The drizzle and gentle breeze didn’t deter 466 cars from entering into the first Morris Cruise Night of 2024 on Saturday, where over $10,000 was raised for Special Connections of Grundy County. One of those vehicles was Ralph Tosti’s 1950 Oldsmobile 88 that caught the eye of the celebrity judge for the night, Timothy Airney. “I was born in 1951 so I could of been riding in the back of these cars when I was a kid,” Airney said.
“I call these the original muscle cars. As far as hot rods, there’s a lot of hot rods around here. But this was the first overhead valve, the eight.
” Airney was a teacher at the Grundy Area Vocational Center from 1973-86 and an automotive teacher at JJC for 22 years following that, and drove as a drag racer during that time as well. His time racing is part of why he chose the car: The Oldsmobile 88 dominated during its time. “Doc Hudson’s were really, really the hot race cars back then, and had a big inline six cylinder.
Well these V8s came out with overhead valves and dominated as far as, I think the Daytona 500, and they were running on the sand that Dayton had back then,” he said. He also shared memories from riding in these cars when he was a kid. “Across the back of the seat, there used to be a chain from the factory, but it had like a garden hose on the chain, and it was either green or gray,” Airney said.
“Then this nice fabric, that was around the rope. So it was nice from the factory, but in a couple years that cloth w.