Street Rod Nationals: Who drove the farthest?

York had about 4,000 additional vehicles on the road this weekend as street rods, muscle cars and specialty vehicles drove into town for the 42nd annual Street Rod Nationals East Plus.

If you drove through York Saturday, you couldn't miss the sea of bright colors that filled the York Expo Center.

Thousands of street rod enthusiasts, both local and from surrounding states, make it a point to attend York's annual street rod, street machine and custom car show every year.

But in between the rows of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New York license plates at the event Saturday was a Bordeaux pearl 1933 Ford Victoria, driven all the way from Washington.

Prior to this week, the farthest Dallas Eby, 67, of Longview, Wash., had driven this car was probably about 1,200 miles to Cheyenne, Wyo. But he shattered that record when he decided to make the eight-day trip with his wife to Street Rod Nationals in York.

The annual show — which organizers call the largest of its kind in the region — is known to attract participants from various states across the country and Canada. But as of Saturday afternoon, Eby and his Ford Victoria, were the ones to beat in the car show's Long Distance contest.

The drive to York was close to 4,000 miles and took him through about 15 states, including Springfield, Mo., where he stopped for another car show. Roundtrip, the drive will cost close to $2,500 just in fuel, Eby said.

"I don't care what it's going to cost," he said. "I'm going to do it while I can still do it."

Eby owns five other vehicles and said he has loved cars ever since he was big enough to get in a pedal car.

This year alone, Eby has been to 13 car shows, most of which were local. So why drive all the way out to York?

Eby has relatives in Pennsylvania and said part of the reason was because he wanted to see the home where his family members lived for nine generations.

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But he also wanted to check out the car shows in Springfield and York, which he said he's read about in Street Scene Magazine for years.

"It's just something I wanted to do for 30 years," he said.

"Since I'm retired, I have more time to do (long-distance car shows)."

Eby worked on his car for about two and a half weeks, adding a luggage trailer, repacking the wheel bearings, changing the brake fluid and doing other maintenance, to get it ready for the long trip, he said.

But still the drive wasn't perfect. He battled a lot of wind and heavy rain driving through Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Missouri.

"The car looked like a four-wheeler by the time I got to Dodge City, Kan.," he said.

But he made it and got the car all cleaned up before the show.

Eby said his favorite part of traveling to different car shows is walking around and looking at everybody else's cars.

"It's a good show," he said. "It's just hard to see them all."

More long distance drives

Who: Ducky Duckworth

Vehicle: 1955 Chevrolet Handyman Wagon

Traveling from: Lebanon, Maine

Number of miles: About 475

Hours driving: About 10

Why he came: Duckworth said he has brought a vehicle to Street Rod Nationals East Plus for 30 years because he likes to sightsee in the area, catch up with friends and see a variety of vendors, cars and people. "We don't have a show of this caliber close to home," he said.

Who: Mike and Jan Ray

Vehicle: 1936 Chevy pickup truck

Traveling from: Guelph, Ontario

Number of miles: 400

Hours driving: 8 (if they didn't have a failed ignition to fix on the way)