The beautiful machine: Delray show salutes the great American muscle car

DELRAY BEACH — The year is 2024. But, if you walked through Old School Square on Saturday, March 2, you'd have been taken back to the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

Delray's "Muscle on the Beach" car show is to thank for that. The event, in its second year, brought 140 colorful American muscle cars, trucks and hot rods to the otherwise empty greens that line the corner of East Atlantic and Swinton avenues.

American rock and hip-hop classics blared as tourists and locals alike lined up at food trucks, bought local produce and posed before vintage Mustangs, Corvettes and Camaros. Some owners even let excited spectators see what it'd be like to sit behind the wheel.

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Mike Brewer of Motor Trend's hit show "Wheeler Dealers" was this year's host.

"It's a car show," he said Saturday. "So, first and foremost, it should be about the cars. But it's not. It's about people, because people make car shows."

Wheeler had one person in mind — a man whose brother had entered his Mustang to be on display in last year's show. Unfortunately, by the time the show came around, the Mustang's owner had died of cancer. Still, his brother came with the car to Old School Square.

He's not the only one who's brought a car to "Muscle on the Beach" in someone's honor.

Floyd Greco, 75, stood proud beside his baby blue Mustang from the 1960s. He bought it some 30 years ago because his wife liked its color so much. When they moved to England, he stored it in his uncle's barn in Colorado. But then, his wife died in England.

"When my wife dies, that was the first thing I thought of," said Greco, of Delray Beach. "I've got to restore that."

He returned to the States and did just that. "I drive it in her memory," he said. "And, when I die, my daughter gets it."

Greco won the award for best driver at Saturday's show. It was one of the 14 awards distributed. Others included "best truck," "best paint" and "best restored."

"Best original unrestored" went to Eugene Francavilla, of Jupiter, for his 1970 Dodge Charger. He'd only had it for about a year.

It's one of one, he said of the white Dodge, which had a green convertible tarp top a previous owner had ripped off. But that's what made the car so rare, Francavilla said. So, he put it back on.

A few cars over, Jonathan Harris, of Jensen Beach, sat beside his yellow 1963 Plymouth Savoy.

"This comes from a misspent youth," Harris said. "I was a fool with these cars when I was a teenager, started going to the drag races when I was 15 and I've been hooked ever since."

Harris, 77, does not race anymore. But in the late 1960s and 1970s, he spent about a decade competing in races throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Saturday's show yielded around 5,000 spectators, organizers said. All proceeds — $48,000, to be exact — will go to the Sandoway Discovery Center, a science museum and nature center in Delray Beach.

The funds will help with beach conservation, the center's children's education and preservation of exotic sea life, said Randi Walden, a board member for the center.

Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @jasminefernandz. Help support our work. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Delray Beach auto show focuses on mid-20th-century muscle cars