Starbird-Devlin steps it up a notch

If you spent last weekend cruising around in your collector car, enjoying the spectacular mild winter weather and somehow completely forgot about the Starbird-Devlin Rod and Customs Charities Car Show, that might be understandable.

But if you made the pilgrimage to Century II and took in the hundreds of beautiful cars, trucks and bikes on display, you doubled your fun. Many of the folks I visited with while I spent 11 hours cruising the show made the same point: This year’s event seems to have stepped things up a level.

That was especially apparent in the Magnificent 7 competition, where only cars being shown for the first time in Wichita qualify. The workmanship and creativity on display were top-notch, with Al Seese’s beautiful blue ’33 Ford Sedan Delivery taking top honors. The car, based in Lee’s Summit, Mo., is a former Ridler Great 8 machine.

Rounding out the top three in the Magnificent 7 were Jerry & Lorrie Jacobs’ beautiful Brandywine ’57 Chevy Bel Air from Santa Maria, Calif., and Gary Holyoak’s super-clean ’55 Bel Air sedan from Cedar City, Utah.

So there were great cars from all across the country, but there were fantastic machines built right here in Wichita, like the Jimmy Nix tribute dragster constructed by local talents Gary Cooper and Corey Conyers.

Both men worked with the late, legendary Pat Foster, who ran his own drag car restoration/recreation business right here in Wichita. They learned their craft from the old master well.

The gorgeous red Nix AA/FD was commissioned by Oklahoman John Neas and finished just in time for the show.

For those who missed out on the festivities, here are some of the photo highlights we snapped. Additional photos can be found in our online galleries at www.kansas.com.

This story was originally published January 24, 2015 at 7:27 AM with the headline "Starbird-Devlin steps it up a notch."