IOLA (NBC 26) — A village with a population of a little more than 1,200 draws in tens of thousands of people one weekend every summer, and it's back.
- Cast members from the popular 1970s sitcom Happy Days appear at the Iola Car Show to sign autographs Thursday
- The show has been going on since 1972
- See a few of the cars on display and meet their owners
(The following is a transcription of the full braodcast story with additional details for web.)
A village with a population of a little more than 12-hundred draws in tens of thousands of people one weekend every summer and it's back.
I'm Pari Apostolakos here at every car lover's paradise taking you for a ride through the Iola Car Show.
Since 1972 the Iola Car Show has been going strong and this year the theme is muscle cars.
Appleton native Steve Hintz says he was caught by surprise when he was asked to show his 1969 Barracuda Savage at this year's muscle car themed exhibition.
"I said 'Well, I guess I'll think about it,' and when I got home and told my wife she said 'There's no thinking about it, you're going to take it,'" Hintz said.
Hintz first bought the car in 1972 for just $1,500.
He says now the car is probably worth close to six figures.
"It's almost like investing in the stock market," Hintz said. "The only difference is you never want to sell it."
"I've been coming to this since the early 80s, riding my bike into town going to the car show," Auto body shop owner Bill Stull said. He unveiled his latest creation Thursday. It's a 1967 Dodge Polara he and his crew turned into a bona-fide muscle car.
"I wanted to build a different car that shows that you can take a different type of car that doesn't have the name of those original type muscle cars and build something made cool and turn it into a muscle car," Stull said.
But muscle cars aren't the only things on display this year.
"It's kind of in your blood," Fon du Lac native Wally Messner said as he took a break from cruising to show his fully restored 1939 Lincoln Zephyr.
"I grew up on a farm and my dad was, as farmers are, sort of a mechanic," Messner said. "I grew up fixing things and the first thing I started fixing was cars."
This event raises money each year for charities across northeast Wisconsin and this year it wasn't just the cars people wanted to see.
Many waited to meet some of the actors from the 1970's TV sitcom, Happy Days, including the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler.
The Iola Car Show lasts until Saturday.
