2025 El Paso County Fair Car Show

We’re back!

Last year we didn’t make it to the El Paso County Fair Car Show. Pretty sure it was because it was about 485 degrees with not a cloud in the sky…regardless, we made it back this year!

Our car, Shirley, even placed with Staff Pick of the show! A little backstory, my wife’s paternal grandmother was named Shirley, and as this car sat in her garage for countless decades, we named it after her. Also because while I was restoring it, we continually stated “surely she will run again someday…”.

Shirley is a 1952 MG TD. Her story is that when my father-in-law (on the left in the picture above) was in college at Cal Tech, his twin brother was searching for a used car to buy. One of FIL’s fraternity brothers was at home in New York and received Shirley as a gift. He then drove her across country and by the time he made it back to Cal Tech, he was done with the MG! He sold it to my FIL’s brother.

Shortly thereafter, my FIL’s brother (Uncle Dwight) was drafted into the Army. The MG went into a garage at the family ranch. Well grandpa was a bit of a…collector, shall we say? And the MG eventually became buried under some other items. When Uncle Dwight got out of the war, he’d forgotten about the car. Decades later, grandpa passed and the family cleaned out the garage. The MG was one of the cars found there. FIL had it restored, and kept it for a bit as a fun car. Then it went back into the garage at the family ranch when he moved across the country.

In 2014 FIL called up my wife and said it was time to clean out the ranch garage, and to choose between the MG or a 1916 Buick. She said oh no, and the MG showed up 2 days later. I spent years restoring her, getting her repainted to the British Racing Green, and getting her back in drivable condition. A few years ago we even drove her at the COS St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Well at the Fair this year, they recognized her as a true classic car.

By the way, the 1916 Buick is next on the restoration list…