THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410180122
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
WHEN YOU ROLL INTO the parking lot of Jenro's Classic Pub on Saturday night, time rolls back.
The pristine voices of Don and Phil Everly fill the air through the outdoor speakers. The brothers harmonize sweetly about the sadness of being ``Cathy's Clown.'' They don't want ``her looooovvvvee annyymoooorrree.''
Vintage cars gradually fill the south end of the Haygood Shopping Center lot, cruising up, backing in, their proud owners raising the hood to show off shiny, dirtless engines that look like they were just polished that afternoon.
Don't look for dual air bags, anti-lock braking systems, subdued colors, bells, warning lights and talk of safety features. This isn't a 4-cylinder, economy-minded crowd. Cookie-cutter, mass-produced models, stay home.
The owners of the 50 to 75 cars who gather on any Saturday evening don't look at their machines as mere transportation, a safe, convenient way to go from place to place. Their cars are statements: a recollection of youth, a celebration of speed, style and individuality, an investment, a hobby, a memory of something lost and an attempt to recapture that past if only automotively.
Chad Chadbourne stands next to his 1968 Camaro, an expensive Griffins cigar clinched in his teeth, looking like a new father. His ``baby'' is painted red with white trim. The white interior reflects the late afternoon sun.
``It has about 400 miles on the new engine,'' said Chadbourne. ``And we tore out the old interior, which was black, and put in the white so it would look like the one we used to have.''
The license plate reads ``Joan's 1968'' - a tribute to Chadbourne's wife.
``This car is exactly like the one we bought when we got out of college,'' he said. ``It was our first new car that we could afford.
``Joan drives it to go shopping, up to Kingsmill sometimes,'' said Chadbourne, who lives in Hampton and owns a tobacco and gift shop in Military Circle Mall.
The 350-horsepower Camaro is a muscle car, one of the several types of classics on display at Jenro's. Antiques, hot rods, custom trucks and sports cars rumble into the lot, the throaty bass of the engines thumping and shaking the chassis.
Autophiles stroll the length of the lot and back, up one side, down the other. The men, and occasionally the women, stop at each classic. They inspect the interior. They ask about paint jobs. They crane their necks to look longingly at the engines. They whistle softly and shake their heads at an especially powerful mill.
Jenro's Classic Pub is the unofficial home of the classic car cavalcade. The Lambaiso family - patriarch Jenro Sr. and sons Jenro Jr., 43, and Michael, 29 - are longtime car buffs and restaurateur/bar owners. Jenro Sr. served for 22 years in the Navy. He survived the battles for Bataan and Corregidor in the South Pacific during World War II. He started in the bar business in 1959 with the original Village Inn on Virginia Beach Boulevard at the current home of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
He moved it to Witchduck Road, where he remained owner until the late '60s. Senior then sold the bar to the current owner, Miss Kitty, and opened Jenro's Coffee House in Haygood Shopping Center.
``Michael grew up in dad's coffee shop,'' said Jenro Jr., ``just like I did in the Village Inn. It's the only job he ever had. He met his true love, Jody, his wife, there.''
Michael drives a cool '55 red and white Chevy Bel-Air.
In 1990, Michael left his father's coffee shop to start his own restaurant in the former Blue Hawaii at the opposite end of the shopping center. The classic cars followed him.
``We started next to dad's coffee shop and (the car show) just got too big, so we used a field off Military Highway for about three years,'' said Michael Lambaiso. ``We came back to Haygood about three years ago. It's been nine years or so since we started.''
The car owners are customers of Jenro's Classic Pub for the most part. Photographs of their cars line the bar top from one end to the other, laminated under a sheet of clear resin. Two pool tables sit near the front door of Jenro's Classic Pub. A painting of Marilyn Monroe hangs from the opposite wall. The foyer of the restrooms is lined with race car photos. Dartboards hang from the wall adjacent to MM's painting.
An outside deck overlooks the parking lot. Surrounded by a chest-high treated-wood fence, the deck is a favorite spot on Saturday night. Enthusiasts and onlookers sit at or atop picnic tables, or stand at the fence, eating, sipping beverages, socializing and listening to stacks of golden wax. Like one-hit wonder Bobby Lewis belting out his insomnia-inspired ``Tossin' and Turnin.' ''
Once in a while chef Mike Kastner will cook up something extra special for the car crowd.
``He's making a huge medieval feast on Oct. 29,'' said Michael Lambaiso. ``Five dollars, all you can eat.''
