that they can be appreciated by the next generation. However, I feel a very powerful sense of responsibility. So I revamped the suspension and the brakes and things like that. I don't drive them frequently, and I don't drive them to work. And I update them with modern technology to make them run cleaner and to stop them from leaking."

To hear more stories about classic cars, car culture, and car collecting, visit the Friday night car shows at Niwot Market, starting at 5 p.m.