ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Nearly 500 championship-level antique and classic cars from across North America are gathering at the NB Center in Allentown for the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Grand National Competition.<\/p>\n
For Northampton County resident Greg Anthony, showing his 1969 Camaro Z28 is only part of the story.<\/p>\n
Anthony bought the car from his brother in 1971 when he was 17 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in the days, you had the music, you had the cars, and you had the girls, and this is a major part of it,\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n
He put nearly 100,000 miles on the Camaro before eventually placing it in storage, where it sat for about 40 years.<\/p>\n
The car was later restored over six years by Allentown\u2019s RB Collection.<\/p>\n
Owner Al Ruozzi said authenticity guided every detail of the restoration, from engine stickers and wiring to the original dealer decal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t over-restore,\u201d Ruozzi said. \u201cThat\u2019s how it left the factory. That\u2019s how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruozzi said the goal was to return the Camaro to exactly how it would have appeared when it was built in December 1968.<\/p>\n
But he said the restoration was about more than factory specifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost important is bringing back the same emotions to Greg,\u201d Ruozzi said. \u201cHe sits back in the car, he feels like he’s back in 1971, and that\u2019s the beauty of it. That\u2019s why the restoration with authenticity is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony\u2019s Camaro will join hundreds of other championship-level vehicles at the NB Center for the AACA Grand National Competition.<\/p>\n
The event brings together some of the highest-level restored and preserved vehicles in the organization, with judges examining details that casual observers may never notice.<\/p>\n
Steve Moskowitz, CEO of the AACA and one of the event\u2019s head judges, said even factory assembly-line markings can matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll see chalk marks that were made by the people on the assembly line,\u201d Moskowitz said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for those chalk marks to be on there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moskowitz said preserving the cars also means preserving the stories connected to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people are keeping history alive with their oral stories and everything else about their cars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Anthony, the story preserved inside his Camaro includes multiple AACA awards \u2014 and a much more personal connection.<\/p>\n
His son Dominic initially helped with the restoration and was expected to inherit the car.<\/p>\n
Dominic died in 2020 at the age of 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bittersweet,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cI wish my son was here with me to enjoy it, but he isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, driving the restored Camaro can take Anthony back to his own teenage years while also reminding him of the future he expected to share with his son.<\/p>\n
When asked what Dominic would think if he could see the finished car, Anthony smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my God, I would have to hide the keys from him,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AACA Grand National Competition is open to the public Saturday at the NB Center in Allentown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Nearly 500 championship-level antique and classic cars from across North America are gathering at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-269850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}