By Donald Wittkowski
Tucked inside a garage and largely forgotten, the 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme was a wreck when Jack Bonner’s brother-in-law gave him the car in 1997.
Bonner then spent years patiently scouring the country for original parts to restore what is now a head-turning convertible resplendent in gleaming red paint and a white racing stripe on the hood.
It also has plenty of options, too: Power windows, power seats and, get this, an 8-track tape player.
“The options really put it over the top,” Bonner explained, showing how the price tag for the Cutlass back in 1971 would have been $5,480 with all the extras, compared to $3,613 for the base car.
Bonner’s Cutlass was one of the standouts Sunday among 85 vintage cars and trucks lining the Promenade in Sea Isle City during a classic auto show.
The show and a parade of vintage cars around town capped the annual Skimmer Festival, Sea Isle’s largest summer event. Tens of thousands of people packed the city on Saturday and Sunday for a family-friendly weekend of food, shopping, amusement rides, live music and old cars.
Now in its 27th year, the car show features an oceanfront location along the Promenade as a special treat for auto enthusiasts and spectators.
“They tell me they specifically like being on the Promenade. You get the feeling of being right on the beach,” said Jim Ambro, the show’s coordinator.
Most of the vintage cars on display were from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. One lovingly restored old-timer was a black 1931 Ford Model A pickup truck.
Clad in a fire-engine-red paint job and pearl white interior, Bonner’s Cutlass convertible drew plenty of smiles and compliments from admirers. Bonner had the top down so everyone could get a good look inside.
“They don’t build them like that anymore,” Rich Bruno, 70, a classic car aficionado, said while marveling over the Cutlass.
Bruno, who lives in New Haven, Conn., and has a summer home in Sea Isle, lamented that modern cars lack the distinctive designs of the vintage autos.
“Back then, they looked different,” he said. “Now, they all look the same. I don’t care if you’re driving a Mercedes or a Volkswagen, they all look the same now. The car designers need to go back to school.”
Bruno peeked inside the Cutlass and pointed to the 8-track tape player to support his argument that the classics are superior in styling to contemporary cars.
“That’s the type of unique stuff I look for,” he said, smiling.
Bonner, 60, drove the Cutlass down to Sea Isle from his home in Philadelphia. He also has a summer vacation retreat in Sea Isle.
“It drove smooth all the way down here,” he said.
Surprisingly, no one has ever offered to buy the Cutlass. Bonner said he has never seriously thought about selling the car, but would be willing to entertain offers.
“Don’t fall in love with something that doesn’t love you back,” Bonner said.
Another snazzy convertible that elicited oohs and aahs from the crowd was a 1957 Ford Thunderbird owned by Robin and Stuart Cohen, of Vineland.
The T-Bird featured big white wall tires and an eye-popping dusk rose paint scheme that was its original color in 1957. The Cohens, who have owned the car for eight years, decided to keep that rare color when they repainted it as part of some aesthetic improvements.
“Little girls go absolutely nuts over it,” Robin Cohen said of the feminine color.
Married for 27 years, the Cohens, both 56, have a total of five classic cars. Stuart is particularly fond of his 1963 Lincoln Continental, while Robin is enamored with the ’57 Thunderbird.
“I drive it when she lets me,” Stuart joked of getting his wife’s permission to take the prized T-Bird out for a spin.
