Record crowds show up for Sawyer Motors Car Show

Sports cars, classic cars, hot rods and novelty vehicles lined Partition and Main streets in Saugerties last Sunday, with even a few along Market Street. Partition and Main streets were closed to traffic, as large crowds of people looked over the vehicles.

Bands played a variety of music. Sawyer Motors, the organizer of the show, offered free ice cream in the parking lot of Stewart’s, the doo-wop group Cherished Memories stopped by restaurants to serenade patrons. 

While many cars were clearly modified, with more powerful engines than the stock equipment, brilliant chrome under the hood and lowered bodies, others were examples of unusual cars. One car, John and Melanie Collins’s 1969 King Midget lll, had an extensive description from Mechanix Illustrated Magazine in its windshield, including the fact that the tiny vehicle was “billed as the world’s lowest-priced car.” The description included that the car had a one-cylinder, 12-horsepower engine and was capable of traveling at 50 miles per hour on the highway. King Midgets were manufactured between 1945 and 1970, according to the description.

The car show was billed to run from noon to 6 p.m., but rain at about 2:30 p.m. sent some of the crowd home, though the show continued, along with the music on the covered stages. Sawyer Motors owner Bob Siracusano said the crowd at the finale was as large, or larger, than in previous shows. He speculated that during the worst of the rain people went into local restaurants for lunch and this helped local businesses — one of the goals of the annual show.

The car show, with fees for car owners displaying their vehicles and the raffles, raises money for good causes. This year’s show did especially well, raising $67,500 for a variety of causes, including the Saugerties Animal Shelter, the Boys & Girls Club, a family who lost their home in a fire, the Saugerties Tree Commission and three families with children in need of help. This was the largest amount raised in the car shows, Siracusano said and approximately 50 trophies were given to outstanding examples of various vehicle types.

Around the corner from the car show, nurse Bonnie Bogardus and medical screener Reaghan Riley offered Covid vaccinations, sponsored by the Ulster County Department of Health.

Siracusano said that his next fundraiser to benefit Diaz Ambulance is set for August 27, with Ian Flanigan as the lead act.