World of Wheels Rolls Into The Steel City

Photos and story by John McCartney

For sixty-two straight years the World of Wheels has rolled into Pittsburgh, Pa for its annual gathering of custom cars fans Max Motive World of Wheels presented by Napa Auto Parts.

Once again, the show was held at the David Lawrence Convention Center located right on the banks of the Three Rivers. From the show folks could check out from the giant windows trains going over the steel bridges, or PNC Park the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. These scenes might have been nice but it was the thousands and thousands of cars that were on display inside of the show.

From race cars, customs, muscle cars, modern muscle, imports, and motorcycles all on display. Peter Toundas and his crew from Championship Auto Shows who put the show together spend countless hours looking for the coolest cars to be featured at the show.

As many of the World of Wheels do, the fine folks at Championship Auto Shows invites students from all of the local schools to come out on Friday and have a free day at the show to check out all that is on display. The wheels on those yellow buses went round and round and brought in a record number of young men and ladies to have some fun and learn some lessons as well. The fine folks at Summit Racing helped out with this fine day for the youngsters with a little program prior to the students entering the show. Once all of the students got back on the buses and went home the show was opened to the general public.

On Saturday morning the lines to get into the show started early and never seemed to slow down. For almost the entire day and well into the night the line to get into the show wrapped around the Convention Center. Folks could not wait to get into the show to check out all the cars. In addition to all the cars there were stars from tv, music and racing to greet their fans.

From the world of music Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame had a big draw as he had his legion of fans eager to talk to him about his rock and roll days. Henry Winkler best know as The Fonz from the tv show Happy Days signed autographs and told many a Happy Days stories no doubt.

With the Fifty Anniversary of the iconic movie American Graffiti Mackenzie Phillips who played Carol in the movie was on hand along with a pair of cars that looked like could have been in the movies were in the same booth with Mackenzie who signed autographs and no doubt talked about her role in the movie that was made fifty years ago.

From the racing world Robert Hight many time nitro funny car winning driver from John Force Racing was on hand in the Triple A booth along with his funny car, spending times with his fans. From the Street Outlaws hit Discovery TV show Jeff Lutz told many a story about the many Street Outlaws shows and all that goes on behind the scenes. In addition he had his brand new 57 Chevy Street racer on display as well for fans to check out. Bob Larivee Sr., played such an important part in the early days of the crazy cool car show scene, spent time talking about those days and selling singed copies of his many books much to the delight of all on hand.

Those crazy little cars called the Zingers which fans of both young and old never seem to get enough of were on display as the 50th Anniversary of the creations of these cars comes to a close. There were three of the original Zingers on display along with three recreations of three lost original Zingers completed the display. The three original Zingers are owned by Championship Auto Shows which include the Semi-Truck, Classic VW Bug, and the Candy Red Corvette. The fine folks at the Dead Mans Curve Car Club round out the original six with there creations of the Van, Dune Buggy, and the Dragster. John Sbrigato and Mario Colasuonno with the help of Chuck Miller who built the cars back in the day. Colasuonno owns the blue van while Sbrigato is the owner of the Dune Buggy and the Dragster better know as the Super Dune and Super Drag. Folks are amazed when they see these cars everyone came running over as soon as they got a glimpse of these one of a kind rides. It seems they always ask the same three or so questions do they run, how do you drive them, are the remote control.

Cavalcade of Customs featured a great selection of one of a kind custom cars, also on display was the winner of the Riddler Award from last year’s Detroit Autorama with the owner of the car saying he had something crazy to complete in this year’s Detroit Autorama. Keystone Raceway had a great selection of Junior Dragster along with the youngsters that race them display to celebrate the next generation of drag racing.

Pittsburgh International Dragway had a great display for folks to check in the form of classic trophies, photos and race cars. One of the cars on display was one of the first Pro Stockers which were campaigned by Bill Grumpy Jenkins.

The World of Wheels in Pittsburgh also has a part of the show a huge custom bike show. From crazy lighted bikes to classic choppers to vintage bikes theywere all on display. Two bikes that stood out in sheer from of artwork was first a rock and roll themed bike. This rock and roll bike one could look at it for hours and still not see everything from the giant Ozzy Osbourne on the back to all the eras of music on display it is a true rock and roll history lesson. If you liked the crazy gothic spiritual angels then there was bike there for you mixed in with the great blue paint was mind blowing artwork of lovey ladies the owner of the bike pointed out that he had a motorcycle which features all sorts of naked ladies but he was quick to point out that one comes out from time to time but might not be family friendly so perhaps that is why it stays home more than the blue bike that he had at this show.

For 62 years the World of Wheels has come to the steel city of Pittsburgh, Pa and you can count it out coming back to town for many years to come. Peter Toundas and his fine team at Championship Auto Shows looks to make the 2024 running of the Max Motive World of Wheels presented by Napa Auto Parts even bigger and better when it rolls into the David Lawrence Convention Center.