Classic Cars

BEACON FALLS, CT – At a distance, it almost looks like a Matchbox model, but it visibly lacks the quality of the toy. With a Duraplast body and small two-stroke engine, the smoky and noisy Trabant 601 was a cheaply-made East German sedan that buyers often waited years to get …

NEW HARTFORD, CT – Bill DeDominicis of New Hartford has owned his two-seat 1962 Chevrolet Corvette sports car for 45 years. “I was just always a car guy. Always a Chevrolet man. And the Corvette was the next step up,” he said one sunny day last fall. DeDominicis recalled that …

THOMASTON, CT – Tom DeLuca of Thomaston has a long list of reasons for buying a 1970 Shelby GT 350.  “They’re rare. They have unique styling. Very nice performance. They’re collectible. They’re worth a good bit of money. And they’re just not very common. It’s a unique automobile,” he said …

GOSHEN, CT – Parked in his barn in Goshen is a non-running 1931 Chevrolet sedan that Skip Shattuck bought when he was a teenager growing up on Long Island in the 1960s. It was his first car and provides a tantalizing entry point into this RIDE-CT story of why decades …

NEW HARTFORD, CT – Paul J. Cerruto got his final wish. Given six months to live in June 2022, he got a whimsical 1959 Jeep Surrey in two-tone pink restored. He even took his final project to two car shows before succumbing to cancer at age 70 on Dec. 1.  …

WEST CORNWALL, CT – It was while living for six years in western France in the 1970s that Jerry Roth of West Cornwall became aware of the Fiat 850 Spider roadster. The two-seat convertible model was introduced in 1965, an Italian response to the British-made MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire and …

TORRINGTON, CT – It was originally purchased about 40 years ago by Vito “Luke” Colucci’s second cousins, twin brothers Anthony and Dominick Colucci, and has been in his family longer that he’s been alive.  “They picked it up in an estate sale,” Colucci recalled, referring to the striking green 1953 …

BETHLEHEM, CT – When Rick Robert was youngster his mother would take him to visit his “Aunt Betty” in Southington, CT and it was always a treat.  “Every time, once a week, she used to buy me a Matchbox car. And I’d go, ‘Mom, let’s go back.’ We went back …

GAYLORDSVILLE, CT – Nearly 50 years elapsed between the first time that Everett A. Pierce Jr. of Gaylordsville tried to buy a 1966 Dodge Charger and the moment that he finally landed one in December 2015. During that time he got married and had a family, but he never gave …

HARWINTON, CT – Nathan Kosak didn’t learn to drive as a teenager on what was then his father’s 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible. It wasn’t until a prom approached during high school that his father finally allowed him to get behind the wheel of the stunning yet subtle “Tri-Five” model. …