With the sun shining on a beautiful, clear day, 97 entrants brought their prized cars out to the fourth annual Onalaska Volunteer Firefighters Association (OVFA) Car Show on Saturday, Aug. 9, with some even bringing more than one ride.
Up for grabs were bragging rights and 30 custom trophies welded together by a local artist who wished to remain anonymous.
The car show was held at the Lewis County Fire District 1 fire house. It was a fundraiser for new firefighter equipment.
Previously, funds have purchased special washing machines and dryers capable of removing smoke and ash from their gear and new gas detectors for the department's fire engines. This year, funds will be going toward the purchase of new automated external defibrillators.
Remaining funds go toward OVFA scholarships for graduating Onalaska High School students and holiday meals for local families in need in partnership with the Onalaska Alliance.
As for some of the cars that caught The Chronicle’s eye, they included a 1990 “Barbie” Consulier GTP-LX targa top coupe, a restored 1972 Datsun 510 sedan, a trio of drag racers and a late friend’s custom bike.
The “Barbie” car
When he first saw the car featured in an old 1991 Matco Tool calendar in a Vancouver repair shop back in 1993, Coos Bay, Oregon resident Johnny Spiva instantly fell in love with the Consulier GTP-LX and knew he wanted one.
Riding the popularity of the 1980s Miami Vice television series, the calendar car was painted with a loud white, pink and teal paint scheme.
These two-door, mid-engined American sports cars designed by Warren Mosler and Consulier Industries back in 1985 were originally built to compete in International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) professional racing series.
Between both the racing models and street legal models, it’s estimated less than 100 Consulier GTPs were built between 1985 and 1993, when Consulier Industries’ automotive division broke off from the company to form Mosler Automotive.
Back in 1993, the car was sadly out of Spiva’s price range, costing $69,000 — or over $150,000 today.
Given both their rarity and price, he doubted he would ever own one. Still a car enthusiast and a machinist, Spiva gained a reputation for his own handiwork in the automotive community over the next two decades.
So when Mosler Automotive was liquidated after a merger in 2013, Spiva got a call from a dealer who knew he had always wanted a Consulier GTP.
“He said, ‘We only have one car left, and it’s the Barbie car … It’s the one that was painted white, teal and pink because of Miami Vice colors, and it was a car that looked like Barbie might drive it, so the factory guys that built it nicknamed it the Barbie car,’” Spiva said. “... I was like, ‘That’s the car I fell in love with. I’d rather have that car than a Ferrari, or anything else.’”
Unfortunately, the Barbie car had been neglected in storage for 18 years. However, this, combined with the fact the company had been liquidated and was looking to just sell everything, meant the dealer was only asking $5,000 for it.
“I said, ‘Would you take $4,500 cash,’” Spiva added.
The deal was made, and 20 years after first laying eyes on it on the calendar, he now owned that very same car. He’s even embraced the “Barbie” nickname, adding Barbie and Mattel decals to the car’s fenders.
“It’s the last car ever sold by Consulier,” Spiva added.
Now that he’s restored it, the Barbie car still gets around. He’s even taken it on five cross-country road trips, and found out it’s fast enough to outrun Mother Nature.
As they were originally designed to be IMSA racing cars, Consulier GTPs have a lightweight carbon fiber body and are powered by four-cylinder, turbo charged 2.2 liter Chrysler Turbo II engines, making 175 horsepower — letting the sleek cars do zero to 60 miles per hour in just over four seconds.
The cars had some success in IMSA racing too, until IMSA banned them in 1991.
On one road trip while driving through the midwest with his friend who was behind the wheel at the time, Spiva suddenly got an alert on his phone. It was a tornado warning, and they could see the tornado in the distance.
“My buddy was from Ohio and he said, ‘We’re getting out of here,’ and kicked it into gear. He was doing 135, something like that. And everybody on the freeway was taking off too or hiding underneath the overpasses,” Spiva said.
Around 15 minutes later after outrunning the twister, Spiva and his friend were once again cruising at the speed limit when suddenly a police officer caught up to them and pulled them over.
“He said, ‘You were going a little fast there, you guys. I know what you were doing, I’m not even going to ask for your license or registration or anything. I just want you to know, the cafe at the next intersection has good food. Stop and have a drink or some food. Because the next time I see you on the road, if you’re not doing the exact speed limit, you’re getting a ticket,’” Spiva said.
Additionally, he’s been pulled over by other police officers wondering if it’s street legal, or just curious as they’ve never seen anything like it before.
A restored Datsun
Favorites of mechanics for their reliability, simple mechanics and affordable performance, Datsun 510s have remained popular even decades after Nissan stopped producing them.
And though it wasn’t his first car, it was one of the first cars Winlock resident Dave Jones owned prior to beginning his 24-year career in the U.S. Navy.
“I joined the military and I sold it for like $500 bucks. It was painted, had a fresh motor and all that stuff back then, because back then they were a dime a dozen,” Jones said.
