Old cars are cool

What looks like a normal neighborhood near Western Nevada Community college is deceptive.

One address in particular.

The place at 3075 College Drive isn't remarkable street side but beneath the surface is the past.

Though there are no burial grounds, there is an underground car museum, one of the most surreal time capsules ever opened to the public.

The air is 1950's fresh, vacuum sealed to help preserve the cars of the same era. The ghosts of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe rock 'n' roll between the rows upon rows of vintage automobiles.

The Carson-Tahoe Hospital Auxiliary held a fund-raiser on Saturday for the hospital's new cancer center, and the Richards Family's private collection of cars was the attraction.

Carson City residents Garth and Joanie Richards offered their private collection for the presentation. They have been collecting cars for 30 years and have one of the largest private collections in the West, according to Garth Richards.

Richards, in snake-skin cowboy boots, sunglasses and a bottled water with a Carson-Tahoe cancer services label sits in the shade and drinks his water.

He points out a rarity in his collection, a hand-built 1954 Frake Roadster.

"Looks like he copied the Jaguar from the doors forward," he observes dryly.

He takes another sip of water.

He tells about one of the '49 Mercury's in his collection.

"I don't know about a better one," he boasts.

The '49 Mercury in the Harrah's Automobile Museum is suggested, the one James Dean drove in "Rebel Without a Cause."

"There's no documentation for that vehicle," he dismisses.

His stories are interrupted by Tony Tenille.

When he comes back, he tells about an 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta.

Buicks, Mercuries and Chryslers are parked next to rare collector cars, like the Nash Heely convertible, a Muntz Jet Roadster, a Kaiser Darren convertible and a 1950 Corsley Skorpion convertible. The Skorpion was the very first fiberglass car to come off an assembly line, he said.

"The oldest car in the collection dates back to 1917, but most were built in the 1950s and 1960s. We also own a 1953 El Dorado Cadillac convertible, 1953 and 1954 Buick Skylark convertibles and the 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta convertible, the rarest of the four."

Cancer center supporters and car enthusiasts paid $25 to view the collection with all proceeds going to the center.

The 38,000 square-foot, single-story cancer center is expected to cost about $12 million, funded primarily through grants and private donations. It will be located on the campus of the new Regional Medical Center in northwest Carson City. Ground-breaking ceremonies for the medical center are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday.

IF YOU GO

What: Ground-breaking ceremony for new Carson-Tahoe-Hospital regional medical center

When: 10:30-11:30 a.m. Friday

Where: Northwest Carson City at the new site on Eagle Valley Road. From town turn left at the North Carson Street AM-PM.