Ted Kasternakis, of Monroe, and Steve Hornyak, of Milltown, check out a 1933 Plymouth coupe during the 17th annual North Brunswick Cops & Rodders car show on Sunday. SCOTT FRIEDMAN NORTH BRUNSWICK — Gary Joseph’s 1968 Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500 is quite a class act.
The classic car is one of only 402 built .
His particular vehicle is one out of seven that has all of its options.
It is one of 97Mustangs painted gold, but only one of 34 goldMustangs that is also a convertible.
It is one of 12 that has an AM/FM radio, a stereo radio with only one speaker.
It is 98 percent original, with modifications made only to the motor.
“It is a pretty rare vehicle,” Joseph said proudly.
However, he did not know what a rare find he had. At the age of 17, the Somerset resident went car shopping with his father two months after he got his license. He said his father vetoed every car they looked at for one reason or another: it was made of fiberglass, which was not safe; it had a manual transmission, which his mother couldn’t drive; or it didn’t have air conditioning.
“I found this one on a used car lot. It was an automatic, made ofmetal… not a little two-seater, it’s got air conditioning — it met all his criteria,” Joseph said.
In October 1970, the Shelby became his first car, which he has kept in pristine condition all these years.
Yet it wasn’t until the father of his friend Ed Shaw was so “astonished” by it that he realized he had a premium vehicle on his hands.
“To me it was a fancy Mustang — at that time, I didn’t know,” Joseph said.
To add to its character, the vehicle touts dolls of E.T., Peter and Stewie Griffin, andYoda, because, he said, “I might have to grow old but I don’t have to grow up.” More significantly, he has banners reading God Bless America, Support Our Troops and Remember 9/11, and his father’s dog tags hang off the rearview mirror.
“It’s in tribute,” he said.
Joseph stopped driving the car routinely in 1980, and it has only about 77,000 miles on it. He and Shaw go to car shows together to show off their Mustangs.
“They’re fun to drive, but you also have to be so careful with so many people on the road,” Joseph said. “But it’s always fun to take it out on a nice joyride on a nice day, with the top down.”
Joseph was just one of the owners of more than 335 cars, trucks, motorcycles, dragsters, monster trucks and other specialty vehicles that attended the 17th annual North Brunswick Cops& Rodders car show, held in the DeVry University parking lot Sunday.
The car show is a fundraiser for North Brunswick PBA Local 160, for the officers as well as for all the charitable organizations the PBA donates to.
“It’s a great opportunity to connect with the community. It’s great to see everybody come out, especially the different organizations in the township like the fire department, the rescue squad, some of the local towing companies and local businesses,” said William Lovas, president of
PBALocal 160. “It’s good for [the officers] to get together and put on an event the community is welcome to come to.”
Randy Diakunczak agreed. He brought his “Fallen Hero Truck,” which he had designed to honor police officers killed in the line of duty. Any funds raised go directly to the New Jersey State PBA’s Survivor and Welfare Fund.
The Edison resident, who is a police officer at Kean University, bought the 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup two years ago to “honor all of my brothers and sisters.” He said once he saw the truck, the idea “popped into his head.” The design work was done by Northeast Offroad Center.
He said police departments are constantly asking him to make an appearance, and he came to the North Brunswick show because “it makes me feel good, as a police officer, to raise money for other families.”
One man who didn’t have to travel very far to the show is North Brunswick resident Andy Griesler, who sat by the 1960 Buick LeSabre his mother gave him when his father passed away in 1984.
Because it has the original paint, his father would never take it out if there was a chance of rain, and Griesler said he himself keeps it indoors.
“I take it out of the garage very rarely. It is too damn expensive to run it. It only gets 10 miles per gallon,” he said.
However, he decided to come out on Sunday because he went to a car show the day before, after spending months recovering from surgery, so he wanted to spend the day out. For his first time at the Cops & Rodders show, he said that yes, there is a certain amount of pride in exhibiting his vehicle in his hometown.
Overall, members of North Brunswick PBA Local 160 were especially pleased with the turnout.
“It surpassed my numbers,” said Officer Joseph Grasso, who helped organize the car show with Officer David Varga and members of the Local. “I think [it’s because of] the weather and [because] we consistently put on a large show. I hope to improve in the years to come.”
For more information about North Brunswick PBA Local 160 and the car show, visit www.nbtpba160.com.
Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].