5/24: NAPA challenges you to a poker run and car show
NAPA Auto Parts is calling all hands to this weekend's poker run and car show in west Phoenix and Glendale.
The free poker run, which is NAPA's way of showing its loyal customers some love, is like a goofy game of five-card draw.
Contestants drive to each of five participating NAPA stores, where they'll be asked to perform some silly task, like jumping rope or using a Hula-Hoop, then draw one playing card from the pile.
At the final stop, the best hand will be determined and the winner will get a new tool box. There also will be a prize for the worst hand, which is good news if you're not a card shark. Each store will have some NAPA giveaways.
The run begins at 16680 N. 51st Ave., where coffee and doughnuts will be served, then makes stops at 6020 W. Myrtle Ave., 7622 W. Indian School Road and 4327 W. Van Buren St. before winding up at 2811 W. Thomas Road, where a free lunch will be served.
And if you don't have a poker face, just head to the show and grab some free chow. About 125 cars are expected.
The first poker run was in 2011. Aarin Centner, area manager for NAPA Phoenix, said about 60 cars took part in that run, which was longer and spread out across the Valley. This one should be easier to negotiate.
NAPA has been in metro Phoenix a long time, Centner said, adding, "We want to give something back to show customers how much we care."
Rich Krasner of Glendale is big on showing appreciation, too. His red and red pearl 1966 Dodge Charger is dedicated to his mother and father, who gave him the car when he turned 16. Airbrushed on the trunk lid are the words "In memory of Mom & Dad."
The family was moving from New York to California in 1966 when their old Chevy broke down in Chicago. Krasner's mom spotted the Challenger at a dealership and said, "That's the one I want." Dad bought it on the spot.
The family moved to Arizona in 1977, and Krasner took possession soon after. He had made a few modifications, but after a motorcycle accident in 2010, his wife persuaded him to fix up the Charger rather than get another bike.
Before his father died, Krasner, 52, promised that he would restore the car in memory of his parents.
The original 361-cubic-inch V-8 has had two successors; now under the hood is a 440 stroked out to a 472. Boosted by a bottle-fed nitrous system, it puts out about 650 horses at the crankshaft, Krasner estimates. An A-727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission sends the power to the rear end.
"I did all the mechanical on that car," said Krasner, who was a mechanic for 22 years before starting a truck-driving career a decade ago.
Everything under the hood is plated or polished.
The stunning two-tone paint is complemented by black-cloth interior with red piping. Krasner had the badges and emblems removed and their equivalents airbrushed onto the car.
Krasner says the Dodge was one of three Chargers used in the 2003 Tim Burton movie "Big Fish," and it was in the TV movie "Love, Honor and Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage," about the Bonanno crime family.
The car is a regular on the car-show circuit but it's not a daily driver.
"No, no, no, I have way too much money in it to drive it every day," Krasner said.
He says he turned down a $100,000 offer last month at Cruise on Central.
"How can I replace a legacy in my family?"
"Fletch" Fletcher of Peoria has some sentimental ties to his car, a 1948 Ford Tudor sedan. It's the same year, make and model as his first car, which he bought with his first paycheck at the tender age of 14.
He paid $145 for that one — $45 more than the one he drives now. But Fletcher needed eight years to persuade the owner, a farmer in Rye, Colo., to sell him the car. The deal was cinched in 1986. Except for one rusted-out spot on an A pillar, the Ford was in good shape.
Fletcher, 72, finished the frame-off restoration in 2005. He did all the mechanical stuff.
The '48 is all blue oval: a 5-liter Ford crate motor, C4 automatic transmission, 9-inch Ford rear end, Mustang II front end, Lincoln Marquis front seats.
Fletcher put disc brakes on all four corners but skipped the power steering.
"No, the dummy didn't put that on," he said, adding that the Ford drives well down the road but, "You've got to eat your Wheaties or Cheerios before you go to park that thing."
He has owned eight to 10 cars over the years: "I got into Chevys for a while and went back to Ford with this one."
For the paint, Fletcher had wanted a green like the shade popular on Mustangs in the mid-'80s, but he chose a Valspar color called Sunshade Metallic Green. It's darker than the Mustang green he had envisioned but was applied over yellow primer and turned out great.
"I drive it everywhere we go. Wherever they'll let me," he said.
NAPA Poker Run: 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, May 24. Starts at 16680 N. 51st Ave., Phoenix. Ends at 2811 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix. Free. nancyperryproductions.