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VOL.37, NO.5
Collectors are crazy about cars
A passion for Corvettes
Dickens doesn’t just drive Corvettes; he restores them. At Corvette restoration judging events, he has landed three Top Flight awards for three different cars. To win that designation, the car must be at least 94% original.
MAY 2025
I N S I D E …
PHOTO BY GLENDA C. BOOTH
By Glenda C. Booth Gil Dickens lives, sleeps and dreams Corvettes. The retired Air Force engineer owns and maintains five of them. He’s the master of Corvette minutiae: He can identify spark plugs by year, explain which model had a triple deuce carburetor, and sing the praises of the father of the Corvette, Zora Duntov. Retiree Ford Chinworth cherishes “Mr. T,” his immaculate 1927 Model T Ford, originally owned by his grandfather. Its maximum safe speed is 38 miles per hour, but it will go 48 to 50 downhill, he chuckled. Even utilitarian vehicles can be a collector’s item. “Pickup trucks are my passion,” said former pilot Doren Weston, who restored a 1952 Chevrolet 3100 half-ton. Many owners of vintage vehicles love them for their engineering and style. For others, it’s a nostalgic reliving of their teenage years — revving up the motor, tooling around town, searching for hot dates. Cars convey material success for others, who can finally ride around in their dream car. Car enthusiasts like Dickens, Chinworth and Weston come together in clubs and online forums, at shows, conventions and meetups where they talk cars. “Cars and Coffee” gatherings are popular in the D.C. area. Most weekends, local car enthusiasts drive their vehicles — old and new, sporty and antique, sleek exotics and muscle cars — to a designated public parking lot. For a few hours, they share stories and tips, and marvel at each other’s vehicles inside, outside and under the hood. There’s no official judging, just sipping coffee, camaraderie and car talk. Bill Bock describes the events as “a Sunday morning social club.” He recently showed off his 1972 Triumph TR6, a sports car built in England, at a Cars and Coffee gathering in a parking lot close to his home near Mount Vernon, Virginia.
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LEISURE & TRAVEL
Bears, elk, fireflies and hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park; plus, how comfortable is the overnight Auto Train to Orlando? page 27
Ford Chinworth, retired Alexandria architect, restored his grandfather’s Model T. Chinworth and other car aficionados show off their classic cars at local Cars & Coffee gatherings, held every weekend in Virginia and Maryland.
He won a Duntov award for his 1968 L-88 Coupe, which means judges deemed it 97% original while operating 100% as it did just off the showroom floor. He got his first Corvette, a safari yellow Shark, in 1968 at age 20, when he was in the U.S. Air Force. “In the 1960s, when America pursued the space program, the Corvette exemplified the American dream, more obtainable than European counterparts,” Dickens explained. Plus, it looked cool: “The 1968 C-3 ‘Shark’ was a space-age design with aircraft-like instrument clusters and fiber-optic interior light indicators.” Dickens retired from the Pentagon at age 39 and then worked in the private sector, maintaining B-52s. Today, he manages a business that trains government engineers and scientists in advanced radar systems.
He also chairs the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Corvette Restorers Society and edits their newsletter. He has three adult children, five grandchildren, and a “wife who doesn’t care about cars,” he said. That’s why he goes to Corvette restorers’ meetings and shows several times a year — to meet others who find joy in restored Corvettes.
Model T fan
Chinworth and his cousins meticulously restored their Indiana grandfather’s gleaming four-seater Model T, a relic with crankup windows and running boards. It took indepth research, but they confirmed and used the original paint color, fawn gray. See CAR COLLECTORS, page 34
ARTS & STYLE
Co-authors team up to write a book about the recovery movement; plus, Bob Levey on vintage vinyl page 30
FITNESS & HEALTH 4 k How to live longer and healthier k Is it dementia or just aging? LIVING BOLDLY 20 k Newsletter for D.C. residents LAW & MONEY 22 k Ways to prepare for recession k Resources for older job seekers ADVERTISER DIRECTORY
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