IMOA - International Mercury Club Owners Association

As if attending the Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet in Wisconsin for the annual IMOA show wasn’t enough, some special guests from the automotive world will enhance our time there.

The annual show is Thursday-Saturday, July 12-14, and the Iola car show theme is “21st Century Orphans: A Tribute to Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Mercury and Pontiac.”

The Iola car show folks are reserving a space on the showgrounds just for IMOA members for all four days of the show, which officially ends Sunday, July 15. This will allow the IMOA to hold its annual car judging event Saturday at the Iola show.

On Thursday, John Gunnell has invited the club to a barbecue at his Gunner’s Great Garage in Manawa, a few miles east of Iola. John edited the Standard Catalog of Old Cars series and was a longtime editor of Krause Publications’ Old Cars Weekly, plus the author of dozens of other automotive books, including 55 Years of Mercury.

On Saturday, at the dinner and awards banquet at the hotel in Stevens Point, the main speaker will be John Clor, a veteran automotive journalist who currently manages the Ford Performance Group marketing program for Ford Racing, and develops enthusiast content for the www.fordracing.com Web site. More on John is on the following page.

The Iola show also includes 4,430 swap spaces and more than 1,000 cars for sale in the Car Corral, a Toy Barn, special exhibits, learning seminars and more. An estimated 115,000 people attended last year’s event.

The show is non-profit and has contributed more than $5 million to local charities since it was started in 1992 by Chet Krause, founder of Krause Publications.

Our Thursday barbecue, starting at 4:30 p.m., is graciously being hosted by none other than John Gunnell.

He has more than 40 years experience in the classic car field, from restoration to journalism. He was a longtime editor of Old Cars Weekly , Old Cars Price Guide and the Standard Catalog series of classic cars, both for Krause Publications, where he still writes the OCW Gunner’s Garage column.

He has written 85 books on cars, trucks and motorcycles, including 55 Years of Mercury, Muscle Cars Field Guide, Practical Auto and Truck Restoration, The Story of Camaro, Mustang: America’s Favorite Pony Car, Weird Cars, The Fabulous ’50s: The Cars, The Culture, T-Bird: 45 Years of Thunder, Muscle Car: The Art of Power and many more.

He started Gunner’s Great Garage in Manawa, Wis., in 2010, where he does restoration, specializing in T Series MGs, flathead Pontiacs and other classic cars. The shop also deals in appraisals, parts locating and automotive art and gifts.

The Saturday night IMOA dinner banquet and awards ceremony will be held at the host hotel, the Holiday Inn at 1001 Amber Ave., Stevens Point, about 25 miles west of the Iola grounds.

Guest speaker John Clor manages the Ford Performance Group of enthusiast organizations, a club outreach marketing program for Ford Racing, and develops enthusiast content for the www.FordRacing.com Web site.

Still active in car clubs as a director of the SVT Owners Association and serving as editor of its critically acclaimed SVT Enthusiast club magazine, John is the proud owner of three ’70s-era Mustangs.

He is the author of The Mustang Dynasty, which had both its 2007 and 2009 print runs sell out.

A native of Detroit, John was an editor at The Detroit News for 15 years before joining the staff of Auto Week magazine. He became the Communications Manager for Ford’s Special Vehicle Team high-performance group. before becoming Detroit Editor for the Edmunds.com automotive Web site.

John’s extensive knowledge has earned him recurring guest spots on CBS, CNN, PBS, The History Channel, A&E, Tech TV, SpeedVision, ABC Radio News, National Public Radio and many other media outlets. He has also consulted with cable’s Mad Men and Modern Marvels shows.