No one pays a fee to enter a car. There is no admission charge nor official promotion. People who own or admire old cars simply show up on Saturday night.
Jim Tucker pulls his 1957 Chevrolet 3100 Series stepside pickup into the space next to Chadbourne's car. Tucker paid $900 for this truck and a 1955 Cameo.
``I sold the Cameo for $1,000 and started fixing this one up in my garage,'' said Tucker.
``It had about 45 coats of paint on it. I started scraping it off and there'd be another coat,'' Tucker said.
The Chevy now has a couple of coats of gleaming red paint and glows with beauty.
After two years of frame-off restoration, Tucker put the truck on the road 2 1/2 years ago.
``It's all original, except for the carpet, the wheels and the engine.
``I have around $5,500 in it and the only thing left to do is to pull the front clip and put in a chrome grille,'' he said.
Tucker ticked off the list of features on his 37-year-old truck:
``She has a 490 rear-end; a three-speed electric kickdown overdrive transmission with granny gear; stainless steel bolts; a deluxe cab with stainless steel trim around the windows and windshield.''
On the console next to the floor shifter sits Tucker's cruising music: oldies tapes listed by the year of release.
``People don't realize in those days nearly everything on a vehicle was an option that cost extra money,'' said Tucker. ``Radio, automatic transmission, windshield washers, even the heater.''
The retired Navy man works for a government contractor in Chesapeake and drives the truck daily to and from his Virginia Beach home.
Barry Rich roars into the lot in his street hot rod, a 1923 Ford body and all-Chevy drive train.
The mean machine is really a bench seat, windshield and dashboard resting on an imposing 454 horsepower engine, a 1988 IROC rear-end and two 18 1/2-inch Mickey Thompson Sportsman tires. The body, what there is of it, is painted bright yellow. The hot rod weighs 1,700 pounds with all that power.
How fast will it go?
``Fast,'' said Rich, with a sly, non-committal smile.
Dan Burke bought his 1960 Corvette in 1986. It looks finished but Burke dismissed that notion. He performed a frame-on restoration: body work, interior, paint and rebuilt engine.
``I bought it from a guy up in the mountains. It took me six months to scrape the red clay off underneath the car,'' said Burke. ``It's a never-ending project, really.''
A card resting against the driver's-side window implores, ``Please do not touch.''
He paid $3,500 and the red and white 'Vette was recently appraised for 10 times that amount. Burke's car has a hard-top only, no retractable convertible top.
``It's not driven daily. I keep it covered up in the garage,'' said Burke, a member of the Beachcombers Corvette Club. He drives a 1972 Corvette.
Bill and Nancy Hybicki drove down from Williamsburg in their black 1931 Studebaker Model 54 coupe.
``They made less than 100 of them that year,'' said Bill Hybicki, a Studebaker devotee to say the least. He has owned more than a dozen of them, including an Avanti, the sports car that enjoyed a brief run of success in the '60s.
``Studebaker made covered wagons, beginning in 1852, and the company lasted until 1965, when they finally folded,'' said Hybicki.
Hybicki has owned the Model 54 for three years. He has driven it 5,000 to 6,000 miles.
Automotive tradition and history aside, Hybicki also credited the classic coupe for bringing another kind of joy into his life: it attracted his wife, Nancy.
``You don't have to drive a 55, but if you do, you'll have a good time and meet lots of new friends,'' said Michael Lambaiso.
Chad Chadbourne climbs behind the wheel of his Camaro, ready to return to the Peninsula.
``These cars are old. Mine's 26 years old, but they look better than brand-new,'' he said. ``I get a charge out of that.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
WEEKLY CLASSIC CAR SHOW
Photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
ABOVE: Bill and Nancy Hybicki drove down from Williamsburg in their
black 1931 Studebaker Model 54 coupe. Only 100 were made that year.
RIGHT: Glen Winebarger shows off the engine of his 1956 Ford F-100
pickup. Hoods are left propped open for autophiles to drool over.
Photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
Barry Rich backs his street hot rod with a 1923 Ford body and
all-Chevy drive train into a parking spot. It packs 454 horsepower
on a 1,700-pound vehicle.
Some 50 to 75 car owners gather their gleaming machines at Jenro's
on any Saturday evening.
An outside deck overlooking the parking lot is a favorite spot on
Saturday night. Charlie Williams, David Norton and Tom James admire
James' '69 Triumph.
Riding a more modern cart, David Scott cruises down the line of
classic cars, stopping occasionally for a closer inspection.
by CNB