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But the one he’s taking to the Holmen Kornfest car show Aug. 17 will be his 1958 Mercury Montclair convertible that is much like the one he bought back in 1958 when he got out of the Navy. “My Mercury is my pride and joy,” he said.
The Kornfest car show will put a special focus this year on cars built in 1958, but people likely won’t see anything else like Cvikota’s Montclair. “It’s quite rare,” he said, noting that there were only 850 Montclair convertibles made that year, and his has a standard transmission instead of the Cruisomatic, which makes it rarer still.
Cvikota (don’t pronounce the “V”) had been searching in vain for his dream Montclair for about five years. About 15 years ago, he pretty much gave up and decided to buy a T-Bird. A week after he bought that car, he found the Montclair, which he restored to original condition, including replacing the 312-cubic-inch engine with a 383, which is what the car came with.
As rare as the Montclair is, Cvikota doesn’t believe in letting the Merc or any of his cars slide by on their good looks.
“It’s a very beautiful car, but it’s not a show car,” Cvikota said of the Montclair. “I drive all my cars. ... That’s what I have them for. I like to drive the older cars.”
For Cvikota, the drive from his home in Onalaska to Holmen is one of the shorter jaunts he has taken. He’s been from the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters with his cars — not to mention Alaska, Canada and Denmark — and for him it’s been a blast.
“We have a lot of people who see us going down the road and they wave,” Cvikota said. “When I drive I make a lot of friends and meet a lot of neat people.”
Most years, Cvikota tries to get one of his Model A’s to the Glidden Tour, the country’s premier event for antique cars. The Glidden Tour is an homage to an annual endurance tour that ran from 1904 to 1913 as a way to promote the automobile as a viable means of transportation.
Like Kornfest, getting to the Glidden Tour this year will be easy for Cvikota. Downtown La Crosse will be the home base for the event, which runs Sept. 7-12. Cvikota, who is involved in organizing the Glidden Tour this year, said he expects about 200 cars for the event, all 1942 models or older.
Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net.
AT A GLANCE
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Cars made in 1958
$5: Display-only show vehicle and driver
$10: Trophy-judged show vehicle and driver
$10: Swap meet space (two spaces for $15)
$20: Car Corral spot
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