After retiring as a Navy Seabee and working for Centralia College, Jones wanted to get a 510 again, and found a 1972 Datsun 510 in need of restoration.
“I bought it before Covid and I restored it over Covid,” he added.
After stripping it down to the frame, sending the trim off to be re-chromed and rebuilding the engine, Jones wanted to get it back to as close as original as possible.
With the 510’s popularity in markets around the world, tracking down parts wasn't hard, with some even coming from Egypt.
The only thing about Jones’ 510 that isn’t as it is when it originally came from the factory is the paint scheme, which he chose to do in order to pay homage to Datsun’s roots.
“It’s called re-entry red with copper penny. The car’s all stock, except for the color,” Jones said.
The little sedan garners a lot of attention as well.
“I can’t drive it without people wanting to take pictures,” Jones added. “I got scared to death one day. I was taking the offramp on the interstate when all of a sudden I heard a semi blowing his horn. It startled me, and I looked over and the guy’s giving me the thumbs up. I was like, ‘You didn’t have to scare the hell out of me to do that.’”
Its roots go back to 1914 in Tokyo, Japan, when Kaishinsha Motorcar Works first produced a car called the DAT.
The name was an acronym derived from the first names of the company’s three financiers, Den Kenjiō, Aoyama Rokurō and Takeuchi Meitaro. In the same year, the DAT Corporation was formed, and began selling full-size cars in the Japanese market.
In 1930, they started selling a ultra-compact car called the Datson, for “son of DAT.” However, in the Japanese language, the -son suffix can carry a negative connotation as it means loss, where the -sun suffix was viewed in a more positive light, as it invoked the sun on the Japanese flag.
Thus, a change was needed, and the Datsun name was born. Nissan purchased the DAT corporation and the Datsun name in 1934 and continued producing Datsuns until the 1980s, when Nissan decided to phase out the name to have all of its production cars under one brand.
A trio of drag racers
For Guy and Greg Wilson, racing isn’t just a hobby, it’s a family affair. Running as WWS Motorsports and even having a garage locally in Onalaska, they brought three of their drag race cars to Saturday’s car show.
The family races on quarter-mile drag strips throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond in multiple cars. The first was a custom-built drag race car with a race-tuned Chevrolet small block V8 producing over 1,300 horsepower.
“The dragster’s capable of (a quarter mile) in six seconds,” Greg said.
They also have a big block V8 which they are planning to put in the dragster that’s capable of producing 3,000 horsepower.
Also modified to scorch a quarter-mile drag strip is a 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
“That (Monte Carlo) behind you is running close to 1,800 horsepower. It runs on Methanol. This car will run in the sevens if we turn it up, but we choose not to run it that hard because we don’t want to hurt it,” said Greg.
As it’s tuned now, the Monte Carlo does the quarter-mile in about nine seconds. Joining the Monte Carlo is a custom built 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air which Guy turned into a drag racer too.
“I built every piece on that car, it took me about nine months,” Guy said.
“You gotta see underneath that car, everything is handmade,” Greg added.
Not only has Greg restored it, but he’s tuned it to run the quarter-mile as well.
“Street gears, I ran a 10.59 (seconds) at 4,600 rpm through the lights. With the race trim, if it was in there, it would probably run in the low nines, high eights,” Guy said. “Not too bad for a big old steel car like that.”
Guy has an affinity for Bel Airs as well, as he feels they’re one of the best looking cars ever made.
Paying homage to a late friend
The Wilsons weren’t the only ones with multiple vehicles, as Adna resident Michael Johnson brought two of his cars and a motorcycle to the show.
The cars were a 1933 Chevrolet Master Eagle coupe, a 1936 Dodge pick-up truck and his late friend Dean Swigert’s custom built motorcycle.
Swigert was born and raised in Onalaska, and while Johnson was originally from Mossyrock, he eventually found himself working together in the logging industry with Swigert.
“We worked here together for about seven years, and then we went out to the mine and worked 20 more years together, and then he went to Arizona,” Johnson said. “He always had a lot of motorcycles and he would run with a pretty rough crowd.”
Sadly, Swigert passed away from prostate cancer, and willed one of his custom-built creations to Johnson.
“It’s a mean machine, it’s got a lot of horsepower. And it’s all custom, a Kenny Boyce frame and S&S motor,” Johnson added. “If you want to know the truth, I have no business on it, but I ride it for him. And when I get to a certain point, it’s going to go back to his daughter.”
The only thing he’s changed since getting the bike from his late friend is the seat.
“He was a big man, and the seat that was on it, I wasn’t long-enough-legged for it,” Johnson said.
Johnson restores cars as well, doing all the restoration work on his Dodge pickup himself. While he didn’t win an award for Swigert’s custom bike, the Dodge pickup won the fireman’s choice award at Saturday’s car show.
It will be featured on the shirt for the next annual OVFA Car Show in 2026.
