My Grand Prix isn’t seen much on the site, or really anywhere, to be fair. It doesn’t receive a ton of kilometers each summer because unlike the various other cars it almost never goes to events; friends can sometimes go years without seeing it in person. I keep it purely for my own enjoyment and its sentimental value, as except for the rare occasions when it has served as a support vehicle (like when Sriracha was in pieces for a few days and Mario – this was back when he still owned it – needed something to drive) it doesn’t really have a functional “purpose” any more. And I’m fine with that.

That said, it has made a few appearances at Sunday School over the years and occasionally is taken to another event if it’s a good fit, but there’s really only one each year for which its presence is a given: the Iron Indians Father’s Day Show and Shine.

The reasoning for this is because not only does it fit the theme of the show – being geared towards Buick/Olds/Pontiac vehicles – but its original owner was my father. Before I took over the sedan a little over 11 years ago now (good lord) it was his daily driver, from the day he bought it off of the showroom floor until it was handed down to me in high school. It’s a car that generally never turns a single head because it’s a relatively generic early-90’s American sedan (there aren’t a huge number of other W-Body enthusiasts around here, it seems) but at these shows it gets a decent bit of attention mainly because people are surprised that one of these still exists. They were always pretty prone to rust and never worth a lot as used cars, so especially around here they just became junkyard inventory although these days I can’t even find them there.

I’ve joked before that this car was optioned in basically every way to make it “undesirable” by most W-Body enthusiasts: it’s a first-gen, not second or third. It’s a sedan, not a coupe. It has the 3.1L engine, not the 3.4. It has the love-it-or-hate-it Garnet Red interior, and even a column shifter instead of floor-mounted piece. None of that matters to me though because I adore this car and always have, way back to when I was just a kid riding around in the back seat. Once it was officially my first car it became that much more special to me, and now that my father’s no longer with us it only means more still.

The annual Father’s Day show is something I look forward to as a chance to take it out and show it off a little bit in the one place where it fits in despite still sticking out. Of course the Iron Indians can’t host one this year however, so for Father’s Day 2020 I decided I’d pull out my photos from last year’s show to edit and share. It’s something a little different to most of the content here but is perfect for today, and while these pictures are a year old now the Grand Prix gets a turn on the site regardless, for my W-Body friends who ask to see more of it.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

-Bill